laelaps | July 6, 2008
A clip from Young Frankenstein.
Scientists suffer from an image problem. If you were to ask a child to draw a picture of a scientist, for instance, you'd probably receive a depiction of an old, crazy-haired white male holding a bubbling test tube, the image drawing heavily from Dr. Frankenstein and Albert Einstein. This image seems to be especially difficult to dig out, and at times even the people who want to bridge the gap between scientists and the public resort to childish name-calling, portraying researchers as freaks and geeks (i.e. "... feel free to imagine startled and upset sheep…
laelaps | July 6, 2008
A pair of ring-tailed mongoose (Galidia elegans). Photographed in the Madagascar exhibit at the Bronx zoo on July 5th, 2008.
laelaps | July 5, 2008
Are science writers starting to suffer from blogging burnout? It seems that way. For one reason or another a number of bloggers (including three of my favorites) have seriously pondered the question of giving up on science blogging (or at least leaving Sb) since the summer began. Why are so many writers stuck in the doldrums?
Blogging is a personal thing and the reasons why any given person writes (or stops writing) depends on a lot of factors unique to that individual. So many bloggers pondering the question of quitting has made me wonder why I keep writing. Although my writing primarily…
laelaps | July 5, 2008
One of the two snow leopard sisters (Panthera uncia) I first saw two years ago, all grown up. Photographed at the Bronx zoo on July 5th, 2008.
I'm still learning how to use all the functions on my new camera but I have to say that I think I took some of the best photographs I have ever taken on my trip to the Bronx zoo today. Although the fossas were asleep in corners of their enclosure (depriving me of any good photo opportunities) most of the other creatures I visited at the zoo were active and awake. The photographs I took will appear one-by-one each day but you'll definitely see some…
laelaps | July 5, 2008
A young western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) fast asleep against an adult female. Photographed at the Bronx zoo on July 5th, 2008.
laelaps | July 4, 2008
Edouard de Montule's 1816 painting of the mastodon reconstructed in the Peale Museum. Note the down-turned tusks which were later turned the right way up.
Thomas Jefferson had an axe to grind when he wrote his Notes on the State of Virginia in 1781. Twenty years earlier the French naturalist Buffon had published the 9th volume of his epic series Histoire naturelle in which he compared the great, ferocious beasts of the Old World with the pitiful creatures found in the New World;
In general, all the animals there [in the Americas] are smaller than those of the old world, & there is not…
laelaps | July 4, 2008
A polar bear (Ursus maritimus) playing catch with itself, photographed at the Bronx zoo in the spring of 2008.
[As a side note, I'll probably head back to the Bronx zoo tomorrow to get some new photographs. The forecast is calling for thunderstorms but I'll probably go anyway; I just can't say no to fossas.]
laelaps | July 3, 2008Remember Christina Comer, the woman who was expelled from her job at the Texas Education Agency for merely forwarding an e-mail about a talk by Barbara Forrest? According to reports released yesterday she is suing the TEA and Education Commissioner Robert Scott for illegally and unconstitutionally firing her from her position. What is most pleasing to see, though, is that the suit is specifically fashioned to instigate change; to overturn the absurd "neutrality" requirement the TEA imposed on creationism and to get Comer her job back. This isn't about getting compensation for damages and…
laelaps | July 3, 2008Note: Many thanks to Lars Dietz (see comments) who has done so much to correct some errors of attribution I made in this piece. He truly went above and beyond to dig up the truth behind John Hill's book and I am certainly thankful that he has done so.
In 1751 John Hill, upset the Royal Society of London rejected his application for membership, published a scathing critique of credulous papers printed by that body. One such review focused on a paper printed about an old, but common, legend that the Brent-Goose (probably Branta bernicla) was born not of eggs but of seashells dropped like fruit…
laelaps | July 3, 2008
A five-lined skink (Eumeces fasciatus), photographed at the Delaware Water Gap in the summer of 2007.
laelaps | July 2, 2008Michael Bolton and I share the same birth date, February 26th (he being considerably older than I, of course). Who is better? It's an absurd question (I opted out of comparing myself to Johnny Cash and Victor Hugo; I know when I'm beat), especially since it's like comparing apples and lawnmowers. The ever-respectable, serious journalists over at Newsweek have decided to do just that, though, setting Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln (who were born on the same day, February 12, 1809) up for a no-holds-barred deathmatch to see who would come out on top. Ok, maybe it's not that over-hyped but…
laelaps | July 2, 2008If you haven't had enough of Wallace and Darwin yet, head on over to the Beagle Project Blog where there is a guest post by George Beccaloni that summarizes Wallace's involvement in the events that occurred on July 1, 1858. I don't agree with his hypothesis about why Wallace was forgotten or ignored for a time (it seems that lately there are many more people who ask "But what about Wallace?" if you fail to mention his contributions when discussing natural selection), but it is still a good read.
Also focusing on Wallace, the blog Mystery of Mysteries put up part one of a series on Wallace…
laelaps | July 2, 2008So the big news finally came out yesterday; Carl and Phil have moved on over to blogs run by Discover (which also houses Reality Base, Better Planet, 80 Beats, Disco Blog). With Jennifer starting up an additional blog over at the Discovery Channel site (which has a collection of space blogs) the past few months have marked an influx of science bloggers into a variety of well-known media outlets. (I may eventually have a similar announcement in the future, but no worries; I'm not going anywhere.) Is all this shuffling and moving to newer digs good for science blogging?
Although some people…
laelaps | July 2, 2008
A white-tailed deer fawn (Odocoileus virginianus), photographed in the summer of 2007.
laelaps | July 1, 2008It is one thing to remember the date of an anniversary and quite another to truly recognize the significance of it. When it comes to Charles Darwin it seems that we have too much of the former and not enough of the latter, especially concerning what transpired 150 years ago today. Many are saying that today is the 150th birthday of natural selection, yet this is not really true. William Wells, Patrick Matthew, and Edward Blyth all preceded both Darwin and A.R. Wallace in print, each scratching the surface of the idea of natural selection but either misconstuing it as a preservative mechanism…
laelaps | July 1, 2008The past few six months have seen a lot of changes here at scienceblogs.com. A new wave of bloggers came in, super readers were recruited, channel photos posted, and lots of other cool stuff, but one of the biggest changes is the amount of traffic. According to a release that popped in my e-mail yesterday, traffic to ScienceBlogs shot up to about 14 million visits during the first six months of 2008, an all-time high and 60% increase over the same time period in 2007.
I really am proud to be a part of ScienceBlogs. I truly consider blogging to be one of the most valuable things that I do and…
laelaps | July 1, 2008It seems that today is going to be a big day for science bloggers. Although updates were scheduled to go up yesterday, both Carl Zimmer and Phil Plait have delayed their announcements until sometime today. I've got a big announcement, too, something that I am definitely excited about.
My abstract on T.H. Huxley's thoughts about dinosaurs & birds has been accepted for the Dinosaurs: A Historical Perspective volume.
I truly am honored to be allowed to contribute to the book, and have to thank Mike Taylor for his advice and encouragement. I've got a lot of work to do this month but I am…
laelaps | July 1, 2008
Two Amur tiger cubs (Panthera tigris altaica), photographed in September 2007 at the Philadelphia zoo.
laelaps | June 30, 2008[Note:] I realized I posted this entry very recently, only three months prior to today, but since it is the anniversary of the Oxford debate/lectures I thought it would be fitting to throw this entry up again (with a few minor edits). I have also included two caricatures of Huxley (top) and Wilberforce (bottom) to add to the aesthetics of this piece. I hope you enjoy it
Sometimes textbook cardboard refuses to disintegrate. According to scientific lore on this day in 1860 T.H. Huxley singlehandedly slew Samuel "Soapy Sam" Wilberforce during a debate at Oxford in the sweltering heat, causing a…
laelaps | June 30, 2008
Last week Ed blogged about a new PLoS paper implicating canine distemper, parasites, and climate changes in the severe reductions in lion some lion populations seen during the last 15 years in Africa. Coincidentally, the PBS show Nature featured a special last night called "Vanishing Lions" about similar problems, with the interactions between lions and humans in Kenya dominated the film;
In many places lions are being ecologically strangled to death. With their ranges restricted to parks (lions who wander outside and kill livestock are killed), lions in some parts of Africa are facing…