Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
laelaps
Posts by this author
The reconstructed skull of Australopithecus afarensis, photographed at the American Museum of Natural History.
I am proud to announce that my post, "Who scribbled all over Darwin's work?", was selected for inclusion in the 3rd (2008) edition of The Open Laboratory. You can see a list of all the winners here , and I am pleased to see that my post will be printed alongside work from many of my favorite…
Earlier today I wrote a long rant about pop-science books (particularly mediocre ones), but I ended up scrapping it. After I ran out of hot air I hit a wall and did not want to post something that 1) I couldn't find a good way to finish, and 2) I wasn't going to be proud of. I was a bit cranky…
A California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
A white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), photographed in suburban New Jersey.
Two thousand and eight has, to say the least, been a bizarre year for me. As I sit here watching the snow fall on a farm* nestled just outside the sprawl of Target stores and mini-malls in suburban New Jersey, I am not entirely sure how I feel about it.
*[My wife and I are pet-sitting for a friend…
A white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), photographed in suburban New Jersey.
If you head over to National Geographic News, you can see my picks for the most important, most overlooked, and weirdest paleontology stories of 2008. Afarensis contributed picks for anthropology, and other prominent science bloggers did the same for their areas of expertise. Head on over and have…
Shortly after my wife and I were married in the summer of 2006, but before our apartment was lined with overstocked bookshelves, we used to make at least one weekly stop at the local public library. While she browsed a wide array of sections, I invariably scaled the back staircase to the science…
I would not have expected the Italian actress, model, author, and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini to have ever used the phrase "I will dig my palpae in her epigyne!", but in her series of short films, Green Porno, she does that and more.
Developed for the Sundance Channel, Rossellini has created a…
A double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
I have to admit that one of my favorite targets of criticism is the "Dinosauroid," which I have previously mentioned on this blog multiple times (with the more detailed treatments here, here, and here). Even though paleontologist Dale Russell and taxidermist Ron Sequin stated that their…
The skeleton of a young chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), photographed at the American Museum of Natural History. If you look at the right first incisor carefully, you can see evidence of hypoplasia.
A California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
Eugene O'Neill's short play, The First Man, is a tale of birth, death, scandal, and family infighting, all involving an anthropologist set to scour Asia in search of the earliest humans. Collected with two other plays (The Hairy Ape and Anna Christie) in a 1922, the play contains a fleeting…
Things have been a little slow here on Laelaps as of late, and for good reason. Between finals and the holidays I haven't had much time to sit down and write, but more importantly, I have been devoting most of my free time to working on the book.
I am still working on the chapter and human…
A keel-billed toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
A Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
A California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
An orangutan skull (Pongo pygmaeus), photographed at the American Museum of Natural History.
more animals
It doesn't quite beat creationism as the most tiresome topic on science blogs, but the regular argument over whether mainstream science journalism or science blogging has more of "teh awesum" comes pretty close. We science bloggers try to focus on how we're making a difference in…
The National Academy of Sciences wants to know what you care about when it comes to science, medicine, and technology. They've devised a 2-minute survey, which you can take here, which also puts you in the running for an NAS tote bag. Your responses will help the NAS produce new educational…
A California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
I've been waiting for this day all month. My article "Predatory Intelligence," which considers the beauty and ugliness of spotted hyenas, is now available for free in the journal Antennae. For some reason it is not listed in the table of contents, but it is in there, sure enough. Just scroll down…
If you have never heard of sexual selection, if "evo-devo" sounds like the name of an 80's new wave band, if you believe in evolution but don't understand it, Jerry Coyne's forthcoming book Why Evolution is True isn't a bad place to kick off your intellectual journey. There is no one book that can…
My wife and I have our own little Christmas tradition; every year I read Terry Pratchett's The Hogfather aloud in the week leading up to the holiday. I had mixed feelings about the film adaptation, but I did enjoy this particular scene (which I coincidentally just got to today in the book);
A harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.