Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
laelaps
Posts by this author
UPDATE: Many, many thanks to everyone who donated today. I am pleased to say that the "Throw Us a Bone!!" project has been fully funded! There are still a few other projects that need your contribution, but I am very grateful to everyone who responded to this challenge so far.
It has been about two…
When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, he largely avoided the issue of human evolution. The implication that our species had evolved was there, and many were concerned with our connection to "lower" animals, but Darwin did not provide his…
A pair of ring-tailed mongoose (Galidia elegans), photographed at the Bronx zoo.
I'm tired of being prevented from reading academic papers because of subscription walls. Both as a student and someone who loves to dig into the history of science, I often cast a wide net when I'm searching for information on a topic I want to know more about. At this very moment, for instance, I'…
A Western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), photographed at the Bronx zoo.
Earlier today PZ wrote a brief review of Jerry Coyne's upcoming book Why Evolution is True. I'm not particularly interested in reading it, I doubt it's going to have much information I haven't seen before, but I decided to look into it all the same. (To tell you the truth, I feel that my book, when…
This coming January I will have the pleasure of speaking at two discussion at Science Online '09; one on the history of science, and the other about using the web to teach science in college. You can have a look at the wiki pages for both talks here (history) and here (college science), but they…
As we approach the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, I can't help but notice the shoddy treatment natural selection receives in many of the college courses I have attended. Everyone is in agreement that understanding natural selection is…
There were a lot of books I had intended to read that I didn't get to this summer. Between work, a summer class, and my own writing projects, I didn't have the time to sit down and hastily devour books like I did last year or the year before. Many of the books on my list were technical volumes,…
As has been pointed out by many over the past week, the current race to the White House between John McCain and Barack Obama is increasingly being punctuated by angry outbursts from conservative crowds. In the past, Democratic candidates were often mocked at Republican rallies (and vice versa), but…
An Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), photographed at the Bronx zoo.
Two days ago I mentioned some good news I had to share with all of you, and I have been impatiently keeping it under my hat. Now I can finally let the cat out of the bag. I am proud to say that Smithsonian magazine has just launched a new dinosaur blog called Dinosaur Tracking, and I am one of the…
Eight years before the publication of On the Origin of Species, J. Stanley Grimes issued his book Phreno-Geology: The Progressive Creation of Man, Indicated by Natural History, and Confirmed by Discoveries That Connect the Organization and Functions of the Brain With Successive Geological Periods.…
Western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), photographed at the Bronx zoo.
There are few scientific figures as misunderstood as the English anatomist Richard Owen. More often than not, he is portrayed as a sort of Grinch, brooding in his museum and muttering "I must stop this 'evolution' from coming, but how?" Not only was he a severe and vicious old man, generally…
A red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis), photographed at the Bronx zoo.
On October 8, 2007, Laelaps launched at its new home here on ScienceBlogs. 365 days; 1,326 posts; and 5,131 comments later, I am still at it and hope to continue writing here for some time to come.
I'll save the meta for later, though. Keep your eyes peeled for a big announcement here in the next…
I have been hacking away at the chapter on birds & dinosaurs for the last few days, but it is still overgrown with tangles of excess material. It stings to cut out some of the great quotes and concepts I stumbled upon during the course of my research, but 41 pages is about 15 too many for the…
The Boneyard #24 is now up over at The Other 95%, and the latest edition of the anthropology carnival Four Stone Hearth is up at Clashing Culture. Be sure to give both of them a look!
The 25th edition of the Boneyard will be up at The Big Dinosaur Lie next month.
The Great Tyrannosaurus:
A Fossiliferous Fable
The Great Tyrannosaurus
Lived centuries ago;
Through marshes wet and porous
He rambled to and fro.
The most tremendous Lizard
That ever browsed on meat,
His length from A to Izzard
Was forty-seven feet.
The Great Tyrannosaurus
In habitude was not…
A hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), photographed at the Philadelphia zoo.
Last Wednesday night I slogged my way through the city streets to attend the Blogging Science Pro Session at the Apple Store in Soho, NYC, (Jessica was lucky and got to visit the Evolution store beforehand), and I had a pretty good time. I was a little nervous and stuttered (my thoughts moved too…
The next edition of the paleo-themed blog carnival The Boneyard (#24) will be going up tomorrow at The Other 95%. Be sure to get your submissions in to me or Kevin sometime today if you want to be in it!
Ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta), photographed at the Philadelphia zoo.
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction;
If I didn't know any better, I would have said that was Tina Fey doing an impersonation. That's sadly not the case. As reported in the Huffington Post, the quote was actually "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women," (emphasis…