Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
laelaps
Posts by this author
November 21, 2008
Another day, another 10 pages. The human evolution chapter now stretches about 40 pages long, and it still requires quite a bit of detail. (It will, of course, balloon again when illustrations are worked out. One particular illustration of the branching tree of hominin evolution will require that…
November 21, 2008
"The Lion of the Season," from Mr. Punch's Victorian Era.
As Charles Darwin was readying to release his treatise on evolution by natural selection (which was turned into an abstract rushed into press in 1859), Richard Owen was trying to separate humans from other primates. In 1857 he proposed…
November 21, 2008
Thompson's gazelles (Eudorcas thomsoni), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
November 20, 2008
... and Traumador, it's host, has something special in mind;
So my thinking for this themed boneyard is for anyone and everyone out on the innerweb to put up a post about their favourite museum... it doesn't have to be a really "smart" or sciencey one, cause afterall it's me the archosaur without…
November 20, 2008
A grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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November 19, 2008
Earlier this year, intelligent design advocates were trumpeting the forthcoming "fall of Darwinism" with the release of the propaganda film Expelled. The film stirred up some controversy, had a modest (at best) showing, and generally preached to the choir, but it didn't seem to have as momentous a…
November 19, 2008
A red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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November 18, 2008
Lately it has been difficult to work up the motivation to work on the book. My free time is so fragmented that I rarely have the ability to sit down and concentrate on what I'm doing for more than an hour or so. The fact that it gets dark by about 4:30 does not help, either, as it makes me feel…
November 18, 2008
For nearly 150 years, various critics and authorities have been predicting the death-knell of "Darwinism." It is a crumbling ideological edifice, they say, and it will soon collapse. Just as predictions about Armageddon have turned out to be invariably wrong, so too has the wailing and whining of…
November 18, 2008
A polar bear (Ursus maritimus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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November 17, 2008
"The Young Monkey," from Funny People, or the True Origin of Species
When I refer to a book with the phrase Origin of Species in the title, it is generally understood that I am talking about the volume by Charles Darwin, published in 1859, that was so important that we are still avidly…
November 17, 2008
A red ruffed lemur (Varecia rubra), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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November 16, 2008
During the past few weeks I have tried to step back from adding new material to my book to gain a better perspective on how I'm telling the story I want to convey. Much of what I'm writing concerns recent discoveries to explain how we know what we say we know about evolution, but the framework from…
November 16, 2008
An American bison (Bison bison), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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November 15, 2008
Buffy
Earlier this fall my wife and I rescued four kittens that had been living in our backyard. There were two orange ones (Owen & Cope), one black one (Vlad), and one grey one (Buffy). Buffy was the last to be caught, and she did not like it one bit. Where the other kittens warmed up…
November 15, 2008
A lace monitor (Varanus varius), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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November 14, 2008
For over 300 years, our species has recognized the similarities between ourselves and other primates, particularly apes. For most of that time scholars in the West have attempted to keep our species cordoned off from our relatives, either through the static hierarchy of the Great Chain of Being…
November 14, 2008
With a little less than a week to go, I have fallen behind in the 3rd Annual Blogging Scholarship contest. Thanks to the many links and referrals I received from friends during the weekend and the beginning of the week I was able to hold on to third, but later this week The Burnt Orange Report came…
November 14, 2008
A male and female nyala (Tragelaphus angasii), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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November 13, 2008
...then I need your help.
Yesterday, after being inspired by the announcement of Ed's book, I broached the concept of there being a "best of" Laelaps collection. A few of you have voiced your encouragement, and I am definitely considering producing a collection of my work in print form. I'm…
November 13, 2008
George the lion (Panthera leo), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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November 12, 2008
A particularly interesting line of fundamentalist Christian argument against evolution is that of "devilution." There was more of a tendency for life (particularly humanity) to degenerate rather than progress upwards. Where the argument originated among creationists, I have yet to discover, but…
November 12, 2008
One day, back when I was blogging via Wordpress, I stumbled across another science blog called Not Exactly Rocket Science. I was very impressed by what was posted there, and it is no surprise that ScienceBlogs eventually snapped up Ed to write here.
Ed has earned a reputation as one of the best…
November 12, 2008
A red river hog (Potamochoerus porcus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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November 11, 2008
Lately I have been a bit fixated on the arguments over evolution & creationism in America during the beginning of the 20th century (see here and here). As a result of further digging, I came across a few more resources that raise some interesting questions.
First is a short article from the…
November 11, 2008
A false gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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November 10, 2008
The skulls of Homo sapiens and a Neanderthal compared, from Arthur Keith's Antiquity of Man.
Our species is nothing if not vain. The natural world is saturated with wonders, yet the phenomena of most concern are those directly relating to us. Even in the long public argument over evolution, where…
November 10, 2008
A California sea lion pup (Zalophus californianus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
November 9, 2008
A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had entered myself as a contestant for the 3rd annual College Blogging Scholarship. I wasn't too optimistic about my chances, but much to my surprise I got an e-mail Friday evening letting me know that I made the final 20! I am proud to say I'm in the running for…