Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
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Posts by this author
September 17, 2008
A water silo in New York City, not far from the AMNH.
September 16, 2008
From Garfield Minus Garfield.
I had planned to get at least 20 pages finished today, but I don't think I'm going to be able to make it. As it stands now I've got 15 pages, much of it brand new material, but after taking the bus home I have a splitting headache. Sitting on a bus during rush hour…
September 16, 2008
One of the most rewarding events I have ever attended was last year's Annual Science Blogging Conference in North Carolina. I got to meet a number of my favorite bloggers, made lots of new friends, and definitely enjoyed speaking about science blogging as a student. Now registration is open for…
September 16, 2008
As I approach my one year anniversary of blogging here on ScienceBlogs.com, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the benefits and drawbacks of blogging. Being here on Sb has done a lot of good for me, from speaking engagements to opportunities to write academic & popular articles,…
September 16, 2008
Over the past few weeks a number of visitors have made it to this blog by searching the web for information about Sarah Palin & dinosaurs. Previously there wasn't much to say beyond a 2006 quote, but now new evidence has appeared that suggests that Palin indeed tried to get creationism into the…
September 16, 2008
An Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), photographed at the Philadelphia Zoo.
September 15, 2008
From Garfield Minus Garfield.
The beginning of classes has marked the start of a more chaotic daily schedule, one that often puts me in no mood to write. I want to work on the book when I have the time, but at the end of most days I feel like I've been trampled by a horde of freshmen (which isn'…
September 15, 2008
An illustration of a Brontotherium mount on display at the AMNH. Notice the healed rib. From Osborn, H.F.; Wortman, J.L.; Peterson, O.A. (1895) "Perissodactyls of the Lower Miocene White River beds." Bulletin of the AMNH; Vol. 7 (12), pp. 343-375.
Brontotheres have long been among the most…
September 15, 2008
Yesterday a Church of England member announced that the institution owes Charles Darwin an apology. Writing directly to Darwin, the Rev Malcolm Brown said the church should be penitent "for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still…
September 15, 2008
Ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
September 14, 2008
A little levity from John Cleese. [Hat-tip to John Wilkins]
September 14, 2008
I haven't seen this one yet, but here's the BBC Horizon program "Mystery of the Jurassic" about discoveries made in Jurassic-age rocks in Agentina by Oliver Rauhut and others;
September 14, 2008
A melanistic leopard (Panthera pardus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
September 13, 2008
Tyrannosaurus might be the most famous dinosaur, but its sleeker evolutionary relatives Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus have always had a special place in my heart. Here's a brief spot about Albertosaurus from the series Jurassic Fight Club (which is about as much as I can handle without becoming…
September 13, 2008
It has been about a week since my wife and I caught one of the feral kittens in the yard (named Owen), and he has been showing quite a bit of progress. Our cat Charlotte absolutely loves him, and here she is giving him a bath;
We also managed to catch Owen's brother, another orange kitten we've…
September 13, 2008
An Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
September 12, 2008
A female okapi (Okapia johnstoni), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
There are few animals that I find as charming as the okapi (Okapia johnstoni). During the warmer months no trip to the Bronx zoo is complete until I stop by to see them. (Once the temperature drops they are taken off exhibit so…
September 12, 2008
One of the most difficult things about writing about fossil whales is that so few of them have been figured in books and papers. There are a few skeletal reconstructions that are reproduced over and over and over again, but in my research some genera are only mentioned by name. Georgiacetus is one…
September 12, 2008
I've been on about the history of science quite a bit lately (see here, here, and here), and as I've aired my gripes one point in particular keeps coming up again and again.
For various reasons the development of science (particularly those connected with evolution) in Victorian times has been…
September 12, 2008
... that scientists are not historians, as John Wilkins points out. (Blake has also written a good post on this topic.) It is easy (and even preferable) to clearly distinguish the good guys from the bad guys, and sweeping generalizations about old ideas are often included to give clout to modern…
September 12, 2008
I was really looking forward to attending the annual SVP meeting in Ohio this year, but after mulling things over I don't think it is possible for me to go. I simply can't afford the cost of the trip. I am very much saddened by this, particularly since I was looking forward to meeting so many…
September 12, 2008
A lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
September 11, 2008
As reported today in the Guardian, the director of education of the Royal Society, Michael Reiss, believes that creationism should be brought into the science classroom as an alternate "worldview" to evolution. It is not a misconception, fairy tale, or jumble of nonsense, Reiss argues, but just…
September 11, 2008
Here's another paleo video by the Houston Museum of Natural Science, this time about gluing fossils. The hadrosaur featured in it is "Peanut," a skeleton found in the same area as "Leonardo" (who we'll see more of this weekend on the Discovery Channel). Now they just have to make a video about all-…
September 11, 2008
A small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinerea), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
September 10, 2008
For over 120 years, the origin of whales vexed paleontologists. They were among the strangest of all mammals, creatures completely adapted to the sea with more in common with us than any fish (although at the beginning of the 19th century "common sense" said otherwise), and it was difficult to…
September 10, 2008
The first test of the Large Hadron Collider has successfully been completed, and guess what? We're all still here. I know virtually nothing of the physics involved but you can bet that more qualified science bloggers will be writing about the LHC today. Blake has a good play-by-play to get things…
September 10, 2008
A snow leopard (Panthera uncia), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
September 9, 2008
A few years ago I got the chance to see the Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries exhibit at the AMNH before it hit the road. I wish I could see it again now that I know a little bit more, but if you're in the Denver area you're in luck; the exhibition is opening there later this month. Here…
September 9, 2008
"... for in all the boundless realm of philosophy and science no thought has brought with it so much pain, or in the end has led to such a full measure of the joy which comes of intellectual effort and activity as that doctrine of Organic Evolution which will ever be associated, first and foremost…