Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
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Posts by this author
June 6, 2008
Even though I'll miss the little guy, I'm pleased to say that Huxley was adopted last night. Being that Beatrice, Emma, and Elise were all recently adopted as well, that means that with the exception of two (Littlefoot and Kit) every cat that my wife and I have fostered has found a home.
There's…
June 6, 2008
A reconstruction of Archaeopteryx. Photographed May 18, 2008 at the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
For those of you who wanted the original, super-sized image, you can now download it here. If there are any other pictures that you would like the original, large versions of, please don't…
June 5, 2008
The skull of Machairodus, from Owen's A History of British Fossil Mammals, and Birds.
Digging through the seemingly endless mass of 19th century paleontological literature that I have collected via Google Books, I happened across a very interesting quote from Richard Owen in his 1846 textbook A…
June 5, 2008
As I've been working on my book on evolution I've been posting updates about my progress (most of those updates can be found here), and I am certainly pleased to note that reactions have generally been positive. I am truly grateful for all the support I've received from readers, fellow bloggers,…
June 5, 2008
A pair of laughing gulls (Larus atricilla). Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.
June 4, 2008
In the course of rooting through the literature for more information on Eohippus, Hyracotherium, and the various associated genera (it's been a chore to find out their names, much less the relevant papers!) I stumbled across this 1927 poem by Richard Ashman, published in The Science News-Letter. It…
June 4, 2008
Even though I said that I had more pertinent material to read than discourses about the perceived clash of science & Christian theology, I contradicted myself by picking up John Hedley Brooke's Science and Religion last night. As I have become increasingly aware during the course of my reading…
June 4, 2008
Given that I have 23 single-spaced pages written for my human evolution chapter (which is about as long as the essay I wrote that was included in The Open Laboratory) I suppose I should be fairly pleased with myself. The truth of the matter is that I am not; I still have to get to major discoveries…
June 4, 2008
A horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) that was stranded on the beach. My wife turned it over and helped it back into the bay. Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.
June 3, 2008
Jennifer Ouellette is disappointed with the conspicuous lack of science books at Book Expo America. Is science being "put in the corner"?
The brothers Bleiman have an old NSF ad that brings back some memories. Now I'm going to have that tune stuck in my head all day.
Many of us science…
June 3, 2008
A group of turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) hanging out on the dunes. Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.
June 2, 2008
Of all the concepts of nature I have so far encountered in my research on the history of evolution as an idea, few (if any) are as virulent as the Great Chain of Being. Although Stephen Jay Gould claimed that White's 1799 book An Account of the Regular Gradation in Man, and in Different Animals and…
June 2, 2008
Who knew wearing paisley would be so controversial? A screen-grab of Rachel Ray from the Dunkin' Donuts commercial that's causing such a fuss amongst some conservatives.
I don't often write about politics on this blog (at least politics not associated with science policy & education), but I'…
June 2, 2008
My time writing was cut a little short this weekend (my wife rescued me from the doldrums by suggesting we take a late-night trip to the beach) but I still was able to flesh out the sections dealing with the early history of paleoanthropology. I have the feeling that I'm going to have to edit both…
June 2, 2008
Part of the head-shield of a horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus). Fragments of the carapaces of horseshoe crabs littered the entire length of the beach. Photographed May 17, 2008 at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware.
June 1, 2008
When I was in high school I used to spend my Saturday mornings making mix tapes to play in my 1990 Pontiac Bonneville when I went out on Saturday night. Sure, iPods and other devices that you can dump all your favorite music onto are convenient but there are few things more personal than a mix tape…
June 1, 2008
Some of you might have noticed a new blog in the feeds; the ScienceBlogs Book Club. The blog will feature discussions about the book Microcosm by my fellow Scibling Carl Zimmer, John Dennehy, PZ, Jessica Snyder Sachs, and Carl himself all offering up commentary. The discussions will unfold over the…
June 1, 2008
Those of you who stopped by this blog on Friday afternoon might have quickly glimpsed a post that is now missing. There's a good reason for that. I had noticed that in May at least three books about theistic evolution/the "theology of evolution" were released (Creation and Evolution: A Conference…
June 1, 2008
Two horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) spawning at high tide. Other than one other solitary crab they were the only healthy individuals I saw. Photographed May 17, 2008 at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware.
May 31, 2008
"Do we really need another book about evolution?" I ask myself this question almost every day as I pore over the stacks of books and papers cluttering my apartment, the masses of literature forming a sort of scientific strata. It has been about two years since I first started saying that I was…
May 31, 2008
Even though I didn't frame this laughing gull (Larus atricilla) exactly right I still think that this is a pretty cool picture. Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.
May 30, 2008
The probable role of fossils in giving rise to myths and legends has been recognized since the 19th century, but it has only been recently that the connection between giant bones & footprints and mythology has been appreciated as a subject worthy of detailed study (see The First Fossil Hunters…
May 30, 2008
Finding old technical literature can be maddeningly difficult. There are many important papers that are not readily available as journals have gone under or access to those publications is limited despite the research being so old that copyright no longer applies, but thankfully there is a move to…
May 30, 2008
Like rotting, festering zombies, some creationist tricks just won't die. Even though every case of supposed "human tracks" found near dinosaur tracks in Mesozoic rock that I can think of has been disproved (the tracks often being little more than the result of some creative chiseling) the idea that…
May 30, 2008
Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.
May 29, 2008
Over at Cocktail Party Physics Jennifer Ouellette has a two-part interview (1 and 2) with Eric Roston, author of the upcoming book The Carbon Age. It's definitely worth a look, and you can definitely expect to hear a bit more about The Carbon Age here in the not-too-distant future (~next Sunday, A.…
May 29, 2008
Over the past several months many people (myself included) have been anxiously awaiting the ruling of the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology ethics committee on the controversy informally known as Aetogate, and on May 23 the SVP committee released their decision (if you need to catch up, see Mike…
May 29, 2008
Even though my brain was a bit heat- and math-addled by the time I got home from class last night (I spent all day at a baseball game the organization I work for took us out to and then spent the time between 6 and 8:30 PM in math class) I still managed to add a few more historical tidbits to my…
May 29, 2008
The next edition of the Boneyard will go up on June 7th at The Flying Trilobite. Rumor has it that it may be a special paleo-art-themed edition, although I'll post more details as we approach June 7th.
Also, not all the winning contestants in the Boneyard XX competition have e-mailed me to claim…
May 29, 2008
I forgot to prepare a new photograph from my Delaware trip this morning, so here's something "old" instead. This is the fountain at the Philadelphia Zoo.