One other thing about Stuart Pivar's book: he has collected a few endorsements. They are a little strange. One is by Robert Hazen, a chemist, and if you read it, it's more like a review of a paper in which the reviewer is trying to state some things he finds plausible about the work. In this case, he likes the idea of the fluid-filled plastic models for making "a more rigorous mathematical exploration of the relationships among such variables as length, width, viscosity, forces, and resultant segmented morphology", which is fair enough. I don't think Pivar has demonstrated the competence to carry out such a study, and the fundamental flaws in the rest of the work do not justify any confidence in him.
Another endorsement is by Neil deGrasse Tyson. A funny thing…I've written to several of the people Pivar cites as supporting his work. Tyson replied, and has said that part of the quote is an out of context reference to a completely different subject, and that another part is a fabrication. He has asked that Pivar remove his name from his website, which he has not done. Tyson's name is also prominently used on the back cover of his book—I don't see that going away, either.
Almost two thirds of the book is taken up with copies of articles and book chapters by other authors. I wonder if Pivar got permission from the authors and publishers before using their work wholesale like that?
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We had started looking into those "endorsements" in this thread, and "Kirkinson" found the original source of the Tyson quotation. The part which wasn't fabricated came from a 2004 NOVA interview.
I'll give Pivar one thing: His ideas might make an interesting basis for a 3D cartoon character modelling system.
As you note, it would sort of be like making characters out of balloon animals. Or, really, making bubble animals out of bubbles that don't pop or tear but rather give and divide.
It wouldn't be as realistic as the method of building the anatomy from the bones out, but it could produce some interesting designs.
Is this something that could be sued over?
Just taking a wild guess here, but I'd say "no."
Nathan Parker asked:
Well, you can sue over anything but the only way Tyson can win is if he threatens to make enough stink about the abuse of his name that Stuart Pivar agrees to settle out of court.
Tyson could write a chapter in his next book about his abused name and science publishing and if Stuart Pivar doesn't like it... tough shit.
Is that the same Robert Hazen that wrote Gen-e-sis?
No sueing, public humiliation by public notice and emails to all prominent biologist would kill any future work of his.
Did you post your blog throwdown yet Phys?
So who is this Pivar fellow exactly? It he some kind of creationist or IDer or is he just a freelance loon?
As I have said repeatedly, PZ Meyers is making a typical novice reviewer's error. The new Lifecode is not written by Stuart Pivar, but by another person of the same name, namely, Stuart Pivar. Clearly, this invalidates everything he has to "say" about the "book."
This just in! I received the following via e-mail. Pivar references an attachment which I didn't receive, possibly because the message was routed to me via a generic departmental address.
I think I'll use this as evidence that I have a PhD. No more grad school for me!
(I already have other "evidence" to the same effect, but that's a different story.)
I took the liberty of reviewing the book on Amazon to add links to PZ's first two articles. But I missed this one about the fabricated endorsements. (The review is probably not displayed yet since it has to be approved.) Perhaps someone else would like to do the honours?
P.S. I still have two kittens that need a home!
Huh? I'm a developmental biologist. Embryology is a specialized subset of DB. I think I have far more training in and knowledge of the field than does Stuart Pivar.
Robert Hazen is a chemist. He is also not an embryologist, although he probably knows more than Stuart Pivar.
Hey, I'm just passing along what's been given to me. It's not my job to force it all to make sense. ;-)
Incidentally, I just spoke with the person who routed me Pivar's e-mail, and we found there wasn't an attachment or anything else beyond the message I quoted above. I would happily post Hazen's statements (or a link thereto) if I'd received them, but we appear to be denied that privilege.
Monado: I really, really wish I could help you there. WANT a cat. No pets apartment. Grrrr.
Regarding the endorsements issue: Any word on the Goodwin claim?
It also occurs to me that there's something familiar about Pivar. Great artistic skill...novel evolutionary crackpottery...PIvar...PInkoski!
Martin Gardner was once writing an article on a strange and pseudoscientific book on the amazing health benefits of drinking your own urine, and was surprised to see the name and title of a legitimate Phd university chemistry professor on the back, complete with what looked like an endorsement. He decided to go to the trouble of calling the gentleman up and asking about it.
The retired professor didn't know what Gardner was talking about at first, and when it was explained he became livid, and wanted to sue. Evidently, years back he had published a research paper which supported some beneficial effects from the chemical urea in certain narrow circumstances having to do with cells or something, and the "blurb" on the back of the book had been blithely lifted out of context from the abstract. Needless to say, there was no connection to actually consuming urine, except perhaps to those who look for magical connections between similar words.
Poor guy. After a respected career, imagine finding out you were leaving a lasting legacy related to a book on drinking pee. Good thing it was obscure.
Yea that would really piss me off.
Sorry I just HAD to do it.
Some people in Canada have had that "no pets" rule thrown out as being discriminatory - especially for apartment buildings rather than flats, and especially for cats, which unlike dogs can stay in and don't piss on the rose-bushes.
Sastra, I had heard some vague mention of Martin Gardner and something like that, but wasn't sure of the details.
Thanks for urinalysis of the situation!
Monado, when searching for an apartment (with 14 yo cat in tow) I often come across "no pets" apartment listings and grumpily think to myself that my cat would cause a damn sight less damage to an apartment than your average three year-old, but I have yet to see a "no kids" apartment listing. But I do get easily frustrated when apartment-hunting.
And sorry I can't take a kitten off your hands... I've been wanting to get a kitten for quite a while now, but my above-mentioned old bitchy siamese mix would surely murder me in my sleep. And then kill the kitten too.
Cats can be horrible. We've got a neutered male cat who is a bit neurotic and given a chance, will spray anything. Cat pee reeks and is almost impossible to get rid of, especially if the cat is sneaky and likes to hose down some out of sight corner of your furniture.
We've had to restrict him to the kitchen only, where there is no fabric anywhere, or our house would be unlivable in short order.
Actually, that's pretty much how animated characters are structured -- with oval-shaped bodies that are given a sense of weight and volume. Sounds like this guy got his hands on some animation software and confused it with biology.
In fact, those diagrams look like something out of a Flash tutorial
Maybe there's an ID subcult out there that figures John Lasseter must be the Intelligent Designer and they're just waiting for the time loop to carry him back to the beginning.
Dear Blogger,
For at least six months Neil de Grasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium has received copies of updated editions of Lifecode which carry his endorsement as a plausible theory, as well as press releases featuring the same. He responded cheerfully, never questioning anything . Then, yesterday, on receiving a call from PZ Myers, Neil de Grasse Tyson suddenly withdrew his support. He gave no relevant grounds for his change of heart.
Stuart Pivar
I was thinking the same thing - or rather, its application in an anime. Then I remembered that Phantasia and Transformers have scooped that market. Back to the drawing board! (Or perhaps it is cel board? :-P)
Oh, I get it now! A polite "thank you for your submission" letter completely justifies deliberately fabricating and/or misrepresenting a statement as an endorsement of the submission in question.
If that was really pivar, something got through into the fabricated world of his. Yay for the blogoverse! (Or, since Blake Stacey commented here, the wobosphere.)
Perhaps the phone call inspired him to read your book.
I can guess what happened. Tyson is an astronomer. He kept finding this strange spiral-bound scrap of meaningless biology in his overflowing mailbox (he's a popular guy, I'm sure), and he round-filed it automatically.
I get things like catalogs for office furniture of flyers for psychobiology conferences, and they go in the trash even before I leave the mailroom.
Why do you oppose this book so. I mean, come on PZ you endorsed it!
-- Heh. That would be golden.
He responded cheerfully, never questioning anything .
that should have given you a clue right off, dumbass.
if he had even read anything you wrote, he of course would have been shooting you a few questions about it.
You don't get to claim "endorsement" because you received no response!
If you actually published it with his "endorsement" in print, I wonder if he will decide to sue...
I know I would.
If there isn't an entry on crank.net for you, Stuart, I'll look into putting one there tomorrow.
really, it's the only way you will garner lasting fame.
Hazen seems to be a little strange.
I recently had reason to cite
in my
because he reports evidence for mineral catalysis of prebiotic chemistry but denies its obvious consistency with work of A K Cairns-Smith which preceded Hazen by 20 years.
IIRC Cairns-Smith was arguing that the growth of clay crystal surfaces is a form of replication with modification, and that this provides a mechanism for abiogenesis, e.g. that you start with replicating minerals, then get organic stuff happening on the top. The more recent work is nothing to do with the replication of clays, it's to do with the catalytic effects of weathered mineral surfaces on pre-biotic organic chemistry. For example, weathered aluminosilicate surfaces can catalyse the formation of linear polymerised amino acids from a solution of monomers.
I was thinking the same thing - or rather, its application in an anime. Then I remembered that Phantasia and Transformers have scooped that market. Back to the drawing board! (Or perhaps it is cel board? :-P)
If that was really pivar, something got through into the fabricated world of his. Yay for the blogoverse! (Or, since Blake Stacey commented here, the wobosphere.)