My last column in Seed is now online for you cheapskates (OK, you're forgiven already) who don't subscribe. It's called "Eyeing the Evolutionary Past," and discusses a familiar topic around these parts — the evolution of eyes.
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Ha, I subscribe! Eat it, cheapskates!
Last column? What, did they need to take back those two pages for another arty microbe photo?
(I kid. I love Seed, and subscriptions make good gifts. But, to my taste, some issues have a little too much shiny and not enough content. PZ's column was always a highlight.)
Your last?!?
Did you get fired?
Oh no... Are you sick? Is it terminal? How long do you have? PZ! WE HARDLY KNEW YE!
If you don't pull through, can I have your stuff?
No, no..."last" as in "previous". You have to understand that as you read that one there, there's another one pending and I'm working on the next one right this minute. What's current to you is ancient history to me.
"Can you see the underlying unifying principle that you're missing?"
Personal incredulity?
My copy of the latest SEED (Yes, I Subscribe!) has been in my backpack since I got it, sadly in line behind a bunch obligatory reading.... but I will read it tonight, since you reminded me! Your column is my favorite part of SEED. What a great publication SEED is - worth every penny!
I'd be so honored if you'd blogroll me... Survival Machine is my commentary on science news and politics, and to a lesser extent, a personal blog. I've got Pharyngula blogrolled already! Keep up the good work PZ!
OT, but does anyone else read What's New by Bob Park at the University of Maryland?
He's another curmudgeonly skeptic: http://www.bobpark.org/
FWIW, Some SNAKES have four image-generating light sensors: the "pits" of Pit Vipers apparently function as Infrared "Cameras" and form limited-resolution IR images. My poor ignorant supposition is that since other camera eyes first formed in an aqueous enviroment, +/- opaque to IR, they are not readily adaptible to IR reception in air, which requires new sensors (pigments? thermal?) and probably a non-aqueous focusing mechanism. It's easier to start from scratch: we see a re-development of a camera, apparently following some of the same general steps: for now, a pinhole. See http://www.physorg.com/news76249412.html
Okay, crisis averted. I guess careful reading would be a better strategy than OMG PANIC11!1 in the future.
Rhab on for the weekend...
Short, interesting, understandable and illustrative of biological evolution and evolutionary history. Very effective. Not to mention a nice signature picture of a cephlalopod.
I hope reprints show up in lots of high school Biology classes.
Thank you.
You know, I just read that article from a link on Digg (It hit the front page!) and I completely failed to realize who the author was. I should have known :P
Great article on evolution of eyes! I agree with #11 that it would be nice if there were article reprints of your column available in the high school biology classes.
By the way, I subscribe and the Pharyngula column is always the first thing I read when I open SEED magazine.
Hey! I subscribe! But I'm gonna peek anyway.
Better than the reverse. Or so I've heard x.x
Incidentally, are there any known instances of eyes evolving on land?
Re: sea urchins and eyes.
I went free diving around Bougainville Island which is in the Soloman Islands near New Guinea. There were sea urchins that appeared to have a single 'eye ball' on a stem with an orange iris on the top of the urchin. As I would pass overhead, the eye would track me and the urchin would point it's spines in my direction. It seemed to know where I was. The urchins were fairly large maybe up to 12" in diameter and the black spines much thinner and sharper (I tested them personally) than the urchins around Monterey Bay near San Francisco. Are these real eyes?