The Edge annual question and its answers are out. This year, John Brockman asked, "What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?" He got 158 people to send in answers.
I was one of them. If you like my answer, you might also like Sean Carroll's and Carl Zimmer's — we seem to have made similar points. Carl has a thread on the topic, and so does Sean: I think I like his original title of dysteleological physicalism better, never mind Carl's post deploring jargon.
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Last week I linked to Carl Zimmer's take down of Casey Luskin.
Imagine a book I would write. On viruses (what else?).
Now, instead of it sounding like it was written by a chimpanzee who learned English from watching 'Waynes World' and 'Waynes World 2' on a loop + 4chan, imagine it was written by an articulate, science-literate human.
Everyone has a bad Monday every now and then, right? Here's one for you: at 7a.m. spilled an entire cappuccino on my laptop and at 7p.m. I hit some black ice on the highway and rolled (and totaled) my truck. That is what I call a rough Monday...but what a banner, no?
I knew I'd love Carl's Microcosm for the delicious irony of using a mere "germ" to illustrate