Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
The next edition of the Tangled Bank will be held at Grey Thumb.blog on Wednesday, 18 Jan 2006. Send in those links to wonderful science writing to tangledbank@greythumb.org,
host@tangledbank, or
me by Tuesday evening.
BioCurious has a nifty methods article on Labeling λ DNA—if you've ever wanted to know how to tag a strand of DNA with a bead so you can tow it around with your optical tweezers, here's the theory (and they've got optical tweezers? I am so jealous.)
William Dembski doesn't think the way you or I do. When we encounter a problem in biological science, we try to think of experiments and observations that would help us resolve the question: Dembski thinks of public relations and commercial opportunities. Thoughts from Kansas catches him admitting…
I've got to inaugurate the new site with a Friday Random Ten, don't I?
My Generation
Patti Smith
Ghost Riders On The Storm
California Guitar Trio
Women's Prison
Loretta Lynn
Coming in from the cold
The Delgados
Noctuary
Bonobo
Evolution
Ayumi Hamasaki
Death Is Not The End (With Nick…
Chris is clearly trying to drum up support among My People*.
*My People. You know, godless nature lovers who like turtle sex. We're a h u g e demographic.
A reader sent in this little question:
Possible answers:
Well, what if McNuggets have souls, huh? What do you think of that, smart guy?
Neither have souls!
"Good" and "McNuggets" in the same sentence?
Let's have a taste test and find out.
OK, that settles it. I'm in the wrong research field.
They found breasts moved in a 3D figure of eight and that uncontrolled movement strained fragile tissues and ligaments.
The study suggested as a woman runs a mile, her breasts bounced 135 meters.
The report found each breast moved independently…
If ever you've looked yourself up on Rate My Professors, you'll appreciate Rate Your Students.
(via Crooked Timber)
On a related note, check out this praise for the ideal teacher: Severus Snape. I'm going to have to work on my style.
The Friday Ark doesn't look too crowded so far today—head on over and board up your organismal postings!
Man, you can shoot the pope and still get a job in this administration.
Ohio State Board of Education has an ID lesson plan on the books. Ohio Citizens for Science has been fighting it, but at a recent meeting, the Board voted to maintain it's anti-science position.
A friend sent this scan from the Columbus Dispatch. It does show the ignorance, the contempt, and the…
An exploding aardvark whispered in my ear that we have a new candidate for governor here in Minnesota: Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey.
Honesty is very seldom heard nowadays, especially from a politician. So, I am not going to break from political tradition. My name is Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey…
Every biology student gets introduced to the chordates with a list of their distinctive characteristics: they have a notochord, a dorsal hollow nerve cord, gill slits, and a post-anal tail. The embryonic stage in which we express all of these features is called the pharyngula stage—it's often also…
Well. If I were a "single-celled, parasitic protozoan known for infections that sometimes last for years, which may be accompanied by vague gastrointestinal distress or dysentery—complete with blood and mucus in the stool", I'd feel grossly insulted by this comparison.
(I'm one to talk…"pmyers"…
Just in case anyone is concerned that I'll soften my hardline rejection of all religion just because I've assumed fancy new corporate digs, allow me to quote Dan Savage approvingly.
And finally, to Rob in Albany who felt my aside was proof of my intolerance and hypocrisy: Joking about Christianity…
Whoa…now this is a phenomenal tool. iSpecies is a simple, minimalist page ala Google, with a single text entry box. Type in any taxon name, hit enter, and it comes back at you with genomics data, images, and documents on the organism(s). It's a species search engine!
(via Evolgen)
Pat Robertson's remarks about Sharon—once again blaming human suffering on divine retribution—have put a crimp in his pocketbook. He's been leading a consortium to open a Christian theme park in Israel, and finally the Israelis have noticed that Robertson is a tasteless bigot and dishonest con-man…
This is a beautiful little animal with a brief and brilliant life.
Watasenia scintillans is a small (mantle length,~6 cm; wet weight,~9 g), luminescent deep-sea squid, indigenous to northern Japan. Females carrying fertilized eggs come inshore each spring by the hundreds of millions, even a…
As you've figured out now, I've joined the ranks of the many science bloggers at scienceblogs.com. The plaster's still wet on the walls and there are a few things I still would like to see fixed up here in the new place (my rotating logos will be implemented some time—Carl Buell's Brontops will…