emjohnson | March 15, 2010The latest edition of Scientia Pro Publica has been divided between eight blog posts based on theme. True to form, a single edition has influenced multiple posts in the blogospheric version of pleiotropy.
Beginning | Biology | Conservation | Ethics | Medicine | Physics | Psychology | Conclusion
This edition is massive with contributors from the following blogs providing the best science writing on the net:
A DC Birding Blog Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog Bioblog: Biology in the News Code for Life Deep Sea News Deep Thoughts and Silliness (a Nature Network alum w00t!) EcoTone EnviroBuzz…
emjohnson | March 15, 2010Image: The Daffodil Cichlid of Lake Tanganyika / Koen Eeckhoudt
In 1888 "Darwin's Bulldog", Thomas Henry Huxley, declared that nature was little more than a "gladiator's show" whereby only "the strongest, the swiftest, and the cunningest live to fight another day." Brutal competition was the only important factor in the natural world, in which a "Hobbesian war of each against all was the normal state of existence." As such, we shouldn't expect cooperation in nature because only strength and selfishness is rewarded by evolution.
But a paper by Dik Heg and colleagues, entitled Helpful Female…
emjohnson | March 12, 2010(updated below - Update II - Update III)
CIA peppered bread with LSD in 1951 Image: The TelegraphYesterday the UK newspaper The Telegraph published an article revealing that a mysterious 1951 outbreak of mass hysteria in France was actually the result of a secret experiment performed by the Central Intelligence Agency when they spiked the village's bread with LSD:
The mystery of Le Pain Maudit (Cursed Bread) still haunts the inhabitants of Pont-Saint-Esprit, in the Gard, southeast France.
On August 16, 1951, the inhabitants were suddenly racked with frightful hallucinations of…
emjohnson | March 11, 2010 Coca-Cola sucks India dry. Image: Carlos Latuff / Wikimedia CommonsThe marketing executive who came up with Coca-Cola's popular slogan in 1908 most likely never expected it would be taken so literally. However, a hundred years ago there probably weren't many who imagined a term like "water wars" could exist in a region that experiences annual monsoons.
On February 25 a complaint was filed in the New York Supreme Court against the The Coca-Cola Company alleging that they knew about and sought to cover up human rights abuses in Guatemala. While that trial gets started,…
emjohnson | March 10, 2010It is a common argument by those who are opposed to evolution's implication for religious belief to label Darwin as a social Darwinist and a racist. Adrian Desmond and James Moore's book Darwin's Sacred Cause has gone a long way towards dispelling any claims that Darwin sought to justify black inferiority (in fact, as they show, countering such arguments was an important part of Darwin's work). However, the claim that Darwin inspired social Darwinism is a persistent argument and those that proffer it will stoop to any level in order to discredit him. As I pointed out in my series…
emjohnson | March 8, 2010
Haiti-born hip hop artist Wyclef Jean has been one of the leading artists promoting Haitian relief since the earthquake. In this Creole version of his song "24 Heures a Vivre" (24 Hours to Live) on his 2004 album Welcome to Haiti: Creole 101 he asks the following:
Et si t'avais 24 heures à vivre
Aurais-tu chanté? Aurais-tu dansé? Aurais-tu pleuré?
Ou dit : oh non j'veux m'en aller!
And if you had 24 hours to live
Would you sing? Would you dance? Would you cry?
Or would you say: I don't want to go away!
(Note: this is my rough translation of the French)
Jean lost fifteen family members…
emjohnson | March 5, 2010In light of the Oscars this Sunday I thought those of you who missed it would enjoy my review of District 9 (which is up for four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay).
Inexplicably, a UFO appears over one of Earth's remote cities. Hovering a few hundred meters above the terrified citizens, a government mission to board the craft is executed only to find the strange beings living in disease and desperation. A decision is made to save their lives and relocate the aliens to the city's outskirts. In that moment, what seemed to be a compassionate action develops…
emjohnson | March 5, 2010Nuuchaanulth Ceremonial Curtainfrom the Family of Naasḳuu-isaḳs of the Hupacasath Nation
Human beings around the world honor their dead and the memories of their relatives. We have enacted special rituals related to the handling of human remains from the sacred funeral pyres of India to the professionalized aseptic embalming practices of the United States. Even more so, the treatment of the dead by outsiders is something that can generate outrage. Consider the media controversy when Al-Jazeera aired footage of coalition soldiers who had been killed by Iraqi militants or the hanging of…
emjohnson | March 4, 2010Bonobos and the Child-Like Joy of Sharing
Haiti and the Loan That Wasn't
Can You Solve This Nearly 300-Year-Old Medical Mystery
Teaching Evolutionary History
An Academic Love Story
emjohnson | March 3, 2010Think you know Nature Network? Wait till you see what they're up to now. The members of my former parish have now unveiled their long awaited MT4 platform and you can re-experience all of their wonderful science blogginess updated afresh for your viewing pleasure.
The administrators announced the news yesterday at Schemes and Memes:
Nature Network turned three last month. During our early years, we've enjoyed thousands of illuminating, entertaining and sometimes controversial posts from our diverse pool of bloggers. Now, exciting new changes are afoot.
From tomorrow, Nature Network's blogs…
emjohnson | March 3, 2010Yesterday the BBC aired an investigative report documenting how American "vultures," such as New York-based Eric Hermann at hedge fund FH International, bought up debt from Liberia for pennies on the dollar and are now forcing Liberia's impoverished government to pay in full. This is at the same time that Western governments have been erasing this odious debt from years past.
The effect of Hermann's financial maneuvers earns few applause in Liberia. In that African democracy, diplomat Winston Tubman tells us what he would say to vulture fund operators, "'Do you know you are causing babies to…
emjohnson | March 3, 2010 Artist rendering of Darwinius. Image: Julius T. CsotonyiLast year's publication of the fossil primate Darwinius masillae claimed it to be the oldest haplorhine primate ever discovered and a multimedia blitz campaign touted the find as the ultimate "missing link" (an erroneous term that should forthwith be forbidden to all science journalists). Brian Switek at Laelaps (who has an excellent review of this paper) made headlines for challenging the way that this fossil primate was rushed to market, and it seems that his concerns were more than justified.
According to Brian's Op-Ed…
emjohnson | March 2, 2010In light of the recent discussion on animal testing and animal rights I thought a few additional points would be valuable. It is a fact that animal testing leads to some necessary medical advances that save lives. Anyone who would say differently doesn't have the slightest clue what they're talking about and should be dismissed out of hand. The question is an issue of how many, especially given the ethical concerns. It is also a fact that the vast majority of animal testing serves more peripheral goals, categorized as applied studies that include cosmetic, chemical and pharmaceutical…
emjohnson | March 1, 2010It's wonderful to see that my Open Letter to the Animal Liberation Front has generated discussion on this important topic. The issue as I see it is really quite simple and boils down to two essential issues: the benefits to science versus the ethics of invasive animal experimentation. The British Medical Journal study and BUAV report (pdf) that I cited hold the position that the harm done to animals, particularly primates, is out of proportion to the benefits that come from such research. Furthermore, our current understanding about primate cognition, emotional complexity, and their rich…
emjohnson | February 28, 2010Four years ago today a young researcher at the beginning of his graduate program in primatology sat down with the most intelligent, engaging, and downright beautiful fellow primate he'd ever had the opportunity to share a beer with. Freshly minted with her Master's degree in women's studies (emphasizing public policy), our conversation quickly moved to a discussion of evolution and male vs. female strategies. It's only in hindsight that it seems bizarre to be talking about theories of male promiscuity and female choosiness on a first date. I had recently returned from my first primate…
emjohnson | February 27, 2010The finalists have been chosen in the first annual Research Blogging Awards for material written about peer-reviewed literature. Some of my favorite bloggers have been selected including Neurophilosophy, Laelaps, Not Exactly Rocket Science, A Blog Around the Clock (BoraZ also has the best Twitterer category locked in), Skulls in the Stars, Observations of a Nerd, Mauka to Makai, The Scientific Activist, and A Primate of Modern Aspect.
The Primate Diaries has also been selected in the categories of Research Blog of the Year and Blog Post of the year for my piece: "Does Taking Birth Control…
emjohnson | February 26, 2010(updated below)
My piece for The Huffington Post has just gone up concerning the latest incidents involving neuroscientist Dario Ringach and the targeting of his children by animal rights extremists. For more on this see Dr. Free-Ride, PZ, PalMD, Scicurious, MarkCC, Nick Anthis, Drugmonkey and Orac.
Dear ALF,
I address you not because your organization is directly behind these latest abuses, but because your organization is emblematic of the radical approach that some animal rights activists have been inspired to take. I want you to know that I support your goals at the same time that I…
emjohnson | February 25, 2010 Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulip, Rembrandt (1632)I have been extremely ill this week which has prevented me from posting as often as I would have liked. However, I have been keeping up on the suggestions offered to explain the nearly 300-year-old medical mystery involving "hairy crustaceous substances" voided in a woman's urine. Of all the potential explanations for this phenomenon I think Quinn O. nailed it with his diagnosis of pilimiction as the result of a dermoid tumor. In doing a little research on this condition I discovered that this is caused when an abnormal growth develops…
emjohnson | February 21, 2010
The creationists have done it again, first it was bananas and now it's peanut butter. It seems they do all of their heavy thinking while shopping for groceries. Ray Comfort saw mutant bananas forged through artificial selection as evidence of God's presence (little did he know that wild bananas are inedible to humans). Now creationists seem impressed that pasteurization works. If this is the sort of thing that can persuade people, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that so many in the United States aren't able to understand the science of climate change.