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More on evolution + medicine

Yesterday's Science had a letter to the editor regarding an editorial I mentioned previously (and that was touched on in the comments here as well): Medicine might benefit most from embracing evolution theory's recognition of individual variation within populations of organisms, a property that Ernst Mayr has called "the cornerstone of Darwin's theory of natural selection". This "population thinking," as Mayr calls it, helped to undo typological thinking in biology, and it can help to dismantle typological notions of disease by highlighting individual differences in disease susceptibility…

Denialists' Deck of Cards: The Ace of Hearts, "Unamerican!"

Almost any proposal can be styled as "Un-American." Typically this is bundled with wild, inaccurate claims about European regulations (i.e., you can't do business in Europe at all). You'll wonder if the denialist has even been to Europe! Update: Mark H provides this article as an example of "Unamerican" in today's Wall Street Journal. It contains, among others, this great example: The German took the floor first. His was a bold thesis: The economic transformation required to address global warming will bring huge energy efficiencies--and hence huge economic benefits--even if there is…

A new angle for hippos

Here's a pretty weird looking photo; it comes courtesy of Markus Bühler (of Bestiarium) and was taken at Berlin Zoo. I don't think I'm spoiling the surprise by saying that it shows a Hippopotamus amphibius.... ... albeit a peculiar individual who seems to suffer from prolapsed tissue around the corners of her mouth. Initially I was going to use this view of a hippo to say something smart about the whippomorph hypothesis, but.. naaah. With a bit of photoshopping, I'm sure someone could make the picture look like it portrays some kind of horrendously ugly water monster. Maybe cropping the…

Bones of the Krayt dragon

No time at the moment to complete anything for the blog, dammit. So only time for a picture of the day. Inspired by recent comments made here about the whereabouts of the Krayt dragon skeleton from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Matt Wedel has done a great job of both identifying the skeleton, and of tracking down its whereabouts. As he explains, palaeontologists have actually located the skeleton before (David Reynolds and Michael Ryan did so in 1995), and it was also 're-discovered' by the Lucasfilm people during the making of Episode II: The Clone Wars. Check out Matt's article on SV-…

Believers in holy ghosts wonder how people can be so stupid to believe in regular ghosts

I have to give the Baptist Standard some credit — they actually have a good article that debunks common stereotypes and myths about atheists, and chides people for falling for patently bogus rumors. At the same time, though, they ask a question that made me laugh: From the old Procter & Gamble Satanism libel to tales of more recent vintage about President Obama's faith and citizenship, Internet-fueled rumors seem to run rampant. And, frighteningly, Christians seem at the very least to be as susceptible as the population at large to spread false stories. So, why are Christians so willing…

Zircons: Time Capsules from the Early Earth

tags: Zircons: Time Capsules from the Early Earth, science bulletins, geology, AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, hadean eon, zircon, rocks, age of the earth, history of planet earth, streaming video Zircons are tiny crystals with a big story to tell. Some of these minerals are the oldest Earth materials ever discovered, and therefore yield clues about what the planet was like after it formed 4.5 billion years ago. In this new Science Bulletins video, travel to a remote island off Greenland's coast and a zircon-making lab in New York State to learn how geologists are using these time…

TEDTalks: Matt Ridley: When Ideas Have Sex

tags: When Ideas Have Sex, imagination, innovation, group intelligence, exchange of ideas, cumulative ideas, evolution, sexual reproduction, technological specialization, free trade, Matt Ridley, TEDTalks, TED Talks, streaming video At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It's not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference…

TEDTalks: Carl Safina: The Oil Spill's Unseen Culprits, Victims

tags: The Oil Spill's Unseen Culprits, Victims, health, environment, ecology, pollution, oilspill, BP, acidification, Gulf of Mexico, dispersants, Carl Safina, TEDTalks, TED Talks, streaming video The Gulf oil spill dwarfs comprehension, but we know this much: it's bad. Carl Safina scrapes out the facts in this blood-boiling cross-examination, arguing that the consequences will stretch far beyond the Gulf -- and many so-called solutions are making the situation worse. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading…

Pathetic but Funny: Bad Billing frm Verizon

This was posted on slashdot, and forwarded to me by several readers. It's worth listening to the first few minutes to get an idea of just how pathetically inummerate many people are. It might also help convince you to stay the hell away from *any* service provided by Verizon; my experience with them suggests that this is absolutely typical. The basic story is that the guy who recorded this took a trip to Canada. Before he left, he checked with Verizon about how much it would cost him to use his cellphone for internet access during his trip, and was told that it cost 0.002 *cents* per kilobyte…

The Mormon leadership demonstrates their clarity of vision

Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Mormon Church has made some interesting remarks. In an interview Monday before the speech, Oaks said he did not consider it provocative to compare the treatment of Mormons in the election's aftermath to that of blacks in the civil rights era, and said he stands by the analogy. "It may be offensive to some -- maybe because it hadn't occurred to them that they were putting themselves in the same category as people we deplore from that bygone era," he said. Did you get that? He thinks the Mormons, who are trying to deny a civil right to another minority and reserve…

Mystery Bird: Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura

tags: Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura, photographed at Brazos Bend State Park, Needville, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 28 November 2007 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/750s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. This challenging-to-ID-from-this-image mystery bird has a special foraging ability that other members of this family lack. Can you tell me what that…

TEDTalks: Charles Leadbeater: Education Innovation in the Slums

tags: Education Innovation in the Slums, education, technology, poverty, slums, curriculum, philosophy, learning as a productive activity, Charles Leadbeater, TEDTalks, TED Talks, streaming video Charles Leadbeater went looking for radical new forms of education -- and found them in the slums of Rio and Kibera, where some of the world's poorest kids are finding transformative new ways to learn. And this informal, disruptive new kind of school, he says, is what all schools need to become. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the…

The Worst Oil Spill in US History

tags: The Worst Oil Spill in US History, oil drilling, oil spill, oil wells, petroleum, Kern County gusher, Lakeview Gusher Number One, Lakeview Oil Company, environment, history, streaming video This video discusses the worst oil spill in US history, the Lakeview Gusher Number One that occurred 100 years ago in Kern County, California. The gusher, drilled by the Lakeview Oil Company, blew on March 14, 1910, when the drill reached the 2,440-foot level. This gusher shot oil more than 200 feet into the air for an astonishing 544 days, spewing more than 9 million barrels (378 million gallons/1.…

TEDTalks: Brian Skerry Reveals Ocean's Glory -- and Horror

tags: Brian Skerry Reveals Ocean's Glory -- and Horror, conservation, marine biology, fish, marine mammals, oceans, sharks, leatherback sea turtle, right whale, overfishing, photographer, Brian Skerry, TEDTalks, TED Talks, streaming video Professional photographer Brian Skerry shoots life above and below the waves -- as he puts it, both the horror and the magic of the ocean. Sharing amazing, intimate shots of undersea creatures, he shows how powerful images can help make change. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's…

Discovering Ardi

The Discovery Channel is having a documentary about Ardipithecus ramidus at 8pm Central time (in about half an hour). I'm planning to set my work aside for a while and fix a bowl of hot soup — it's cold here, with a snow storm on the way — and see if they actually do it right. First half hour wasn't bad: nice overview of the practice of finding old bones, and a good illustration of the fragmentary nature of the fossil. At the same time, though, it's also doing a good job of showing how they know the pieces of Ardi are from a single individual. S l o w i n g   d o w n. So far this program is…

Mystery Bird: Kori Bustard, Ardeotis kori

tags: Kori Bustard, Ardeotis kori, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Kori Bustard, Ardeotis kori, photographed in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Dan Logen, 15 January 2010 [larger view]. Nikon D300, ISO 400, 1/2000 sec, f/8. Exp Comp -1. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. This African mystery bird is quite remarkable: if you can identify this recognizable species, then you'll also be able to tell me why this bird is so remarkable. I'm also wondering if it's possible…

TEDTalks: Graham Hill: Why I'm a Weekday Vegetarian

tags: Why I'm a Weekday Vegetarian, environment, global warming, meat, vegetarianism, ethics, climate change, Graham Hill, TEDTalks, TED Talks, streaming video We all know the arguments that being vegetarian is better for the environment and for the animals -- but in a carnivorous culture, it can be hard to make the change. Graham Hill has a powerful, pragmatic suggestion ... The video following the TEDTalk is more interesting than the actual talk itself. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and…

TEDTalks: Edith Widder: Glowing Life in an Underwater World

tags: Glowing Life in an Underwater World, marine biology, bioluminescence, luciferase, luciferin, green fluorescent protein, eye-in-the-sea cam, ethology, evolution, Edith Widder, TEDTalks, streaming video Some 80 to 90 percent of undersea creatures make light -- and we know very little about how or why. Bioluminescence expert Edith Widder explores this glowing, sparkling, luminous world, sharing glorious images and insight into the unseen depths (and brights) of the ocean. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's…

TEDTalks: Jonathan Drori: Every Pollen Grain has a Story

tags: Every Pollen Grain has a Story, pollen, microscopy, forensics, pollen signature, pollen fingerprint, science, Bosnian war crimes, pollinology, Jonathan Drori, TEDTalks, streaming video Pollen goes unnoticed by most of us, except when hay fever strikes. But microscopes reveal it comes in stunning colors and shapes -- and travels remarkably well. Jonathan Drori gives an up-close glimpse of these fascinating flecks of plant courtship. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of…

Rick Rolling NYC's A Train

tags: Rick Rolling NYC's A Train, music, a cappella, NYC Life, New York City, A Train, travel, cultural observation, cities, University of Oregon, On The Rocks, The Green Room, Never Going to Give You Up, streaming video Watching this video of a group of West Coast guys singing a cappella on the A train made me want to cry because I miss NYC, its subways and all the fun people I experienced while riding the A train. I would like to suggest to these guys to try rick rolling the A train between 59th and 125th street instead so they aren't interrupted by the conductor and people having to climb…

Weight Loss - what works, really?

You may remember Dr.Charles whose blog was here on Scienceblogs.com for a while two years ago. He took a hiatus from blogging, but is now back at it with a vengeance at his new site which I warmly recommend you visit. Today's post is interesting - and not just because it is partially about a PLoS ONE paper - Why Exercise is Not the Best Prescription for Weight Loss which fits perfectly within the ongoing discussion about weight-loss and dieting going on a couple of my SciBlings' blogs right now. PalMD is going on a diet and monitoring his progress publicly, on his blog. Dr.Isis tells him he…

Cardinal Cormack Murphy-O'Connor thinks you aren't fully human

In a bizarre conversation, Murphy-O'Connor demonstrates a Catholic version of open-mindedness: human beings must have a sense of the transcendent, and must search for god. And those atheists? "Not fully human". It's not that unusual a sentiment, and I've heard it often. Usually it's not said as directly; most often, the phrase is that "religion is a human universal," or some such nonsense. It's not often announced that I don't qualify as a member of their species. There is a temptation to agree with them, I'm afraid: the idea that I'm a post-human mutant bestowed with the super-powers of…

This is how media should have written about McCain all along

Top Story On John McCain Run Out Of Obligation: Although his lack of charisma and charm has lately prevented the Arizona senator from grabbing front-page headlines, the tenets of journalistic objectivity made it necessary today to publish a top news story on Republican presidential candidate John McCain. According to the newspaper's editors, the decision to run the story came after they realized that they had not printed a cover story about Sen. McCain (R-AZ) in a number of months, despite the distinct possibility that he could become the leader of the free world for the next four to eight…

How do you know in advance what you will discover so you can say so in your grant proposal?

Jean-Claude Bradley reviews Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs by Morton A. Meyers. Morton says: An applicant for a research grant is expected to have a clearly defined program for a period of three to five years. Implicit is the assumption that nothing unforeseen will be discovered during that time and, even if something were, it would not cause distraction from the approved line of research. Yet the reality is that many medical discoveries were made by researchers working on the basis of a fallacious hypothesis that led them down an unexpected fortuitous path. Jean…

How Did NC Become an Electoral Battleground?

This is interesting: But voter behavior is only part of the change drawing political attention to North Carolina. Presidential contenders are increasing their focus here because the state has more clout on the national stage than it did as recently as the 1980s. The same population boom that has helped alter the political landscape in North Carolina has also led to an increase in the number of electoral votes the state is allotted in the presidential election. While some states (such as Illinois and Pennsylvania) have been given fewer and fewer electoral votes since 1980, North Carolina has…

Seed endorses Obama

Barack Obama for President - An endorsement from the editors of Seed: Far more important is this: Science is a way of governing, not just something to be governed. Science offers a methodology and philosophy rooted in evidence, kept in check by persistent inquiry, and bounded by the constraints of a self-critical and rigorous method. Science is a lens through which we can and should visualize and solve complex problems, organize government and multilateral bodies, establish international alliances, inspire national pride, restore positive feelings about America around the globe, embolden…

ScienceOnline'09 - Nature blogging

Continuing with highlighting sessions at the conference - take a look at this one: Nature blogging This session is moderated by Grrrlscientist and Kevin Zelnio: Take your camera outdoors and bring your local natural beauty and wildlife to the homes of your readers. Add information about it. Join the nature blogging community and participate in community activities no matter where on the planet you are. Go to the wiki page and add your own questions and comments. Check out other sessions I covered previously: ScienceOnline'09 - Education sessions ScienceOnline'09 - individual session pages…

New Science News Service

There is a new site for you to bookmark today - Futurity.org. This is a collaborative effort of, for now, 35 major Universities in the United States (those include, for my local readers, UNC and Duke - why is NCSU lagging behind?!). The site is the answer to the question: How will the public learn about important breakthroughs at leading research universities as traditional news outlets continue to shrink? The site is taking selected science stories from the participating Universities and putting them together in one place, sorted by topics and searchable by tags (by topic or by school). Let'…

'Key to Eliminating U.S. Flight Delays? Redesign the Sky Over New York City'

Andrew Blum in WIRED: ...More than 2 million flights pass over the city every year, most traveling to and from the metropolitan area's three busiest airports: John F. Kennedy, Newark, and LaGuardia. And all that traffic squeezes through a network of aerial routes first laid out for the mail planes of the 1920s. Aircraft are tracked by antiquated, ground-based radar and guided by verbal instructions issued over simplex radios, technology that predates the pocket calculator. The system is extremely safe--no commercial flight has been in a midair collision over the US in 22 years--but, because…

Meetings I'd like to go to....Part VI

Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows Program: Around the world, visionary change agents are hard at work incubating new approaches to the planet's toughest challenges. Yet they're often doing so without taking advantage of the latest tools and thinking in technology, communications and innovation - or a network of experts, peers, and supporters who can help them truly change the world. The Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows program is designed to help fill that gap - to equip the next generation of world-changing innovators with the tools, insights, visibility and social network that can help…

Open thread. Frog vent the blast core.

Let me just say: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHRGGGHG. It's the last week of classes here; I have to finish a big pile of grading, and there's a hogshead of administrative work hanging over my head. I also chose, freely and of my own irresponsible will, to flit off to New York for a pleasant weekend with a mob of science nerds and English majors (and unholy chimeras of the two), which has put me even further behind. I'm stepping away from my thin metal and glass interface to the universe of the interweebles to get some work done. You'll just have to chat among yourselves about something or other for a…

Ah, finally some useful stuff done with math modeling.... ;-)

YouTube Usage Decoded: Why are certain videos on YouTube watched millions of times while 90 percent of the contributions find only the odd viewer? A new study reveals that increased attention in social systems like the YouTube community follows particular, recurrent patterns that can be represented using mathematical models. The Internet platform YouTube is a stomping ground for scientists looking to investigate the fine mechanism of the attention spiral in social systems. How is it possible, for example, that one YouTube video of a previously unknown comedian from Ohio can be viewed over ten…

The Best of October

The monthly recap of posts I liked, but you may have missed. Lotsa politics, understandably, but not all - I did manage to post some other cool stuff as well. Where are the SuperReaders when one needs them?! From Telecommuting to Coworking Bloggers at the Zoo - movies #10 Offal is Good Wikipedia, just like an Organism: clock genes wiki pages Politics of Animal Protection What insect is this? Carrboro Citizen - a model for the newspaper of the future The Nobel Prize conundrum Open Access Day - the blog posts And the Winner is.....! Quick ConvergeSouth08 recap Obama-McCain race - a Serbian…

The best of ABATC this summer so far

For those just coming back from their summer vacations, too busy to dig among hundreds of brief posts, here is a list of the posts that I myself consider to be my best in July and August 2008 (and perhaps SuperReaders can pick a few more of these - only 2-3 of those have been picked so far): July: Darwinist Scientists are Excellent Communicators ('Sizzle' follow-up) The Giant's Shoulders #1 Running the green light.... Crackpottery Blog Carnivals - what is in it for you? Are Science Movies Useful? Berry Go Round #7 When religion goes berserk! Crayfish, warming up for a fight! The importance of…

Praxis #1 - last call for submissions

The new blog carnival, covering the way science is changing (or not changing enough) in the 21st century - Praxis, is about to start. The call for submissions is now open - send them to me at Coturnix AT gmail dot com by August 14th at midnight Eastern so I can post the carnival on the 15th in the morning. The business of science - from getting into grad school, succeeding in it, getting a postdoc, getting a job, getting funded, getting published, getting tenure and surviving it all with some semblance of sanity - those are kinds of topics that are appropriate for this carnival, more in…

Books

Go here and here for context, then discuss the idiosyncrasy of such lists. There are books there I have not touched, but I have read equally long and boring ones by the same authors. I have read parts of some, or kids/abridged versions of others. Here are those I read from beginning to end in original, unabridged versions: 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 29…

3D visualization

Another SCONC event: RENCI to Show the Power of Visual Communications at Lunchtime Bistro: The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) invites the public to a Renaissance Bistro lunchtime demonstration and lecture from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, June 26 in the Showcase Dome room at the RENCI engagement center at UNC Chapel Hill. The Bistro is free and includes lunch on a first-come, first-served basis. RENCI experts, Eric Knisley, 3D visualization researcher, and Josh Coyle, new media specialist, will demonstrate three-dimensional visualizations and interactive touch screen displays. Attendees…

EuroTrip '08 - Belgrade, Easter lunch

Today is Orthodox Easter. Most everyone here will have lamb for lunch today. We did something different.... First, for breakfast I had snenokle (here is a recipe from a delightful Balkans food blog Palachinka) and I ground some chocolate on top of them: Then, we had eggs. Not just painted on the outside, but simmered for many hours in onion husks, olive oil and a bunch of spices until the eggs were brown to the core: I was a very picky eater when I was a kid. One of the things I liked was a simple beef soup with star-shaped noodles. As this is a Nostalgia Trip this week, that is…

CNN control-freaks fire a producer for blogging!

Via Ed Cone (also see SteveK and McDawg) I see that CNN did Teh Stupid - they fired their producer Chez Sapienza. Why? Because he is blogging! On his own blog as well as on HuffPo. He writes about the industry as a whole and writes well, though nothing specifically about CNN or his job there, so this is not a classical case of being Dooced, but a case of total blindness. The corporate media is used to controlling the message. Blogs drive them crazy. They cannot fire you and me, but they can fire one of their own, just for the sin of being a blogger, i.e., being the Enemy #1. Idiots.…

Blogroll Amnesty Day

Jon Swift and Skippy are reminding us that this weekend is the time for the annual Blogroll Amnesty Day. The rule is to highlight, link to, and add to one's blogroll, some deserving blogs that have smaller traffic than you. Now, it's sometimes not easy figuring out who has what traffic - if you really like a blog you probably think the traffic there is higher than it is. Also, I have real trouble picking just a few. Go and check my Blogroll - it's huge! And only a few of them are Big Dawgs. Most are rather smallish blogs. Check them out, at least some of them. I have been really busy…

Sports Doping at the Planetarium

From SCONC: On Thursday, February 7, SCONCs will migrate to the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in Chapel Hill. MPSC will open its exhibits to SCONC members for a special viewing at 6:00 p.m. in the NASA Digital Theater, followed by Morehead's Current Science Forum at 7:00 p.m. in the Banquet Hall. This month's topic, "Victory At Any Cost?" covers the arresting subject of performance-enhancing drugs. Dr. Mario Ciocca, head physician for six UNC athletic teams, will talk about the effects of steroids, growth hormones and other banned substances, and the science used to detect them.…

DonorsChoose Update 3

The DonorsChoose fundraiser is in full swing here on Scienceblogs.com. As always, Janet's blog is the Information Center for the drive, and you can also check Dave's graphs as well. As you know, Seed Media Group is matching $15,000 of your donations. The Scienceblogs.com Overlords have also announced some additional prizes! * 21 "Seed Hearts Threadless" tee shirts * 21 ScienceBlogs mugs * 21 subscriptions to Seed magazine * 9 copies of "The Best American Science Writing 2007" These prizes will be divided into three thirds and each third will be given on one of the next three…

UNC researcher wins a Nobel for the Knock-Out Mouse

Dr. Oliver Smithies, the Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA, together with Mario R. Capecchi and Martin J. Evans, won this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine: This year's Nobel Laureates have made a series of ground-breaking discoveries concerning embryonic stem cells and DNA recombination in mammals. Their discoveries led to the creation of an immensely powerful technology referred to as gene targeting in mice. It is now being applied to virtually all areas of biomedicine - from basic research to the…

Yes, delay the school starting times

From the Independent: The head has identified research which says that teenagers would be more likely to take in what they are learning if they started school two hours later. He is considering changing the school timetable for sixth-formers as a result. "We have always assumed that learning early in the morning is best, probably because it is best for young children and adults," he writes. " Unfortunately, it is not true for teenagers. When teenagers are woken up at our morning time, their brain tells them they should be asleep. So they use stimulants such as coffee and cigarettes to get…

Uh-oh

I have a horrendous series of connections to get home — Bloomington → Atlanta → Detroit → Minneapolis — and I'm getting these annoying email alerts from the airline every 20 minutes warning me of problems and delays in my various connections. Apparently, there's some storm in Atlanta that is messing up schedules all over the place. So maybe I won't get home. Maybe I'll be trapped in airports for days on end. The best result at this point is that I drag my tired frame home late, late tonight. So…Open Thread! Fill the void caused by my absence with interesting conversation about whatever you…

More on the Tasmanian Devil cancer

As we are trying to help gather some funding to help the Tasmanian Devil from extinction due to the nasty infectious cancer, I thought it would be of interest to you to read more about it in this article: To Lose Both Would Look Like Carelessness: Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease to which I was alerted by a secret fan: This paper uses the Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) as a case study of the wider issue of how to manage an emerging disease threat that poses a serious conservation threat: how should you proceed when you know very little? This is a question common to many…

We are growing!

There's a sense of glee in the American atheist community over the results of a recent survey: religion is in decline. As the site summarizes, "Only 1.6 percent of Americans call themselves atheist or agnostic. But based on stated beliefs, 12 percent are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unsure), while 12 percent more are deistic (believe in a higher power but not a personal God). The number of outright atheists has nearly doubled since 2001, from 900 thousand to 1.6 million. Twenty-seven percent of Americans do not expect a religious funeral at their death." The "New Atheist" approach is working…

Broken Pipeline

Check the website and download the PDFs: An unprecedented five consecutive years of stagnant funding for the National Institutes of Health is putting America at risk--slowing the pace of medical advances, risking the future health of Americans, discouraging our best and brightest researchers, and threatening America's global leadership in biomedical research. Unfortunately, President Bush's budget proposal recommends a sixth year of flat funding for the NIH in 2009. On March 11, 2008, a group of seven concerned academic research institutions, released a new report--A Broken Pipeline? Flat…

Friday Weird Sex Blogging!?

On some Fridays, I write about strange reproductive strategies and mating habits of various organisms, sometimes in excrutiating detail, though I have not done it very regularly lately (see the Friday Weird Sex Blogging archives). But some people just collect them all in one place, in one post full of strangeness. You can read about 30 Strangest Animal Mating Habits on Neatorama. Or 11 Examples of Unusual Mating Habits on Canongate (both via Liberals in Exile). Others have a regular feature on science and nature of sex, e.g., Insect Sex on What's That Bug, the Sexy Beast category on the…

My Picks From ScienceDaily

Moths Mimic Sounds To Survive: In response to the sonar that bats use to locate prey, the tiger moths make ultrasonic clicks of their own. They broadcast the clicks from a paired set of structures called "tymbals." Many species of tiger moth use the tymbals to make specific sounds that warn the bat of their bad taste. Other species make sounds that closely mimic those high-frequency sounds. Fire Ants Are Emerging Nuisance For Virginia Residents: Red imported fire ants (RIFAs), which have caused trouble in Florida and Texas for decades, are now advancing in Virginia. Colonies of the tiny,…