jlynch | August 11, 2008In a follow-up to his post on Behe's conduct as a scientist (which I discuss here), Steve Matheson has now posted the second part of his critique, this time examining Behe's "scientific" arguments regarding malaria. There will be a part IIb in the future.
jlynch | August 11, 2008We've mentioned Steve Fuller before on this blog both when he was giving "expert" testimony in Kitzmiller and when he went and produced a book (Dissent Over Descent: Intelligent Design's Challenge to Darwinism) on his thoughts regarding intelligent design. Now, John Wilkins brings to our attention a review of Fuller's book by philosopher of science Sahotra Sarkar. John has got his own favorite quote (which I will admit is wonderful), but I like this short, sharp, summation:
Fuller's analysis of the intellectual disputes over contemporary ID creationism is almost vacuous.
Do read the whole…
jlynch | August 11, 2008Tim @ Deltoid beat me to posting about the new (online at least) Naomi Oreskes talk in which she discusses the tactics of the Western Fuels Association (go here), so instead I'd like to take the opportunity to highlight a paper she and Zuoyue Wang contributed to the Isis Focus section on the value of history of science. The abstract reads:
Historians of science have participated actively in debates over American science policy in the post-World War II period in a variety of ways, but their impact has been more to elucidate general concepts than to effect specific policy changes. Personal…
jlynch | August 11, 2008Amazing letter from Charles Darwin to Klara Pölzl, one that likely to change Darwin scholarship for the future. Written in 1881, a year before his death, Darwin could clearly see the vast implications of his life's work for Twentieth century thought. I'm going to have to take some time to digest this before I comment.
jlynch | August 10, 2008Cokie Roberts in full concern troll mode:
I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii and I know Hawaii is a state, but it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place. He should be at Myrtle Beach and if he's going to take a vacation at this time. I just think this is not the time to do that.
People, let's get this straight, Hawaii is one of the 50 states and Obama has family there. It's a farking vacation ... one that remains within the United States. Not to mention that McCain took nearly every weekend off at residences in Arlington and Phoenix or vacation homes near…
jlynch | August 10, 2008Following last week's discussion of blogging within the history of science community, I've stumbled on a few more resources. In no particular order, here's everything I have so far.
Group or Organizational Blogs
History of Science in America
HSS Graduate and Early Career Caucus
Society for the History of Technology News (SHOTnews)
HSTM at Minnesota (University of Minnesota graduate students)
Logan Lounge (University of Pennsylvania graduate students)
In Retrospect (University of Utrecht graduate students)
Individual Blogs by Historians of Science
John M. Lynch - yours truly, faculty at…
jlynch | August 9, 2008Kevin Zelnio (of Deep Sea News and The Other 95%) has got himself a research job after a stressful search. Wander over and wish him well for his move to Duke University's Marine Lab.
jlynch | August 9, 2008I haven't posted poetry in nearly three months, so spurred on by the news that the noted Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish has died today following heart surgery, I think I need to start doing so again (at least semi-regularly). The AFP story notes that Darwish had survived two previous heart surgeries, with the last one in 1998 prompting him to write:
"I have defeated you, death/ All the beautiful arts have defeated you/ The songs of Mesopotamia, the obelisks of Egypt, the carved tombs of the pharaohs on the altar have defeated you, and you are vanquished."
On the value of poetry, he wrote…
jlynch | August 6, 2008 Over at Quintessence of Dust, Steve Matheson raises some good points about Behe. Steve's argument boils down to the following:
"Behe's fans say that he's a nice guy, and that the evolutionists are "crucifying" him. Both claims seem to be true, but they can't hide some serious problems with his conduct as a scientist." These problems are ...
A. "Behe exudes an arrogant contempt for the scientific community, exemplified by his neglect of peer review."
B. "I find many of Behe's responses to his critics to be suspiciously misleading, and I believe this provides a clue as to why he does not allow…
jlynch | August 6, 2008August 6, 2001, is the day that George W. Bush received the Presidential Daily Brief headlined, "Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S." The PDB stated that Al Qaeda maintained a support structure in the U.S. that could aid attacks, that one idea was to hijack U.S. airplanes, and that the FBI had detected "suspicious activity," including surveillance of federal buildings in New York. The memo also noted that the U.S. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates had received a warning that Al Qaeda was preparing an attack in the U.S. with explosives.
On August 6, 2001, Bush was at his ranch in the…
jlynch | August 4, 2008Ben Cohen over at The World's Fair has gotten me thinking about something: is there really a readership for blog posts about the history of science [HoS]?
My own experience is that there may not be such a readership, or at least may not be one that engages in commentary. Admittedly, my evidence is fragmentary. Over the past two weeks I have been posting HoS-based material, namely a series of book reviews and a commentary on the value of HoS for science education. The former series generated virtually no comments and the latter a meager nine comments (it also wasn't picked-up by any other…
jlynch | August 3, 2008PZ has a post up discussing some abject stupidity over at WorldNetDaily. Sign #1 of stupidity is that the WND columnist (a lawyer, no less) refers to "Origins [sic] of Species" as being Darwin's 1859 work which legitimized "a pagan, anti-God worldview rooted in fascism, socialism and eugenics and to propagate these diabolical ideas throughout the world." PZ notes:
What logically follows from Darwin's theory is that fit individuals are those that survive and have offspring. There is no presumption that there is only one possible strategy to accomplish that survival: if we maintain a state that…
jlynch | August 3, 2008The preliminary program for the History of Science Society's annual meeting (November in Pittsburgh) has been placed online and it looks like the best series of sessions in a long while with the organizers managing to avoid scheduling sessions on similar themes at the same time. It's a three-day meeting but I'll only be around for the Friday & Saturday. Here's what my preliminary schedule looks like:
Friday
9:00 - The Hard Parts: Paleontology and the Evolutionary Synthesis. Some nice papers here on Sewall Wright, species concepts, Osborn, random drift, and ID.
12:30 - lecture by Gar…
jlynch | August 3, 2008(This review was supposed to appear in Isis in 2001 but for some reason never did. It appears here for the first time.)
Most students of the history of science are familiar with the effect that Lysenko's application of his political beliefs to scientific research had on genetic research and the economy of the USSR in the middle of this century. Equally well known is the supposed influence of Stephen Jay Gould's Marxism on his theorizing, and works such as Levins and Lewontin's The Dialectical Biologist. In the work under review, thirteen contributors from Europe and the United States attempt…
jlynch | August 3, 2008
Eno, a four month old American river otter (Lontra canadensis) at the North Carolina Aquarium (source). Click for larger version.
jlynch | August 2, 2008
I've been away for a few days, spending some time relaxing in southern Arizona. Two highlights are worth mentioning; a visit to Kartchner Caverns to see the various speleothems (above is 'Kubla Khan' believed to be the largest column in Arizona at 58 feet and here are some more photos that can only hint at what you see in the cavern) and a visit to the the Pima Air and Space Museum.
The latter has a huge collection of aircraft (both inside and out), in particular a beautifully restored B-17 'Flying Fortress', a brace of B-52 'Stratofortress' and a SR-71 'Blackbird'. The littlest Lynch got…