jlynch | July 28, 2008
This is a pen-tailed tree shrew, Ptilocercus lowii, a Malaysian critter that weighs only 47g but can drink the pound-for-pound equivalent of nine glasses of wine without any ill-effect when it sups on the alcoholic nectar of the bertam palm. While there are other species that drink the nectar - the slow loris, Nycticebus coucang, the common tree shrew, Tupaia glis, and the plantain squirrel, Callosciurus notatus - the shrew is the Oliver Reed of the bunch.
See doi: 10.1073/pnas.0801628105
jlynch | July 28, 2008Your Monday Mustelid is the Patagonian weasel, Lyncodon patagonicus (de Blainville 1842). Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of the little blighter anywhere. Instead, here's a picture of a Eurasian badger (Meles meles) cub ...
jlynch | July 26, 2008(This review appeared in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in 2005)
As human beings, we like to tell stories--we are story-telling apes. As scientists, however, we tend not to see ourselves as telling stories for, we are led to believe, stories are mere fiction. Yet when faced with answering the question of why or how we became story-telling apes, we are often presented with a series of hypotheses with little empirical evidence to distinguish between them. In many ways, Wiktor Stoczkowski claims that it is because we are storytelling apes, and that because stories often represent…
jlynch | July 26, 2008(A review from Journal of the History of Biology 2004)
In the years following the publication of Origin of Species, George Romanes developed his theory of physiological selection in which he posited that "physiological peculiarities" lead to hybrid sterility between individuals and thus isolation which would allow natural selection to "promote diversity of character, and thus to evolve species in ramifying branches instead of linear series" (Romanes, 1886, qtd. p. 46). He felt that these physiological peculiarities may involve the reproductive system and in a series of works that received a…
jlynch | July 24, 2008(Another book review, this time from 2002 and the Journal of the History of Biology. Both books are still in print and worth reading)
The simplicity (and adversarial nature) of the phrase "science versus religion" belies the diversity of ways in which these two fields of knowledge can, and do, interact. Thanks to the work of Ian Barbour, four modes of interaction are now generally accepted (conflict, independence, dialogue, and integration). It has been realized that in these post-1859 times, religion has had to face the radical reconfiguration of the human experience that appears to be…
jlynch | July 24, 2008The ever anonymous "PhysioProf" has managed to slander the whole medical profession. Orac, Mark Hoofnagle, and PalMD (who actually know something about medicine) rightly call shennanigans.
As Mark notes:
In medicine, we take attitudes like this towards students and doctors seriously, and the only reason PP gets away with this crap is because he abuses anonymity. Anonymity can be a good thing, and I hope the internet becomes a place where it can be used reliably so people can feel safe speaking honestly. But when used like PP uses it, merely to be able to say indefensible nonsense about good…
jlynch | July 24, 2008There's another one of those book lists circulating - a list of 100 works of which it is claimed that the average American has read only six. Whether that is true or not (and Chad doesn't believe it), the list contains the usual mixed bag of works.
Below the fold is the list; bolded works were read and finished (31), italicized were either not finished or are compilations (8).
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible…
jlynch | July 23, 2008(Another review that was published a few years back, in this case in Isis in 2001. Alter's book is still in print and still worth reading.)
Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was written in a vivid style and, as such, is frequently studied as much as literature as scientific text. Particularly notable is Darwin's use of analogy and metaphor. In the work under review, Stephen G. Alter focuses on two of Darwin's literary devices - the metaphor of the tree and the analogy between languages and species - and in so doing demonstrates how both the supporters and opponents of transmutation used…
jlynch | July 22, 2008Over at Crooked Timber they are discussing a review of Steve Fuller's latest expectoration Dissent Over Descent: Intelligent Design's Challenge to Darwinism. As the review notes:
The book is an epoch-hopping parade of straw men, incompetent reasoning and outright gibberish, as when evolution is argued to share with astrology a commitment to "action at a distance", except that the distance is in time rather than space. It's intellectual quackery like this that gives philosophy of science a bad name.
As part of the exchange over at CT, Jeff Rubard claims that "Steve Fuller knows a hell of a…
jlynch | July 22, 2008(The following is the text of a review I wrote that appeared in Journal of the History of Biology in 2000. As both of the books are still in print - and the Gould book is his exposition of Nonoverlapping Magesteria - I thought the review was worth posting.)
Most of us are familiar with the icons of warfare between science and religion, and have grown up hearing the stories of Bruno, Galileo, and Scopes. The two works under review offer differing viewpoints on the relationships between science and religion, and are aimed at differing audiences. Conkin's volume is part of an academic series…
jlynch | July 22, 2008I recently co-authored a paper that discussed the utility of history of science for science (Isis 99: 322-330). The abstract reads:
This essay argues that science education can gain from close engagement with the history of science both in the training of prospective vocational scientists and in educating the broader public about the nature of science. First it shows how historicizing science in the classroom can improve the pedagogical experience of science students and might even help them turn into more effective professional practitioners of science. Then it examines how historians of…
jlynch | July 20, 2008
They are captioning this over at Fark.com. I did this (obvious) caption before reading the thread.
jlynch | July 20, 2008Recently anthropologist John Hawks was granted tenure by the University of Wisconsin (congratulations to him!) and he feels that his blogging did not impede his evaluation. He has begun a four part series that "covers a different portion of the tenure process, from starting and establishing the tone of your blog, up to documenting your blog for your tenure dossier."
The full story is divided into four parts. In the final installment, which may be most useful to current bloggers, I will describe the specific strategies that I applied to quantify my blog's role as a service to the field and to…
jlynch | July 20, 2008I've been remiss for a while and those of you who like the Monday Mustelid haven't been getting your fix. So here is a little something to tide you over. Three video full of badgery goodness.
The world's most fearless animal - the ratel, Melivora capensis. This guy is 100kg of attitude in a 10kg body.
More under the fold ...
Mr Cobra, meet Mr Ratel. Food and nap to follow.
Lastly - and if only to show that Eurasian badgers (Meles meles) though cute have a mean streak - badger teaches an admittedly smaller fox a lesson.
jlynch | July 20, 2008
Full sequence of leopard taking out a crocodile at Kruger NP is here. Om nom nom nom.
jlynch | July 14, 2008Like many on the blogosphere, I've had the opportunity to view Randy Olson's latest production Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy. Billed as "an effort to understand the confusion around the global warming," the movie claims to be a "novel blend of three genres - mockumentary, documentary, and reality" and that alone illustrates the problem with the movie - it doesn't know what it's trying to be and after spending 85 minutes with it, I had no real clue what point Olson was trying to make and to whom he is making it. Indeed, it is only out of a sense of duty that I continued watching beyond the…
jlynch | July 14, 2008
Very sad news for those of us who do physical anthropology. Charles ("Charlie") Lockwood (University College London) was killed today in a motorcycle accident in London. He is survived by his parents and sisters.
Charlie was a talented morphologist both in the sense of being a descriptive anatomist and quantitative biologist. I met him in the late 90's when he came to ASU's Institute of Origins for a post-doc after completing his PhD at the University of Witwatersrand. He, Bill Kimbel and I shared the pain of rejected NSF grant proposals before receiving NSF money to study the use of…
jlynch | July 8, 2008Leah Ceccarelli in the Seattle Times:
My own research seeks to reveal what makes today's manufactroversies work. First, I've discovered that modern-day sophists skillfully invoke values that are shared by the scientific community and the public, such as free speech, skeptical inquiry and the revolutionary force of new ideas against a repressive orthodoxy. It is difficult to argue against someone who draws on these values without seeming unscientific or un-American.
Second, the modern sophists exploit the gap between the technical and public spheres. Scientific experts who can't spare the…