Books
laelaps | March 30, 2008I was able to get a considerable amount of reading done this past week (I read Glorified Dinosaurs, Feathered Dragons, Fossils, and Major Transitions in Vertebrate Evolution cover-to-cover), but I ended up being greatly disappointed by one of the books I read. Although I wasn't expecting a popular review like Colbert's Evolution of the Vertebrates, a number of the entries in Major Transitions in Vertebrate Evolution were beyond my comprehension. I'm sure it's a valuable book with plenty of good information inside it, but the authors of the various papers didn't seem like they cared much for…
grrlscientist | March 30, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, natural history books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by Ian Paulsen, which lists bird and natural history books that are (or will soon be) available for purchase.
FEATURED TITLE:
Holtz Jr., Thomas R., and Luis V. Rey. Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages. 2007. Random House Books for Young Readers. Hardbound: 428 pages. Price: $34.99 U.S. [Amazon: $23.09]. SUMMARY: Although this book is…
pharyngula | March 27, 2008My colleague Nic McPhee (with a couple of other people) is an author of a new book, A Field Guide to Genetic Programming — I think I'm going to have to read it.
Genetic programming (GP) is a systematic, domain-independent method for getting computers to solve problems automatically starting from a high-level statement of what needs to be done. Using ideas from natural evolution, GP starts from an ooze of random computer programs, and progressively refines them through processes of mutation and sexual recombination, until high-fitness solutions emerge. All this without the user having to know…
gregladen | March 27, 2008Old books can be wonderful sources of information, ideas, and even inspiration. I collect them and sometimes even read them. Reading a 100 year old book in your field of interest is a challenge and can be a rewarding experience.
It is a challenge because it is dangerous. I worry that I might accidentally learn something that is no longer true. What if I remember it at some later time, like at a cocktail party or while giving a lecture, but don't remember the source: "... As is well known, flies spontaneously generate from certain forms of mud ..."
Repost from gregladen.com ... apropos…
clock | March 22, 2008Anne-Marie wrote an excellent review of Evolution in Four Dimensions by Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb.
I tend to think that the use of the term "neo-Lamarckism" (just like the use of "neo-Darwinism") is unnecessary as it will raise hackles and start linguistic battles instead of invite people to investigate new ways of thinking and new additions to the body of evolutionary theory.
Yes, we now understand that genes are necessary, but not sufficient, for heritability and we are increasingly including development in our accounts of evolution. And as much as I like the Developmental systems…
sciencewoman | March 21, 2008Picking up where we left off a week ago...Caplan outlines 11 myths about women that she argues are pertinent to the case of women in academia. I'm going to skip over the first batch of myths, and focus on the ones specifically about women and working.
20. Full-time men work full-time, but part-time women only work part-time - and both full-time and part-time male employees work harder than females.
I think this myth encompasses the perception that if your office is occupied you are working, and if it is not you are not. Never mind that in your office you might be checking the sports scores (…
voltagegate | March 19, 2008
I heard this morning on the news that Sir Arthur C. Clarke has passed. NPR did a nice piece on him, if a bit focused on 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clarke was a big influence on me and my interest in science and science fiction, and I thought it would be nice to have a permanent memorial of sorts, celebrating some of his own words.
Here's to the long, influential life of a great author and scientist.
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
The only way of…
clock | March 18, 2008In one of those "if you like this you may also like this" e-mails from Amazon.com, I got a suggestion I may like a book called Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World's Top Bloggers. So, I took a look. I've been blogging since 2004, so I thought I knew who the top bloggers were and could find it interesting to see what they had to say.
As it turns out, the title is a misnomer. It should be "......American Top TECH Bloggers". I recognize three names (Anderson, Scoble, Rubel).
Perhaps they say interesting things in the interviews, as observers of the blogosphere. But, I am not…
pharyngula | March 18, 2008He had a good long run, and although I think his later books were awful and the flaws of his earlier ones were colored over by my own youth, there's no denying he was an influential science fiction writer. Arthur C. Clarke died today in Sri Lanka.
clock | March 17, 2008Amanda Marcotte's book is (finally) out for sale. As she says:
Titled "It's A Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide To Politically Inhospitable Environments", and it's about what it seems to be about, a guidebook for those irritating situations that keep cropping up for a feminist in a still-sexist world.
I ordered myself a copy the other day. You should, too.
sciencewoman | March 15, 20083. Unwritten Rules and Impossible Proofs
"Anyone who spends much time in academic settings learns that they are riddled with unwritten rules, and this can make for a great deal of bewilderment and frustration for all kinds of academics. For any oppressed group, this situation is particularly dangerous, since rules can be made and broken in order to keep them in their place. Furthermore, the unwritten nature of so many rules means people who are treated unfairly may find it nearly impossible to prove that any rules were broken." (p. 34)
I found Caplan's chapter on unwritten rules to be one of…
laelaps | March 12, 2008
As if I didn't have enough books to read this year already, this July will see the publication of Tyrannosaurus rex: The Tyrant King, a book wholly dedicated to the iconic dinosaur. It's edited by Peter Larson and Kenneth Carpenter (it's part of the Life of the Past series), and although I don't know what will be in the book I have to say that I love the cover. You can already pre-order the book, although I'm going to try my best to get a review copy to do a write-up on as we get a little closer to the summer.
I'm also looking forward to the much closer publication of Dogs: Their Fossils…
laelaps | March 10, 2008This weekend I had a chance to get through a few shorter anthropology books that I purchased a few weeks ago, including Our Face From Fish to Man, The Leopard's Spots, and Adventures With the Missing Link. The last book, by Raymond Dart, is part autobiography and part popular science book, and the reaction of the public to his famous "Taung child" described within is quite interesting. Some hailed the discovery, others criticized or marginalized it, but for a time it entered the public consciousness as a representation of something ugly and brutish, yet inextricably connected to ourselves.…
neurophilosophy | March 10, 2008
In today's issue of The New Yorker, John Lancaster reviews a new book called Perfumes: The Guide, by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez.
Olfaction (the sense of smell) is, as Lancaster notes, "a profound mystery". Why is it, for example, that two aromatic molecules with almost identical structures can smell completely different from each other?
Take this molecule, R-carvone, which smells of spearmint (and also elicits a cooling sensation, because it binds to, and activates the "cold" receptor TRPM8). It is one of two enantiomers, or mirror images, of the carvone molecule.
S-carvone is chemically…
aardvarchaeology | March 10, 2008
9-y-o Junior has had a remarkable streak of luck involving the kids' fantasy movie Spiderwick Chronicles. First he managed to check his e-mail just as the book-club he's a member of sent out a mass-mailed invitation to yesterday's pre-screening of the film. Then, when he and I sat down to watch the thing, the Spiderwick books' Swedish publishers ran a lottery with the seat numbers, and he was the first winner, harvesting two new books and a merch note pad.
In Junior's opinion, the movie was a 8/10. I'm not a member of target audience, and I give it a 5. It's a contemporary-world children's…
laelaps | March 9, 2008Today I didn't get completed nearly as much as I would have liked. That's always the case, but this evening it's particularly true. The main reason for my lack of productivity is because the cat that I'm now fostering, a polydactyl named Little Foot, decided to walk on the keyboard and rip out the E, R, and T keys when I got up to get some reheated pork-fried rice from the microwave. Try as I might, I couldn't get them back on, and it served to remind me that I need to purchase a new computer (but can't afford one). For now I'll just work with the buttons under the keys and try to see if I…
laelaps | March 9, 2008There's Icons and Evolution, and then there's Icons of Evolution. The first one I (unfortunately) became acquainted with shortly after my interest in evolution was sparked and the second was just released this past December (although I knew nothing about it until Greg mentioned it), but I doubt that the newer book is going to have any lasting effect. Outside of it seeming like a collection of more technical essays, the sticker price on the 2-volume set is $175.00 (the cheapest copy on amazon.com being $145.00), and I know I wouldn't pay that much money for a book that contains information…
clock | March 9, 2008
I bought a book yesterday. You should buy yourself a copy, too. The best writer in the blogosphere, on the most famous dog in the blogosphere. You'll be touched.
grrlscientist | March 9, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, natural history books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by Ian Paulsen, which lists bird and natural history books that are (or will soon be) available for purchase.
FEATURED TITLE:
Chang, Mee-mann, Editor-in-Chief. The Jehol Fossils: The Emergence of Feathered Dinosaurs, Beaked Birds and Flowering Plants. 2008. Academic Press. Hardbound: 208 pages. Price: $69.95 US [Amazon: $63.20]. SUMMARY: This coffee table book is richly illustrated with…