Shameless Plug
laelaps | September 5, 2008For those of you in the New York City area, paleo artist Ray Troll and paleobotanist Kirk Johnson will be presenting a lecture on their wonderful book Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway (see my review here, pick it up here) on October 21 at the AMNH. It looks like it will be a lot of fun, and I'm going to make sure that I catch this one.
laelaps | September 5, 2008By way of checking up on this blog's traffic the other day, I came across the "Dawn of Time" web comic, which features a cavewoman and a friendly Triceratops (the first strip is here). Some of the scenes seem a little Edenic and humans never lived alongside non-avian dinosaurs, of course, but it is still fun to read. With the introduction of two bickering Victorian scientists into the story line, things are just starting to get interesting..
laelaps | September 4, 2008It always amuses me how irritatingly dull school mascots often are. How many schools have the cougars, knights, bears, or some other cliched mascot? (A notable exception is the University of California Santa Cruz, home of the fighting Banana Slugs.) Given that, I was certainly glad to hear that paleontologist Jerry Harris is pushing to have his institution, Dixie State College, accept a dinosaur as the new school mascot.
Jerry needs your help, though. The college is accepting nominations for mascot suggestions and if you want to see the "Dixie Dinosaurs" come out on top go to the voting page…
laelaps | September 2, 2008A few months back I remember first hearing about an absolutely crazy idea proposed by Sb's Dave Munger; a website devoted to blog posts about peer-reviewed research. Ok, maybe it wasn't that out of the vein, but the concept has really taken off, and today the latest iteration of ResearchBlogging has been released.
The update is about more than a new webpage setup and some spiffy new colors, though. Amongst all the other neat features there is multiple language support, topic-specific RSS feeds, customizable blog bios, and the ability to flag posts that don't meet the site guidelines.…
laelaps | August 28, 2008Have you ever wondered where Bora does all his prolific blogging and masterminds PLoS initiatives? A North Carolina news crew caught up with him in his office.
laelaps | August 27, 2008Today Sb is all shook up. The guys from DSN just announced that they'll be setting sail for the Discovery Channel blog network, but I am happy to announce that one of my most favorite bloggers (and commentors), Blake Stacey, is now in the Sb fold. Go check out his new digs and say "Hello!"
laelaps | August 27, 2008The guys over at Deep Sea News have been mercilessly teasing their readers for quite a while now, promising that they're got some absolutely astounding news to report sometime today. Amongst all the teasers they provided one hint; footage of a space shuttle lifting off.
What could the clue mean? I think that the DSN guys have arranged for the first space flight piloted entirely by super-intelligent squid. You knew it would have to happen eventually. I could be wrong, though, so I guess we will all just have to wait until the announcement is made.
Update: As promised, all has been revealed...
laelaps | August 19, 2008Right now the website BigThink is involved in a DonorsChoose program where the company Pfizer has agreed to donate $1 (up to $10,000) for every vote the videos on the BigThink page receive. There are two weeks left and the tally so far stands at about $6,000, but I'm sure that they can hit the $10,000 goal before it's over. They need your help, though, so head on over and vote (you can vote for each of the 10 videos once, which means that you can make up to $10 for the program).
laelaps | July 23, 2008
At Zooillogix Benny tells us about cuckoos that can change their cries and frogs that can selectively hear different sounds.
John Lynch just co-authored a great paper about the importance of the history of science to education. Head on over to Stranger Fruit to congratulate him and have a look (I'll be blogging about this one soon, too).
John tackles the question of "If humans evolved, why are there still monkeys?" at Evolving Thoughts. Coincidentally I'm off to photograph some of our primate relations today so I'll soon have some photos to compliment his excellent essay.
Geology can be a…
laelaps | July 16, 2008Bora has got the first edition of the history of science carnival The Giant's Shoulders up at A Blog Around the Clock. There's lots of great stuff, and I certainly recommend that you give it a look.
Speaking of carnivals, after giving it some thought I'd decided to pick up The Boneyard again, albeit in a slightly modified form. Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement about the new format this week.
laelaps | July 14, 2008Remember my Spore critter, Anomalonychus? Well now it's up on the SporeVote webpage, along with creations from other Reed Cartwright and Craig McClain. Apparently I'm not cool enough to be featured on the front page with Adam West, MC Hammer, and Carlos Santana, but it's still good to have my profile up there. If you want to have a look go to SporeVote.com, make a selection from the "More Spore" menu, and then look for my picture.
laelaps | July 1, 2008It seems that today is going to be a big day for science bloggers. Although updates were scheduled to go up yesterday, both Carl Zimmer and Phil Plait have delayed their announcements until sometime today. I've got a big announcement, too, something that I am definitely excited about.
My abstract on T.H. Huxley's thoughts about dinosaurs & birds has been accepted for the Dinosaurs: A Historical Perspective volume.
I truly am honored to be allowed to contribute to the book, and have to thank Mike Taylor for his advice and encouragement. I've got a lot of work to do this month but I am…
laelaps | June 30, 2008I'm not much one for beauty tips or fashion gossip. Give me a t-shirt with something geeky on it and a pair of jeans and I'm happy, but delving into the depths of fashion history can have its rewards. At least that's what my cousin-in-law Bonnie Downing found and she amassed a collection of strange tips for a book called Peculiar Beauty.
Bonnie has carried on the same theme in a new blog by the same name, and the most recent entry about some strange suds. With the price of gasoline these days I don't think it's going to be en vogue as a hair treatment anytime soon...
laelaps | June 28, 2008The other night I finally picked up Adrian Desmond & James Moore's Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist and I have found it to be one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read (even though I am only about 130 pages in). I would have proceeded much further already but I started reading it aloud to my wife and she has been enjoying it so much that I have been barred from proceeding further unless I continue to orate the contents of the biography. It's a hefty book, my voice may well give out by time I get to the end, but it is certainly worth a few summer afternoons if you have…
laelaps | June 21, 2008Here's my first Spore critter, "Anomalonychus." I'll have more on the Spore Creature Creator (and why it's so damn fun to play with) soon;
laelaps | June 18, 2008If Opabiniahad left descendants, what would they have looked like? That was the question on my mind as I fiddled around with the new Spore Creature-Creator last Friday night, tweaking my virtual creation this way and that in a bit of speculative biology. I admit that the end result has more to do with what I think looks cool than anything scientific, but the demo for the upcoming "Sim Life" game Spore sure is a lot of fun to play with.
I'll take some snapshots and video to share if I can (along with my thoughts on the demo), but if you really want to know you don't have to wait for me. The…
laelaps | June 3, 2008
Jennifer Ouellette is disappointed with the conspicuous lack of science books at Book Expo America. Is science being "put in the corner"?
The brothers Bleiman have an old NSF ad that brings back some memories. Now I'm going to have that tune stuck in my head all day.
Many of us science bloggers (myself included) spend a lot of time complaining that mass media is the suxxors when it comes to science communication. Bora has a few snippets from a study that might suggest that accurate reporting of science stories in mainstream outlets might not be as much of a problem as we say they are.…
laelaps | June 1, 2008Some of you might have noticed a new blog in the feeds; the ScienceBlogs Book Club. The blog will feature discussions about the book Microcosm by my fellow Scibling Carl Zimmer, John Dennehy, PZ, Jessica Snyder Sachs, and Carl himself all offering up commentary. The discussions will unfold over the course of the next two weeks, so if you're interested in joining in head on over and check out the new blog!
I haven't read Microcosm yet (I'm still working on The Simian Tongue and Fossil Horses just came in the mail), but I am looking forward to seeing what people have to say about Carl's new…
laelaps | May 16, 2008During the past two weeks I've read a number of books, but few of them have been as enjoyable as those written by Martin Rudwick (The Meaning of Fossils) and David Quammen (The Boilerplate Rhino). Serendipitously, there are new articles out about both authors; the History of Science Society has a biographical sketch of Rudwick honoring his reception of the Sarton Medal, and on the Montana State University website you can find an interview with Quammen.
The works of both authors have been highly inspirational and enlightening to me in my own quest to become a more professional writer, and if…
laelaps | May 6, 2008In case you missed it, my post on paleo-art "'What Rules the World?'" is up at Science Creative Quarterly. I wish I caught some of the typos, but I still think that it's a pretty good piece.
Coincidentally, Reverend H.N. Hutchinson's Extinct Monsters arrived in the mail today and a battered copy of William Flower's An Introduction to the Osteology of the Mammalia came yesterday, so I've got plenty of old books about bones to look through.