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pharyngula | July 15, 2011I got to see the loud, ferocious Jamie Kilstein performing tonight, so I thought I'd let all of you in Los Angeles know that you better not miss his show on 18 July. He'll make you tremble in fear like the good godless liberal he is.
gregladen | July 15, 2011... no matter how we interpret what happened for Darwin on his route from Potential Country Pastor to First Evolutionary Biologist, the mocking birds figured in because they impressed young Charles when he first saw them....
Read about Darwin's Other Birds
pharyngula | July 14, 2011Don't you just love those gotcha moments from creationists? They think they've got you stumped with some hard question, and then it turns out to be something crazy/stupid.
Did you know that all planets in our universe are on the exact same plane with the exception on Pluto. If one single planet's orbit were to across another planet's orbit, the entire planetary system would collapse due to the collisions. How by chance did all the planets end up on the same plane and rotating in their own orbit without crossing another planet's orbit? Pluto is the only exception. Pluto is at a 14 degree angle…
tlambert | July 13, 2011The Conversation reports:
Scientists today said they were appalled and disappointed by Greenpeace protesters who whippersnippered a genetically modified wheat crop being grown as part of a CSIRO trial.
The trial crop was part of an investigation into altering wheat carbohydrate content to reduce glycaemic response and improve metabolic health. Planting began in 2009.
Greenpeace's justification?
"GM has never been proven safe to eat and once released in open experiments, it will contaminate. This is about the protection of our health, the protection of our environment and the protection of…
mikethemadbiologist | July 13, 2011There's been a spate of abortion restrictions passed by state legislatures around the country. And they'll have tragic consequences for women's health (italics mine):
Indiana recently defunded Planned Parenthood clinics throughout the state. The new law makes any organization that performs abortion ineligible for state funds. Lack of clarity in the state's antiabortion law is affecting hospitals, too. Since its enactment, doctors in hospitals have stopped terminating pregnancies that pose a high risk to the health and life of a woman for fear of losing Medicaid patients.
According to…
gregladen | July 11, 2011How much does politics affect teaching evolution? How is the "fairness" argument exploited to undermine evolution education? Genie Scott explores these and other antievolution strategies in a recent speech before the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Where: Scottsdale, AZ. When: 4/17/2011
pharyngula | July 9, 2011As some of you may know, one of Skepticon's yearly fundraisers is the sale of cheesecake calendars — and Jen McCreight is in the new one, tastefully posed.
See? You don't have to take off your clothes to look good. Why, when I showed up for the photo shoot, they were prepared for me, and even had extra clothes to pile up on top of what I already had on. When you take into account the beard covering up half my face, you can't see any of me in my photo…very sexaaaay. (Another plus: I don't know if they even used any of the photos of me in the calendar, which makes me even more exotic and…
lborkowski | July 8, 2011A few of the recent pieces I've liked:
Ed Yong at Not Exactly Rocket Science: The disease trackers
Maryn McKenna at Superbug: How Much Is a Drug-Resistance Death Worth? Less Than $600
Michele Norris at NPR: Why Black Women, Infants Lag in Birth Outcomes
Fred Pearce at Yale Environment 360: Phosphate: A Critical Resource Misused and Now Running Low
Gina Kolata in the New York Times: First Study of Its Kind Shows Benefits of Providing Medical Insurance to Poor
And for what will surely be a source of many excellent blog posts in the future, check out the new Scientific American blog network.
mspringer | July 8, 2011By the 1860s, the classical theory of electricity and magnetism was on a very solid theoretical footing. Maxwell's equations describing the interplay of charges and currents with electric and magnetic fields were on paper by 1862, and with some changes in notation they're the exact same today. Relativity wouldn't be invented for another half-century or so, and that makes it all the more remarkable that Maxwell's equations don't actually need to be modified at all to work in a relativistic framework. Lorentz covariance is built right in, though it's a bit hidden.
But Maxwell and Faraday and…
gregladen | July 8, 2011A big todo was made a while back about the possibility of life based on arsenic. In science fiction we often see worlds created in which life is based on one strange thing or another. But years ago, Darwin found a place were life was based on the Booby. And the Noddy. Let's not forget the Noddy.
Click here to read about the booby and the noddy based ecosystem.
pharyngula | July 8, 2011
Less than two hours from now, the space shuttle takes off on its final mission, then…I don't know what. I guess we're handing off orbital flights to private contractors, which might represent a positive development, but we'll have to see.
Good luck storming outer space, NASA!
gregladen | July 7, 2011In this visually dazzling talk, Jonathan Drori shows the extraordinary ways flowering plants -- over a quarter million species -- have evolved to attract insects to spread their pollen: growing 'landing-strips' to guide the insects in, shining in ultraviolet, building elaborate traps, and even mimicking other insects in heat.
tlambert | July 6, 2011At The Chronicle of Higher Education's blog Peter Wood excuses Wegman's plagiarism, calling it a flyspeck:
Mashey has been, as he puts it, "trying to take the offense" against global warming skeptics by flyspecking their publications. "You hope they make a mistake," he says, and when they do, he pounces with demands that journals retract whole articles. Some journals indeed have.
Compare with Wood's comments on Wade Churchill's dismissal for plagiarism:
Yesterday Denver District Court Judge Larry J. Naves turned down Ward Churchill's motion to be reinstated in his professorial position. The…
lborkowski | July 5, 2011One of the disturbing aspects of the recent E. coli outbreak in Germany was the apparent lack of sufficient hospital surge capacity to handle a sudden influx of seriously ill patients. Der Spiegel reported:
On Monday, hospitals all over northern Germany struggled to treat thousands of patients suffering from the effects of the bacteria. More than one-third of the people infected with E. coli have also come down with a life-threatening complication known as hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) which attacks the blood, kidneys and brain, and has left doctors racing to save lives. Ambulances have…
gregladen | July 5, 2011Yesssss!!!!! .... This is what you have been preparing for all this time.
You know the classics ...
"Evolutionists do it with increasing complexity"
and
"Honk! If you understand punctuated equilibria"
These are the National Center for Science Education Bumper Stickers so far. The NCSE is not replacing them, but they would like to augment them. And you can help.
Just think up a bumper sticker and click here to send it as an email to the NCSE.
There are some rules. But who cares about roolz!!! Just come up with a great bumper sticker and suffer whatever consequences arise as a result of…
gregladen | July 5, 2011Darwin developed his theory of evolution from a famously simple tree of life drawing. How has the study of evolution and the inter-connectedness of species changed with modern DNA technology? How has exploring genetic relationships shaped how we now view ourselves and how might that be expressed in art?
Lynn Fellman is a multiple media artist and designer who works with scientists to communicate their research. Her work focuses on evolution and the human genome. From research to sketches to completed digital art, she'll explain how her process engages the people in the DNA portraits in…
tlambert | July 5, 2011Check out all the awesome blogs at the new Scientific American blogging network!
pharyngula | July 5, 2011Now Amanda Marcotte speaks out on an issue that greatly engaged the community here over the weekend. How about if you take your arguments over there this time; we're kinda full up.
Also, I just know I'm going to regret this, but this cartoon made me laugh, even though the expression is all wrong — it ought to be more peevish exasperation.
And now, Phil Plait. At this rate, the whole of blogtopia is going to turn into a raging argument over elevator etiquette!