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grrlscientist | February 12, 2008tags: Darwin, Darwin's Birthday, images
The Definitive Darwin.
Image: The Nonist.
A century and a half after Darwin's most important work was published, people still seem to have a hard time wrapping their minds around its implications, or are made nervous and upset by them. The authors at The Nonist thought it was high time that Darwin's image was updated and his ideas put into less technical terms which everyone can understand. With that in mind they modified Bob Peak's poster for Every Which Way But Loose, creating an image better fit to reach the doubtful American public.
cmcclain | February 12, 2008I take off for the Windy City, aka the Big Cheesy, tomorrow to give a lecture at the University of Chicago. My schedule for the next few days includes meeting with some of the most exciting scientists stateside, a tour of the Shed Aquarium (thanks to the Zoologix brothers) and the Field Museum, some Wright Architecture, Museum of Science and Industry, discussions of all cephalopod and deep with Janet Voight, and freezing my southern-bred, corn-fed, butt off.
This means, due to Peter being busy with oral exams (wish him luck), that DSN is totally in the hands of Kevin (God help us all). Some…
cortex | February 12, 2008It's so easy to take our cultural forms for granted. We get so used to their particulars that we forget there is nothing inviolate about them. Movies can have sad endings, classical music can turn atonal and novelists can get self-referential. Such transgressions are the mark of cultural progress. (Or decadence, depending on your aesthetic preferences. Me? I like Jane Austen and Italo Calvino.)
But I've always assumed that there was only one way to write a letter, that the epistle was the sturdiest of cultural forms. But I was wrong. It turns out that, back in the 19th century, people…
gregladen | February 12, 2008A Cafe Scientifique by Yours Truly ....
.... details below the fold.
Cafe Scientifique
Evolution, Cuisine and Romance
Tuesday, February 19, 7 p.m.
Bryant-Lake Bowl, Uptown
$5-$10 (pay what you can)
Were the opposable thumb, an upright stance and a large brain the most important evolutionary events in human history? According to Anthropologist Greg Laden, these and other traits are only the byproducts of the truly important evolutionary transitions for our species: the rise of romance and the evolution of cuisine. Join Laden for a discussion about the co-evolution of diet, sexual strategies…
gregladen | February 12, 2008SCIENCE is useful but that is not all it is. Science can be uplifting, thrilling, life-enhancing. Originally broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 in 1996, Break the Science Barrier follows the Oxford Biologist Richard Dawkins as he meets with people who have experienced the wonders of science first-hand. We meet the astronomer who first discovered pulsars, the geneticist who invented DNA fingerprinting, a scientist who discovered a protein that causes cancer, and others. Dawkins interviews famous admirers of science such as Douglas Adams and David Attenborough, and asks them why science means so…
gregladen | February 12, 2008I'm not big on holidays, so I'm not doing anything special today. But I am big on Darwin, so I am doing something special All Month! And this consists of posting several things on Darwin, in particular, a series of post on the Voyage of the Beagle. You can get a current list of the posts HERE
cortex | February 12, 2008Remember a few years ago, when there were all these books that tried to explain the history of everything in terms of some seemingly minor subject, like "Cod" or "Salt"? I think it's time to apply this publishing trope to neuroscience: we need a book on dopamine. That damn neurotransmitter is everywhere. Now it's even being hailed as an orgasm accelerator:
Abundant evidence points to dopamine as the key neurotransmitter involved in stimulating orgasm in humans. Thus, administration of the dopamine precursor L-dopa, dopaminergic agonists (e.g. apomorphine), dopamine releasers (e.g. amphetamine…
mikethemadbiologist | February 12, 2008...and rank and file Democrats too.
Once you get past Matt Taibbi's penchant for sexist imagery, he can actually commit some very good reporting (italics mine):
Rather than use the vast power they had to end the war, Democrats devoted their energy to making sure that "anti-war activism" became synonymous with "electing Democrats." Capitalizing on America's desire to end the war, they hijacked the anti-war movement itself, filling the ranks of peace groups with loyal party hacks. Anti-war organizations essentially became a political tool for the Democrats--one operated from inside the Beltway…
sb admin | February 12, 2008The date is set for the presidential candidatesâ Science Debate 2008 â itâll be April 18th at Philadelphiaâs Franklin Institute â so now the push is to get candidatesâ commitment to participate. Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Barack Obama have been invited, and the fact that the debate is set for four days before the Pennsylvania primary may encourage them to make it a priority.
Blogger and author Chris Mooney, one of the campaignâs co-organizers, asks bloggers, scientists, and concerned citizens to contact the campaigns to encourage their participation; write letters to…
kevin z | February 11, 2008A coworker passed along 7 deep sea cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, who was gracious enough to grant us permission to use on our blog.
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
© 2008 Jim Toomey. Used with permission from the artist.
gregladen | February 11, 2008I and the Bird #68 - Winter Doldrum Edition ... the blog carnival, is here, at Biological Ramblings.
mikethemadbiologist | February 11, 2008
I have no idea what this means. I just do as our Benevolent Seed Overlords command
So our Benevolent Seed Overlords pose the question "What is a disease?" This question merely proves that longer questions are usually easier to answer than shorter ones.
So I've decided to change the question to "What is an infectious disease?" (cuz it's my blog). There are two underlying meanings of the word disease:
An organism that lives on or in a host and that harms the health--that is, lowers the fitness--of that host.
The effect of a parasite (the previously described organism) on the unhealthy host…
kevin z | February 11, 2008CNN.com reports this morning on "Fried dolphin on menu in japanese town". I do not want to bear on the ethical issues of harvesting dolphins. Every culture has their animals they eat that other cultures are disgusted by, as stated in the article:
"Locals know they offend Western sensibilities by eating dolphins, but they say it's a tradition hundreds of years old. And they say outsiders have no more right to tell them to stop eating dolphins than they would have to demand that Westerners stop slaughtering chickens or cows."
In Sweden, some villages eat horse. In the U.S. we eat all sorts of…
gregladen | February 11, 2008SCIENCE is useful but that is not all it is. Science can be uplifting, thrilling, life-enhancing. Originally broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 in 1996, Break the Science Barrier follows the Oxford Biologist Richard Dawkins as he meets with people who have experienced the wonders of science first-hand. We meet the astronomer who first discovered pulsars, the geneticist who invented DNA fingerprinting, a scientist who discovered a protein that causes cancer, and others. Dawkins interviews famous admirers of science such as Douglas Adams and David Attenborough, and asks them why science means so…
cortex | February 11, 2008There was something particularly infuriating about Mitt Romney's concession speech. He's clearly a smart guy - once upon a time, he was a socially moderate, pragmatic Republican - and yet the address was filled with utter nonsense like this:
Europe is facing a demographic disaster. That's the inevitable product of weakened faith in the Creator, failed families, disrespect for the sanctity of human life, and eroded morality...
It's time for the people of America to fortify marriage through a constitutional amendment, so that liberal judges cannot continue to attack it...
Today we are a nation…
kevin z | February 10, 2008A coworker passed along 7 deep sea cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, who was gracious enough to grant us permission to use on our blog.
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
© 2008 Jim Toomey. Used with permission from the artist.
gregladen | February 10, 2008This is your best chance to own a pristine copy of a Virgin Carnival, on it's very first round on the internet.
Berry Go Round is a carnival about plants, and you can find the first installment here, at Seeds Aside.
laelaps | February 10, 2008
Today is Evolution Sunday, and as part of the "festivities" I headed up north to speak to the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Morris County about evolution. I had an absolutely wonderful experience (I felt very welcomed by the group and they had terrific questions), and although I do not have a transcript of the events, I hope I can accurately sum-up the lecture and following discussion here.
The lecture I delivered today focused on a topic that is a common one on this blog; contingency. In trying to make sense of the unity and diversity of life on earth over time, I tried to pick out…
cortex | February 10, 2008I recently had the pleasure of getting interviewed by Natasha Mitchell, host of All in the Mind. To be honest, I can't bear to listen to the interview - the sound of my own voice grates against my ears, like fingernails on a chalkboard.*
I know others have a similar aversion. But why is that? I don't mind looking at visual reflections (photographs) of myself, and yet auditory reflections make me wince. It's worth pointing out that, until the 20th century, humans had never heard recordings of their voice. While we've always had visual reflections - Narcissus looked in the still water -…