Update: I have decided to restore this post with some minor edits. I will write more about my decision to do so in another post, since I think the topic of self censorship in terms of the social structure of academia is an interesting topic. — Hrmph. I’m frustrated. As I talked about before, I’m …
Category Archive: evolution
Jul 23 2011
An intro to the neutral theory of evolution
From a top donor: “I’d like you to write a blog entry (primer) about neutral theory aimed at the layperson.” Okay, I’m not going to lie. I’ve been secretly hoping someone would bump this question out of the top ten, mainly because neutral theory is kind of boring and vaguely confusing and hard enough to …
Jul 23 2011
Why did we evolve to die?
Second donor question (might as well get them out of the way when I’m still awake!): “I would like you to tackle the question of why there is death in terms of evolution.” What a good question! I should preface this by saying this isn’t my particular field of research, so I don’t know any …
Jul 23 2011
My very own Creation Museum
Speaking of evolution denial in the Pacific Northwest, apparently someone thought I missed the creationist craziness from back home. They went and build me my very own creation museum, this time in Idaho! How…thoughtful. What is the Northwest “Science” Museum? What is the Vision? The vision for this museum is to present a “Natural History” …
Jul 23 2011
I’ve lost my appetite for Dick’s
Now that I have your attention…Dick’s Drive-In is a burger chain in Seattle. There’s one right by my house, and I was pestered incessantly to try it when I first moved here. I’m not sure what the fuss is about, because it’s woefully mediocre. I have a feeling it’s typical drunk food (in which case …
Jul 23 2011
Neanderthals and the beauty of science
A common creationist debating tactic is to sneer at science, saying something like “It changes all of the time! Scientists can never make up their mind, and often times they’re wrong! Why would you want to trust something that admits it could be wrong?” And my response is usually to laugh, because that’s precisely what …
Jul 06 2011
Attention Seattle science fans!
The Department of Genome Sciences at UW (aka, mine!) is starting its summer public lecture series, Wednesdays at the Genome. Tonight is the first talk on “Recent adventures in human evolution” by Dr. Josh Akey. I did one of my lab rotations with Josh, and I can assure you it’ll be an interesting, fun presentation. …
Jun 20 2011
Miss USA contestants on evolution
Beauty pageants, along with Hooters restaurants, are on my list of Things I Wish Would Drop Off The Face of the Planet. They desperately attempt to market themselves as something more than a superficial patriarchython by including a talent portion (“Look, I can play the piano mediocrely!) and an interview on a hot button issue. …
Feb 13 2011
Happy Valentine's Day!
Here’s a photo of me and my date:We met at the Seattle Atheists’ Darwin Day celebration! Once I laid eyes on him, I knew I had to make him mine. Thankfully he only cost a dollar. Don’t judge. Anyway, the event was really fun. About 150 people showed up to partake in the cake, games, …
Feb 13 2011
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Here’s a photo of me and my date:We met at the Seattle Atheists’ Darwin Day celebration! Once I laid eyes on him, I knew I had to make him mine. Thankfully he only cost a dollar. Don’t judge. Anyway, the event was really fun. About 150 people showed up to partake in the cake, games, …
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