Professor Post: Dear Students,

Dear students of Biol 4003: Neurobiology—

EXTRA CREDIT? You haven’t even turned in your final lab reports, and you’re already asking for extra credit? This speaks of a serious lack of confidence, and I don’t know that I should pander to your low self-esteem. Tell me instead that your work on the final exam and the last lab report will dazzle me so much that giving you a mere “A” will be insufficient, and I’ll have to come to your homes and clean your house to make up the difference.

Besides, didn’t anyone ever tell you that a cluttered lab is an active, happy lab?

And that tank with the yellowish water in it is actually a dilute bleach solution that I use for sterilizing. It is true that I should flush that and replace it with a fresh solution, though.

So maybe there is a place for having a lab clean-up day. I could make meticulousness part of the lab grade, and dock you all 10% of your score if the lab is in a less than sparkling state at the end of the term. Yeah, that’s what an evil professor should do … I’ll have to think about it.

Sphingolipid Synthesis

I’ve spent this last week familiarizing myself with this article for my biochemistry class. Obviously, the article is way to large to bite off in one blog. One spot that draws my curiosity.

The AUR1 is promoted by the presence of Galactose. The kicker is that the presence of Glucose will turn off the gene. The organism is unable to live without the target sphingolipids. Is there some reason for this? I would think that adaptation would have long since accounted for this. Weird.

Student Post: Dear PZ,

We, the students of BIOL 4003: Neurobiology have a proposal. We will clean your lab for extra credit. Think about it. That tank with the yellow stagnant water and other unidentifiable bits of matter? GONE. Those countless bottles of fruit fly carcasses? Sparkling clean and ready for next semester’s genetics class. We would also consider not having a final test an acceptable trade.

Respectfully awaiting your reply,
The Students

Chris Comer on Science Friday

Don’t miss this one: tomorrow on Science Friday, Flatow interviews the expelled director of the Texas science curriculum.

Education and Evolution in Texas
(broadcast Friday, December 7th, 2007)
The education official responsible for the science curriculum in the state of Texas resigned last month saying she was forced to step down after being reprimanded for informing colleagues of a talk on the conflict over the teaching of evolution. Christine Castillo Comer, former Director of Science in the curriculum division of the Texas Education Agency, forwarded several colleagues an email notice of a upcoming talk by Barbara Forrest, co-author of the book “Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design.” Castillo Comer’s supervisor said the email was grounds for termination as the ‘FYI’ email “implies endorsement of the speaker and implies that TEA endorses the speaker’s position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral.”

In this segment, Ira talks with Christine Castillo Comer about the case and about evolution, ‘intelligent design,’ and creationism in Texas.

New Hampshire NEA endorses … Huckabee?

What is wrong with the teachers in New Hampshire? They just endorsed Clinton for the Democratic candidate, and Huckabee for the Republicans. Huckabee is a deranged young earth creationist! Did the NEA just spit in the face of its science teachers? How could they possibly support a creationist?

Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, was the only Republican candidate to speak at the national NEA meeting in Philadelphia in July. His campaign also courted the New Hampshire chapter, and he was the only GOP candidate to meet with chapter officials, a source with the New Hampshire union said.

Oh. The NH NEA can be bought for cheap: just show up.

Why don’t their heads asplode?

There is a certain creationist book that contains this infamous quote:

No matter what ideology they may espouse, those who perpetrate terror over the world are, in reality, Darwinists. Darwinism is the only philosophy that places a value on-and thus encourages-conflict.

Kind of a common sentiment on the far right, I know. But you’d think a member of the far right would be reluctant to use it, because it’s from an Islamic crackpot, Adnan Oktar AKA Haryun Yahya, in his massive plagiarized tome, The Atlas of Creation.

Yet this book is prominently displayed in the waiting room of Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez. I’m wondering why GW Bush’s CIA and FBI aren’t all over this guy for endorsing the work of a radical Islamic nutcase. I’m wondering how a Bush appointee can parade a book with Arabic script on the cover without getting at least a strange look from his fellow travelers in peculiar politics. I don’t know how they can handle the conflict.

They must have really thick skulls.

Springtime in Oregon, when the evodevo is in bloom…

The University of Oregon and Indiana University have this wonderful Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship in evo-devo that was, unfortunately, established long after I graduated from the UO. I have to say that it is a great idea, and it isn’t their fault I’m a superannuated anachronism. Anyway, the important thing is that they are hosting a symposium on evolution, development, and genomics: “From Patterns to Process:
Bridging Micro-and-Macroevolutionary Concepts through Evo-Devo” on
4-6 April, in beautiful Eugene, Oregon. And look at the speakers they have lined up!

Keynote Speakers

Scheduled Speakers

A springtime meeting in Oregon in which I get to hear the latest in evo-devo from some of its biggest names and a rather significant detractor (Coyne)? Well, that settles it for me — I’m going. This sounds like spectacular fun.