NASA has put out a call for novel ideas in space exploration, which I think is an excellent way to do science. More creativity!
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
NASA has put out a call for novel ideas in space exploration, which I think is an excellent way to do science. More creativity!
I copied Prolife Across America and made a picture for you.
I guess all the anti-choicers are going to become vegan now.
Allonautilus scrobiculatus is a rare species that can be distinguishes from the natty Nautilus pompilius by its hairy, slimy shell. That doesn’t seem like a distinction to be proud of, but I guess it takes all types to fill an ocean.
Nautilus pompilius (left) swimming next to a rare Allonautilus scrobiculatus (right) off of Ndrova Island in Papua New Guinea.Peter Ward
If you’re reluctant to drop $80 on a copy of Zimmer/Emlen’s Evolution: Making Sense of Life
Go download it and read it now. There will be a test later.
Classes start Wednesday.
I am not ready.
Hey, how about these article titles?
Comet Impacts Really Could Have Been the Catalyst For Life on Earth
Comet Impacts May Have Produced The Building Blocks For Life On Earth
We Now Know For Sure How Life Began on Earth
We’re getting this sudden flurry of articles touting the contribution of organic molecules from cometary sources to the origin of life on Earth. They’re all bullshit. The media hype machine is going crazy again over science the journalists haven’t thought through.
Here’s a scientist talking about the great difficulty of finding whales out on the open ocean. Wouldn’t you know it…?
That’s excellent comedic timing.
I hear they’re also big-hearted.
I’m still traveling! I’ll be heading to the airport shortly to fly back to Minnesota, so until I get back you’ll just have to listen to my talk at Gateway to Reason earlier this month.
Jebus. The stupidity of the media is maddening. Here are two articles now out there: Don’t freak out, but scientists think octopuses ‘might be aliens’ after DNA study and Octopuses ‘are aliens’, scientists decide after DNA study. These reporters are embarrassing.
Not to freak you out or anything, but scientists have just revealed that octopuses are so weird they’re basically aliens.
The first full genome sequence shows of that octopuses (NOT octopi) are totally different from all other animals – and their genome shows a striking level of complexity with 33,000 protein-coding genes identified, more than in a human.
Bullshit.
As I said earlier, the study is open access. Read it. If you can’t understand the big words and the details, then you shouldn’t be writing news stories on science.
The study says exactly the opposite. It shows that octopuses use genes shared with vertebrates — the common metazoan toolbox. They have amplified genes used by other earthly animal life in unique ways, but protocadherins are a known earthly family of molecules, and zinc finger genes are a known earthly family of genes. This study reinforces the concept of common ancestry.
Do I need to add that it’s even plainly said in the abstract? Just read the abstract!
The core developmental and neuronal gene repertoire of the octopus is broadly similar to that found across invertebrate bilaterians
I just know this nonsense is going to be propagated by creationists everywhere, and I’m going to have to slam it down repeatedly. The only good thing is that it’s an easy one to rebut, and I’ll have many excuses to wrap my virtual tentacles around their rhetorical throats and squeeze.
It begins.
Proving that octopuses are creatures that arrived from another planet, possibly from another solar system, may not be revealed any time soon. However, their alien existence upon the Earth is expected to be the focus of significant research in the coming years. It is likely that they will be found to be born of the Earth, but the mysticism that they may be aliens makes the genome discovery quite intriguing.
