Here’s a peek at a work in progress: it’s got two kinds of cephalopods, Stethacanthus, and crinoids front and center. Delicious.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Here’s a peek at a work in progress: it’s got two kinds of cephalopods, Stethacanthus, and crinoids front and center. Delicious.
I was thinking of doing something with this paper, but dang it, Omics! Omics! beat me to it. Read it anyway…I suppose there might be some other science in the universe left for me.
Zimmer describes some of the more recent work on Flores Man — people are still arguing over whether the fossil is of a peculiarly abnormal human with microcephaly, or whether there was a species of ‘miniaturized’ Homo living on the islands of the Pacific. Trying to establish common characteristics of microcephalics is an interesting project, but it doesn’t answer the question. We need more fossils! Among the good news Carl mentions is the report that more excavations will be underway this year.
One of the great developments I’m seeing is the emergence of specialized weblogs that focus hard on a specific issue, and here’s an example: the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog. There’s good science there on a topic of considerable importance. Let a thousand flowers bloom, I say.
Here’s a sweet idea: rebuild Darwin’s ship, the Beagle in time for the bicentennial of Darwin’s birth in 2009 (and also the 150 year mark for publication of the Origin).
2009 is the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth, an event which will be celebrated throughout the world. The Beagle Project will rebuild a working replica of HMS Beagle in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It will provide the striking icon of Darwin’s achievement around which the celebrations will coalesce, and which is already attracting the attention of TV and film companies on both sides of the Atlantic.
The replica Beagle will recreate the 1831-36 circumnavigation with international crews of aspiring young scientists aboard, following the same course and making similar landfalls to those made by HMS Beagle when Darwin was aboard. The crew will take part in modern sampling, observation and experiments in a range of disciplines: biology, geology, oceanography, physics and meteorology. Their work will be followed in labs and classrooms worldwide through an interactive website. They will also compare the climate and wildlife observations made by Darwin and the crew of the Beagle in the 1830s with conditions today.
They’ve got plans, they’re looking for support, and of course they have a blog.
Via Bioephemera, I’ve discovered this wonderful medical illustration blog, Street Anatomy. In particular, this article on the illustrator Cvetomir Georgiev has an amazing image of a dissected torso exposing a fetus in situ…and I’ve got a new desktop image. It’s gorgeous stuff; people are so interesting on the inside.
I was on the radio again this morning, this time to announce the upcoming Café Scientifique here in Morris, which was also announced on the university web page. Did you happen to tune in? Are you coming?
It’s going to be a fun one. The chemistry discipline will be putting on a show, with discussions and demonstrations of household chemistry.
Café Scientifique: Chemistry Style
A presentation by Joe Alia, Nancy Carpenter, Jenn Goodnough, Troy Goodnough, Ted Pappenfus and Jim Togeas.
Household Chemistry
Joe Alia: Joe’ll tell us what’s cooking in chemistry with the chemistry of spices.
Nancy Carpenter: What’s that smell?? Nancy tells us how chemistry is responsible for fragrances.
Jenn Goodnough: The chemistry of water. What does your water softener, RO system, Brita filter really do? What is the difference between deionized and distilled water?
Troy Goodnough: A brief discussion of some of the greatest chemistry advances, referencing the book Napoleon’s Buttons. Better living through chemistry…
Ted Pappenfus: The chemistry of beverages. Just try to make beer without chemistry. And where would your coffee be without caffeine?
Jim Togeas: From the realm of “don’t try this at home,” Jim will fill us in on some of his favorite experiments that were done throughout history.
Plus we’ll do a few demos and answer household chemistry questions from the audience.
That will be next Tuesday, 30 January, at 6:00 in the Common Cup Coffeehouse on Atlantic Avenue in downtown Morris. See? Now I’ve given you several days notice, plenty of time to get here, so even you readers in Addis Ababa and Alice Springs don’t have any excuse for failing to show up.
Chris Clarke has a new banner on Creek Running North, so of course he has to give us a grand tour of the Pleistocene. It’s a Carl Buell original, you know — it’s becoming quite the coup to get some Buell art on your blog.
Yesterday, I pointed out that Jonathan Wells was grossly ignorant of basic ideas in evo-devo. This isn’t too surprising; he’s a creationist, he has an agenda to destroy evolutionary biology, and he’s going to rail against evolution…same ol’, same ol’. That’s nothing, though. Wells and his fellows at the Discovery Institute have an even more radical goal of fighting natural, material explanations of many other phenomena, and his latest screed at the DI house organ is against natural explanations of development. Not evolution, not evo-devo, just plain basic developmental biology—apparently, he wants to imply that the development of the embryo requires the intervention of a Designer, or as he refers to that busy being in this essay, a postmaster.
When I was a wee young lad, I remember making crystal radios and small-scale explosives for fun. The new generation can do something even cooler now, though: how about isolating your very own stem cells, using relatively simple equipment. It’s fun, easy, and educational!
Step 3, “get a placenta”, does rather gloss over some of the practical difficulties, though, and does require planning about 9 months ahead.
