I’ve been fascinated by the story of early tetrapod evolution (where ‘tetrapod’ = an animal with 4 legs) for years, since reading Carl Zimmer’s wonderful book At the water’s edge (1998). Our understanding of when & where tetrapods evolved has been steadily extended by a series of fossil finds, most recently the ‘fishapod’ Tiktaalik. This was definitely […]
Continue readingMonth: July 2008
you won’t get a 747 from a tornado in a junkyard
A recent letter-writer in our local paper presented this argument: Many people believe the evolutionary theory but none practice it. For example, how much is left to chance in the design and assembly of a 747 jet? Nothing is left to chance. Every component is tested to breaking point to find any weakness in design […]
Continue readingscience as a human endeavour
What follows is the text of a talk I gave to a teachers’ conference last weekend, on the ‘human side’ of science. In other words (lots of them!), it’s about the nature of science. Quite a long post (for me), but I hope you get something from it.
Continue readingmore in the occasional series: ‘what I’m reading’
And this one will probably confirm some folks in their belief that I’m a bit on the weird side. Why? Look at the title of my latest bit of bedtime reading – it’s Mary Roach’s book Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers…
Continue readinghow evolutionary theory develops
I’ve just come across an excellent post by evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci, talking about how evolutionary theory has developed since the ‘modern synthesis’ was set out. (And of course, the modern synthesis was an advance on Darwin’s orginal theory of natural selection as the agent of descent with modification – science changes as it accommodates […]
Continue readingadvice to young scientists
OK, while I’m between conferences (was at AWIS, attending Scicon from tomorrow), here is the promised blog. It’s basically a series of notes I wrote while listening to one of the inspirational speakers at the AWIS conference, Jilly Evans – a New Zealander who now runs a biotech company in the US. Here’s what Jilly […]
Continue readingsomething to listen to
I’m away at a conference at the moment, & maybe in a day or two I’ll find time to write about some of the things I’ve heard. One of the speakers had some things to say that I think are very relevant to students. But for now – following on from that article in the Dominion […]
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