In an earlier post I mentioned that natural selection (hunting pressure) had the potential to increase the proportion of tusklessness in African elephants. But I also noted that this was probably not the full story! And in fact it turns out to be quite a complex tale.
Continue readingMonth: August 2008
something else to share
James Burke was a wonderful science communicator (still may be; I don’t know if he’s still alive). Twenty-something years ago, I remember watching one of his TV series, The day the world changed. It impressed me then, & I wasn’t disappointed when I watched part of it again today, having found a link to it via […]
Continue readingwhy you should study evolution
I’ve just been talking with some of my students about evolution: fact, theory, process of, the whole lot. And why it’s important that people learn about it. I wish I had seen this piece by Olivia Judson beforehand – I could have referred them to it there & then. And because she says it so […]
Continue readingi didn’t know that!
When I was a kid one of my favourite books was Old Yellow. Great adventure story – but ends (spoiler alert) with the dog getting shot because it developed rabies. I was so pleased to find out that we didn’t have rabies in NZ! Anyway, rabies is caused by a virus, & there’s a vaccine for […]
Continue readingpromoting a scientific mind
There’s an excellent post (& subsequent discussion) over on Pharyngula, on how to promote ‘a scientific mind’ – using science, understanding science, enjoying science, knowing how it’s done. While some of the comments may refer to the US system, what’s being discussed on Pharyngula is relevant to us all – go over there & join in!
Continue readingmtDNA & neandertal/sapiens relationships
When I was at high school, mumblety-mumble years ago, the accepted wisdom was that modern humans and Neandertals were sub-species in the same genus: Homo sapiens sapiens and H. sapiens neandertalensis. That changed, to the view that they were probably separate species, with analyses of new fossil finds. More recently, molecular biology techniques have enabled researchers to compare sapiens & […]
Continue readinglocking in the benefits of dieting?
Saturday’s NZ Herald carried a story under the headline, Locking in the benefits of dieting (along with the almost obligatory picture of someone carrying far too much weight round their middle). Nothing contentious in the research (& I went off & read the original paper too, since the Herald provided a reference) – but it’s a good example […]
Continue readinglooking for more science writing?
Then a good place to start would be this list of the 100 top science blogs. It’s a bit idiosyncratic (it misses out Pharyngula & Bad Science!) but there’s a good breadth of cover of things scientific. Including – drum roll – the NZ blog Open Parachute 🙂
Continue readingcritical thinking & journalism
This morning’s NZ Herald carried an item on a study into immigrant doctors in NZ practising non-western medicine: how they perceived themselves & their role in patient health, & how their patients saw them. It certainly caught my attention – so much so that I found the original paper on line & looked at that […]
Continue reading‘the genius of Charles Darwin’
PZ has just posted the video The Genius of Charles Darwin on Pharyngula. It’s fronted by Richard Dawkins, & his intention in making this film (part of a series, by the sound of it) is to look at who Darwin was, how he developed the theory of evolution, what that theory is – & why it […]
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