It seems that Intelligent Design advocates have challenged PZ Myers to answer ’10+1′ questions about evolutionary biology, while he’s on an upcoming visit to Glasgow. PZ’s published the list here. One in particular caught my eye, because it mentioned lungs (the subject of a recent post of my own), so I thought I’d have a […]
Continue readingMonth: May 2011
the sarcastic fringeheads
Wouldn’t that make a great name for a band? Rather to my surprise, I’ve discovered that ‘sarcastic fringeheads’ are actually…
Continue readingwhy are some chickens white?
Apparently this is a question that has been known to keep some biologists awake at night. (Can’t say I’m one of them; my insomnia is caused by other, equally pressing issues LOL) Anyway, ERV has written a lovely post looking at this: apparently it’s all to do with metabolic pathways and endogenous retroviruses. Go over […]
Continue readingtwisting the truth on vaccination
This ‘bad science’ letter popped up in the Waikato Times a couple of days ago. It was actually entitled "Democratic right"… [A previous writer] condoned governmental blackmail in his letter in which he accused me of irresponsibility for defending the democratic right to choose whether to immunize or not. Does [he] know the MMR vaccine that […]
Continue readingtalking about exaptations
During a lecture to our second-year evolutionary biology class I introduced the concept of exaptations: features that have evolved in one environmental context but which have been co-opted to fill a different role in a changed environment. This was in the context of swim bladders/lungs, which I’ll talk about in a minute, but right now […]
Continue readinganother weird science letter
This one seems to be firmly in the ‘nature good, man-made bad’ camp. Doctors, drug companies and journalists alike refuse to acknowledge that what they manufacture, prescribe and pontiificate about is harmful to each and every human being. If children become poisoned, as reported [the writer is referring to a recent case where a child […]
Continue readinganother lovely biological image
Grant & I have something of an ongoing friendly competition to come up with stunning & unusual biological images. Here,via PZ (as usual!) & The Node is my latest offering: It’s a confocal microscope image of a squid embryo. The reddish areas are neural tissue (mmmm, braaaainzz) & each of those fluorescent green speckles is a tuft […]
Continue readingwaiter, there’s a fish in my cucumber!
My sea cucumber, that is. I was going to write something full of snark about the current brouhaha around predictions that the world is going to end on May 21st. But Darcy has beaten me to it! So instead (from the Echinoblog, and via PZ) I offer you… [drumroll]… the sea cucumber with fish residing in its nether […]
Continue readingpink – not for boys?
Over on Sciblogs, Michael Edmonds has written about a report from the US, wherein a mother is castigated for putting (wait for it!) pink nailpolish on her son’s toenails. Apparently the response in some quarters has been one of Shock, horror! The poor child will be scarred for life.
Continue readingwhy geologists are wrong, wrong, wrong! about the age of the earth
I came across the following diagram on Peter Bowditch’s wonderful The Millenium Project. Like him, I hope it’s a poe; but nonetheless, I find it has a certain dreadful fascination. Who knew that geologists could get it so wrong?
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