One of the catchphrases of Intelligent Design creationism is ‘irreducible complexity’ – the idea that in some complex biological systems, it’s impossible to remove any one part without causing the whole system to fail. Supposedly this means that such systems could not have evolved but must be the product of a ‘designer’. The term – […]
Continue readingMonth: October 2012
kissing cousins with kennewick man?
While away on holiday (gloat!) I got the opportunity for uninterrupted listening to podcasts 🙂 One of these was a July episode of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe, which included a discussion of the (in)famous Kennewick Man remains. These 9,000-years-old bones have been the focus of considerable controversy in the US, where they were […]
Continue readingtalk nerdy to me
Grant’s talked quite a bit about TED talks. This one’s a cracker: Melissa Marshall talking about science communication. Important point for scientists: clear, careful explanations of what we’re doing =/= ‘dumbing it down’! And thanks, Annette, for passing it on 🙂
Continue readingnormal service will resume in about a week…
… because today the Significant Other & I are heading off for a week in balmier climes. Oh all right, in Rarotonga. So apart from a little something I prepared earlier, I won’t be blogging for a bit. Also, I’m not sure what my internet access will be like & so I may not be […]
Continue readingwhy kids should grade teachers
Next week my first-year biology students will be doing an appraisal of this semester’s paper, & of those academic staff involved in teaching it. They’re asked about the perceived difficulty of the paper, the amount of work they’re expected to do for it, whether they’ve been intellectually stimulated, the amount of feedback they receive on […]
Continue readingfalling numbers in physics – what do teachers think?
A topic that gets quite a frequent airing in our tearoom is the decline in the number of students taking physics. This issue isn’t peculiar to my institution – a quick look at the literature indicates that it’s a global problem**. The question is, what can be done about this? It’s a question that Pey-Tee […]
Continue readingsweet memories
I’ve just found a new blog that is a must-follow: Becky Crew’s Running Ponies. Run, don’t walk, over there – and read wondrous posts such as her discussion of a study that found chocolate** appears to enhance snails’ ability to form lasting memories. I wonder what will happen to chocolate sales at the uni shop, […]
Continue readingchutzpah & pingpong balls
Via a family member’s blog, I discovered a physics story with this wonderful beginning: It’s the rare scientific mind that has the pure intellectual chutzpah to tackle a problem that has troubled boffinry since the discovery of cryogenics – namely, "What happens if you combine liquid nitrogen with 1,500 ping-pong balls?" I wanna be in Roy […]
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