The ‘human evolution’ achievement standard expects you to be able to discuss trends in cultural evolution. You need to be aware of evidence relating to: use of tools (stone, wood, bone), fire, shelter, clothing, abstract thought (communication, language, art), food-gathering, and domestication of plants & animals. The earliest evidence for culture is the presence of stone tools, […]
Continue readingHere’s a great set of short articles about evolution. Each one’s only a page long, and talks about a piece of research that (as the authors say) demonstrate the ‘breadth, depth, and power of evolutionary thinking’ (Gee, Howlett & Campbell, 2009). My current favourite is the one about the origins of the vertebrate skeleton, but […]
Continue readingMany year 13 Biology students will spend some time during the school year on a plant or animal study. Often the organisms you’ll study will be something like slaters, or duckweed, because they are easy to keep & study in the classroom. But that’s not always the case, & today I thought I’d write about one […]
Continue readingIt seems the silly season is beginning early – I’m expecting a rash of ‘letters to the editor’ as the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth gets closer (what are you doing for Darwin Day?), but this seems a little premature. The writer begins: We’ve weathered a fair few scientific broadcasts lately authenticating Charles Darwin’s findings. Effectively they […]
Continue readingTime for look at another paper. This one’s on something I think I referred to earlier – the use of ancient DNA to determine the sex of New Zealand’s giant, flightless – & alas! extinct – moa.
Continue readingA headline in SciTechDaily caught my eye: If I’m not gullible and you’re not gullible, how come some improbable stories take a long time to die? This reminded me of a comment by Ben Goldacre, along the lines that people aren’t as good at assessing their own abilities (whether related to driving a car or passing […]
Continue readingI’ve written before about the evolution of the eye (here & here for example. Now there’s a whole issue of the most excellent science education journal Evolution: education & outreach devoted to this very topic – & it’s free on-line right here! So if you’re interested in following up on some of the latest work on this […]
Continue readingA while ago now I wrote something on the Dmanisi fossils – the remains of a few individuals that suggest that Homo erectus spread relatively quickly through Eurasia after leaving Africa. I’ve just come across an interesting post on the Panda’s Thumb that I thought makes a good follow-up. Read it & see what you think.
Continue readingOr, one reason why teaching is good for teachers. I’ve just got to the point in Richard Feynman’s autobiography where he’s talking about why he loves teaching. It really resonates with me & I thought I’d share this bit with you: If you’re teaching a class, you can think about the elementary thgns that you […]
Continue readingThis is a little different: a guest blog by a friend of mine. Grant works as an independent scientist through his one-man consultancy, BioinfoTools, which mainly develops software for analysis of genetic and molecular biology data, and offers data analysis,contract research and science writing. He has his own research interests currently with a central theme […]
Continue reading