I saw this cartoon on Pharyngula, a while ago, & thought I’d keep it for a slow day 🙂
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an item that’s entirely appropriate for the current date…
… and very well written, too – yet more evidence that the ancients had it right… No doubt New Scientist will be featuring this content shortly 🙂 … … … … … … I had trouble keeping my face straight when I wrote that 🙂
Continue readingwhat ‘average’ means
From time to time I natter on about proper use of statistics. Now I see that Marcus is joining in, over at Physics Stop – he’s written a rather nice little piece on the (mis)use of ‘average’. Pop over & read it, & have a look through his other posts while you’re there 🙂
Continue readinghow to read between the lines
Recently the journalist Amanda Gefter wrote an article for New Scientist on how to recognise ‘science’ books with a hidden (anti-evolutionary) agenda. While that’s still available in the print version, the journal has now removed the on-line version – apparently, due to a complaint or complaints from readers. This strikes me as more than a […]
Continue readingapplying evolutionary theory in the lab
From time to time, someone will make the comment that evolution is totally irrelevant to everyday life in general, & to medicine in particular. Today ERV’s got a post detailing just how evolutionary theory has been & is being applied by medical researchers working on development of an HIV vaccine. Great stuff!
Continue readingmeditating on enrolment
As you’ll have gathered (if you read this blog regularly), last week was an incredibly busy one for me, because I was heavily involved in the process of enrolling students for their 2009 studies. This was a new thing for me & it gave me the opportunity to think about ways to ease the enrolment […]
Continue readingjust a quickie
It looks as if service might be intermittent this week – it’s enrolment-in-person week & in practice what this means is working with students on their study plans 8.30-5.00 (at least) & then doing whatever else didn’t get done during the day… So blogging has to take a bit of a back seat 🙁 But […]
Continue readinga personal ‘darwin bibliography’
At last night’s Cafe Scientique, I was asked to recommend books about Charles Darwin. So here goes. (This is my own reading list & probably quite idiosyncratic!) In no particular order: Charles Darwin: the ‘Beagle’ letters – edited by Frederick Burkhardt (2008), Cambridge University Press. I presented snippets from this in yesterday’s blog; it’s a […]
Continue readingthe ‘beagle’ letters
I’m a bit short of time at the moment (enrolment, & preparing for this semester’s classes, & so on) so my reading’s a bit limited. But I’m enjoying dipping in & out of The ‘Beagle’ Letters – a collection of the letters written to & by Charles Darwin in the period January 1831 to October 1836.
Continue readingcharles darwin – the man behind the science
Often, when school students learn about evolution, Darwin himself becomes almost a footnote.They might hear about Darwin’s postulates, setting out his understanding of how natural selection operates to shape the evolution of populations. They might also hear about ‘Darwin’s finches’ – the little Galapagos birds that supposedly gave him a eureka! moment. I suspect that in […]
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