That’s the eye-catching title of my current reading matter – the book Lies, Damned Lies, & Science by Sherry Seethaler. And reading it led to the following musings: Science is complex. Yet too often it’s presented – in the media, but also in textbooks & science classes – as a series of stand-alone facts (in the […]
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donald prothero on the nature of science
I’ve just started reading Donald Prothero’s book Evolution: what the fossils say and why it matters. It looks good & certainly captured my attention right from the start. (However, it will probably take me a little while to get through the book as at the moment it’s my pick for when I’m on the stationary bike at […]
Continue readinga couple of interesting articles for you to read
Both from the pen keyboard of Brian Switek, on his blog Laelaps. The first begins with a quote from Charles Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle, recounting the genocidal approach of an Argentinian general towards some of the local indigenous tribes. Darwin found this approach horrifying, but also doubted that there was much that could be done […]
Continue readingarsenic & ancient mummies
The daughter & I love reading Elizabeth Peters’ ‘Amelia Peabody’ books: lovely rollicking yarns with a leavening of actual historical events, likeable characters, and a delightful, gentle poke at Victorian standards (of writing & other behaviour). And, as they’re set in Egypt, the occasional mummy. We’re fascinated by mummies as well 🙂
Continue readingmusings on hansen’s disease
Some years ago I read the whole series of ‘Thomas Covenant’ books by Stephen Donaldson. (I have to say that I found them a bit overblown – & I got seriously annoyed with the protagonist, Covenant, on more than one occasion.) Anyway, one of the plot lines was that Covenant suffered from Hansen’s disease – […]
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 readingtalking about science
Why is it important for people (scientists, journalists, science communicators, every woman & her dog) to talk about science? Does it really matter if NZ primary school students think science isn’t fun, if secondary students seem to be showing less interest in the sciences, or if fewer & fewer students major in physics at university? As […]
Continue readingthe consequences of vision
You learn something new every day. One of the big talking points in palaeontology is the ‘Cambrian explosion’ – the seemingly rapid appearance (over ‘just’ a few million years!) of complex animal life, which occurred around 490-540 million years ago. Discussion ranges over the causes of this diversification and whether the apparent ‘explosion’ really happened […]
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