jlynch
Posts by this author
February 22, 2008
Bruce Gordon is expectorating on Dan Brooks’ post on the ID conference (see here). Remember that Brooks received an email after the meeting "stating that the ID people considered the conference a private meeting,and did not want any of us to discuss it, blog it, or publish anything about it. They…
February 17, 2008
It’s that time of the year - first set of papers to be graded. That, coupled with our job search and some other things means I’m not going to be able to post anything over the next seven to ten days.
So there’ll be no "Monday Mustelid" or "Today in Science" for a while. Just warning ya!
February 16, 2008
Births
1723 - Tobias Mayer, German astronomer
1781 - René Laënnec, French physician
1792 - Karl Ernst von Baer, German biologist
1796 - Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician
1888 - Otto Stern, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1600 - Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher…
February 16, 2008
Births
1727 - Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, Austrian scientist
1804 - Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist
1822 - Francis Galton, English biologist and biometrician
1834 - Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist and philosopher
Deaths
1531 - Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and…
February 14, 2008
Events
1946 - ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania.
Births
1564 - Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and physicist
1809 - André Dumont, Belgian geologist
1861 - Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1873…
February 14, 2008
Those of us who teach can imagine what would be like. A lecture hall full of students. Some eager to learn, some who couldn’t care less. Some still in their teens, some returning to college after many years. All vibrantly human. And then the unthinkable happens, as happened today in Northern…
February 14, 2008
In The Chronicle of Higher Education (12/21/01) William Dembski had this to say about his publication strategy:
"I've just gotten kind of blase about submitting things to journals where you often wait two years to get things into print. And I find I can actually get the turnaround faster by…
February 13, 2008
I don’t do Hallmark holidays, but in the spirit of sharing something on Valentine's Day, I give you this wonderful cartoon (source). Be sure and check this one out as well. Excellent stuff.
February 13, 2008
Events
1961 - Lawrencium is first synthesized at the University of California.
2000 - NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
Births
1848 - Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer
1869 - Charles Wilson, Scottish physicist and Nobel Prize…
February 12, 2008
Yesterday was Darwin Day. And a beagle won Best In Show at the Westminster Kennel Club. Coincidence? I think not.
February 12, 2008
Events
1633 - Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
1880 - Thomas Edison observes the Edison effect.
2004 - The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovers the universe’s largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093.
Births
1672 - Ãtienne François…
February 11, 2008
Events
2001 - NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
Births
1637 - Jan Swammerdam, Dutch scientist
1665 - Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, German botanist and physician
1785 - Pierre Louis Dulong, French physicist
1804…
February 11, 2008
Neotropical river otter, Lontra longicaudis Olfers 1818
[source]
February 10, 2008
Births
1657 - Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, French scientist
1839 - Josiah Willard Gibbs, American physicist
1898 - Leó Szilárd, Hungarian-born physicist
1908 - Vivian Ernest Fuchs, English geologist
Deaths
1868 - Léon Foucault, French astronomer
1973 - Hans D Jensen, German physicist and…
February 10, 2008
Last time I wrote about ASU basketball was early January when we beat the University of Arizona Wildcats 64-59 in overtime to go 3-0 in Pac10 play. Much moaning came from Wildcat supporters with claims that, had they had their phenom freshman (Bayless) the score would have been different.
Soon…
February 10, 2008
As promised, here [pdf, 7.83M] are the slides from today’s Darwin Day talk for the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix. There were somewhere between 80 and 100 people in attendance, and I think it went quite well.
And for any attendees who stop by here [pdf] are the slides from my September talk…
February 9, 2008
Births
1785- Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist
1846 - Ira Remsen, American chemist
1897 - John Franklin Enders, American virologist and Nobel Prize laureate
1902 - Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1865 - Heinrich Lenz, German physicist
1923 -…
February 8, 2008
I don’t usually do blog carnivals but Linnaeus’ Legacy #4 is up at The Other 95% and mentions a post of mine. Wander on over to see the current best posts on taxonomy and systematics.
February 8, 2008
Here’s a strategy:
Point to some negative consequence, single out a belief system or people group that you don’t particularly like, make a connection--no matter how tenuous--and suggest a solution.
Let’s see it applied using an example we’re all familiar with the Discovery Institute using (paging…
February 8, 2008
Births
1781 - Johann Baptist von Spix, German scientist
1865 - Erich von Drygalski, German geographer, geophysicist, and polar scientist
1910 - Jacques Monod, French biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate
1925 - Burkhard Heim, German physicist
1963 - Brian Greene, American physicist
Deaths
1752 -…
February 7, 2008
I was going to blog this later today, but now I see Tim over at Deltoid has beaten me to it, so I’ll post this without much comment. (Shakes fist in impotent fury at those damned Australians!) Like Tim, I received a heads-up from John Mashey regarding an online talk by Naomi Oreskes titled "The…
February 7, 2008
Yesterday was a good day, though a long one. I was in my office from nine in the morning meeting with students constantly (talking about upcoming papers) until I began teaching at 12:15. My classes were discussing the Book of Job and really seemed to get it, and by that I mean be able to tease it…
February 7, 2008
Births
1677 - Jacques Cassini, French astronomer
1807 - Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, English sculptor and naturalist
1834 - Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist
1930 - James Deetz, American anthropologist
Deaths
1856 - Agostino Bassi, Italian entomologist
1957 - Walther Bothe, German physicist and…
February 7, 2008
Since the whining has already started, it is worth reminding ourselves that Guillermo Gonzalez’s publication record at Iowa State University wasn’t as impressive as the Discovery Institute want us to think it was. He was not a "stellar astronomer" while at ISU - i.e. where it counted to getting…
February 6, 2008
Births
1870 - Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist
1905 - Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1736 - Stephen Gray, English astronomer and scientist
1897 - Galileo Ferraris, Italian physicist
1960 - Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist
February 6, 2008
A mother Minke whale and her year-old calf are dragged on board a Japanese whaling ship after being harpooned in Antarctic waters. The picture was taken from an Australian customs vessel tracking the whalers to gather evidence for possible legal action to stop the annual slaughter. [Photo: AFP]
February 6, 2008
Over at The Panda’s Thumb there is a highly informative guest post by Dan Brooks detailing a pro-ID conference he was invited to in June of last year. After the conference, Brooks and others received an email "stating that the ID people considered the conference a private meeting,and did not want…
February 6, 2008
Readers may have seen the minor brouhaha over at bpr3.org about Casey Luskin (DI-flack extraordinaire) using the BPR3 icon on a post without registering with ResearchBlogging.org. When this was pointed out to Luskin, he then registered with the site, a move that lead to much discussion. Now Dave…
February 6, 2008
James Hrynyshyn highlights an editorial in Nature that offers luke-warm support for Science Debate 2008. Frankly, the criticisms are paltry and misconceived.
Well meant though it may be, the idea of Tim Russert or some other journalist-interrogator looking Republican hopeful John McCain in the eye…
February 6, 2008
This coming Sunday I will be giving a public lecture for the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix. All are welcome, whether humanist or not. Details are:
Was There A Darwinian Revolution?
HomeTown Buffet, 1312 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale
February 10th, 2008 9:00 am
[There is breakfast at 9, the…