clock | February 13, 2007Scientists Clone Mice From Adult Skin Stem Cells:
For cells that hold so much promise, stem cells' potential has so far gone largely untapped. But new research from Rockefeller University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists now shows that adult stem cells taken from skin can be used to clone mice using a procedure called nuclear transfer. The findings are reported in the Feb. 12 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Manipulating Nature: Scientists Query Wildlife Birth-control Method:
Professor Cooper also raises concerns that individuals that…
clock | February 13, 2007If you are going to be in Chicago in early May, consider attending (or at least donating towards) the Seventh Dinner With a Dinosaur, an annual event organized by Project Exploration - a worthy investment in science education for inner-city kids.
clock | February 12, 2007Time is just something that we assign. You know, past, present, it's just all arbitrary. Most Native Americans, they don't think of time as linear; in time, out of time, I never have enough time, circular time, the Stevens wheel. All moments are happening all the time.
Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, Northern Exposure, Hello, I Love You, 1994
clock | February 12, 2007Amanda resigned.
You know, if they were going to hurl this kind of crap at me every day, I'd have resigned, too. Not just that they lie about what she said and what that means, they even lie about who they are:
The Catholic League is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. It defends individual Catholics and the institutional Church from defamation and discrimination.
Yeah, right! Didn't we just spend the last couple of days showing that this is a loudmouth organization of anal sphincters defending other individual anal sphincters from the - oh, horror! - hearing the…
clock | February 12, 2007[Moved to the top of the page. First posted at 1:43am]
Last year, I collected the links to notable posts about Darwin Day and posted them here. That was fun, so I decided to do it again.
I checked the Technorati and Google Blogsearch and took my picks that you can see below. I will update this post several times today and move the post to the top in the evening. If you want your post to appear here, please e-mail me at: Coturnix AT gmail DOT com.
Also, later today, I will update this post with a special announcement (pending the approval by the person in question) - naming the winner of…
clock | February 12, 2007The 8th Edition of the International Carnival of Pozitivies (ICP) is up on 2sides2Ron.
clock | February 12, 2007Way back when, while I was still an active grad student, I was a student representative on the departmental seminar committee for about four years (going through four faculty members rotating through the position). So, I pushed for a Darwin Day seminar - inviting someone to give a talk that is not all about data, a historian or philosopher, for instance.
So, I managed to get Bob Brandon, from the Philosophy Departament at Duke one year. He talked about multi-level selection, which was great introduction to a couple of more speakers (including David Sloan Wilson himself - that was one of my…
clock | February 12, 2007 This post is a modification from two papers written for two different classes in History of Science, back in 1995 and 1998. It is a part of a four-post series on Darwin and clocks. I first posted it here on December 02, 2004 and then again here on January 06, 2005:
II. Darwin on Time
There is a season for everything
And a time for every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die:
A time to plant and a time to reap.... (Ecclesiastes)
In this section I will attempt to evaluate from Darwin's writings what he thought about the selective role of environmental periodicities…
clock | February 12, 2007OK, this is really ancient. It started as my written prelims (various answers to various questions by different committeee members) back in November 1999, and even included some graphs I drew. Then I put some of that stuff together (mix and match, copy and paste) and posted (sans graphs) as a four-part post here, here, here and here on December 2004. Then I re-posted it in January 2005 (here, here, here and here). Finally, I reposted two of the four parts here on this blog (Part 2 and Part 3) in July 2006.
This all means that all this is quite out of date. The world has moved on, more…
clock | February 12, 2007
Yes, I was never a member of Boy Scouts (no such thing in Yugoslavia, of course), but I will gladly join the Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique, the brand new organization founded by the folks of World's Fair and the Science Creative Quarterly. Steve of Omni Brain and John Lynch have already signed up.
Above Average Physique? I am super-skinny. But OK, I am tall. And energetic. And have a deep bass voice. That should count...
So, of the possible badges, which ones apply to me? Let's see...
The first one is obligatory for all members:
The "…
clock | February 12, 2007Go ahead, rip into them. I know you want to...
No Missing Link? Evolutionary Changes Occur Suddenly, Professor Says:
Jeffrey H. Schwartz, University of Pittsburgh professor of anthropology in the School of Arts and Sciences, is working to debunk a major tenet of Darwinian evolution. Schwartz believes that evolutionary changes occur suddenly as opposed to the Darwinian model of evolution, which is characterized by gradual and constant change. Among other scientific observations, gaps in the fossil record could bolster Schwartz's theory because, for Schwartz, there is no "missing link."
Males…
clock | February 11, 2007Utter Transformative Joy - The Tarheel Tavern #103 is up on Scrutiny Hooligans.
clock | February 11, 2007...memes. Especially when someone tries to track its spread. Especially when they call me "The Thinking Blogger", originating from the eponimous Thinking Blog. Tagged by Greg Laden, so it is really quite simple:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote
I am tagging:
Archy
Jenna
Sir Oolius
Elayne Riggs
Mustang Bobby
clock | February 11, 2007A bunch of new links on the Basic Concepts and Terms in Science list (or my 'enhanced' list, if you prefer).
Bitch PhD has a new (paying!) gig at Suicide Girls News Blog and starts out with a post explaining the Plan B: How Does This Plan Work?
Revere on Effect Measure: Freethinker Sunday Sermonette: the Edwards blogger dust-up
Ezra Klein, in an op-ed in The Guardian (online only): We want a divider, not a uniter, and more on the topic on his own blog: More Shamefaced Obama Skepticism
Chuckles1 puts it even better: The OTHER Abraham Lincoln
A comment by Elizabeth Edwards - Response to a…
clock | February 11, 2007As I indicated a couple of days ago, I'll be collecting a big linkfest of tomorrow's Darwin Day posts.
This is like an annual carnival I like to do.
Make my job easier by letting me know by e-mail when you post one. You know that both Technorati and Google Blogsearch are slow and untrustworthy - get your link in on time!
Update Today's posts on 'Evolution Sunday' are also eligible.