I've been travelling a little to organise my move to Sydney. Love the building, the department, the people and the project. Not sure about Sydney... so anyway, nothing of substance from me for a while.
Here's a lovely little essay about Newton pissing off most of the European intellectual giants of his time, by one of our commentators, Thony Christie, at Etherwave Propaganda. He truly was the most egotistical and curmudgeonly bastard of his time, matched only by his actual achievements.
The latest Linnaeus' Legacy is up at Agricultural Biodiversity. They had the good taste to use one of mine.
Bob Grumbine, a net friend for many years, is trying a science blog aimed at secondary school students. Keep an eye on it. His daughter has one that covers, among other things, women in science.
John Hawks discusses what you get if you buy a species name: fame or a defeasible hypothesis?
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Hooray! Sydney finally gets our own SciBlogger. Shame you're signing up with that *other* uni though. Post an entry when you get settled in and maybe us Sydneysiders can prove to you that we're not as bad as our reputation.
Deltoid is run by the excellent Tim Lambert, at the University of NSW, so you already have a Scibling.
Hi John, thanks for the recommendation and the link, money's in the post...
They always say that, but the cheque never arrives...
John Hawks is wrong in his discussion of species names. All species names are, in fact, eternal. If a species name is thought incorrect, that name goes into the synonomy of the name which replaces it. The name in synonomy is eternal, though not so glorious. Perhaps synonomy should trigger a partial refund.
The name is forever, yes. But what you pay for is to have your name attached uniquely to the species, and if yours turns out to be the junior synonym, shouldn't you get a refund? Or is good faith involved in thinking the species diagnosis was correct? Or maybe researchers will use fake hypotheses of uniqueness to defraud corporate customers? I can see a whole can of worms here, and I'm not even properly awake...
Welcome to the City of the Bridge, John!
Let us all know when you're feeling thirsty; we'll fix that problem.