A busy fortnight 9 Dec 201122 Jun 2018 So, I have been rather active for the last fortnight (that’s two weeks for Americans). I visited Canberra to work on a species concept paper with a colleague, Brent Mishler. I attended a philosophy of biology workshop in Bundanoon, a sleepy little town outside Sydney. I got a love kiss from a huntsman spider there – s/he didn’t mean it; s/he was in my towel and I rubbed him/her hard against my leg. This is what a love kiss from a huntsman looks like. They’re not [very] venomous, but they typically don’t brush their chelicerae after meals, so you can get nasty infections. The image at right is nearly two weeks later… Here’s a huntsman, also known as a wolf spider. Pretty, ain’t it? After I drove back (ten hours’ drive) I then turned around and flew back to Sydney due to bad organisation, where I attended my nephew’s wedding. Back to Melbourne where I gave a talk to the Invertebrate Biology conference at the University of Melbourne. I tried to convince them that species do not have theoretical meanings. We’ll see. I’m quite busy with my present work, so I can’t do anything substantial for a while (every time I say that, though, I write something within 24 hours. Maybe it’s a geas). So have fun in the lead up to Summer (or, if you are unfortunate enough to live in the north, Winter) Soltisial Celebrations… Administrative Philosophy Species concept
Ecology and Biodiversity Ecological speciation 30 Sep 201118 Sep 2017 A new paper in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology (link below) assesses the possibility of speciation by ecological differentiation in conjunction with geographical isolation. The interesting thing here is that it takes two views previously considered as antagonists and combines them into a single model. “Standard” views of speciation assume… Read More
Administrative Travel diary 1 3 Oct 2009 I suppose that I ought to be documenting the World Tour, so while I am on the train to München, I’ll briefly cover the past few days. This train travels so fast that light is bent on the way to the iPhone… Read More
Administrative Whewell’s Ghost, a HPS blog 7 Sep 2010 In conjunction with John Lynch and Rebekah Higgit, a new blog has been launched for history and philosophy of science posts, entitled Whewell’s Ghost. Rebekah and I have kicked it off with a couple of posts. Anyone may contribute to this, on the history and philosophy of any aspect of… Read More
Unusual to see the Scottish spelling the Irish geis is more usual. Wiki definition is far better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geis
Well, several Americans have given me That Look when I used the term in their presence. I just assumed you all had some objection to the term.
Are huntsmen and wolf spiders really the same? My understanding was that huntsmen were large and relatively harmless (unless you rub them against your leg), while wolf spiders were smaller and more dangerous. Plus male wolf spiders did that wonderful dance during courtship. In any case, sounds like a hell of a week.