Bugs online 9 Aug 2008 This is cool. I always like to find historical documents online; even better when they’re free. The Society for General Microbiology has scanned its journal International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (IJSEM) back to the first edition in 1951 and made the archival articles free to all. Since the discovery of organisms is a once-off affair, subsequent researchers need access to the item that announced it in peer-reviewed print to be able to be sure they are working on the right species. So more than most sciences, taxonomy is a historical science, and since bugs (the technical term for bacteria, algae, and other microbes) have only really been deeply and widely studied in the past 60 years or so, this counts as “historical material”. Congrats to the SGM, and now for the other professional publishers… Ecology and Biodiversity History Species and systematics
Ecology and Biodiversity Liveblogging the conference: Julia Clarke and Todd Grantham 14 Mar 2008 This is a session on paleontology that I missed the start of because I had to go get my power supply. Read More
Evolution Punnett on Mendelism and species 18 May 2009 The wonderful Project Gutenberg has just released a fully HTMLised version of R. C. Punnett’s (he of the famous “square”) 1911 book Mendelism, which shows how quickly the implications of Mendelian genetics, rediscovered 11 years earlier, were worked through. It’s a wonderful read, and anyone with a slight knowledge of… Read More
Evolution Annie’s death was not the cause of Darwin’s agnosticism 6 Jul 2009 That rough punk of evolution, Mark Pallen, has a table up documenting the formulation and spread of the story that it was the horrible death of Darwin’s favoured daughter, Annie, which, he reckons, is not true. He’s working up a paper on the matter, he says. But Darwin’s stated reasons… Read More
Now THAT is just plain beautiful. This is one journal that lack of free access to has been irritating me, so I’m excruciatingly happy to see them opening up…
Now THAT is just plain beautiful. This is one journal that lack of free access to has been irritating me, so I’m excruciatingly happy to see them opening up…