Australian stuff Why anti science? 23 Nov 2013 Over the past few decades there has been an increasingly negative attitude by governments, pundits, religiosi and faux philosophers against science. We have seen an increase in denialism about climate change (one of the most well supported scientific models of the day), vaccination, evolution, medical research in general, and the… Continue Reading
Australian stuff NSW removes protection for marine parks 11 Nov 201311 Nov 2013 I received this from NYU CUNY philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith: The NSW government recently decided to temporarily lift the ban on line fishing in NSW marine sanctuaries. They may well decide to make the new regime permanent, effectively abolishing all real marine sanctuaries in the state. This is such a bad… Continue Reading
Biology Articles of faith: The theological and philosophical origins of the concept of species 22 Oct 201329 Oct 2013 It takes a while for the implications of one’s own work to sink in. In my 2009 book Species, a History of the Idea (see here), I argued that the notion that before Darwin people were essentialistic and fixist about species was false. A recent paper by Jack Powers about Mayr’s misreading… Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Carnival of Evolution 47: All the Evolution News that’s Fit to Blog 1 May 201221 Jun 2018 Welcome to the 47th edition of the Carnival of Evolution. We have had our science reporters out in force hunting down the best of the blogosphere on evolution and related subjects, and here they are for your delectation and delight and other d-words. First some links I encountered in my… Continue Reading
Biology The Knight’s Song, or What is a [scientific] theory? 7 Apr 20127 Apr 2012 “Or else it doesn’t, you know. The name of the song is called ‘Haddocks’ Eyes.’” “Oh, that’s the name of the song, is it?” Alice said, trying to feel interested. “No, you don’t understand,” the Knight said, looking a little vexed. “That’s what the name is called. The name really is ‘The… Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity The ecological equivalent of Evolving Thoughts 29 Oct 201129 Oct 2011 I have been casting my beadies over this blog, Oikos Blog, which looks to take a critical and philosophical eye to ecology. It appears to have some careful and deep critics on it, and what is more, at least one of them likes Evolving Thoughts. What better recommendation? Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity The mind of the ecological engineer 27 Oct 201127 Oct 2011 I watched a very interesting documentary episode recently, entitled “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” (a phrase of poet Richard Brautigan’s), in which the maker Adam Curtis put forward the view that ecology was founded (at least in its modern iteration) in direct analogy with the view of… Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Rise of the Planet of the Moralists 3: clades and grades 20 Oct 201122 Jun 2018 Rise of the Planet of the Moralists Series1: Introduction2: Chains and Trees 3: Clades and grades4: Predicting traits5: Social dominance and power Note: My researchers readers have inundated provided me with all kinds of interesting references (hi Jeb and Jocelyn). One that is particularly interesting is this book. It appears… Continue Reading
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… Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Counting species 26 Aug 201122 Jun 2018 Suppose a scholar of toys wanted to count the number of kinds of toys in the world. Since this information is not generally recorded, the scholar might look at the ways toys are used, the sales figures, or the designs recorded in the patents and trademarks offices in order to… Continue Reading