Ecology and Biodiversity Update on the Brazilian primate researcher case 8 Aug 200718 Sep 2017 Nature [subscription required] is reporting that Brazilian ecologists are threatening a strike if Marc van Roosmalen is not released. You’ll recall that I posted on his case before. Van Roosmalen is a maverick primate researcher who has effectively been imprisoned for 16 years for political reasons. Brazilian researchers are justifiably… Continue Reading
Evolution The inimitable Mr Spencer 7 Aug 200718 Sep 2017 I have a soft spot for Herbert Spencer [see also here]. Supposedly the founder of social Darwinism and the precursor to American libertarianism and justifier of the robber barons of the Gilded Age, he has been the whipping boy of progressives and anti-evolutionists alike. Ever since Richard Hofstadter fingered him… Continue Reading
Administrative Home again 3 Aug 2007 So I’m home from Ish, and the front part of my brain is giddy and tired while the rest has just shut down. I don’t travel well, I’m afraid. One thing that I came back fired up over are the unfinished projects I have running. So I intend to finish… Continue Reading
Evolution Lateral transfer of genes across the evolutionary tree 18 Jul 2007 In recent years it has becoming increasingly obvious that there is a considerable amount of lateral, or cross phylogenetic, transfer of genetic material. In bacteria, this happens by several mechanisms, such as uptake of gene fragments from cells that have disintegrated, or by mechanisms such as conjugation (“bacterial sex”). Sometimes… Continue Reading
Evolution Religion and science 15 Jul 2007 There has been a bit of a resurgence of science versus religion posts and chatter in various forums* that I inhabit when I’m not working lately. It occurred to me that it might be time to do one of my sermons. There are basically two popular views of the relation… Continue Reading
Evolution A quotation 14 Jul 2007 A religious body or faith community that speaks only with only exclamation points but no question marks misses the complexity of creation and the beauty of evolution. Rabbi Kendall in Stuart, Florida Continue Reading
Evolution A review of Hitchens 9 Jul 2007 I probably agree with Christopher Hitchens on many substantive points. But I won’t be reading his book. Instead, we can thank this reviewer for their critical, ascerbic, and I suspect in the end accurate review of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Primate researcher in Brazil gets 14 years for a permit problem 7 Jul 2007 Naturalised Brazilian, Dutch biologist Marc van Roosmalen, has been sentenced to 14 years jail in Brazil for running a monkey refuge without a permit from Ibama, the local environmental agency. Not that he didn’t apply, mark you, but Ibama didn’t respond, and the received local wisdom is that if they don’t within 45 days, it’s approved. Continue Reading
Evolution Random things 4 Jul 2007 Back from the drinking sessionconference, with many good thoughts. One in particular is due to the talk by Aiden Lyons at ANU on probability and evolution – after more than two decades trying to figure it out, I had to wait for a grad student to put it all neatly… Continue Reading
Evolution New Philosophy of Biology Forum 26 Jun 20074 Oct 2017 Run by Matt Haber at Utah, it’s a forum for discussions of work in progress, student matters like employment, tech issues and biology and society topics, to mention only a few. It’s in alpha form now, but expect it to grow. The sidebar blurb is this: Continue Reading