Evolution Why not information? 17 Jan 2008 OK, so by now a number of you are either quite puzzled or are up in arms about this notion of mine that genes aren’t information. First I’ll recap and then make some general philosophical and historical points. Continue Reading
General Science Is information essential for life? No. 16 Jan 200818 Sep 2017 A recent New Scientist article poses the often-posed question in the title. The answer is mine. Forgive me as I rant and rave on a bugbear topic… Continue Reading
Evolution ROUS’s? I don’t believe they exist. 15 Jan 2008 Anyone who knows the film The Princess Bride knows what happens next. Westley gets hit hard by a rodent about the size of a pitbull. However, it seems that ROUS’s (Rodents of Unusual Size) actually may have existed, in Uruguay. Nature reports that the skull of one has been discovered,… Continue Reading
General Science Students publishing 13 Jan 20084 Oct 2017 TR Gregory at Scientific Blogging asks why advisors would encourage their students to publish. One of the reasons is: Most of the graduate and undergraduate students with whom I have worked directly have been quite excited by the possibility of seeing their names in print on a high quality piece… Continue Reading
General Science Is there a physicist in the house? 10 Jan 2008 One of my colleagues just raised a point I hadn’t thought of vis á vis Special Relativity. I had always thought that an observer on a photon would not experience time. My colleague suggests that each frame of reference – the fast moving and the “stationary” – would experience time… Continue Reading
Evolution I hate a barnacle… 6 Jan 2008 …said Charles Darwin, more than any man ever has. He should have, too – he spent seven years of his life working up the first encyclopedic monograph on the group. But that pales into insignificance compared to Alan Southward, who died last year. The Other 95% has a very nice… Continue Reading
General Science Nice genetics quip 4 Jan 2008 Microsoft Word’s “Track Changes” and Endnote are synthetic lethals. From The Futile Cycle. “A synthetic pair of genes are two gene variants that alone are fine, but when combined into the same organism, cause it to die.” Why? When you have Endnoted a paper and send it to a friend… Continue Reading
General Science The Golden Compass – a lead ballon? 29 Dec 2007 Henry Gee reviews the Golden Compass, and comes up with largely the same conclusions I would have had I been as insightful as he. A quote: It’s a long time since I read the book, The Northern Lights, on which the film is based, so perhaps it’s a problem with… Continue Reading
General Science Having PC heroes 29 Dec 2007 One of the things about being a Mac user, for 20-odd years now, is that you just like your corporate hero. Sure, they stuffed up on a number of hardware releases, and their delay in getting a multitasking OS out the door is only redeemed by the quality of the… Continue Reading
General Science The man who changed the world 24 Dec 2007 OK, so today is Christmas day, December 25. On this day* a man was born who changed the world. He affected a growing tradition that has left no part of the world untouched, for good or ill. He revealed the workings of the universe. He spent his life teaching us… Continue Reading