Book My species definitions reader is accepted for publication 15 Aug 2007 I have a book forthcoming, Species definitions: a sourcebook from antiquity to today, which gives and commentates definitions of “species” in logic and biology for 2,500 years, from Plato to Templeton and beyond. It’s designed as a reader for scholars to see how the notion[s] have evolved separately in the… Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity What is an individual? 11 Aug 2007 Rob Wilson has a new entry up at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, entitled “The Biological notion of an individual”. It discusses an interesting problem, one that goes back to discussions by Julian Huxley in 1911. What is an individual in biology? Continue Reading
General Science [Philosophy of] science blogging 7 Aug 200718 Sep 2017 I’ve been pretty quiet of late. In part this is because I’ve been travelling with little internet access, but also it’s because I’m teaching a subject I haven’t studied in years, and because I was asked to write a popular essay for a magazine. It’s COSMOS Magazine, an Australian popular… Continue Reading
General Science Storm World review in the LA Times 31 Jul 2007 Some guy named Chris Mooney got reviewed for his latest book Storm World in the LA Times. You’d think from the reviewer’s comments that he did a good job. I’ve heard the name before… now where? Hmmm…. leave that one with me for a bit. [I got my copy, Chris,… 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 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
Evolution ID not OK in UK 26 Jun 2007 The Register is reporting that the UK government has ruled that intelligent design is not acceptable in science classes. [via Slashdot] Continue Reading
Evolution Lewes on Heredity, in 1856 22 Jun 2007 I’m putting this up because I will use it to discuss the history of species definitions in a forthcoming talk. It’s very interesting for a number of reasons, one of which is the species nominalism, and another that Lewes argues from evidence for biparental inheritance some years before Mendel, and… Continue Reading
Evolution Did some dinosaurs survive the K-T boundary 20 Jun 2007 A new paper in New Mexico Geology has the following rather tendentious title: Fassett, J.E. 2007. The documentation of in-place dinosaur fossils in the Paleocene Ojo Alamo Sandstone and Animas Formation in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and Colorado mandates a paradigm shift: dinosaurs can no longer be… Continue Reading