More journalistic idiocy about evolution 9 Apr 20104 Oct 2017 This, from SBS World News, a usually relatively reliable public news service in Australia, on their report on the new hominid. I sent them this message: I have to criticise the moronic commentary in the World News tonight – No, the lack of transitional fossils hasn’t been a problem for evolutionary theory since the turn of the 20th century, well over a century ago No, there is no “missing link” – that relies upon a view of evolution that Darwin replaced I fear that your reporter or producer relied upon creationist websites. There are lots of people who study the history and theory of biology – couldn’t you have at least tried to find someone to tell you what to say? Evolution History Media Evolution
Administrative So, here I am in Arizona, still 9 Mar 2008 Yeah, yeah, OK, I know I’ve been absent except on the comments, but I’m traveling, all right? Everything I have worth saying gets said over beer or whiskey, tonight to Jim Lippard and John Lynch, the latter of whom is my present host. I must thank Malte Ebach for his… Read More
Evolution When philosophers really embarrass themselves 13 Mar 2008 I have just sat through one of the most teeth clenchingly bad philosophy talks, given on phylogenetics by a philosopher who has never read anything sensible on phylogenetics to phylogenetic systematists. One of the last mentioned leant over to me and asked “Does this guy know anything?” I had to… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity Some new work on speciation and species 12 Dec 2008 There is a widespread tendency of biologists to overgeneralise from their study group of organisms to the whole of biology. Sometimes this is because the organisms are model organisms, like Drosophila (the “fruit flies” that have been used in genetics since the beginning).Other times it is because specialists tend to… Read More
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.” –Mark Twain