More on the really bad journalism 26 Jan 2009 An excellent fisking by Johnny at Ecographica is here – including the cover that New Scientist should have used… More from Larry at Sandwalk here, on the cover and the intent of the article. Marco F at Leucophaea has a blog in Italian that I think says complimentary things about the critics [Babelfish kept on interpreting something as the evolution of the geniuses, and I’m fairly sure that wasn’t about me]. And a drunken front doorstop by Malte and David at Mr Darwin’s home here. Mr Darwin was unfortunately unwell. Naturalists should never be allowed to drink. More: Chance and Necessity compares how National Geographic does it with how New Scientist did. Bora does an editorial review meeting, and T Ryan Gregory has some words too about the magazine’s overall direction. The Rough Guide to Evolution points out that Darwin actually did not even assert there was one single tree of life including both plants and animals anyway… More more: Allen McNeill at The Evolution List discusses how lateral gene transfer has been known for at least a quarter half century. Evolution History Social evolution
Epistemology The mind of other species 16 Dec 2010 Jacob von Uexküll was an Estonian biologist, who among other things coined the term “Umwelt” to denote the sensory and cognitive world of a particular species. The idea has been unjustly ignored by philosophers of biology, in part because it was enthusiastically taken up by semioticians instead, in part because… Read More
Evolution The heat of religion 14 Aug 2008 It’s always a Bad Idea to critique a paper on the basis of summaries, but I just can’t seem to make Proceedings of the Royal Society let me download this article. Randy Thornhill and Corey Fincher have proposed another explanation for religion, based on the correlation between tropics and diseases,… Read More
Social evolution Cultural evolution and population density 5 Jun 2009 Many popularisers of science have made a claim something like this: Human history at last took off around 50000 years ago, at the time of what I have termed our Great Leap Forward. [Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel, p39] and others have asserted that this is due to a… Read More
As a matter of fact there was something about genes (in italian singular gene – plural geni) not about geniuses (singular genio – plural geni). In the post I was just stating the obvious, with a minor disagreement with you (how dare I?). Graham Lawton’s article isn’t that bad – from a journalist point of view, I mean: well researched, with good number of citations. Well, a little twisted at the end, but not as bad as the Newsweek one, which I find awful, and you failed to comment. I ended the post just saying that Darwin was wrong, but NOT where the critics declare he was. To make a long story short; Lawton is a good science journalist, but he slipped on this piece (his defence(s) all over the internet are a good evidence – excusation non petita…), and he provided weapons to creos. And, BTW, in my Weltanshauung you are a genius… 😎 P. S. I’ll send you the pdf of the article with your interview as soon as I get it.
As a matter of fact there was something about genes (in italian singular gene – plural geni) not about geniuses (singular genio – plural geni). In the post I was just stating the obvious, with a minor disagreement with you (how dare I?). Graham Lawton’s article isn’t that bad – from a journalist point of view, I mean: well researched, with good number of citations. Well, a little twisted at the end, but not as bad as the Newsweek one, which I find awful, and you failed to comment. I ended the post just saying that Darwin was wrong, but NOT where the critics declare he was. To make a long story short; Lawton is a good science journalist, but he slipped on this piece (his defence(s) all over the internet are a good evidence – excusation non petita…), and he provided weapons to creos. And, BTW, in my Weltanshauung you are a genius… 😎 P. S. I’ll send you the pdf of the article with your interview as soon as I get it.
This poster is further into the future still. (Aussies will get it.) Thanks for posting the links. You might add this link: http://scienceblogs.com/bookclub/2009/01/13_things_that_dont_make_sense.php This book review includes: It took me several chapters to pin down what bugged me about the book, but it all became clear when I looked at the back cover flap, and saw that the author is a former editor of New Scientist. Th[is] really pretty much sums it up– in physics circles, New Scientist is known for publishing three or four articles a year proclaiming the imminent overthrow of relativity or quantum mechanics, usually with an “Einstein Was Wrong” sort of headline. […] PS: re Babelfish kept on interpreting something as the evolution of the geniuses, and I’m fairly sure that wasn’t about me: never pass up opportunities for praise, surely!