New evolutionary blogger 27 Oct 2009 Sean Stan Rice, an evolutionary biologist at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, has started a blog: Honest-Ab (which he has named after a weed he once used in experiments; not noticing that it is named also after Theophrastus, Aristotle’s student who founded botany). Put it in your reader and watch it. Rice is the editor of the Encyclopedia of Evolution, so he may be presumed to know a thing or two… Evolution
Evolution Going backwards, or, devolution? 29 Sep 2009 Carl Zimmer has another one of his excellent summary articles, this time about the problems encountered by a research group that tried to make a protein that had evolved into one form, evolve back to the starting point. This is being touted as a molecular version of “Dollo’s Law” (which is… Read More
Epistemology Notes on novelty 2: Historical considerations – before and after evolution 18 Dec 201122 Jun 2018 Notes on Novelty series:1. Introduction2. Historical considerations – before and after evolution3: The meaning of evolutionary novelty4: Examples – the beetle’s horns and the turtle’s shell5: Evolutionary radiations and individuation6: Levels of description7: Surprise! 8: Conclusion – Post evo-devo The roots of novelty in biology are very deep. They go back at least to Aristotle’s book… Read More
Creationism and Intelligent Design The tautology problem 20 Aug 2009 A long time ago I wrote a not particularly good piece on the tautology problem: that natural selection is merely circular definition. I was just out of being an undergraduate when it was published, so it was at best an undergraduate piece. I have been unsatisfied with it ever since…. Read More