New work on the origin of life 11 Jun 2008 I can’t say much about this without reading the paper in the company of Somebody Who Knows About Chemistry, but Jack Szostak’s team at the Harvard Medical School has done some interesting looking work on the self assembly of lipids into miscelles that could contain DNA reactions. What is new to me is the claim that lipids might have been formed in hydrothermal vents rather than as by-products of the original chemical cycle. But it doesn’t explain how the transition from “found” lipid monomers to “made” monomers arose. Anyway, check it out. Evolution General Science
Evolution Terry Pratchett hasn’t found God, or his keys 27 Jun 2008 Readers may know I have a passing interest in the works of Terry Pratchett. Oh, okay then, I’m a fanboy. Have been for well over fifteen years, since a coworker shoved Good Omens into my hands and mind. So it was with some trepidation that I read that he had… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity Hope for bonobos 21 Nov 2007 The African apes don’t get much good news these days. But the Congo has just announced they are setting up a preserve to protect the bonobo. The size of the Sankuru Nature Reserve is 11,803 square miles (in real money, 30 569.629 square kilometers), which makes it nearly half the… Read More
Epistemology Some of my recent papers and reviews 28 May 2010 “What is a species? Essences and Generation” forthcoming in Theory in Biosciences. Review of the Cambridge Companion to Darwin for RNCSE. Secularism essay in which I argue that secularism protects religions. A shorter version of the Milvian Bridge essay, with Paul Griffiths Read More