NYT article on genes 10 Nov 2008 Here, by the incredibly young, handsome and way too successful Carl Zimmer, late of the Seed stable. Carl brings to mind my favourite Truman Capote saying: It is not enough to succeed. Friends must be seen to have failed. Anyway, go read the bastard’s excellent essay. I will just sit here in my pool of failure. Evolution General Science Humor
Evolution Evolution quotes: Diderot 14 Aug 201115 Aug 2011 It seems that nature has taken pleasure in varying the same mechanism in a thousand different ways. She never abandons any class of her creations before she has multiplied the individuals of it in as many different forms as possible. When one looks out upon the animal kingdom and notes… Read More
Epistemology Was Darwin a philosopher? 12 May 2010 It is only fair that I apply the same standards to my saviour-figure that I apply to others (Paul Griffiths wants a t-shirt with the slogan “Darwin is my personal saviour”). In fact I published an essay asking whether Darwin was a historiographer, if not a historian (answer: yes). So… Read More
Evolution A quote 31 Oct 2007 From J. B. S. Haldane’s 1932 The Causes of Evolution: … I must … discuss a fallacy which is, I think, latent in most Darwinian arguments, and which has been responsible for a good deal of poisonous nonsense which has been written on ethics in Darwin’s name, especially in Germany… Read More
It’s a decent review of the past 50 years of genetics for the lay person. I think that’s why Zimmer is so successful; he conveys mind numbing quantities of science into something readable for the average individual with little background in science. In any event, I know most of that, and I’m a bit upset that he didn’t go more in depth with how untranslated regions within an a sequence function (like operators), but it was still a decent place to send people for a very general overview.
It’s a decent review of the past 50 years of genetics for the lay person. I think that’s why Zimmer is so successful; he conveys mind numbing quantities of science into something readable for the average individual with little background in science. In any event, I know most of that, and I’m a bit upset that he didn’t go more in depth with how untranslated regions within an a sequence function (like operators), but it was still a decent place to send people for a very general overview.
For a layman like me, it’s a great piece of work. One of the difficulties a non-specialist faces in keeping up with the field is that it changes so quickly, and new discoveries keep happening. That’s why I started reading Scienceblogs. Zimmer is indeed absurdly talented. But reading him was what led me to other fascinating blogs like this one. (Fishing for compliments, John?)
For a layman like me, it’s a great piece of work. One of the difficulties a non-specialist faces in keeping up with the field is that it changes so quickly, and new discoveries keep happening. That’s why I started reading Scienceblogs. Zimmer is indeed absurdly talented. But reading him was what led me to other fascinating blogs like this one. (Fishing for compliments, John?)