Ecology and Biodiversity Organic farming – a good idea? 7 Sep 2007 COSMOS magazine has an interesting article sure to stir up trouble by suggesting that, among other things, global organic farming would necessitate clearing all remaining forests and even then a substantial portion of the earth’s population would starve. I don’t know enough about this topic to speak sensibly, but I… Continue Reading
Administrative Outstanding topics 6 Sep 200718 Sep 2017 I have, I must confess, started a number of projects here that I haven’t finished. Teaching is getting the better of me (and no, I’m not going to put my lectures down on cognitive science, as I do them “freeform”,, so I’d have to do a lot of work to… Continue Reading
Politics On torture 6 Sep 2007 “It is incredible what people say under the compulsion of torture, and how many lies they will tell about themselves and about others; in the end whatever the torturers want to be true is true.” Friedrich Spee von Lagenfeld, S.J., 1633 Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity The meaning of “life” 6 Sep 2007 Carl Zimmer has one of his usually clear and precise articles on recent work on the nature of life, focussing on the work of Carol Cleland, who is at the National Astrobiology Institute, despite reduced funding for actual science by the present administration. I met Carol last year when we… Continue Reading
Evolution The more things change.. 2 Sep 2007 I have decided that I am sick and tired of the antievolutionists. When I got into this game about 15 years or more ago, I thought that if we just argued and presented information about what evolution really is, and what it means for modern thinking, people would move away… Continue Reading
Administrative A note to my readers 1 Sep 2007 If you’re reading this on “Science Blog“, be aware that the site is stealing, copying without proper attribution, and generally parasitising real blogs, including mine. Go to the real Science Blogs site for information on the actual blogs. Although I have a Creative Commons license, this doesn’t mean that anyone… Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Theories of speciation 1 Sep 200718 Sep 2017 Continuing on from my last post, let’s consider the modes of speciation that are called into account for the existence of species. Continue Reading
Evolution Are species theoretical objects? 31 Aug 2007 A lot of people have said something like “species are the units of evolution”. What does this even mean? So far as I can tell, nobody has really fleshed this out. Continue Reading
Evolution Christianity Today = Inanity Today? 29 Aug 2007 Oh honestly. Christianity Today reports the travel of the Australopithecine fossil “Lucy” to the US with the closing paragraph: It should be interesting to see what the interest in Lucy is, given that according to opinion polls roughly half of the American public has expressed serious reservations about the theory… Continue Reading
History In defence of Keanu, and the 5th best scientist 28 Aug 2007 So they’re remaking The Day the Earth Stood Still? So what? I have more respect for Keanu Reeves after seeing the recent film A Scanner Darkly, and anyway he’s much better an actor than Will Ferrell, who did such a good job in Stranger than Fiction to my surprise. But… Continue Reading