Pro-Test, two years later 9 Feb 200818 Sep 2017 Some of you may recall I was immensely impressed by Laurie Pycroft, a 16 year old who started Pro-Test, which defended the use of animal models against the vicious and largely unthinking nastiness of animal “rights” protesters. Now Nick Anthis, at The Scientific Activist, is reporting that they seem to have achieved many of their aims in defending science from the ignorant. However, I think they will always have to be active – this stupidity has been around for over a century in Britain and elsewhere, and won’t go away any time soon. General Science
Ecology and Biodiversity Observing the hot 17 Mar 2008 The ever-interesting blog of Moselio Schachter, Small Things Considered has another post of thought-provoking microbes: hyperthermophiles. These wee beasties live at 90°C in anoxic conditions. I particularly liked the passing comment: Growth and division of these organisms was observed at 90°C under anoxic conditions using a dark-field light microscope (which… Read More
Biology Short sharp definitions 11 Aug 2010 Over on Twitter, Waterstones bookshops are running a competition to define philosophy in 100 characters. My definitions are below, but it got me thinking. Einstein, I think, said that if you can’t explain it in simple words you don’t understand it, and so I wonder if we can do this… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity Tetrapods, species selection, and extinction 14 Dec 200818 Sep 2017 Just a couple of days ago I mentioned the Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. They must have heard me because today I get my email notification that they have published this year’s volume. I’d like to mention three papers of interest to me. Alas, children, if you don’t… Read More