Ten best species for the last year 23 May 2009 It’s fun to read, but what it means I am not sure. A bunch of systematists have devised the Top 10 New Species list for 2008. It’s basically a way to promote the need for more conservation and systematics at the species level, and that can’t be a bad thing: The list at the Institute for Species Exploration, centred at ASU, is here. However, I am particularly concerned at the choice of the coffee bean without caffeine. What’s next? Lauding a cacao bean without theobromine? This is just wrong, and they should have hidden the news altogether, lest it become the standard offering at coffee bars. Ecology and Biodiversity Humor Systematics
Evolution The first phylogeny 30 Sep 202030 Sep 2020 The only diagram in the Origin is famously the hypothetical series of species forming a tree structure, but it isn’t an actual classification based on his principles. I have previously noted the rise of cladograms towards the end of the 19th century, but in a talk by Ian Hesketh, I was… Read More
General Science On ID and the public awareness of evolution 20 Apr 2008 Imagine a scientific theory that very few people know or understand. Let’s call it “valency theory“. Now suppose someone objects to valency theory because it undercuts their view of a particular religious doctrine, such as transubstantiation. So they gather money from rich members of their faith community and start a… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity Developing dumbness 5 Aug 2008 I get a lot of Google alerts about various things, including species concepts, obviously. I have noticed a pattern: media from the so-called “developed” or “first world” almost never put much in the way of actual facts or knowledge in their reports, concerned, I guess, that it will scare the… Read More
A caffeine-free coffee bean might be economically useful – for producing a never-caffeinated subsitute for decaffeinated coffee.