This Week in Evolution

That was one of the questions in a recent poll by The Economist. People in the US and the UK were asked to choose among these answers:
1) the theory of evolution
2) The Bible
3) "Intelligent design"

That's easy. Of the three choices, only The Bible even attempts to explain the origin of the earth. A broad definition of the theory of evolution may include possible explanations for the origin of life -- narrower definitions are limited to explaining how life has changed since its origin -- but "the origin of the earth" is the province of astronomy or geology, not biology. What I've seen of "intelligent design" is mostly whining about alleged gaps in the theory of evolution, rather than attempts to develop scientifically testable explanations of the origin of the earth or anything else, so that's out.

Continue reading "Which explains the origin of the earth?" »

Posted by R. Ford Denison at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Most scientists also volunteer their time as "peer reviewers" for scientific journals, checking submitted papers for serious flaws, such as lack of appropriate controls. Reviewers also make good papers better by, for example, suggesting alternative interpretations of results. My own papers have been greatly improved by this process, which makes up for the few times I've thought a paper was rejected unfairly. (Fortunately, there are plenty of good journals, and the odds are against getting the same incompetent or biased reviewer twice.)

As a minimum, reviewers try to make sure that the paper describes what was done and what the results were, clearly and unambiguously. Which brings me to two recent sentences from the New York Times that probably wouldn't have made it through peer review:

And now add to the lengthening list Gov. Eliot Spitzer, husband, father of three teenage daughters, who authorities on Monday said had been involved with a ring of prostitutes.

Police found the soldier, who was still in the vicinity, shortly after 11 p.m., using a helicopter with a thermal camera.

Posted by R. Ford Denison at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Each generation tends to resemble the previous one, so evolution of whales from land animals, for example, took many generations. One limitation on the power of natural selection is that each generation must be viable. Some creationist suggested that the problem is analogous to "evolving" a sentence one letter at a time to make a substantially different sentence, while requiring that each intermediate step be a valid sentence. The Mosquito Eater has solved this challenge. Cool!

But we no longer need to rely on imperfect analogies to biological evolution. Molecular tools now make it possible to explore multistep evolution experimentally, as I discussed in an early post.

Posted by R. Ford Denison at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I thought this analogy between grad school and Lord of the Rings was pretty funny, but what about Monty Python and the Holy Grail? I'm really tempted to start my next oral exam with:

What is your name?
What is your quest?
What is the long-range dispersal mechanism of Cocos nucifera?

Continue reading "Grad school as an epic quest" »

Posted by R. Ford Denison at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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Posted by R. Ford Denison at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Fellow science bloggers are discussing the strangest search terms that have led readers to their blogs. I haven't seen anything nearly as weird as what some report, just a few moderately strange ones:

"grants to support carpenter ant research"
"examples of week rocks" (maybe "weak" was meant?)
"opportunity cost essay" (there may be an annoyed economics student out there somewhere)
"disadvantages of shark-fin soup"
"scientists who contributed to the evolution of ecology" (only qualifies as strange because similar search came from two different IP addresses in the Philippines the same day; maybe a school assignment?)
"how plants and animals r useful to humans"
"weird scientific papers" (I think I'm offended by this one)
"this week in" (after TWI Amateur Radio, but before TWI Tech)
"Why should farmers know about evolution??" (not really a strange search, but made me wonder whether the searcher had any pre-existing bias on the question)

Posted by R. Ford Denison at 06:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)