This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. In chapter eight, Darwin looks at instincts. Instincts are subject to the same processes of variation and heredity as everything else in […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. In chapter seven, Darwin responds to some more objections to his theory of natural selection. One such objection is that “many characters […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. Chapter six is where Darwin humbly acknowledges that his work is not entirely watertight, explains some of the problems that have been […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. It has been noted enough times now that Darwin knew nothing of genetics, and I already described Darwin’s bizarre Lamarckian hypothesis for […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. Chapter four is supposed to be the big reveal of natural selection, the solution to one of nature’s greatest problem. Trouble is, […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. Chapter 3 is the struggle for existence. If The Origin had been written a hundred and twenty years later than it was, […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. Chapter 2 is “variation in nature”. You can’t solve a problem without first defining terms, so if the problem is the origin […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. In Chapter one of the Origin, Darwin discusses inheritance and variation. It’s an interesting choice for a starting point, because as everyone […]
This is an archival repost from the old blog. Like many science bloggers, it is my intention to blog about evolution and/or Darwin every day this month. One thing that I will be blogging is The Origin Of Species. It will hard work: fifteen chapters of Victorian prose to get […]
Michael Retsky, William Hrushesky, and Isaac Gukas have an interesting article relating to angiogenesis in the evolution of tumours published in BMC Cancer today.[1] It’s only an hypothesis, but it covers an area of cancer biology that I have been meaning to blog about for a long time now. Angiogenesis […]
This is another archival repost from the old blog, this time from jan 2009. Catching up on the week’s feeds, and the CiF piece from Edinburgh climate scientist Thomas Crowley caught my eye. Perhaps it’s the headline editor’s fault, but really — “Science can’t explain the big bang – there […]
This is another archival repost, originally written for the old blog in september 2008. There are differing opinions in the blogosphere over the merits of calling out bullshit. Does one feed the troll? Is it ever acceptable to sink to ad hominin attacks? I try to stay civil, and I […]
This is another archival repost from the old blog, originally from september 2008. It’s a right good science fest on Radio 4 at the moment. If you missed it, you must listen to Physics Rocks (available until 17/9). It’s Brian Cox talking to comedians about their enthusiasm for science. It’s […]
This is another archival repost originally written for the old blog in 2008. I am satisfied with the mystery of life’s eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence – as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason […]
This is another archival repost, originally written in september 2008. It was great to meet everybody at the London Science Blogging Conference. Before my dissection of what I thought were the important themes, I should just apologise for the accident with my facial hair — it was only this morning […]
This is another archive repost from the old blog, written in aug 2008. The psychologist Oliver James was on The Late Edition a couple of weeks ago.[1] His argument was unconvincing and his behaviour unimpressive. So I took a quick look at his website. He offers for download a Radio […]
This is an archival repost originally written on the old blog in 2008. Hah! Made you look! No, but seriously… The schizophrenic argument of the creationists goes something like this (my paraphrasing): How can we believe anything these scientists say when they keep changing what they say to accommodate the […]
This is another archival repost, originally written for the old blog in May 2008. Darwin’s 1837 phylogeny, with root and branches. I’ve talked about Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) on the blog a few times before, particularly in the context of bacteria acquiring genes for things like antibiotic resistance, and in […]
This is an archive from the old blog, originally written in 2008. Regular readers may have noticed that I get rather annoyed by the casual use of the word “chemical” to mean “synthetic chemical”, and the use of the naturalistic fallacy (natural good, chemical bad) that is associated with this […]
This is another archival repost from the old blog — this one from january 2008. This post is part six in a series. The series so far can be found here. Cogito, ergo sum. René Descartes, 1637. I’ve given five posts and several thousand words over to introductions to principles […]
I’ve been reading John Gribbin’s In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat. He casually mentions the atomic (or, rather, ‘atomistic’) theories of the ancients — in particular Democritus. Gribbin accuses historians of science and popular writers of attributing too much to Democritus, whose ideas about the world do not resemble modern physics. […]
This is another archival repost from the old blog — this one from January 2008. The post is part five in a series. The series so far can be found here. In the first installment of Sunday Syndrome I used the example of Prader-Willi Syndrome. This week we’ll bring in […]
This is another archival repost, originally written for the old blog in Dec 2007. Read about member of parliament George Galloway in any British newspaper, no matter what its editorial policy or political situation, and you will read about corrupt, self-serving Stalinist dullard on an ego-trip. But I hardly have […]
This is another archival repost from the old blog — this time from Nov 2007. The post is part four in a series. The series so far can be found here. So far in the Sunday syndrome column, we’ve been talking in terms of the all-or-nothing loss (or gain) of […]
This is another archival repost originally written for the old blog in november 2007. “Yes I agree, but this is different. Don’t lump us in with those charlatans!” Criticise quack miracle cures, irrational superstition, loony pseudoscience, and religion, and you will get in return an example of the comment above. […]