This is something I wrote years and years ago, but which slipped through the great blog reorganisation a couple of years ago, back when I thought I’d be able to find the time for a whole blog about cancer biology. So I’ll dump it here for safe keeping… This post […]
I originally wrote this in Feb 2008, and later updated it for the old Lay Science. While making sure that this website was up-to-date, it occurred to me that this post would have disappeared with the rest of the Lay Science site. I have forgotten what updates I made when […]
This is another archival report, originally written for the old blog in 2008. Here’s an interesting one: Genesis chapter 30. If you think Darwin got inheritance wrong, try the Bible. 30:28 And he [Laban] said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. 30:29 And he said unto him, […]
This is another archival repost, written for the old blog in January 2008. The central dogma of molecular biology, first described by Francis Crick in 1958, describes the flow of information between DNA, RNA, and proteins.[1] The central dogma is interesting, but I believe that its use in teaching is […]
This is another archival repost, originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. I wrote the majority of this post a couple of years ago, when I had the intention to do a regular “creationist claim” feature, but for some reason never got around […]
This is another archival repost, originally written on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. For eight years, the United States was the brawling village idiot of the developed world, so far as Europe seemed to be concerned. But in Britain, we are constantly reminded that, […]
This is another archival repost, originally written for the old blog in november 2007. The main driving force for creationists is not science, but ethics. Their trump card is that “evolution is immoral”: they cite “might makes right” and eugenics, quote Darwin’s supposedly racist terminology in The Origin and Voyage, […]
This is another archival repost, originally written for the old blog in march 2007. Shockingly, it’s a new article on the blog. Even more shocking: there will be several more following over the next few weeks. “All those people who feel that denial of ID is heresy are missing the […]
(This is another archival repost, written for the old blog in 2009.) If you’ll excuse my tabloid headline writer… A year ago, I wrote Lies, damn lies, and tissue culture, describing some of the reasons why caution and healthy skepticism are required when assessing the conclusions of tissue culture studies. […]
This is another archival repost first written for the old blog in 2007. On Monday I mentioned John Maynard Smith’s videos at People’s Archive. They really are marvelous, and you should watch them all. One of the topics he discusses is horizontal gene transfer in bacteria, a subject I discussed […]
I was listening to an old episode of the SETI institute’s podcast Are We Alone, in which they talked to a CSICOP (or whatever it is they call themselves these days) investigator. He described how he approached claims of the paranormal: he was neutral, and he “suspended disbelief” while he […]
I think I’ve mentioned before that I keep a copy of Burkhardt’s Selected Letters of Charles Darwin handy in the smallest room (“for fun“). In this letter to Asa Gray in November 1857, a load is lifted from Chaz’s mind… By the way I must tell you what I heard […]
This was originally written a year ago on a now disused blog. I’m reposting it here because I enjoyed writing it so much that I wouldn’t want it to disappear. People love a good argument with Richard Dawkins. So many people are so desperately seeking reassurance that he is wrong, […]
Several my usual topics collide as pseudoscience exploits photography for some bad marketing. The Society of Homeopaths, an organisation representing British homeopaths (including many who advocate the use of their failed medicine as malaria and HIV/AIDS treatment), are employing the cheap trick of the “photography competition” rights grab. They’re not […]
After renewed fighting between Bad Science’s Ben Goldacre and make-believe scientist Gillian McKeith, the skeptical blogosphere has been taking a look at itself and wondering whether it’s being a bit too mean, and putting people off. My contribution at Lay Science says ‘no’: there is value in making fun of […]
I’ve posted a quick review of The Way The World Is, physicist-vicar John Polkinghorne’s attempt at explaining to other scientists why he is a Christian. It’s a tedious and embarrassing piece of work. The book, that is. The post, I hope, is at least entertainingly sarcastic. Read it here.
The paper that initiated the great MMR hoax has been thoroughly discredited and retracted by the journal that published it, but the anti-vaxxers still claim — and hoodwink some parents — that more research is required to establish whether or not vaccines cause autism. I thought therefore that it was […]
Skepticism is about critical thinking and knowing how to avoid being fooled by charlatans and the honest but mistaken. Over at Lay Science I explain one way that you can get fooled: by people citing the activities of cells in a dish as scientific proof for anything and everything. Read […]
I have just started blogging at Lay Science, a group blog about science, the nature of science, and the abuse of science. I’ve been a long-time subscriber as there’s a whole bunch of great bloggers there. My first post, SciDebtate: a depressing night out for nerds, is a summary of […]
Since sequencing the human genome, the Sanger Institute in the UK and the US National Human Genome Research Institute have turned their sights — and their vast sequencing capacities — to cancer. Cancers can be thought of as genomic diseases, caused by somatic mutations, and progressing by the accumulation of […]
This is an archive repost, originally posted on the old blog shortly after Johnny Ball had made his first appearance at Nine Lessons And Carols For Godless People. Skepticism — the movement and the everyday scientific method — is about vetting the new ideas that want to take up residence […]
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. There are those who declare Darwin’s literary brilliance, and those who proudly announce that The Origin is beyond their wit and attention […]
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’s getting late in the book, and for a while now Darwin has not so much been explaining and testing his theories, […]
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. Two pages into chapter thirteen we get a fantastic image of Darwin pottering in his conservatory, dipping his duck in various fish […]
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. Oh dear, the topic seems to have taken a distinct veer into creationism, around here, and I fear that will not change […]