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History of botanical education
How do you think botany was taught in the 1800s? TPP almost said "in the last century", but then realized what that now means, and he's an expert on the last 50 years of that century having lived it....
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1001 Botanical Gardens you should see before you die
It was a mistake to buy Mrs. Phactor a book titled: "1001 botanical gardens you should see before you die" because the index makes such a handy check list. Even with our almost famous botanical geek...
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Around the Internet: What you missed last week (9/17/2012 edition)
Chomsky OK, not technically last week, but here's a longish post critiquing Chomsky and a much longer, heated discussion in the comments, from BishopBlog. Replication A nice editorial on the important...
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Cultural transmission of religious violence: is it inherited or diffused
In 16th century Europe, a radical new Christian movement arose - the Anabaptists. Although the history is murky, it seems that the new sect began in Zurich, and then rapidly fractured into a...
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2012
I got asked about 2012 the other day. Something about Mayans predicting the end of the world and or hidden planetary alignments. Sometimes I don't know where to begin addressing something so wrong....
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In Adolescence, Fears Are Harder to Forget
When it comes to fear, unlearning is as crucial as learning. Our growing brains learn to be afraid of scalding pans, oncoming traffic, and our parents calling us by our full names. But if we can't...
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Discovering something I didn't know?
One thing about being an academic, you constantly learn new things. While scanning through a number of science news web sites during lunch, there was an article on the Discover Magazine web site...
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Epistasis in evolution
[The following is a post written for BEACON.] What is epistasis? Epistasis is a measure of the strength of epistatic interactions. Epistatic interactions are non-additive interactions between alleles,...
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Kinetics in drug discovery: The neglected child?
A couple of articles appearing in the last few months brought my attention to a topic that medicinal chemists don't always think about and need to pay more attention to; the important role of kinetics...
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Leaf cuttings and art
Searching the intertubes for information and what not can lead to some pretty funny and rather unexpected outcomes, e.g., searching for images of holly. So this AM the Phactor was looking for some...
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47% Pride
As basically everyone knows Romney came out to a bunch of his multimillionaire buddies. Well he didn't come out as in he admires Paul Ryan's abs o' steel or anything. He came out as a heartless bastard...
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Strange language fact of the day
Apparently in some languages/cultures, it is common to call an infant "Mommy". Even a boy infant. I am told by reliable sources this is true of Bengali and of Tzez. Reportedly Bengladeshi immigrants...
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Entreperneurial botany - moss in a bottle
One of TPP's great failings has been his inability, or reluctance, to use botany to grab a quick buck. What is it with the crazy idea that something of real value must be proffered? Is this why a...
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How to be a good speaker
Bjørn's two rules of being a good speaker: Love the words that you speak Always have something to say An engaged speaker is more enjoyable to listen to than a bored one. If you love the words as they...
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Will microbiologists ever have a Lesula moment?
Last week there was a report in PLoS One documenting the first scientific description (pictures, morphology, behaviour and even genetics) on a newly identified species of primate living in and around...
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The birth of a planet
partially translated by @ulaulaman from a post by @_starblogger_ When I write about the Nice model, I explain how a group of researchers try to explain the birth of our Solar System. The approach of...
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The Shambulance: Infrared Body Wraps
(The Shambulance is an occasional series in which I try to find out the truth about bogus or overhyped health products. Having recovered from my taste of no-calorie noodles, I'm back this week with...
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This Neighborhood Is Getting Crowded
In 1988 exactly one (1) extrasolar planet was thought to exist, and that was confirmed in 1992. So that's a total of 10 planets, nine (before Pluto got demoted) orbiting an undistinguished,...
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