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Empty talk about the evolution of complexity
PZ Myers has a post on the evolutionary origins of complexity: αEP: Complexity is not usually the product of selection I find it frustrating that people talk about terms that they don't clearly define,...
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Slaughter in Sandy Hook: What Facebook Taught Me
'Nothing brings people together like a tragedy' is a phrase we learn early in life, usually after the first tragedy we experience. That's often a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing. Think about...
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Make some cookies
Whenever the news, from near or from far, is about tragic events a great sadness is generated; it's depressing. Is this the price that must be paid for a society that thinks guns are a symbol of their...
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The Live-Bearing Brotulas
Black brotula Stygnobrotula latebricola, photographed by Thomas W. Doeppner. The subject of today's post is the Bythitidae, a family of mostly marine fishes referred to as the live-bearing brotulas....
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Eighteen papers on replication
Last month, Perspectives in Psychological Science published a special section on replicability in psychological science. With 18 papers, it took me a while to get through all of them, so I am only...
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Are You Healthy Enough to Be a Space Tourist?
Space travel for regular folks is almost here. But before jumping on board the nearest spacecraft, amateur astronauts and their doctors might want to consider the health risks. Although standard air...
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Citations - Scholarly Beans
When you publish in science, you must place your research into context, that is, you must show how your work relates to all other work relevant to your study and findings. This is no small task and...
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Get Reddy to get Madder
Applied versus basic research is not really an option because to be really innovative, applied research has to be defined loosely enough to allow research to wander a great deal. So you're interested...
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Seasoning starter kit
The morning newspaper had side column suggesting a list of 10 must have seasonings for the brand-new, novice cook. Having a deep philosophical conversation before consuming your full titer of caffeine...
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Weird comments
I get quite a few anonymous comments to random posts. They are random in that there is no apparent correlation between the content of my posts and their comments. Examples: Anonymous has left a new...
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The secret origins of the Moon
posted by @ulaulaman about #Moon formation #astronomy #Earth with Italo Calvino quotes Our satellite, the Moon, is really fascinating, not only for artists and poets, but also for scientists. For...
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Winter storm approaching
Our first winter storm of the season is approaching and should arrive just about when TPP starts his walk home, and just in time for the Chi-town evening rush hour. As mentioned before this will set...
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Cycad "flowering"
A check through the glasshouse found a number of our small cycads coning, mostly species of Zamia. Here's a small specimen of Z. pumila showing the full display of seed cones at the time of...
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Physics' Cabinets
Translation from M. Leone, A. Paoletti, N. Robotti (2009). La Fisica nei "Gabinetti di Fisica" dell'Ottocento: il caso dell'Università di Genova Il Giornale di Fisica, 50 (3), 135-154 :...
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Notes on zoonotic rubulaviruses
I've been meaning to post about this paper for a while now and thought that nearing the end of the year would be a good time to clear my head of thoughts about it. The paper I'm talking about is one...
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Whither goes the Field Museum of Natural History?
The Chi-town Trib greeted us this morning with the news that the FMNH was aiming to reduce its curatorial and research staff, and refocus its mission, to deal with budgetary realities. Unfortunately...
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Fossil Scan Reveals Ghost of Lizard Past
Peering into the past life of this fossil took an x-ray scanner powered by a particle accelerator. What scientists saw there was mysterious: an ancient lizard had left behind its skin and teeth, but...
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Life is tough all over
Things are tough all over! And particularly in this season, you hate to hear stories of peoples' economic woes that break your heart, so how can anyone even think of raising taxes on the richest few...
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Friday Fabulous Flower - Icy!
This is a pretty cool phenomemon that not too many people have seen because 1. you have to be out and about in early winter, 2. you have to have a lot of herbaceous perennials, 3. just the right...
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Trying to be good, but birdies in the bush
Our kitty girls have been trying to be very, very good. Things like sleeping together on Mrs. Phactor without playing biffy games in the middle of the night, and not eating each other's food, at least...
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