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Gifts of the Magi - down to two?
Exploitation and over use of natural communities threatens many species, and according to a newly published study, a valued species of antiquity: frankincense, a native of the middle east. It's a...
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The science behind Santa
How does Santa visit billions of homes all around the globe in just one night? Is this just a load of hogwash that your parents tell you so you'll eat your overcooked vegetables and go to bed early...
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My creative contributions to the Festive Tree of Life
Last week I got a thick padded envelope from the Wellcome Trust. My colleagues were a bit surprised... I told them it was a grant, and well it kind of was, only not wads of cash, but lumps of...
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Unruly beasts in the jungle of molecular modeling
The Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design is having a smorgasbord of accomplished modelers reflecting upon the state and future of modeling in drug discovery research and I would definitely...
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Kids Learn to Speak by Not Listening
Getting dressed in the dark is generally considered a bad idea. When presenting ourselves to the outside world, we like to have some visual feedback so we know what other people are seeing. Likewise,...
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New Open Access Paper Publishing Field Notes from the 1932 Excavations at...
Schoch, R. R. 2011. Tracing Seemann’s dinosaur excavation in the Upper Triassic of Trossingen: his field notes and the present status of the material. Palaeodiversity 4: 245–282. Abstract - The field...
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Friday Fabulous Flower - Galphimia glauca
Wow, almost missed the fact that today is a Friday, and that just wouldn't do, would it? Here's another denizen of our glasshouse, one of the most prolifically flowering shrubs in the collection:...
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We're number one! We're number five?
Ah yes, in these days of USA exceptionalism, it’s not considered nice to point out areas where the USA is not #1. Here’s a chart that shows the top 40 countries in terms of scientific publications, and...
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Goodwill to all men?
This being the season of good will to all men (at least for those of us with a Christian heritage), it's time to bring a little harmony to the most tumultuous conflict of our times. Yes, I'm talking...
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Creationists Respond and Spanked
I put up a post the other day in response to a question I was asked. It must have been one of my better ones because it has raised some creationist hackles. Of course there are significant issues with...
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Do you hate slow walkers? So does the Grim Reaper !
Researchers in Sydney, Australia were analysing mortality statistics, when they found an intriguing trend. They found that slow walkers tended to have a higher chance of dying early. Could this be a...
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Merry Marathon
Christmas day and the quiet extends through the house, but yesterday was a merry marathon orchestrated to the quarter hour to squeeze in all the activities. Still it was fun, the dinner was good, the...
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A Christmas message from Steve Jobs for our friends in pharma
I am at the end of Walter Isaacson's excellent biography of Steve Jobs and it's worth a read even if you think you know a lot about the man. Love him or hate him, it's hard to deny that Jobs was one of...
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Botanical Santa
Ho, ho, ho! A colleague is teaching plant diversity and unless you can put the plant in students' hot little hands, it's not very good instruction, but you can't just run out to the local market, or...
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The Boundary Between Knowledge and Belief
The director of CERN, Rolf-Dieter Heuer, talks to European Magazine.It’s a quest for knowledge. The questions we are examining have been asked since the beginning of mankind. We are humans, we want to...
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Inteview with La revolución naturalista
The Spanish language blog La revolución naturalista has just posted a short written interview with me (in English, although there is a Spanish version). It covers some stuff on the cognitive science of...
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Slug
This post first appeared in May 2011. Yes, I'm on vacation for another couple of days and Inkfish is in reruns. In a creature much simpler than a human, scientists have figured out how to erase a...
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Ormyrids: Attacking the Gall
Female of Ormyrus nitidulus, photographed by Penny Metal. Everyone knows about God's supposed inordinate fondness for beetles, but it is my opinion that the true poster children for insect diversity...
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Botany enters the 20th century, and maybe the 21st, in 2012
This summer in Melbourne Australia the Phactor attended the XVIII international botanical congress, which are held every 6 years. One of the highlights of the meeting are the nomenclature sessions...
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