… is certainly still in the future. But we have seen a step in that direction in a new paper, coming out this week in Science. This research applies intensive and extensive genomic analysis to the avian phylogenetic tree. The results are interesting.This paper is summarized in a number of locations, most notably here on Living the Scientific Life. Here, I will summarize it only very briefly. However, there are two observations I would like to make about this paper and its apparent meaning. One has to do with the nature of science, and the other has to do with the nature of evolution in particular. I’ll argue that we can quantify (almost non-trivially) the number of times science is wrong. I’ll also argue that Stephen Jay Gould was wrong (not totally, but not trivially) about one of his most important assertions (other than his musings about the myth of vaginal orgasms … we’ll talk about that another time). Continue reading The Perfect Bird Family Tree…
Daily Archives: June 26, 2008
Pile On
Join Zuska and her commenters in a pile on regarding the Smithsonian Magazine’s recent article on the archaeology of southern Africa.It’s racist, it’s sexist, and it’s even anti-Neanderthal. (The article, not Zuska’s post)Regarding the writing about the use of stone tool technology in the article:
It says, “could be women – but no one really knows, do they? The safe bet is on men.” It’s the equivalent of saying “the PC police are always watching, so we’d better pretend like there is an actual possibility that we are including women in this discussion, even though we know we’re talking about Man, i.e. men, not women.”
Harvard Medical Labcast
Harvard has a new podcast called Harvard Medical Labcast, Science that’s Changing your World. It’s pretty good, and you can find it here.If you want the latest Linux podcast managing client, check this out.
Growing Up, and The Process of Discovery
This is not a time to be profound. This is a time to rehydrate and make some more coffee. And search around for stuff that fell out of pockets. Continue reading Growing Up, and The Process of Discovery
Mike!
Seven Days of Carlin Three
Blog Carnival
The Tangled Bank # 108 is HERE at Wheat-Dogg’s World.