You could read hundreds of pages of Darwin’s work and easily come to the conclusion that he was a geologist. But a different selection of readings would convince you he was a biologist. In truth, he was neither and both. I’m giving a talk for the Humanists of Minnesota this weekend that will explore what Darwin really was: An experimentalist, a part time anthropologist, a natural historian and most impressively, an integrative thinker of the likes rarely to be seen again for a century after he lived. My talk will draw heavily on Darwin’s own work and provide a sampling of some of his more interesting and compelling findings.

The talk will be at the Nokomis Community Center, on Saturday, February 18th, at 10:00 AM

More details here. See you there!

It will take some time before the meaning of HeartlandGate is realized. The released confidential documents are not extensive, but they are current, mainly related to a meeting that happened less than a month before their release. They don’t tell us anything that we didn’t suspect, but they give details that people outside this science denialist “think” tank did not know. The most important thing about these documents is probably this: We can now say without equivocation that global warming denialism and other science denialism is, at the institutional level, funded by wealthy individuals and the petroleum industry, that it is an explicit anti-science strategy, and that it has nothing to do with differences in interpretation of scientific data. Also, this strategy of claiming that “Global Warming is a Hoax” is bought and paid for.

The other thing we might be able to say, but we’d want to see the corresponding documents from next year’s meeting, is that the climate science denialism industry is becoming less well funded over time. Presumably, even corporations, institutions, and individuals who have a self interested reason to deny climate change or damage science education can see, eventually, when it is time to hold off or even give up. Money is money and tossing good money after bad is not wise and the people who underwrite this anti-science effort know this. The crazies (see comment sections here and elsewhere) will be left twisting in the wind like so many Bigfoot hunters and Ghost busters.

Here is a current list of posts that I know of addressing HeartlandGate:

• HeartlandGate: Anti-Science Institute’s Insider Reveals Secrets
• Heartland Institute Exposed: Internal Documents Unmask Heart of Climate Denial Machine
• INTERNAL DOCUMENTS: The Secret, Corporate-Funded Plan To Teach Children That Climate Change Is A Hoax
• Heartland Institute budget and strategy revealed
• How is Joe Bast Like Joe Camel? Looks Like We’re Going To Find Out..
• Is Turnabout Fair Play?
• Leaked insider docs from Heartland Institute goal: “dissuading teachers from teaching science” #climate #Heartland #ScholarlyKitchen
• Leaked Heartland Institute documents pull back curtain on climate scepticism
• Leak exposes how Heartland Institute works to undermine climate science
• Heartland?
• The Heart(land) of the Denial Campaign
• Zachary Shanan, Fossil-Fuel-Funded Think Tank, Heartland Institute, Exposed (Deniergate? Heartlandgate? Pick a Name), Clean Technica
• Phil Plait, Breaking news: A look behind the curtain of the Heartland Institute’s climate change spin, Bad Astronomy
• Christian Hunt, Undermining the IPCC, keeping opposing voices out, dissuading the teaching of science – Heartland in its own words?, The Carbon Brief
• Canucks On Heartland Institute Payroll

Disclaimer: The Heartland Institute is now claiming that these documents have likely been altered or faked, and are threatening to pursue criminal and civil charges against all bloggers who posted comments on them or links to them.

I can not prove that these documents are real or fake. I will certainly pass on to you any information that comes along about this. Have a look at the documents and make up your own mind (before I am forced by guys in suits to take down the links).

Please check out this post: HeartlandGate: Anti-Science Institute’s Insider Reveals Secrets

This seems to be fairly big news. The Heartland Institute is a conservative and libertarian “think” tank that cut its teeth on denying the dangers of cigarette smoking back in the 1990s. These days the Heartland Institute seems to be focused on Anthropogenic Climate Change Denialism and Science Denialism in general.

I’m making a list of posts on the topic:

• HeartlandGate: Anti-Science Institute’s Insider Reveals Secrets
• Heartland Institute Exposed: Internal Documents Unmask Heart of Climate Denial Machine
• INTERNAL DOCUMENTS: The Secret, Corporate-Funded Plan To Teach Children That Climate Change Is A Hoax
• Heartland Institute budget and strategy revealed
• How is Joe Bast Like Joe Camel? Looks Like We’re Going To Find Out..
• Is Turnabout Fair Play?
• Leaked insider docs from Heartland Institute goal: “dissuading teachers from teaching science” #climate #Heartland #ScholarlyKitchen
• Leaked Heartland Institute documents pull back curtain on climate scepticism
• Leak exposes how Heartland Institute works to undermine climate science
• Heartland?
• The Heart(land) of the Denial Campaign
• Zachary Shanan, Fossil-Fuel-Funded Think Tank, Heartland Institute, Exposed (Deniergate? Heartlandgate? Pick a Name), Clean Technica
• Phil Plait, Breaking news: A look behind the curtain of the Heartland Institute’s climate change spin, Bad Astronomy
• Christian Hunt, Undermining the IPCC, keeping opposing voices out, dissuading the teaching of science – Heartland in its own words?, The Carbon Brief
• Canucks On Heartland Institute Payroll

This is interesting:

Charles Darwin’s research and writing on Evolution and related topics is still very much alive today, modified and expanded on but only in a few details replaced. Here is a selection of writing about Darwin and his work to be found on this blog:

Darwin and his Formative Fieldwork

2008-02-13 Charles Darwin and Coral Reefs. Darwin’s study of coral reefs was a defining project for him; he became the kind of scientist he was because of this study, and this helped define the nature of science itself.

2009-09-06 A conversation with David Dobbs about his book (reviewed here) on Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral. (See also this.)

2008-02-14 Darwin’s Finches are the group of birds that Darwin studied and collected on the Galapagos. These birds make a great example of evolution in action, and their role in Darwin’s development of evolutionary thinking is somewhat overestimated. It is true, however, that birds and islands are at the root of Darwin’s theories.

A journey through the Voyage of the Beagle

• First, a bit about the Beagle
• The Voyage of the Beagle (the book and the trip and the experience)
• Darwin Crossing the Atlantic
• Darwin and the Rain Forest
• Darwin Gets his Wellies Wet
• South America on Five Dollars a Day
• Bugs
• Darwin South of the Tropics
• Darwin and the Gauchos
• Fossil Quadrupeds
• Rheas and the Birth of Evolutionary Theory
• Elephants and Horses

Darwin Scholarship

Darwin’s notebooks, and not just his publications, are available to read and review. If you can read his handwriting.

2008-06-21 A talk about Biology and Darwin by Darwin Scholar Mark Borrello, at the Evolution 2008 meetings.

2009-02-08 Celebrating Darwin: a radio talk show about Darwin and Evolution at the Bell Museum.

Let’s have a look at Wallace vs. Darwin; how were their theories similar and different?

Darwin was a geologist!

Reflections on The Origin of Species.

Mark Pagel on Charles Darwin; in which my favorite living evolutionary theorist talks about my favorite dead evolutionary theorist.

Evolutionary Theory:

The Modes of Natural Selection … there are ways of categorizing Natural Selection in action. Here’s the best way to do it.

For Natural Selection to work, three necesssary and sufficient conditions must be met. And then, it’s kinda hard to avoid it.

2010-08-25 Natural Selection vs. Opportunity in Macroevolutionary Patterning of the Fossil Record … a recent analysis pertaining to Darwinian theory.

Why didn’t Darwin discover Mendel’s laws?

Darwin had more than one theory, and at least one of the pertains to the question of the origin of life: NASA’s new organism, the meaning of life, and Darwin’s Second Theory

Shockingly, age 48. Reports are vague.

Here’s some info.

I believe she was 48 years old, and probably died today, but the cause, location, and other details are unknown. Here are a few details.

It’s alive!!!!! And, it’s wallboard.

“The Matter with Us”

Once we have rejected the spiritual, we are left with the material. That should simplify our lives, right? Not necessarily. As John Rawles book, The Matter with Us: A Materialistic Account of the Human Predicament, notes on its title page:

The bridge of spaceship Earth is deserted; nobody is in charge. Down below, the passengers are fighting amongst themselves, damaging the craft, looting the stores, and squandering the reserves. As a fellow passenger it gives me no pleasure to report what I see. What’s the matter with us that we should behave like this? Surely, we would all prefer that many future generations should continue to enjoy the cruise of a lifetime in safety, comfort and good health; but that seems unlikely. And it was such a beautiful ship.

Of course, the situation isn’t all doom and gloom either. We got ourselves here, and at least for now, we have some choices about where we go next. Join us on Sunday as we talk to John Rawles about how we got where we are and what we can do to make sure the cruise goes on.

Details Here

From Kristin Montalbano:

Mark Twain once said, the Mississippi River is a “wonderful book with a new story to tell every day.” Well, Nat Geo WILD spent an entire year exploring the length of North America’s longest and greatest waterway in Wild Mississippi and we can tell you the man was NOT exaggerating. We gave a few of our favorite science, animal and nature bloggers the chance to check out the miniseries before it airs this Sunday – see what they had to say below:

Check it out!

A team of researchers based in Namibia, South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom now report fossils from a Namibian deposit that seem to be animals and apparently date to about 760 million years ago. This extends the known time span of animals on the planet by about 17 percent….

Read more

When I was a kid, I saw a photograph in an old Life magazine of a man standing on the ice somewhere in the Arctic, and a killer whale breaking trough the ice, much of the whale’s body out of the water, a very short distance from the man. The whale was so close to the man that it was hard to say if the wincing expression on his face was due to being splashed with cold seawater or the thought that he was about to be ruthlessly mauled and eaten by the most vicious and dangerous creature on Earth.

Those were the days…

Go read my latest post at Surprising Science. You might be surprised!

Brianne Bilyeu, a friend and colleague here in Minnesota and The Blogger Knon as Biodork, has moved her very nice blog to … Free Thought Blogs!

Please go say hey to Brianne.