Pharyngula
I found this very satisfying: Steven Pinker summarizes all the problems with group selection. It’s a substantial essay, but if you just want the gist of it, here’s the conclusion. The idea of Group Selection has a superficial appeal because humans are indisputably adapted to group living and because some groups are indisputably larger, longer-lived,…
All I want to know is…who instigated this unholy coupling? Was it the dolphin getting kinky? Was it the octopus feeling amorous? Or was it possibly a mutually agreed-upon exploration of new sexual frontiers?
And they know it. Ken Ham has started a new billboard campaign for the creation “museum”, with a variety of different designs, all featuring prehistoric* creatures as draws to get kids and family to attend. Here are some examples: Notice what’s smart about them? They’re focused, featuring an element that they clearly know is a…
Just the title was enough to make me squeamish: Penetration of the Oral Mucosa by Parasite-Like Sperm Bags of Squid: A Case Report in a Korean Woman. It seems the woman thought she was getting dinner; the squid saw a last chance to reproduce. As is common with these kinds of misunderstandings, neither got what…
Jerry Gretzinger has a project, one that never ends. What started as a little doodle has grown into a sprawling, detailed map that is maintained and expanded by following rules — rules that increase complexity organically, using chance. It’s cool and strange at the same time. Jerry’s Map from Jerry Gretzinger on Vimeo. Gretzinger also…
Exciting news! Scientists are working on identifying the biochemical pathways that produce a miniscule component of this plant’s chemical defenses!
The Best Science Writing Online 2012 can be read online right now — but don’t you want to order your very own precious hard copy, too?
Both Andrew Sullivan and Kevin Drum are wrong, but I think Drum is infuriatingly wrong. They’re arguing over a statistic, the observation that about 46% of Americans believe the earth is 6000 years old and that a god created human beings complete and perfect as they are ex nihilo. Andrew Sullivan sees this as a…