Greg Laden is a biological anthropologist and science communicator. His research has covered North American prehistoric and historic archaeology and African archaeology and human ecology. He is an OpenSource and OpenAccess advocate. Greg's wife, Amanda, is a High School biology teacher, his daughter Julia is a world traveler and his son Huxley is 2.
Why did humans evolve hairlessness? Hair (fur) protects mammals from heat and cold, what would be the benefit from losing this asset?
I think the most commonly held theory is that fur works on quadrupeds, but once you stand upright, it is less effective, and less fur works better. For later…
Why did the evolution of a large brain happen only once (among mammals, and in particular, primates?)
Larger brains have evolved a number of times. It seems that there has been a trend over several tens of millions of years of evolution of larger brains in various clades, such as carnivores and…
My student, Marta, exploded the other day.
She was sitting there in class two weeks ago and exploded. She does not know that I know this, but I noticed it happen. Since she was sitting, as usual, in the front row, and it was all in her face, the other students did not see it but I definitely…
It is almost Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. One thing this means that US citizens and I'd bet some Canadians will be receiving the annual Brown Recluse Spider Warnings via Email. In order to reduce the negative effects of this email spamish meme, I hereby inoculate you. If you get the email…
"The large print giveth, the small print taketh away. Microsoft, which recently laid off 1400 employees, is now claiming that some of those lucky schmoes were inadvertently overpaid on their severance package. A letter from the company, which was subsequently circulated on the internet, states: 'We…
... At sixteenth. Barack Obama was number 1, edging out Jesus who was forced into the number two spot.
God, the omniscient entity hisself, came in 11th, sandwiched between Mother Teresa and Hillary Clinton. Don't think about that to closely.
source
The poll results, from Kos:
casiopea's diary…
This story:
10 tornadoes confirmed in Ga., including one with winds topping 160 mph
Ten tornadoes, one packing winds of more than 160 mph, touched down in parts of Georgia on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said Friday.
The storms caused an estimated $25 million in insured losses, said…
I know every computer box needs a CD/DVD reader in order to boot the thing up under adverse conditions (and your system should always be set up so that you can do this, by the way!). But as a matter of actual functionality, maintaining a current and high-functioning version of this sort of device…
... more like Verizon Without a Net Math ...
I would like to have seen a calculation of how far off these were in dollars per week. Canadian dollars, I suppose.
The fact that the rates quoted are almost always an order of magnitude or two lower than the actual rates would strongly suggest that…
If Arnold was a bovine, he'd look like this.
Now, the lady cows say that they find this disgusting, but all the boy cows don't believe that and are intimidated nonetheless.
But seriously, this looks to me like a mutation that we've known about for some time, and published versions of mice that…
Diatoms are algae with hard parts. They make up a major part of the plankton found in fresh and salt water environments. Usually, diatoms exist as single celled free floating organisms, but they can also be colonies of several single cells. Their tiny little 'shells' are made up of silica (these…
Well, not really, but she did mention that we are Running Out of Rich People!!!11!!!!
This first bit below is from a few days back is just full of gems. I'm giving you the whole radio interview here. Below, is an annotated version that may be more enjoyable. Either way, shoot up some Valium…
In Washington. That's the idea of newly proposed ballot measure.
This measure would prohibit state use of public money or lands for anything that denies or attempts to refute the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe, including textbooks, instruction or research.
The Supreme Being. Stop…
I asked our vet this morning whether she thought our pets somehow understood that we thought we were doing them a kindness when we brought them into the vet to be euthanized. I thought it was mostly a rhetorical question at the time, a way of stalling, a way to avoid crying, which I hadn't thought…
Nature, the publishing group, not the Mother, has taken Darwin's 200th as an opportunity to play the race card (which always sells copy) and went ahead and published two opposing views on this question: "Should scientists study race and IQ?
The answers are Yes, argued by Stephen Cici and Wendy…
