pharyngula

The place to go if you want to track the media responses to our Twin Cities bridge disaster is Minnesota Monitor. There are regular updates as new information comes in. If you're looking to know where the responsibility is going to fall, Nick Coleman has the answers. For half a dozen years, the…

Abbie of ERV has made her first guest post on the Panda's Thumb, and it's a good one. Go see how Behe was wrong and there are documented genetic and biochemical changes in the evolution of HIV, including the evolution of new molecular machinery.

My last Seed column is online. Print media feels a little weird — it's like I wrote that one long ago, the one I finished earlier in July is going to print right now (and will be out in mid-August), and I'm already working on the column after that. It's like looking at old history for me. It's also…

Tomorrow, I'm flying off to San Jose, California to hang out with a bunch of weirdos on Google's dime, and naturally I'm anticipating being pissed off at the experience of going through the airports again. I despise TSA, an organization of typical Bushpublican incompetence that will not accomplish…

A few readers sent me a link to this interview with Alister McGrath; most thought it was worth a laugh, but one actually seemed to think I'd be devastated. I'm afraid the majority were correct: everything I've read by McGrath suggests that here is a man whose thoughts have been arrested by a…

Today, the YearlyKos event begins in Chicago, with Tara Smith handling the science events in which I would have been participating if I hadn't been tagged to play at Sci Foo. I wish I could be there!

A few years ago, Mel Gabler died, and I put up my response below. Now his wife, Norma Gabler, has also died. Good riddance at last. Those two did an awful amount of harm to American science education by inflicting their ignorant opinions on textbook selection in Texas. I read this which led to…

I was nowhere near this disaster—I'm on the other side of the state—but I've been over this bridge lots of times when I travel from Morris to the Twin Cities campus; now it has suddenly collapsed during rush hour, killing at least half a dozen and injuring many more. I'm shocked. There wasn't any…

People might read this definition of Asperger's Syndrome and think, "Gee, that Miyyears fellow meets two of the three criteria, maybe that's his problem". Asperger's, like too many other mental illnesses, is in effect an almost whimsical diagnosis of exclusion: If someone is really smart, arrogant…

Since I was asked what a cnidarian "head" is in reference to this work on multi-headed cnidarians, I'll answer. In short, they don't have one. Longer answer: the paper in PLoS describes a procedure for generating homeotic mutations in cnidarians by manipulating the expression of Cnox genes in…

Here's a representative slice of average Americana: Parade magazine. I don't read it, and I suspect most of you don't either, but we aren't average—we're freaky flaky outliers. If you want to see what ordinary Americans are thinking, though, it's a useful place to look. Right now they have a very…

Rolling Stone has an excellent article on the ethanol boondoggle. Ethanol doesn't burn cleaner than gasoline, nor is it cheaper. Our current ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption -- yet it consumes twenty percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price…

One of the weirdest issues to drive the religious right into frothing madness was the discovery of a vaccine against human papilloma virus, or HPV, which would effectively reduce rates of cervical cancer … and it was opposed because it blocked infection with a sexually transmitted disease, and thus…

OK, I don't know quite what to make of this: it's a site called The Atheist Conservative. I know there's no obstacle to being both godless and conservative, but this one is 'round-the-bend freaky far-right Bush-lovin' conservative. I don't know how an atheist could write a review of Ann Coulter's…

Who knew librarians had telepathy? I like theband's other music, too…I may have to hunt down a CD. (via Susie Bright)

Larry Moran sneers at the creationist habit of stoking their numbers by claiming that M.D.s are "science professionals", and therefore bolster their generic claim that 'growing numbers of scientists are defecting from the Darwinist camp'. I'll make Larry's sneer even fiercer by pointing out that…

It's a collision! Two great carnivals on the same day. Check out Carnival of the Spineless #23 from sodden Great Britain, where the molluscs are thriving, and also read Tangled Bank #85, the Reductionist's Tale at Migrations.

The Turkish creationist sunk a whole lot of money sending an elaborate creationist book to thousands of biologists. I'm sure he felt he was doing us a favor in sending us the light, but most of the recipients were feeling something less pleasant — it's like receiving a gilded dead rat in the mail.…

Urgent news for the chatty among you: Skatje tells me the Pharyngula chat room has been playing musical chairs lately, and it is now located on channel #pharyngula on irc.synirc.net. If you want to try it out, just click on the link above, and it'll launch a java-based irc client and you can type…

This is a short video clip of myotome formation in a zebrafish embryo — it's the subject of an upcoming column in Seed, so I'm putting a short visual aid here. You can Download the Quicktime movie (620K), or you can watch it via YouTube. Watch closely, it's short and it flies by! If you're…

The researcher behind this study is "surprised and disappointed," but I'm neither. Although most religious traditions call on the faithful to serve the poor, a large cross-sectional survey of U.S. physicians found that physicians who are more religious are slightly less likely to practice medicine…

Richard Dawkins defends the Out Campaign. I really have to stress to everyone who complains that they don't like the design, that it's too bold, that it's too timid, that they don't believe in joining anything, etc., that this is not about conformity — you don't have to wear the big red "A" t-shirt…

I never get stalkers like this. What is the secret of Phil's animal magnetism? (via Depleted Cranium)

I think Bill O'Reilly needs to pick on the big blogs more often. It's incredibly entertaining.

Minnesota Atheists notes a new policy at Borders Books — they've put up a small display section dedicated to books about atheism. If you've ever been frustrated in a search for books on nonbelief in your local bookstore or annoyed by their inclusion in the comparative religion section, Borders…

I would love to have a plush Anomalocaris, but this site is all in Japanese! Anyone know of an American source?

If you're interested in the sordid history of bannings at Bill Dembski's prissy little blog, here's a compilation. It's an ugly little story. If you're interested in the history of bannings here, I keep a public list. It isn't quite so easy to get banned at Pharyngula, although a few are making a…

This story is getting a lot of attention suddenly: it's a blog about a biologist reshelving creationist crap in bookstores. It's good stuff … but I thought we all did this. You mean most people don't?

People are always arguing about whether primitive apes could have evolved into men, but that one seems obvious to me: of course they did! The resemblances are simply too close, so that questioning it always seems silly. One interesting and more difficult question is how oysters could be related to…