jlynch | June 19, 2007Births
1861 - Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
1889 - John S. Paraskevopoulos, Greek-South African astronomer
1941 - Ulf Merbold, German physicist and astronaut
Deaths
1925 - Josef Breuer, Austrian psychologist
1958 - Kurt Alder, German chemist, Nobel laureate
2002 - Erwin Chargaff, Austrian biochemist
2005 - Jack Kilby, American electrical engineer, Nobel laureate
jlynch | June 18, 2007Births
1623 - Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and philosopher
1846 - Antonio Abetti, Italian astronomer
1897 - Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English chemist, Nobel laureate
1906 - Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, Nobel laureate
1910 - Paul Flory, American chemist, Nobel laureate
1922 - Aage Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel laureate
Deaths
1820 - Joseph Banks, English naturalist and botanist
1844 - Ãtienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, French naturalist
1979 - Paul Popenoe, American eugenicist
jlynch | June 18, 2007Afarenis has mentioned the birth of a manta ray (Manta birostris) at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan - notable because this is the first captive birth for the species. Below the fold is video of the birth.
jlynch | June 18, 2007
This image released by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing shows front views of a new fossil panda skull, Ailuropoda microta, from Jinyin Cave, Guangxi, China, left, and a living giant panda skull, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, right. The first skull of the earliest known ancestor of the giant panda has been discovered in China, researchers report. Discovery of the skull, estimated to be at least 2 million years old, is reported by Russell L. Ciochon in the Tuesday June 19, 2007 edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (AP Photo/ Institute…
jlynch | June 18, 2007I haven’t spoken of Michael Egnor is a long time. If you remember, he’s the DI’s pet neurosurgeon who, as many have documented, has a penchant for silly arguments. Attacking Egnor is a little like harvesting low-hanging fruit, but I couldn’t let this (lack of) logic go unnoticed ... think of it as a teaching moment.
In response to a Nature editorial on Brownback’s defense of his views on evolution, Egnor writes:
Yet if intelligent design is scientifically wrong ...then the design inference can be investigated (and, they claim, refuted) using the scientific method. Then intelligent design is…
jlynch | June 17, 2007I’ve set up a Facebook group for this blog - if you are a reader and/or commentor, feel free to join!
jlynch | June 17, 2007
Events
1178 - Five Canterbury monks see what was possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed.
1858 - Charles Darwin receives from Alfred Russel Wallace a paper that included nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin’s own. This prompts Darwin to publish his theory.
1983 - STS-7, Sally Ride (above) becomes the first American woman in space.
Births
1845 - Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, French physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1886 - Alexander Wetmore, American ornithologist
1918 - Jerome Karle, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1928 -…
jlynch | June 16, 2007Births
1714 - César-François Cassini de Thury, French astronomer
1832 - Sir William Crookes, English physicist and chemist
1898 - Carl Hermann, German physicist
1920 - François Jacob, French biologist, Nobel laureate
Deaths
1940 - Arthur Harden, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1996 - Thomas Kuhn, American philosopher of science
2001 - Donald J. Cram, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | June 16, 2007Over at Uncommon Descent, Dembski wonders how the NCSE will deal with "the growing number of non-religious ID proponents" and links to this blog which is something called ICON-RIDS "an international coalition of non-religious ID scientists & scholars." Let’s take a look at this "international coalition," shall we?
ICON-RIDS is a little underwhelming. It’s a blog with five entries going back to October 2006, the first of which proclaims that "Darwinism is a Hoax!" All entries are authored by William Brookfield who describes himself [pdf] as a "logician" and "conceptualist." A little more…
jlynch | June 15, 2007
I finally got to watch the final two Sopranos episodes. For the record, I thought the ending was perfect. I do realize that people seem to be complaining, but I can’t see why. What were they expecting to happen? Tony get killed? Or he flips? Let me know if I’m wrong.
Best moments in the last episode? The cat. Phil Leotardo getting rubbed out (I waited seasons for that). Agent Harris saying "Yes, we’re gonna win this thing!" when he hears about Leotardo’s death.
I’m going to miss it. Only damned thing on TV - other that ASU football - that I made time to watch.
jlynch | June 15, 2007
Events
1963 - Vostok 6 Mission, Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
Births
1591 - Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician, and music theorist
1633 - Jean de Thévenot, French traveler and scientist
1801 - Julius Plücker, German mathematician and physicist
1806 - Edward Davy, English physician, chemist, and inventor
1826 - Constantin von Ettingshausen, Austrian geologist and botanist
1880 - Otto Eisenschiml, Austrian-American chemist
1897 - Georg Wittig, German chemist, Nobel laureate
1902 - Barbara McClintock, American geneticist, Nobel…
jlynch | June 15, 2007Once again, Jason Rosenhouse goes to ID events so that you don’t have to. Wednesday, he saw Behe give a "staggeringly dull" talk in Washington. Details here.
jlynch | June 14, 2007Events
1667 - The first human blood transfusion is administered by Jean-Baptiste Denys.
1752 - Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity.
2002 - Near earth asteroid 2002 MN misses our planet by 75,000 miles (120,000 km) about one third the distance to the moon. EVERYBODY PANIC!
Births
1755 - Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy, French chemist
1915 - Thomas Huckle Weller, American virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1917 - John Fenn, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1917 - Kristian Birkeland, Norwegian physicist
1941 - Otfrid Foerster…
jlynch | June 14, 2007George Monbiot ends his "debate" with Alexander Cockburn (see here and here) with a paragraph that more-or-less encapsulates how I feel:
I have followed Alexander Cockburn’s writing for many years and I have admired it. His has been an important and persuasive voice on many progressive issues. But I can no longer trust it. I realise that he is blinded by a conviction that he remains right whatever the facts might say. In his determination to admit nothing, he will cling to any straw, including the craziest fulminations of the ultra-right, and he will abandon the rigor and scepticism that once…
jlynch | June 13, 2007Events
1822 - Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables."
1951 - UNIVAC I is dedicated by U.S. Census Bureau.
1962 - The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris - later becoming the European Space Agency.
1967 - Mariner 5 is launched toward Venus.
Births
1726 - James Hutton, Scottish geologist
1736 - Charles Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist
1864 - Alois Alzheimer, German physician
1868 - Karl Landsteiner,…
jlynch | June 13, 2007
Sea otter (Enhydra lutris) mother and eleven day old cub at the Sunshine International Aquarium in Tokyo. This one is specially for my daughter who loved the otters holding hands and is coming home tonight after two weeks in Ireland. (And it turns out to be post #1000 since I moved to Scienceblogs.)
Photo: Associated Press.
jlynch | June 13, 2007Jason Rosenhouse has already noted that Tom Woodward opined that "in the next six to twelve months, Darwinism will go into a steep nose dive as the result of Behe’s new book." How is this "tremendously important" book going to change the landscape of ID? Early indications appear to say ... not at all.
To begin with, let’s look at the postings on the Discovery Institute’s blog Evolution News & Views. Since May 30th (i.e. in the past two weeks) there has been a single posting (4% of total) on Behe’s book, a posting that merely noted that Behe appeared on Michael Medved’s radio show (this…
jlynch | June 13, 2007Apparently "66 percent of U.S. drivers aged between 18 and 24 send text messages while driving and 93 percent talk on their cell phone behind the wheel. This compared to 16 percent of Americans cell phones owners overall texting behind the wheel and 77 percent talking on the phone while on the road" (source).
I never use my phone while driving, but I’m willing to perhaps understand people who use a headset. But texting? Texting? How dumb are people to think that’s a good idea?
jlynch | June 13, 2007Others have mentioned Jerry Coyne’s shredding of Behe’s Edge of Evolution in The New Republic. I’d just like to highlight this paragraph as it more or less summarizes everything that Coyne has to say:
In the end, The Edge of Evolution is not an advance or a refinement of the theory of intelligent design, but a retreat from its original claims--an act of desperation designed to maintain credibility in a world of scientific progress. But it is all for nothing, because Behe’s new theory remains the same old mixture of dead science and thinly disguised theology. There is no evidence for his main…
jlynch | June 12, 2007Events
1983 - Pioneer 10 becomes the first manmade object to leave the solar system.
Births
1773 - Thomas Young, English scientist
1831 - James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist
1876 - William Sealey Gosset, English chemist
1894 - Leo Kanner, Austrian-American physician
1911 - Luis Alvarez, American physicist, Nobel laureate
1911 - Erwin Müller, German-born physicist
1928 - John Forbes Nash, American mathematician, Nobel laureate
Deaths
1881 - Josef Skoda, Czech physician
1931 - Shibasaburo Kitasato, Japanese physician
1972 - Georg von Békésy, Hungarian biophysicist, recipient of the…