Casey Luskin Looks in Mirror, Fails to Recognize Self

Over at Evolution News & Views we have Luskin whining: Today New York Times reporter Kirk Johnson totally misrepresented what I said in his article “Anti-Darwin Bill Fails in Utah.” and later: He put words in my mouth making it sound as if we were completely dismissive of the legislative and policy issues in Utah [...]

MRSA and Amoebas

By now, most of us are familiar with MRSA or methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The staph bacteria is pretty common on human skin but doesn’t become a problem until it finds an entry through the flesh [afarensis had an old scar from a car accident get infected with staph, fortunately not MRSA, and spent about [...]

MRSA and Amoebas

By now, most of us are familiar with MRSA or methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The staph bacteria is pretty common on human skin but doesn’t become a problem until it finds an entry through the flesh [afarensis had an old scar from a car accident get infected with staph, fortunately not MRSA, and spent about [...]

A. V. Kidder, Charles Lindbergh and Pictures from Space

In early October of 1929 an unlikely team of people set out from Belize to look for Mayan ruins. The team was lead by A. V. Kidder – one of the most dominant figures in Americanist archaeology. Joining the team was Charles Lindbergh – yes, that’s right “Lucky Lindy” world famous aviator from Missouri. Lindbergh [...]

Octopus Killing a Shark

Martin Brazeau at The Lancelet has the video. Apparently, the octopus was moved into a shark tank and developed a regular habit of killing 3-4 foot sharks…

An Interesting Inovation On DNA Extraction from Fossil Bones: One From the Archives

This is another from the archives. According to New Scientist an new technique has been developed to extract DNA from bones. Before going further a little background information is in order.

Antifreeze Proteins and Larval Fish

Sea water freezes at -1.9C which presents a problem for any creature that wants to live in Arctic or Antarctic seas. Some species of fish have antifreeze proteins (AFP’s) that allow them to live in such environments. Such proteins bind to ice crystals and inhibit their growth. Consequently the freezing point of blood and body [...]

Antifreeze Proteins and Larval Fish

Sea water freezes at -1.9C which presents a problem for any creature that wants to live in Arctic or Antarctic seas. Some species of fish have antifreeze proteins (AFP’s) that allow them to live in such environments. Such proteins bind to ice crystals and inhibit their growth. Consequently the freezing point of blood and body [...]

Responses To The St. Louis Post Dispatch Editorial on Evolution

Since the AAAS meetings were held in St. Louis, the St. Louis Post Dispatch covered some of it. In particular they did this story on Intelligent Design. The story has provoked some letters here several are in support of evolution – but most are pro-ID and spew the both are theories and evolution is unprovable [...]

Journals and Papers

Long time readers of my blog have had to suffer quite a few pleas for links to science journals – specifically links to journals dealing with evolution. Consequently, I have accumulated quite a large number of them (linked to under “The Evil Darwinian Orthodoxy” in my side bar – note to ID proponents and other [...]

Lemurs!

Added Later: Welcome Daily Kos visitors. Feel free to look around, take your shoes off, get comfortable, etc. An article in BMC Evolutionary Biology is reporting on three new species of lemur. The picture above is of Lepilemur ruficadatus. The paper specifically looks at the phylogenetic relationships within the genus Lepilemur (Sportive lemurs): In order [...]

More on the Black Jack Story and Other Stuff

Ed over at Dispatches From The Culture Wars has a story about a Missouri town denying an occupancy permit to an unmarried couple. You can find more here. My favorite quote from the story: McCourt said Shelltrack and Loving failed to get an occupancy permit “because they don’t match the definition of family.” But when [...]

Goodbye to Trackbacks

Like Tim Lambert at Deltoid I have decided to turn trackbacks off. Since I moved to Scienceblogs I have received hundreds of them, but only 21 were legitimate, all the rest were spam. It’s just not worth the effort of keeping them open. So if you link to any of my posts, just mention it [...]

Oviraptors, Archaeopteryx and Horses Toes: Another from the Archives

The recent discovery of of dinosaur eggs still inside the mother is important for several reasons. First, it is another piece of evidence confirming the relationship between reptiles and birds. Second, and more importantly, it is a piece of evidence that demonstrates how. The oviraptor demonstrated that this particular dinosaur developed and laid eggs in [...]

Beavers, Lampreys and Dinosaur Soft Tissue…

PZ has the story on the Mesozoic Beaver along with pictures of the fossil. For those who don’t have access to Science National Geographic has a story as well.