Old Weblog Archive - Sept 2001 - Nov 2001
Ape brains show linguistic promise #
Three members of the family of great apes have a crucial speech-related brain feature previously thought unique to humans. The discovery could imply that evolution of brain structures linked to speech began before the ancestors of humans and apes parted ways.
BBC News: 28-Nov-01
We shouldn't read too much into this: just because the brain feature in question has a particular usage in humans (i.e. helping us to speak), it does not mean that it was used for the same thing in our ancestors. Indeed, the very fact that modern apes don't speak, despite having the same brain feature, implies that it must have some other use for them.
Charles Darwin Foundation awarded International Getty Conservation Prize #
The Charles Darwin Foundation has been awarded this year’s J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize from the World Wildlife Fund. The award recognizes over 40 years of conservation work by the foundation in the Galapagos Islands and its work to restore Galapagos after the Jessica oil spill last January.
Charles Darwin Foundation: 27-Nov-01
New tree found in Vietnam #
An international team of scientists has found a new conifer in the forests of northern Vietnam. The tree, a new species in a new genus, has been named the Golden Vietnamese cypress. Its discoverers say it is a missing link between true and false cypresses.
BBC News: 25-Nov-01
24th November, 2001 #
Today is 142nd anniversary of the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species.
[It's also the 362nd anniversary of the first observation of the Transit of Venus, by Jeremiah Horrocks.]
Danes take on insect house
#
A Danish company has fought off tough competition to win the contract to design a new extension at the British Natural History Museum, the second phase of its new Darwin Centre.
BBC News: 23-Nov-01
See also: Cocoon of translucent curves... [Guardian, 23-Nov-01]
I wonder how Sir Richard Owen would have felt if he had known that a wing of his precious museum would one day be named after Charles Darwin.
Dino asteroid led to 'global devastation' #
The asteroid thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs destroyed plant life thousands of kilometres from where it struck, say scientists. Fossils uncovered in New Zealand point to major disturbances in climate that led to the death of most trees and flowering plants.
BBC News: 22-Nov-01
Breathing like dinosaurs #
Dinosaurs breathed like their modern-day relatives, the alligators, a new study suggests. They were probably able to run and gasp in and out at the same time, unlike other reptiles, such as lizards, which must stop moving to breathe. This would have given the dinosaurs and pterosaurs the endurance to lead an active lifestyle, say scientists in the United States.
BBC News: 21-Nov-01
What's going on? Haven't these chaps seen Jurassic Park?
"Trials of the Monkey" by Matthew Chapman #
Charles Darwin's boozy, girl-crazy great-great-grandson goes to Tennessee to sneer at the Bible-quoting locals - and stays to learn a lesson in faith.
Salon book review: 21-Nov-01
I bought this book a couple of months back, but haven't started reading it yet. Looks amusing. There's a different cover in the UK.
Life on Mars claims disputed #
Fresh doubts have been cast on claims that fossils of primitive life have been found in a meteorite from Mars. An international team of scientists say that small magnetic grains found in the Martian meteorite are not similar enough to those formed by terrestrial bacteria to be evidence of life.
BBC News: 20-Nov-01
When birds ate horses #
A spectacular new fossil of a tiny ancient horse is shedding new light on the evolution of equines. A developing foal inside the pregnant mare has been preserved in remarkable detail.
BBC News: 14-Nov-01
Another shameless plug on its news site for the BBC's new series, Walking with Beasts. Fans of Stephen Jay Gould will be amused to read the Beeb describing the smallest equine as being the size of a fox terrier [3].
For more shameless BBC plugs, see:
The beasts come alive
Walking in our footsteps
Beastly wallpaper to download (actually, it's quite nice)
Wildlife will wander in warmer world #
Global warming could condemn some of the rarest wildlife in the British Isles to extinction by 2050, scientists believe. While some species may migrate to cooler regions, others will be unable to move or to adapt.
BBC News: 14-Nov-01
Beaks, Songs and Speciation #
Looking at the wide array of beak shapes on Galapagos Island finches, it's clear that they are adapted to different feeding tasks—an observation Charles Darwin first made more than a century ago. But the changes in beak shape have had a knock-on effect on the finches' songs, which could allow sexual selection to kick in.
Scientific American: 01-Nov-01
An example of a Gould/Lewontin spandrel [2] at work?
Alabama to Place Disclaimer on Books #
Alabama is maintaining its distinction as the only U.S. state where biology textbooks include a sticker warning students that evolution is a "controversial theory'' they should question. The State Board of Education voted without dissent to place the disclaimer on the front of 40,000 new biology textbooks to be used in the state's public schools.
Associated Press: 08-Nov-01
An interesting concept: Christian fundamentalists' advising people to question what they read in books. They want to be careful; it could set a very dangerous precedent!
Mild man, wild ideas #
Charles Darwin was a tortured soul. He was by nature a gentle, family-orient[at]ed man who thrived on the respectability that his upper-class origins gave him in rigid, Victorian England – a society where God was in his heaven and his people knew their place in the world he had created for them. But the mild, unassuming Darwin had arrived at a "dangerous idea"; a theory that he knew would rock the prevailing world-view, and that was bound to bring the wrath of the powerful Church of England and the scientific establishment down upon him.
The Australian: 08-Nov-01
An essay trailing the new TV series, Evolution.
Darwin College, Cambridge #
Hey, there's a college named after the great man's family!
Early clues to 'modern' humans #
A collection of bone tools dating back 70,000 years is raising new questions about human evolution. The discovery in Blombos Cave, South Africa, suggests that our early human ancestors were far more sophisticated than previously thought.
BBC News: 07-Nov-01
Global warming 'altering genes' #
Global warming is leading to changes in the genetic make-up of animals, say scientists. They have found that mosquitoes have altered their genes in response to climate change. Evolution is happening and it is happening very fast, says Dr William Bradshaw, University of Oregon.
BBC News: 06-Nov-01
I'm sure the BBC doesn't really mean to imply that the mosquitoes had some say in the matter.
IQ linked with amount of grey matter #
A degree of intelligence is written in the genes and determined before birth, according to a new genetic study of twins. It suggests that ability to do well in intelligence tests is linked with the amount of grey matter in the brain, something that depends largely on genes.
BBC News: 05-Nov-01
Oh no, not another identical-twins-versus-non-identical-twins study based on the highly dodgy concept of IQ, claiming to show that intelligence is largely genetic. Haven't any of these people read The Mismeasure of Man [1]? You simply can't separate the genetic and environmental components of intelligence (whatever the word is supposed to mean).
When mammoths roamed England
#
A clash of the mammoths could have taken place in what is now southern England thousands of years ago. Fossils found in Buckinghamshire and Norfolk suggest that two types of mammoth lived side-by-side in prehistoric times.
BBC News: 03-Nov-01
Could the timing of this story have anything to do with the fact that the BBC is about to air its new series about prehistoric animals, Walking with Beasts?
What Evolution Is #
An interview with Ernst Mayr, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology, Emeritus, at Harvard University, plugging his new book.
Edge: 31-Oct-01
Firework link to university blaze #
An investigation has begun into the cause of a fire at Glasgow University. Scientific equipment used by the famous botanists Sir William Hooker and Frederick Bower was lost. Books by Charles Darwin and other important manuscripts valued at around £2m were also destroyed.
BBC News: 25-Oct-01
Giant crocodile was length of bus #
Scientists release pictures and a description of a giant crocodile which lived millions of years ago.
BBC News: 25-Oct-01
Mystery of bird 'V' formation solved #
Scientists have solved the mystery of why birds fly in a "V" formation. They say it reduces energy expenditure, helping large birds to migrate in groups.
BBC News: 19-Oct-01
Commemorating the father of genetics #
The monastery where Gregor Mendel carried out his groundbreaking experiments could be made a centre of scientific discovery.
BBC News: 11-Oct-01
When whales walked the land #
Fossils of the early land-based ancestors of whales have been unearthed in Pakistan.
BBC News: 21-Sep-01
The Correspondence of Charles Darwin #
The Darwin Correspondence Project has published volume 12 of its superb, highly recommended series.
[3] The Case of the Creeping Fox Terrier Clone in Bully for Brontosaurus: reflections in natural history, Stephen Jay Gould [New York: W W Norton, 1991]
An amusing essay, pointing out that the eohippus (or, to use the more scientifically correct name, hyracotherium) is always compared in size to a fox terrier.
[2] The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: a critique of the adaptationist programme, S J Gould and R C Lewontin [Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, ser. B., 205 (1979), 581-98]
[1] The Mismeasure of Man, Stephen Jay Gould [New York: W W Norton, 1981]
A truly marvellous book, which systemmatically demolishes the whole concept of intelligence tests.