Biology & Evolution « Gotham Skeptic

How to celebrate Darwin Day

By Page, on February 10, 2010, at 7:03 am

Choices, choices! How are you going to celebrate February 12th, the 201st anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 151st of the publication of On the Origin of Species. Here are a couple of suggestions.

Attend the Darwin Day event sponsored by NYC Skeptics for an opportunity to participate in a fascinating conversation between Massimo Pigliucci and anthropologist [...]

Paleolithic Nonsense

By The Quixotic Man, on January 28, 2010, at 7:03 am

Last week, one of my oldest friends and I are out at lunch when he tells me he’s joined a new gym. He really likes it, it’s all based around group classes and so far, it’s been a good experience for him. And now, he tells me that it’s not just a gym, sometimes they also like to talk nutrition, so everyone at his gym has been challenged to try out a very specific diet (which he was conveniently forgetting about in order to spend a day with me having beer and pizza – this is what friends are for) called the Paleolithic Diet. This disturbs me, so I decide to berate him on it for the next few hours. And because he’s pretty much the only friend I’ve got who consistently decides to read what I write on this blog, I’ve decided to continue berating his new diet here. … continue reading this entry.

A Salute to John Freshwater: Creationist Science Teacher

By The Quixotic Man, on January 21, 2010, at 7:03 am

Yesterday Page brought your attention to this New York Times story about the hardship being put on John Freshwater: an innocent scientist who just wants to have the right to have his bible on his desk and teach creationism. Okay, that’s not completely true. He just wants to teach that kids shouldn’t trust evolution and that scientists make mistakes “because the Bible states that homosexuality is a sin, and so anyone who is gay chooses to be gay and is therefore a sinner.” This was in reference to the idea that homosexuality may be genetic. And what eighth grader struggling to accept his or herself and finding out that they may have a sexuality different from their peers wouldn’t want their science teacher telling them that they’re a sinner? So obviously, I’m behind John. Maybe you don’t understand that. Well maybe you would if you’d been through what he’s been through, like I have. … continue reading this entry.

One more on Avatar, I’ll make it quick

By Page, on January 19, 2010, at 7:03 am

I love it when movies blow my mind. I love to get sucked in, and I enjoy suspending my disbelief for those 2 dark hours. I did think Avatar was good, but it did not blow my mind. It was not able to pull me away from reality sufficiently enough, and the reason for this is that I had the opposite reaction as Carol Kaesuk Yoon did, as she expressed in her NYTimes essay. She laud’s James Cameron’s creativity in developing the flora and fauna of his fantasy world, calling the film “a biologist’s dream.” However, while watching the movie I found myself bored at the redundancy and unoriginality of Avatar’s biodiversity. As a biologist, I thought the choices made, particularly with regards to the mega fauna, were mundane. … continue reading this entry.

Science and Vegetarian Moral Superiority

By The Quixotic Man, on January 4, 2010, at 7:03 am

In my role as general YouTube board lurker, I have noticed a spate of comments on the horrors of vegetarianism. I am constantly running into posts about how vegetarians are driven insane by their diets, comments made without the benefit of, oh, I dunno, evidence. These comments are… What’s the word? Moronic. The controversy about the health consequences of either diet aside, there are tons of people out there who eat either very little or no meat, and still fewer that eat no animal products at all. Though I am not a vegetarian (and feel without the occasional burger I might go mad) a strong percentage of my family is. Full disclosure, there was a period of about two months my senior year of college when I cut out just about all animal products, I had a little cholesterol scare and… Okay, I got freaked out and over-reacted. Anyway, my vegetarian family. They are not crazy, at least, not any more crazy than any of the rest of us. True, a vegetarian diet makes it harder to get certain proteins, but these days that’s a fairly easy obstacle to overcome. All that said… let me tell you a story about ethical vegetarianism. … continue reading this entry.

Linky loo: Comics

By Page, on December 29, 2009, at 7:03 am

There has been a recent increase in comics and graphic art that cover topics relating to science and logic. If you are looking for a little fun reading while sitting in the airport or metal transportation-box of your choice, here are some spots to check out:

PHD Comics: Piled Higher and Deeper

These charming strips were started by a graduate student several years ago and were a comfort to me during my own struggles. If you are considering higher education, I recommend reading through these comics as a form of essential research. Really, this is what it is like!

A few personal faves:

xkcd comics

Another humorous strip related to academia and science, but mostly about logic. … continue reading this entry.

Agnostic Intelligent Design

By The Quixotic Man, on November 19, 2009, at 7:03 am

This is totally proof of... something

I was cruising around the mighty internet when I found an article about Sarah Palin and Creationism over at the Atlantic. There’s not much to talk about here. Yeah, she’s a creationist, we’ve known it for a while, and the fact that America almost put such a scientifically illiterate person into one of the highest positions of power we have in this country still has me experiencing night terrors. But this really isn’t the proper forum for that type of political talk, and so instead, I want to address your attention to one of the more ingenious comments made on the page. … continue reading this entry.

The Banana Man vs. The Smart Lady

By The Quixotic Man, on November 2, 2009, at 7:03 am

Whos the sexy chick that can tell you why evolution is science and God creating the banana isnt? SCOTT! Youre damn right.

Who's the woman that can tell you why evolution is science and God creating the banana isn't? SCOTT! You're damn right.

There’s a man out there named Dan Gilgoff who publishes a blog for US News and World Report called “God & Country.” The blog is, as you may be able to guess from the title, about religion. Gilgoff regularly dips his toe into the world of politics, but we’re not here to do that. We’re here because Gilgoff decided to recently enter the world of evolution.

Our story starts in September, when Gilgoff wrote a short blog on Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron’s new version of Darwin’s Origin of Species. Now, it seems that we “Darwinists” are an easy group to rile, so Gilgoff figured out that this was an issue he should tackle again. He got the infamous Ray Comfort and the great Eugenie Scott to write in competing posts about Comfort’s fifty page introduction to Origin of Species. … continue reading this entry.

The Art of Being Wrong: What Baby Alex Taught me about Skepticism

By Lisa Bauer, on October 30, 2009, at 7:03 am

Baby too fat? Recently, I saw a segment on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart about a baby who had been denied health insurance for being in the 99th percentile for his weight class; in other words, too fat. Immediately I was appalled at the ridiculousness of this, not just in that it feels horrible, but because I felt quite certain to recall that one’s weight early in life (birthweight through the first year) was inversely correlated with the likelihood for health disorders later in life.

What I was remembering was a theory known as the thrifty phenotype hypothesis. This theory posits that the relationship between low birth weight and subsequent health risks observed later in life could be explained by epigenetic programming that may be the result of adaptation to environmental conditions. … continue reading this entry.

60% Of England Wants Creationism in the Classroom? Woohoo!

By The Quixotic Man, on October 27, 2009, at 7:03 am

I Want You: To join me in poorly educating my civilians

It’s tough sometimes, being an American. Sure, we have a bit more money and a couple more bombs than anyone else in the world, but on some issues, I feel like we’re just that little bit inadequate. Like… evolution. It seems that our little secret has gotten out. Little Johnny America doesn’t understand evolution, and his dad, Big Johnny America, believes that if it’s going to be taught in schools, creationism should be taught too! Which is sort of like believing that if gravity is going to be taught in schools, the hypothesis that the earth is a big flat disc constantly accelerating upwards at 9.8 m/s² also deserves it’s rightful place in the physics textbooks. So forgive me, my friends across the pond, if I take a little bit of happiness from the fact that it seems that 60% of you are idiots, just like us. … continue reading this entry.