Darwin
Linkage 12/4: Emotional Flies, Musical Language and eBay Speciation
Fruit Flies and Musical Language Some interesting research on Futurity this week, covering a couple of my favorite scientific topics: fruit flies and music. The first, out of Caltech, used the humble little Drosophila melanogaster (only about 2.5mm in size) to study a very complex human behavior mystery: ADHD. While it might seem impossible to […]
The Hopeful Monster of Human Language
One of the repeated themes of the Darwin/Chicago 2009 meeting two weeks ago was the history of the anti-evolution movement, a resistance that has actually changed form, even *cough* evolved, quite a bit since The Origin of the Species. At the opening night event in Rockefeller Chapel, science historian Ronald Numbers talked about differences between […]
The Richards/Dennett debate: Did Darwin think evolution was waiting for us?
By Jeremy Manier The philosopher Daniel Dennett looked slightly puzzled as Robert Richards finished his Oct. 30 talk at the Darwin/Chicago 2009 meeting, on the subject of “Darwin’s Biology of Intelligent Design.” Dennett and Richards have spent years writing about Darwin and the historical significance of his ideas about evolution. But Richards’ talk challenged a […]
Darwin/Chicago 2009: Saturday
4:15 p.m. – Of Mice and Mammoths The last talk of the day (for me, as I had to leave before the final, final talk) made for a great reminder of how far the field of evolutionary biology, wrapped in a relatively simple story told engagingly by Hopi Hoekstra of Harvard. Hoekstra described her research […]
Darwin/Chicago 2009: Friday
5:00 p.m. – Biomedicine and Bracketology Here’s the final report from today’s session, join us again tomorrow for a full Halloween day of evolutionary science and philosophy! Also, continue to follow PZ Myers of Pharyngula and Skip Evans of Wisconsin Citizens for Science for their reports on the conference. Both talks in the final session […]
Darwin coverage elsewhere
Many thanks to PZ Myers, author of the amazing evolution blog Pharyngula, who gave us a nod last night in his ongoing live-blogging of the Darwin/Chicago 2009 conference. PZ is doing a fantastic job covering the event in real time. For other coverage, check out WMFT’s interview with conference organizer Robert Richards, and Milt Rosenberg’s […]
Darwin/Chicago 2009: The Themes
We’re only a few hours away from the start of Darwin/Chicago 2009, 2+ days of the world’s leading evolutionary biologists discussing the past and future of the field. Come back to this space tonight at 6:00 pm Central time for live-blog coverage of the opening event at Rockefeller Chapel, and keep coming back all day […]
Darwin/Chicago 2009: Looking Back to 1959
As discussed yesterday, the Darwin/Chicago 2009 conference marks not just the anniversary of Darwin’s birth and most famous book (The Origin of Species) but also 50 years since a landmark evolution conference was held at the University of Chicago. Like this year’s gathering, the 1959 conference was meant to both look back at Darwin’s life […]
Darwin/Chicago 2009: Why Now (Besides the Obvious)
There has certainly been no shortage of attention on Charles Darwin this year. With the dual landmarks of Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of The Origin of Species, virtually every scientific publication, museum, conference and institution has taken the opportunity to pay tribute to the life and work of the man who gave […]
Neuroscience Wednesday
And so Neuroscience 2009 comes to an end, and it’s time to put away my badge, rest my weary feet and note-taking hand and think about biology below the neck again. Here’s the final installment of our live coverage, but come back tomorrow for a roundup of the conference with highlights, loose observations and links […]
