Science picks from the blogosphere
by KrauzeDespite what some of you may have heard, speculating about intelligent design involves more than quoting scientists out of context, going to revival meetings, and helping the forces of darkness destroy science and democracy. Seriously, evolutionary biology is a fascinating and vibrant field, and whether ID supporters accept evolution or not, they should be up to date with recent developments in the field. To give you a small taste of what is out there, here's a small sampling from the blogosphere.
The Evolution List is a new blog, and I gotta' say, it's looking promising. Not to be confused with Evolutionblog, The Evolution List seems to be actually interested in the science of evolution, focusing on making new research accessible, rather than doing socio-political commentary. The author, Allen MacNeil, has been at it for less than a month, and he already has a lot of good posts. One of them is "Incommensurate Worldviews", on what it is that distinguishes biology from physics:
To me, however, what has always been appealing about biology is its very "messiness." As the so-called Law of Experimental Psychology states "Under carefully controlled conditions, the organism does whatever it damn well pleases." Biological entities and processes are not quantifiable in the same way that physical ones are. This is probably due to the immensely greater complexity of biological entities and processes, in which causal mechanisms are tangled and often auto-catalytic.
Just one friendly word of advice: Allen, when commenting on something, reprinting the whole article isn't necessary. A link usually suffices.
Carl Zimmer is a professional science writer, and The Loom is always a good place to look for stuff on evolution. Take "The Dawn of Brains and Bones", explaining the evolution of vertebrates by weaving old knowledge together with new discoveries.
Another blog to check out for frequent science posts is John Hawks Anthropology Weblog, which, despite its name, tackles a number of subjects in biology and evolution. Within the last couple of weeks, Hawks has written posts about the human genome project, the shortcomings of peer review, and the discovery of deep homology between the electric sense organs of sharks and the head and facial features of humans. Off you go!
