Systematic Oversimplification

Happy Darwin Day!

2009-02-12T22:32:00.003-05:00

Darwin’s legacy, of course, ripples throughout the life sciences, in ways that do not need enumeration to those with some background in these fields, and whose intricacies are better explained elsewhere to those without.

However, Darwin Day is observed as much as an act of solidarity against the willfully ignorant by those who love science and the careful regard for the small-t truth that it requires, as for Darwin's own accomplishments.

The scarcity of BS and the impracticality of spin are a huge part of science’s appeal to those who love it; scientists operate in a professional space in which honest misapprehensions eventually come out in the wash, and—unlike politics or religion—intentional lying is a career-ender.

Unsurprisingly, it attracts people who are not good at prevarication.

Unfortunately, they tend to be ill-equipped to compete with the sort of people who are.

“Intelligent design” comes not from research, but from a PR firm, the Discovery Institute, funded by, and working through, would-be theocrats. These people lie for a living, and they’re both good at it and self-righteous about it.

It’s hard for an honest scientist, accustomed to dealing with honest people, to figure out how to fight this crapola. It’s hard for those in a discipline known for reticence and understatement to step up, and explain to whoever needs to hear it that ID etc. is crapola. But every time we blow off a chance to set the record straight, we dishonor Darwin, our science, the people who taught us.

If you’re looking for a place to start, try this: One reason people with no science background tend to think ID and evolution are six of one etc., or that evolution is the equivalent of a religious belief, is that, as with religion, we ask them to take a lot on faith. Those “irreducible complexity” or “fossil gap” shticks sound plausible if you don’t know better. Make ‘em know better.

Go Roger Ebert!

2008-12-07T04:57:00.001-05:00

A more notable week than the CDC is offering.

2008-10-04T04:45:00.007-04:00

It's Banned Books Week.

The most banned book of last year was And Tango Makes Three, a well-illustrated nonfiction children's book about those two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo who formed a nesting pair and hatched an abandoned egg a few years back. Here's the entire plot, anthropomorphism and all: the penguins are friends, they hatch their egg, they become proud fathers.

What it doesn't have is HOT! HOT! HOT! throbbing penguin-on-penguin action.

I mention this because you'd hardly know it from the objections. The book has the unfortunate distinction of being a litmus test for homophobes--there's no sex or politics, just two penguins and their hatchling. That the penguins both happen to be male causes some people to imagine things in it that simply aren't there.

Of course, this hysteria and utter lack of discernment is the common thread among would-be book censors [ahem, cough, Sarah Palin, cough]. If your kid reads books from the American Library Association's most-challenged list, the conclusion that he or she's been corrupted is absurd.

However, the conclusion that you're a good parent may be valid; you've at least raised your kid to be a reader.

CDC Week of the Week

2008-10-02T17:18:00.001-04:00

Get Smart About Antibiotics Week, October 6 -10, 2008

You're thrilled, I can tell.

Welcome to my blog.

2008-10-01T08:53:00.000-04:00

Thermal shots of the London Zoo

Slutty orchids

Wind farms--tough on raptors, other birds, not so much.

You might want to cook that sushi.

Farming in and on big city buildings.

Elias Zerhouni, director of the NIH, stepping down.