Reviews
The more the better?
These days I’m writing up the discussion of my sensitivity analysis paper on missing data using the Total Evidence method (more about it here and here). One evident opening for proposing future improvement on my analysis is the obvious “let’s-do-it-again-with-more-data” one... But a recent Science paper by Jarvis et al made me reconsider that. Is […]
And to the victor the spoiled
Sometimes something is so obvious we forget to wonder why; why do our fingers resemble prunes when we over-extend our bath time, why don’t humans have a penis bone (stop sniggering in the back please and have a look at these fascinating links) and why do prunes rot when the very purpose of fruit is to […]
3D dinosaurs are bringing down the Ivory Tower
Adam raised the point of science communication in his last blog post of how science should be communicated to a mainly interested and receptive public. The main question when thinking about science communication is “how should we do it?” However a second question, arising from this one would be “who should do it?” I believe […]
How do Lego cars evolve?
The ESEB conference this August in Lisbon was not only about Drosophila and #superbock. Among the useful discussions and the interesting talks, a definite highlight came from our very own Kilkenny scaling man all about time perception and comparative analysis… Argh no I missed that one – apparently there was even a realistic Tiger Beetle hunting […]
The Placental mammal saga; special summer double episode
As I wrote in a previous post last winter, O’Leary et al. added their oar into the Placental Mammal origins debate. For anyone who missed that episode, they argued, with the backing of masses of morphological data, that placental mammal orders appeared right after the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs (also known as the explosive model). […]
Complementary colours
Any designer will tell you that choosing the right colour combinations are essential to strike the right tone and balance in a room, particularly if your goal is to attract clients. Well, what if your room is a web and your client is a moth? This is just the situation the rather drab and dreary […]
Tyre Pressure
I’ve recently been spending a lot of time working with undergraduate students and marking their work and much of it has been on the subject of evolution and natural selection. This can be a difficult topic to clarify in the mind of younger students and it’s often difficult to recall specific examples which can be […]
Chronicle of a death foreseen
Why did Neanderthals go extinct while humans prospered? There are volumes full of speculations into the decline and fall of our burly cousin who last walked the Earth 30,000 years ago. Climate change may have reduced the large herbivores on which they depended for food. Humans may have inadvertently spread lethal diseases to them when […]
Comedy science
Last Wednesday a bunch of us (thanks to @nhcooper123 for organising) went to see Robin Ince @robinince perform his stand-up comedy science show The Importance of Being Interested at the Science Gallery. His shows are a unique blend of education and humour, combining a whistle-stop tour of the world of science with hilarious anecdotes, all […]
Could the ‘drone’ be a new technology to survey African wildlife?
Nazinga Game Ranch is a protected area in southern Burkina Faso, dominated by clear shrub and woody savannah and home to one of the most important elephant populations of the Western Africa. Researchers from the University of Gembloux Agrobiotech in Belgium tested one of the first unmanned aerial surveys to study the wildlife of Nazinga. […]