Nature's 15 Evolutionary Gems

This week's issue of Nature (1 Jan 2009) includes a 17-page article by Nature editors Gee, Howlett & Campbell entitled "15 Evolutionary Gems". It's a tidy summary of key articles published in Nature in the past decade that each provide clear evidence for evolution. The summary article (and apparently all of the primary articles) are "free to download and disseminate, and each is accompanied by a brief editorial introduction to its context and significance". The article is featured in Nature's special website Darwin 200.

The summary article starts...

"Most biologists take for granted the idea that all life evolved by natural selection over billions of years. They get on with researching and teaching in disciplines that rest squarely on that foundation, secure in the knowledge that natural selection is a fact, in the same way that the Earth orbits the Sun is a fact.

Given that the concepts and realities of Darwinian evolution are still challenged, albeit rarely by biologists, a succinct briefing on why evolution by natural selection is an empirically validated principle is useful for people to have to hand. We offer here 15 examples published by Nature over the past decade or so to illustrate the breadth, depth and power of evolutionary thinking. We are happy to offer this resource freely and encourage its free dissemination."

Dodos: Free in Iowa City!

Tomorrow (Monday, Sept. 22) in Iowa City I will be co-hosting a free public screening of "A Flock of Dodos" in Biology Building East (BBE) 101 at 7:00pm. This event is part of Scienceblogs 10^6 comment festival, via our two Iowa City-based ScienceBlog-ers, Tara Smith (Aetiology) and Evil Monkey (Neurotopia). It is also associated with the Evolution undergraduate course (Biology, 002:131) that I teach with Bryant McAllister (can you say "extra credit"?)

According to Wikipedia:

"The film attempts to determine who the real "dodos" are in a constantly evolving world: the scientists who are failing to promote evolution as a scientifically accepted fact, the intelligent design advocates, or the American public who get fooled by the "salesmanship" of evolution critics. While Randy Olson ultimately sides with the scientists who accept evolution, he gives equal air time to both sides of the argument..."

Thanks to the filmaker Randy Olson for allowing us to screen this film for the public! I'm looking forward to it, since I have not seen it yet.

Dawkins' Genius of Darwin

I just discovered that there is a new three-part series, The Genius of Charles Darwin, that was broadcast on UK Channel 4. I tried to buy the episodes on iTunes, but they are only available in the UK. Luckily they are all posted on YouTube.

Below is the first part (of five) of the first episode, available on YouTube.

You can read more about the episodes and find more links at RichardDawkins.net.

Darwin Day is Today!

Just a short post to wish everyone a happy Darwin Day! Today is the 199th anniversary of Charles' birthday. We are busy here in Iowa City finalizing the arrangements for our celebration.

Update: we got some nice press from the local blog, CorridorBuzz.com

Iowa City Darwin Day

Reposted with light editing from the Iowa Citizens for Science site:

Darwin Day is fast approaching, and we’ll be celebrating with two and a half days’ worth of festivities here in Iowa in February, put together by Iowa City Darwin Day Inc. along with co-sponsors.

We’ll kick off Thursday night, February 14th at 7:00 pm, with Dr. Massimo Pigliucci reading from his latest book at Live from Prairie Lights, with drinks and snacks following at a location TBA.

Friday February 15th will consist of academic talks by Dr. Pigliucci and Dr. Martha McClintock.

On Saturday February 15th there will be a series of public talks followed by an informal reception in Iowa Hall.

• University of Iowa paleontologist Dr. Christopher Brochu will kick off the afternoon, whose topic will be “The Dead Speak: What we learned from the Tyrannosaurus.” Dr. Brochu was the lead researcher on the analysis of “Sue” the tyrannosaurus at Chicago’s Field Museum.
• Dr. McClintock will follow, discussing “Social Isolation and Breast Cancer: Psychosocial Regulation of Gene Expression”.
• Dr. Pigliucci will be the last of the afternoon’s talks, speaking on “What’s science got to do with it? When scientists misspeak about religion”–a topic sure to bring about some interesting discussion.
  

A panel discussion and Q&A session with all of the speakers will wrap up the afternoon, and the reception will follow.

Please join us! It promises to be an exciting and stimulating few days–and we’re also looking for ideas (and manpower!) for Darwin Day 2009.

Your Inner Fish

I just picked up a copy of Neil Shubin's new book and I'm really excited to read it. Shubin and his colleagues discovered the "transitional" fish fossil Tiktaalik. The LA Times reviewed the book earlier this week and Carl Zimmer reviews it in today's Nature (subscription).

There is a short excerpt available at the University of Chicago Magazine.

Stephen Colbert interviewed Shubin recently on the Colbert Report. Here it is for easy access:



Pharyngula already has an active discussion going on the topic...

Judgment Day

It's been a busy term... So much that I missed the original airing of the NOVA program "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" last week. Luckily for me, the entire episode is now available for viewing online, which I took advantage of tonight. If you haven't seen the show, you should. It's very well done from both scientific and journalistic points of view. It will soon be required viewing for my undergraduate Evolution course.

Tara is on top of things

Tara Smith, my U. Iowa colleague and friend who is over at Aetiology, has a couple recent posts of particular relevance here...

Tara reports on the selection of University of Iowa's new president, Dr. Sally Mason, who is currently (until July 31) the Provost at Purdue. I'm thrilled about Dr. Mason as our new leader, as are many of us here. She's a biologist, which makes me happy, but that's not all. I heard Sally speak last week at her interview and I left the room feeling truly inspired. I was surprised to have that reaction, but I came to find out that I was not the only one who did. When I heard Sally speak at her introduction on Thursday, she left me with the same feeling. I think we scored a great catch here at Iowa.

Tara also files a detailed report on her recent "Field trip to the Creation Museum". As she concludes

"...$27 million spent on a Creation "museum," not to mention all the hours of donated labor. Meanwhile, our kids are failing to learn even basic science knowledge in school. Disheartening to a scientist, to say the least."

Thanks Tara!

Ken Ham's Creation "Museum"

It's probably not necessary to do so. But just in case it might get missed, I wanted to point everyone to the blog carnival that PZ Myers has assembled about the newly-opened Creation Museum. The "museum" is the product of Answers in Genesis and its CEO Ken Ham. As PZ put it:

"we can hardly believe that in 21st century America, this childish comic-book fantasy is being taken seriously by anyone."

The National Center for Science Education has posted an assembly of media reactions.

Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists

By popular demand, I'm now a member of the LFHCfS!

However, my membership may be short-lived if we can raise enough money to support our Iowa City Darwin Day efforts! Click here to find out more. Once shorn, I'll be donating my hair to Locks of Love.

More on David Sloan Wilson

Blue, over at Blue Cat Blog, has posted extensively on David Sloan Wilson's new book Evolution For Everyone, which I have not found time to finish yet. Blue also found a recent lecture given by DSW entitled "Evolution and Religion: Two Sideshows and the Main Event", given March 8, 2007 at Hampshire College as part of their Science and Religion lecture series. I'm having some difficulty posting the video, so just click here.

The Origins of Genome Architecture

I was really excited to find in my mail yesterday a copy of Michael Lynch's new book, The Origins of Genome Architecture, just-published by Sinauer. This book represents a synthetic detailing of Mike's ideas about evolutionary principles that underlie the origin and diversification of genomes. It is very likely to become a classic in evolutionary biology. Last year, Mike published a seminal paper entitled The origins of eukaryotic gene structure in Molecular Biology & Evolution that is a precis of sorts on this topic. I am generally a big fan of his ideas, although they are not without detractors.

In full-disclosure mode, I should point out that I provided some comments to Mike on one of the chapters, resulting in the complementary book (thanks, Mike & Sinauer!). However, I have not yet had the opportunity to consider the whole book. I'll need to add it to my ever-lengthening list!

Evolution for Everyone

This afternoon, I picked up a copy of David Sloan Wilson's (DSW) new book, Evolution for Everyone. I have been looking forward to reading it ever since I heard about it a year or so ago. The idea that DSW puts forward is that evolutionary thinking can illuminate many subjects, not just those in biology. In the opening chapter, DSW refers to himself as an "evolutionist" as opposed to an "evolutionary biologist": although he is a certainly a biologist, he uses evolutionary thinking to consider a whole variety of problems not exclusive to biology.

In putting his efforts where his mouth (or keyboard) is, DSW has also organized what sounds like a really exciting program at Binghamton University called Evolutionary Studies (EvoS). The program is described in some detail in his recent paper in PLoS Biology, Evolution for Everyone: How to Increase Acceptance of, Interest in, and Knowledge about Evolution.

Along with a thoughtful review from one of my favorite science writers, Natalie Angier, the New York Times has made the first chapter available online. A review that recently appeared in the New Scientist said:

"DO WE need another popular book on evolution? That 54 per cent of adults in the US believe we did not evolve from earlier species is reason enough, but David Sloan Wilson's book also has much to teach those of us who are already convinced. His aim is to show that evolution can transform our basic understanding of everyday life. We have no problem believing in the physical sciences, he says, because we are so used to them in our lives - when we drive cars or build bridges, for example. Evolution is different, yet without it we can't understand medicine, politics, economics, art and, yes, religion. With a clear passion for the subject, Wilson shows that understanding evolution is easy, even intuitive - it really is for everyone. If only everyone would read his book."

I'm only three chapters into the book so far, but I'm already really enjoying it; I'll report more later. In the meantime, if anyone has comments on the book (or article), please leave them.

Favorite Popular Science Book #2

Another great "popular" evolution book is Steve Jones' "retelling" of The Origin of Species, called Darwin's Ghost (in the UK it was called Almost Like a Whale). As with Dr. Tatiana, I have used this book with success for teaching in both undergraduate (introductory Evolution) and graduate (Molecular Evolution) courses. It's a highly engaging introdution to evolution--I found it to be particulary good for those students who are somewhat knowledgable in genetics and molecular biology, but who have little or no background in evolution (I would get some of these students in my ME course that I, sadly, no longer teach). The basic idea is that Jones keeps Darwin's chapters and topics intact, but he re-writes them to include up-to-date material that reflect today's science (or at least 1999's). I don't know if it's in the works, but perhaps a revision would be in order...