Funny advert placement

I'm sorry to my more serious readers, but I just could not resist when I saw this. The ad placement next to a story about our work on sexual versus asexual reproduction is priceless. The full story appears here on the UPI site. The paper is here on the Molecular Biology and Evolution site.

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."

SMBE 2009 - Call for Symposia

Earlier this week, I posted a formal announcement on EvolDir that the organizers of SMBE 2009 are now accepting proposals for contributed scientific symposia. The proposals are due on January 12, 2009. See the meeting webpage (http://smbe2009.org) for more details.

I hope to get back to blogging soon!

My New Device

Yes, it's as cool as it seems. My wife got me an iPhone for my birthday this year! How am I so lucky? Although I was excited about it from the start, I let it sit unopened for a couple of weeks while I figured out whether I was really prepared to pay for it. My cell phone was with Verizon, so to activate the iPhone required me to switch to ATT (@ $60/month) and start another 2-year contract. And that's on top of the device buy-in (which was purchased prior to the $200 price cut). Anyway, it's out of the box now and I am really enjoying it. I recieved and sent multiple emails today while stolling across campus. My iCal is seamlessly synched between my laptop (MacBook Pro) and my iPhone, which means that I don't have to lug my laptop around so much. Sorry if this post seems like advocacy, but sometimes you just have to let out the joy! Back to science shortly...

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.

Encyclopedia of Life Launches!

The Washington Post reports that a major new project has been launched:

"A group of the world's leading scientists announced yesterday that they had joined forces to document the world's 1.8 million named species in a massive new "Encyclopedia of Life." The unprecedented $12.5 million effort -- a collaboration of Chicago's Field Museum, Harvard University, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass., the Smithsonian Institution, the Biodiversity Heritage Library and the Missouri Botanical Garden -- aims to create separate Web pages on every known species within a decade."

The funding comes from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ($10 mil) and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation ($2.5 mil). Wow. This is big science for "organismal biology" and it will put a whole lot of good data in one open-access place. Congratulations to those who had the vision to get this launched and thanks to the funding organizations for making it happen!

Go have a look at www.eol.org. They already have some cool Demo Pages. For example, the image above comes from the Yeti Crab page. The home page says it all:

"Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity."

Click here for the Press Release.

Good Lab Webpages?!

Pimm has been looking for examples of good lab webpages. Although my lab's webpage is functional, it is certainly in need of a facelift (note, for example, the 2004 copyright date on the home page). I'm especially concerned given that the websites of many of my friends and colleagues have been listed: I clearly need to keep up with the Redfield's, Kissinger’s, Leander's, Roger's , Archibald's, Waller's, and Patterson's labs! Perhaps some (non-human) organism pictures would help....