Around the web: evolution! The "Around the Web" series highlights informative websites, and also targeted blog posts and news articles, relevant to the courses I teach.
This semester I teach Anth 143: Biology of Human Behavior, an introductory-level course that covers the basics of evolution, behavioral biology, and the interaction of biology and culture. My hope is that these posts are useful not only for my current students, but other people hoping to gain background or insight into these topics. This is a good week for Around the Web. There are myriad resources on the internet, as well as just some great writing, regarding evolutionary theory and the forces of evolution. I have a few more lectures for you, a few websites that provide good primers on science and evolution, some interesting blog posts... even a web comic. Resources on evolution Professor Stephen Stearns never disappoints with his online lectures at Academic Earth. But perhaps you prefer to read to learn, rather than watch. Dissemination and Science On-line #solo10. Science On Line I am with about 150 people interested in “science communication on-line” at the British Library in London this week.
Journals are all about the communication of science results, and the not-for-profit charity that owns us, The Annals of Botany Company, is dedicated to the dissemination of botanical knowledge. Young or otherwise inexperienced science bloggers: where do we fit in? Sometimes in the science blogging community, I feel like I'm once again a little girl in a frilly dress who can't spell her name.
(And who is trying to write about science on a T-shirt.) Many of you may be familiar with Ed Yong’s post on the Origin of Science Writers, in which he invited writers to post their stories, their travels and travails to get to their current status. (There are over 100 comments at this point.) As I read through the contributions, I realized that something was missing: young or new science writers (with one or two exceptions). Although encouraged by a seasoned blogger to contribute myself, I felt uncomfortable with the idea.
The science writing world is changing, and not just because of the ScienceBlogs exodus (Bora’s must-read farewell here). Joking aside, I can see why some people would be hesitant about the emergence of younger, less-experienced science writers on the scene. Science is a process not a bunch of facts to memorize. I’m reposting this because it still stands. There seems to be a lot of fuss about a re-match between Patriots and the Giants. Apparently, I’m supposed to hope the Giants win. Once some family drama ends, I’ll get back to science. I like the junk food and parties associated with the SuperBowl – I’m just not invested in the game. The day before a Super Bowl party, I do a bit of research so I don’t sound like a complete idiot around those who know all kinds of fancy stats.
The holiday season is always a great time to practice communicating – especially if you are in the science field and your parents want to know what you do. I spent Christmas in New Zealand one year. I have an incredible life – loving husband, supportive family, fantastic jobs, great travels, etc. – so why am I depressed? Don’t Be So Cerebral? Is the way to someone’s heart through their gut?
Photo Bob Blumer – Surreal Gourmet by Roland Tanglao. I’m following my introduction to Don’t Be Such a Scientist with a look at the first chapter of the book. It opens with Randy Olson’s four organs model of communication based on the Head, Heart, Gut and Sex Organs. The Head is rational and responds to facts. It’s the organ that scientists respond to, at least in an ideal world. One is that I don’t like this model. The second problem is that it’s demonstrably false. Almost. The fact-based communication strategy might work for me, but my belief it works is based on personal experience. Another argument against Head-based writing, if you’re targeting a mass audience, is that you have to look at how scientific training works. Top down physiology. Nature repeatedly reinvented certain control strategies shared among different body systems to maintain our physiological machinery.
Each strategy not only works in a generic way and it also can fail in a generic way. Understanding these universal mechanisms can help to infer from symptoms the underlying pathology. The two previous posts What is physiology? And Physiology organized by major body systems lay the basis. However, you don't have to read through these posts to understand this one. Their distilled version is that in physiology we mainly study functioning of major human body systems. These posts (initially I planned three, this being the last, but there will be more) were written during my preparation for a course "Dynamical Diseases". The 30,000-foot view Physiology is the science of biological regulation, in technical terms, it is about closed-loop control systems. In the previously reviewed editorial of Acta Physiologica we read [1]: Physiological processes are dynamic Note. A blog about life in life sciences.