I visited Mike's Corn Maze in Sunderland, MA last year and had a lot of fun, so I checked to see what the theme of the maze is this year. To my delight, it's a Charles Darwin corn maze in celebration of his 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of The Origin of Species! I can't wait to visit, too bad its raining this weekend. Learn more about this year's maze on their website, and if you're in the area, I promise a good time.
Showing posts with label evolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label evolution. Show all posts
11 September 2009
Darwin Corn Maze
12 February 2009
Happy Birthday Darwin!
Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin.
Here are some limericks to recite throughout the day, written by Vince LiCata and posted on The Science Creative Quarterly.
There once was a young man named Darwin
Who spent five years tossed to the far wind
He wrote a book for his peers
After only twenty short years
And now he’s as pop as George Carlin.
They say we all came from a monkey
But I say that theory is bunky
Because as anyone knows
Who talks with creationist pros
That some people are closer to donkey.
Asked the petrified School Board of Kansas:
“I wonder why everyone slams us?”
The answer it seemed
As if from space it were beamed
Was: when God gave out brains, they were panned thus.
We’ve all grown to fill in some niche
Unless there’s some DNA glitch
In that case we change
Perhaps expanding our range
But more often, go face down in a ditch.
Upon a darkening midnight so dreary
While pondering evolutionary theory
Bob said with a wink
To his partner the twink
I fear for our fitness, my dearie.
Tad Crass was an irascible ass
Who came-on to any available lass
But by group affirmation
To stop Ted’s procreation
All said, on these genes, we will pass.
There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all of his brains in a bucket
They said, he’s the kind
Who screams “Intelligent Design!”
I.e., when the bucket got full, he’d just chuck it.
If I gave you my genome to play with
Would you deem me as someone to stay with
Or would you scramble my genes
Like tossed salad spring greens
Just to see all the sequences I’m made with?
11 February 2009
A Darwin valentine
February 12th is Darwin's birthday and February 14th is Valentine's Day. To celebrate both, why not give your special someone a Darwin Valentine designed by Ironic Sans.
04 February 2009
Songs about Darwin and Evolution
A video of Chumbawumba performing a song about Charles Darwin (via the Guild of Scientific Troubadours and Pharyngula) got me thinking about what other songs about Darwin and evolution exist.
The Mirror.co.uk was thinking along the same lines as me and has an extensive list of songs that Darwin might have put on his iPod on their blog (compiled by Mark Pallen).
So celebrate Darwin's 200th birthday on February 12, 2009 by playing some of these songs:
* Charles Robert Darwin, by Artichoke
This is a great biography of his life (lyrics) (listen)
* Part Man, Part Monkey, by Bruce Springsteen
A song about the Scopes monkey trial (lyrics) (video)
* Dance Like a Monkey, by New York Dolls
The music video is pretty amusing (video)
* Do The Evolution, by Pearl Jam
A song with a darker view of where evolution has taken us (video)
* Hey, Charly, by Suzi Quatro
(video)
* Darwin, by Third Eye Blind
"A chromosome divides, multiply and thrive, and the strong survive" (video of a cover version)
* Line in the Sand, by Motorhead
For fans of metal and evolution (listen)
* Evolution (Use your brain), by My Poor Kevin
I can see this song getting stuck in my head (video)
* Man on the Moon, by R.E.M.
A small lyrical nod to Darwin, "Mr. Charles Darwin had the gall to ask" (video)
And finally not to forget Richard Milner who dresses up as Darwin and sings songs about Darwin and evolution (website).
If I've forgotten a song you know about, post them in the comments!
09 November 2008
Darwin in The Fall
I just watched the movie The Fall last night, which was directed by Tarsem Singh.
"In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastical story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances" -- IMDb
One of the heroes in the story is Charles Darwin, who sports a very fluffy and very awesome pink flamingo coat and a bowler hat. He carries around a bag that contains his "colleague" and pet, a monkey named Wallace, who no one but Darwin ever sees, but who whispers ideas to Darwin throughout the movie. You can watch a clip of the movie introducing Darwin here.Wallace, of course, is in reference to Alfred Russel Wallace, who was also a British naturalist and seldom credidted for his independent development of the theory of natural selection. Darwin and Wallace corresponded via letters over the years and both scientists' thoughts on natural selection were first presented together. A few have suggested there was a conspiracy to rob Wallace of his credit and that Darwin had taken ideas from Wallace to complete his own theory. This must be why the filmaker portrayed the fictionalized Darwin as frequently jotting notes and sketching pictures into his notebook while Wallace the monkey would interject with ideas to help him. At one point in the movie Darwin exclaims, at the immenent demise of Wallace, "I'll tell everyone they were your ideas. They're going to find out that I'm a fraud."
While many scholars have refuted this dynamic (this Wallace FAQ is a good reference for questions about Wallace) and I would never call Darwin a fraud, I enjoyed the movie The Fall and I liked the portrayal of Darwin. It's a refreshing change to see him shown as young and cavalier in his flamboyant coat than how one usually sees him depicted as a solemn bearded old man.
22 August 2008
Evolving Darwin Play Set
Just in at Archie McPhee (my favorite source of all things tacky), the Evolving Darwin Play Set. A reproduction of the classic illustration showing the evolution of man, the man being Darwin in this case. This is being added to my mental list of potential holiday gifts.
21 May 2008
Flying Spaghetti Monster Brooch
The Flying Spaghetti Monster was the creation of Bobby Henderson back when the Kansas school board was first considering introducing Intelligent Design along with evolution in the classroom. You can read his original letter here. Since then the FSM has become a cultural icon to bring attention to the ridiculousness of presenting non-scientific alternatives to evolution.
So I created a Flying Spaghetti Monster brooch in His likeness, complete with noodly appendage and two tasty meatballs. He is made with oven bake clay, two button eyes, felt backing, and a 1 in. bar pin.
16 May 2008
Plush evolution
I just stumbled upon Fur Will Fly's shop on Etsy which has lots of cute science-y plush dolls, and "On the origin of plush..." caught my eye right away. As their creator says, "This is an evolving family of 4 plushies, each one slightly more developed than the last. (But please treat them all equally)."
01 April 2008
Evolution board games
I like board games, so out of curiosity I tried to find board games about evolution last night.
Well, I must have missed the controversy over this one, the Intelligent Design vs. Evolution Board Game that aims to "reveal the insanity of perhaps the greatest hoax of our times -- the unscientific 'theory of evolution'". This was developed by evangelical christians (one of which is Kirk Cameron of Growing Pains acting fame). They even boast on the product description page about how much evolutionists hate it. While I think this would be quite hilarious to play, I wouldn't dream of ordering it and ending up on some scary mailing lists.
Sadly, the game "Evolution" (published in 1986) is out of print. However, there is a game on the market that I do want to get, American Megafauna by Sierra Madre Games. The product summary at boardgamegeek.com read as such:
"A quarter of a billion years ago, an unknown catastrophe engulfs the Earth. The swamps and ice caps of the Permian are replaced by the blistering deserts of the Triassic. On both land and sea, 96% of the animal species die.
In the corner of Pangea that will be known as America, small survivors cautiously sniff the post-holocaust air at the dawn of the Mesozoic Era. Some of these unspecialized quadrupeds have sloppy ever-replacing reptile teeth, these will be the dinosaurs. Others have sculpted 'one-shot' teeth, these will be the mammals. The victor in this titanic ecological struggle will determine the masters of the planet.
Clearly, the ruling reptiles triumphed since that day, 248 million years ago, and dominated for 170 million years. Only to be overthrown, in what must be the upset of the eon, by the mammals. Yet the contest is not over.
American Megafauna pits dinosaurs against mammals in ancient America. The game is designed for two to four players, from ages 9 to adult, or can be played solitaire. It recreates the titanic contest of these two types of prehistoric beasts from the Triassic to the present.
This is a game of ecology, evolution, and DNA. Players start as one of four nondescript archetypes, but can branch out to new species from this basic type by bidding on genotype and DNA cards as they are revealed. For auction 'currency,' players use gene coins from a 'gene pool.' DNA cards allow players to create strange animals, from cud-chewing crocodiles with antlers, to saber-tooth meat-eating camels.
In the the advanced version, the continent of Laurentia is occasionally flooded or glaciated; greenhouse levels change; and the three Milankovich cycles are handled by cards that occur with historical probabilities. Biome cards, including cycad prairies, mountains, ice sheets, and mangrove swamps, appear on the map in succession according to 'climax' ratings."
The designer of this game is Phil Eklund, a rocket scientist by day, and a board game developer by night (Sierra Madre Games is his independent game publisher). I like his attention to detail and how each turn represents a few million years, the correct time frame for large evolutionary changes. I'm all about supporting independent companies, and at $40 for the game (and $15 for the expansion pack) I think that's well worth the cost of several nights of fun. Might as well use my upcoming economic stimulus payment to promote science games.
12 March 2008
T. rex ate giant melons
"Dinosaurs! Children love them, but all too often stories about dinosaurs are used to lure young people away from confidence in the Bible."The book tries to deny evolution and geology and instead asserts that
"There is only one way that we can know anything for sure about the 'prehistoric' past - from an eyewitness account! Someone who was there has to tell us what happened. God, Himself, is our best eyewitness."For those of you who learned about dinosaurs scientifically and are curious, the following is what kids are learning about dinosaurs from this book and I guess also from the Bible. Dinosaurs were made on the sixth day, along with all other land animals. Two of each kind of dinosaur were on Noah's ark during the flood (how they all fit is beyond me). All the fossils we see today were deposited during this flood. Dinosaurs, once disembarking the ark, might have then died due to cold weather, lack of food, and hunting by people. Continental drift doesn't occur, and the reason we see dino fossils in polar areas is just because the earth was a lot warmer before the flood. Dinosaurs and people lived at the same time and that's why we have stories about dragons. If you wanted to find a living dinosaur today, the African Congo seems to be the place to look as there have been sightings of dino-like creatures.
My favorite assertion, because it's just so ridiculous, is in Appendix A. In it the author claims that since in the Garden of Eden all the animals ate plants that means that dinosaurs, even Tyrannosaurus rex were vegetarians (at least in the beginning). This claim comes with a hilarious illustration of T. rex chomping down on a giant watermelon clutched in his tiny arms. While there might be some debate over if T. rex was a pure predator or scavenger, I don't think any scientist would ever say the T. rex was adapted to eating melons. And if all animals started eating plants does that mean meat eating animals that we see today have adapted and even evolved to eat meat? Blasphemous!There is so much wrong with this book, and so much glossed over because there is no biblical explanation, it is just so funny. I could go on for a long time, but in summary to refute the points above scientifically: Dinosaurs roamed the Earth from the late Triassic (about 230 million years ago) to the end of the Cretaceous period (65 million years ago) and all, except for ancestors of modern birds and reptiles, died in the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. One flood like event could not account for the layers of fossils of various ages that we find. Dinosaur evolution responded to changes in vegetation and the location of continents. In the late Triassic and early Jurassic, the continents were connected as the single landmass Pangea and by the early Cretaceous the ongoing breakup of Pangea led to dinosaurs differentiated by landmass. The first members of the genus Homo first arose about 2.5 million years ago, long after dinosaurs were extinct.
The best $0.49 I've spent for laughs and also to prevent others from buying and believing its claims. It's too bad I don't believe these bible stories, riding a melon eating T. rex would be a lot of fun.
04 December 2007
Finch comic
Comic from Animals Have Problems Too:
The Galapagos finches (also called Darwin's finches) of course being the birds that helped Darwin formulate his theory of evolution by natural selection (although he didn't realize their significance until back in England with the help of an ornithologist). They are still under study by many, but notably Peter and Rosemary Grant which have shown beak size can rapidly change via natural selection in response to climatic changes.
01 December 2007
20 November 2007
Children's books on evolution
I was talking with Sasha last night, and he remembered when he was in 3rd grade and getting a book about atoms and the big bang and how he was telling everyone about what he had learned. I agree, kids are definitely scientists, but most eventually get this curiosity "beaten" out of them. That lead us to think about books about evolution for kids - why not teach them early when they are more receptive to new ideas?
So we came up with a story about natural selection based on the work of Peter and Rosemary Grant that would go something like this:
(finch picture taken from here)
Looking around though, it does seem that there are a few books on evolution for kids, you can see them here on Amazon.
Life on Earth: The story of evolution looks promising and the illustrations look great too. I should check to see if books like this are available at large book stores.
13 November 2007
Intelligent Design on Trial
I just finished watching Nova's presentation of "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial". I thought it was done very well, and if anything, this program should be shown in biology classrooms.
For those who missed the program, Nova will be making the show available on the internet in a few days on their website.
The part I found the funniest was that in drafts of Of Pandas and People, "creationists" got changed to "cdesign proponentsists" — a transitional fossil of text showing the link between creationism and intelligent design.
I remember when my sister was starting high school biology a few years ago - I asked her if they would be learning about evolution. It turns out the policy of the Vacaville public school district in CA was just to ignore the controversy and skip evolution all together (perhaps this has changed by now). Maybe that is the ultimate goal of the religious groups against the teaching of evolution, if you cause enough trouble, eventually people just start avoiding the topic.
It also makes me wonder about religious individuals that just refuse to listen to the evidence in support of evolution. Not only that, but threaten the lives of people trying to get evolution taught in schools. That they feel the need to fight so hard just makes me think they know their cause is unfounded.
29 October 2007
The future of human evolution, in the media
I've been seeing this topic come up over and over again lately in various places. The idea that humans are "de-evolving" or that:
"The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist."(from the Daily Mail)
This "top scientist" is actually evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics. Yes, Economics!
Both Boing Boing and Bad Science mention this story. Follow the link to Bad Science if you want to read the press release and see the predictions for humans 1,000, 10,000, and 100,000 years from now.
(If all of that weren't sensational enough, this was a commissioned report for a TV station.)
Well, that's the latest incarnation of this idea, but I've seen it lots of other places recently, see them below the fold...
Right now I'm reading "The Gum Thief" the latest novel by Douglas Coupland (author of Generation X). In it, one of the characters mentions this as well:
"I read in a newspaper last week about this scientist who claims that the human race will, over the upcoming millennia, split into two distinct species. One will be a superhuman race, the other, Gollum-like hunch-backed retards."
The "de-evolution" of the human race is the whole premise to an actually really funny movie, Idiocracy.
And finally, Korn, an American metal band, of all people have a song about this as well.
I worry about so called "science" stories like this, but at the same time, it does get people talking about evolution which is a start. But if Dr. Curry thinks that humans will still be around and kicking on Earth in 100,000 years, he should probably spend more time thinking about global warming and the impending oil apocalypse.
24 October 2007
Evolution among Friends
I don't like to work in silence, so I often have the TV on in the background. The other day a re-run of Friends came on, and what do you know, they were talking about evolution.
Ross, for non-watchers of the show, is a scientist who studies dinosaurs, and during the episode he tries to convince Phoebe, the resident skeptic, that evolution is a scientific reality. Thanks to the countless people out there obsessed with Friends, a transcript of the episode "The One Where Heckles Dies" exists, so I'll paste in the relevant parts below the fold...
PHOEBE: I'm sorry, but sometimes they [the recently deceased] need help. That's fine.
Go ahead and scoff. You know, there're a lot of things that I don't
believe in, but that doesn't mean they're not true.
JOEY: Such as?
PHOEBE: Like crop circles, or the Bermuda triangle, or evolution?
ROSS: Whoa, whoa, whoa. What, you don't, uh, you don't believe in
evolution?
PHOEBE: Nah. Not really.
ROSS: You don't believe in evolution?
PHOEBE: I don't know, it's just, you know...monkeys, Darwin, you know,
it's a, it's a nice story, I just think it's a little too easy.
ROSS: Too easy? Too...The process of every living thing on this planet
evolving over millions of years from single-celled organisms,
too easy?
PHOEBE: Yeah, I just don't buy it.
ROSS: Uh, excuse me. Evolution is not for you to buy, Phoebe.
Evolution is scientific fact, like, like, like the air we
breathe, like gravity.
PHOEBE: Ok, don't get me started on gravity.
ROSS: You uh, you don't believe in gravity?
PHOEBE: Well, it's not so much that you know, like I don't believe in
it, you know, it's just...I don't know, lately I get the
feeling that I'm not so much being pulled down as I am being
pushed.
(knock at the door)
CHANDLER: Uh-Oh. It's Isaac Newton, and he's pissed.
....
ROSS: How can you not believe in evolution?
PHOEBE: Just don't. Look at this funky shirt!
ROSS: Pheebs, I have studied evolution my entire adult life. Ok, I
can tell you, we have collected fossils from all over the world
that actually show the evolution of different species, ok? You
can literally see them evolving through time.
PHOEBE: Really? You can actually see it?
ROSS: You bet. In the U.S., China, Africa, all over.
PHOEBE: See, I didn't know that.
ROSS: Well, there you go.
PHOEBE: Huh. So now, the real question is, who put those fossils there,
and why?
...
ROSS: Ok, Pheebs. See how I'm making these little toys move? Opposable
thumbs. Without evolution, how do you explain opposable thumbs?
PHOEBE: Maybe the overlords needed them to steer their spacecrafts.
ROSS: Please tell me you're joking.
PHOEBE: Look, can't we just say that you believe in something, and I
don't.
ROSS: No, no, Pheebs, we can't, ok, because--
PHOEBE: What is this obsessive need you have to make everyone agree
with you? No, what's that all about? I think, I think maybe
it's time you put Ross under the microscope.
ROSS: Is there blood coming out of my ears?
...
PHOEBE: Uh-oh. It's Scary Scientist Man.
ROSS: Ok, Phoebe, this is it. In this briefcase I carry actual
scientific facts. A briefcase of facts, if you will. Some of
these fossils are over 200 million years old.
PHOEBE: Ok, look, before you even start, I'm not denying evolution,
ok, I'm just saying that it's one of the possibilities.
ROSS: It's the only possibility, Phoebe.
PHOEBE: Ok, Ross, could you just open your mind like this much, ok?
Wasn't there a time when the brightest minds in the world
believed that the world was flat? And, up until like what, 50
years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing,
until you split it open, and this like, whole mess of crap
came out. Now, are you telling me that you are so unbelievably
arrogant that you can't admit that there's a teeny tiny
possibility that you could be wrong about this?
ROSS: There might be, a teeny, tiny, possibility.
PHOEBE: I can't believe you caved.
ROSS: What?
PHOEBE: You just abandoned your whole belief system. I mean, before, I
didn't agree with you, but at least I respected you. How, how,
how are you going to go into work tomorrow? How, how are you
going to face the other science guys? How, how are you going
to face yourself? Oh! That was fun. So who's hungry?
RACHEL: I am. Let me just get my coat.
---------
Phoebe makes a pretty elegant argument at the end there - so scientists, as the Rosses of the world, don't cave in the face of evolution doubters. While our understanding of evolution may be evolving, it is the only possibility that currently explains a large body of scientific evidence.
(except if maybe you're a Pastafarian and believe that an invisible and omniscient being called the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe in one day)
19 October 2007
TV versions of evolution (and creationism)
Here is this week's video:
Someone out there also seems to be paying attention when animated sitcoms mention evolution and creationism, and spliced together this video comparing them. The Simpson's version of evolution is pretty awesome, and fairly comprehensive.
06 October 2007
Insular dwarfism
This comic from Dinosaur Comics is a great comic summary of insular dwarfism:
The insular dwarfism wiki article has some great examples. And don't forget the opposite phenomenon of island gigantism, the removal of predators (and other constraints) on islands often can result in animals being able to grow larger after many generations. I learned something new, who knew that the dodo is just a giant form of a pigeon? Would that make Mr. Dodo the vice-mayor of Gigantic Towne? I think so.
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