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All posts for the month May, 2013

Photo Credit - Greg Laden

Photo Credit – Greg Laden

Among the most popular posts on Green Comet is the Cave Art series, parts One, Two and Three. They make a nice summary of the state of the discipline for anyone with a casual interest. A good way to get a sense of what is out there in the way of cave paintings and rock art in general. On Scienceblogs I found a post by Greg Laden that goes into it in more depth, with emphasis on when and where our human ancestors began to produce it. From his post, How are art and human evolution related:

“Art is almost certainly important and has a place on (the) list of things to consider when wondering about the evolution of our species.” – Greg Laden

Laden does a good job of exploring the subject and makes useful suggestions for further thought and exploration. If you enjoyed the Cave Art series, I recommend furthering your education with his blog post.

rjb

Photo Credit - Marc Verhaegen

Photo Credit – Marc Verhaegen

Those of you who read my post, Bipedal – The Aquatic Ape Theory, might be interested to learn of this guest blog on Scienceblogs by Marc Verhaegen. He is a much more learned and erudite writer than I, and you will get a much greater depth of information from his post than from my brief outline. Here is a short quotation:

“It is often assumed that Alister Hardy’s and Elaine Morgan’s aquatic ape theory (AAT) suggests that more than 5 Ma (million years ago) there was a semi-aquatic phase in our past (explaining e.g. human fur loss, fatness and upright bipedalism), which was followed by a savanna phase on the African plains. In 2011, AAT proponents published an eBook, ‘Was Man more aquatic in the past?’, which showed a rather different picture of AAT.” – Marc Verhaegen

He was kind enough to comment on my post, and you can see that at the link above. If you are interested in the Aquatic Ape Theory, or in human evolution in general, I encourage you to go and read his Scienceblogs guest blog.

rjb

June 09, 2013 – The theory continues to evolve. See this post and ensuing discussion at the blog, The Aquatic Ape.

rjb

Photo credit - slack12/Foter.com/CC-BY-NC-ND

Photo credit – slack12/Foter.com/CC-BY-NC-ND

You wouldn’t normally think of snails as farmers. If anything they’d be more like cows, grazing through the day. Cows aren’t that smart. When they’re relaxing, chewing their cud, they’re probably not planning how to grow their next crop of grass. So what of snails, then?

Snails aren’t very brainy, even compared to cows. There’s the question of whether they can even be said to have a brain. They have a nervous system which has a clump of neurons at the head end, which might be a brain. Or it might just be an aggregation of nerve cells, a mere ganglion. We have similar clusters in our nervous system. One example is the solar plexus, located in the abdomen just below the diaphragm. It does a lot of very important work but you wouldn’t call it a brain. Continue Reading

Credit - BBoomerinDenial

Credit – BBoomerinDenial

Let me be the first to offer best wishes and a bon voyage to Canada’s scientists. The government has told them to forget about their normal enquiries and concentrate on things that will help business. Yes, this government thinks that it can mandate made-to-order science. And they seem to think that our best and brightest will be happy in their new role as civil servants doing the bidding of politicians and business people. Politicians and business people. Who better to point the way to new scientific discoveries?

How could Canada be so foolish, you ask? Well, in this country we have a political system where a party can get 39% of the vote and form a majority government. Then this “majority” can dictate to the 61% who voted against it. It’s in this welter of irrationality that politicians think they can choose the science they want.

Here are some examples of their hubris:
Scientist calls new confidentiality rules on Arctic project ‘chilling’
Harper Government Stifles the Truth

Here’s what some scientists think of it:
How Science Can Help the Feds Save Face
Open for business: Refocused NRC
Outcry Grows Over Canadian Govt’s Undermining of Climate Science
Is Canada giving up on science?

Here’s what a Canadian commentator thinks of it:
Rick Mercer Says Scientists ‘Muzzled’ In Canada Again (VIDEO)

You want some science with that?

You want some science with that?

If I were a talented young scientist, I think I’d be looking for some place I could do real science. Some place where they believe in fundamental research, exploring the unknown. Some place outside of Canada.

rjb