Category: Curiosities of Nature

Decancelliation

I imagine that very few species would consider not having to worry about leopard attacks a bad thing. The enthusiasm for any story claiming that human beings continue to being driven upwards and onwards by natural selection suggests that we pine for those halcyon days of yore when being eaten alive by jungle cats was a major source of morbidity[1]. We worry about a lack of selection for things like good eye-sight and gobble up cheap, pop evolutionary psychology[2] stories of adaptive behavior.

We really want to know are human beings still evolving and how can reclaim the benefits of natural selection without feeding our offspring to leopards?

Continue reading “Decancelliation”

Wickedly Rational or Spiteful (Cinde-really? Part 3)

Traditionally, fairy tales are short, fitting neatly into the brief time twixt bath and bed, where they induce nightmares about witches who eat children. In order to achieve this, fairy tales often dispense with time consuming things like character development, complex plot twists, and, you know, having things make sense. We do not need to know why the Evil Queen in Snow White is obsessed with being the “fairest of them all” (childhood beauty pageants?), we simply need to know that she is evil.

When one decides, however, to use a much beloved fairy tale to generate a cash cow, feature length film (BIPITI-BOPITI-BOO!) without having to bother with developing your own plot, one has an obligation to fill a few of those extra minutes with some depth of character.

After all, compelling villains are plausible villains. Good villains (er?) have a reason for villainy. They do not just enjoy being evil for the sake of being evil[1].

Which makes me wonder, why did the Wicked Stepmother choose to imprison Cinderella during The Great Slipper Test? Continue reading “Wickedly Rational or Spiteful (Cinde-really? Part 3)”

Alcohol consumption and financial success

Via The New York Times, a new Gallup survey suggests that alcohol consumption and financial success are positively correlated.

In accordance with the standards for inferring causation that seem to prevail in my scientific field (genomics and systems biology), I’m going to conclude that the secret to financial success is to drink more.

Job description

Job: Scientist

Description:

Daddy: What does Daddy do at work?
Daughter: Solves the Mysteries of the Universe.

We’re not in Kansas anymore

Here at the Cold Spring Harbor Computational Cell Biology meeting, after the first session:

Terms I have heard: ‘tensor’, ‘partial differential equations’, ‘quantum dots’

Term I have not heard: ‘DNA’

During an average day at the lab back home:

Term I hear: ‘DNA’

Terms I do not hear: ‘tensor’, ‘partial differential equations’, ‘quantum dots’