Happy Birthday, Gregor!

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
Image via Wikipedia

On this day in 1822, Gregor Mendel was born. Forty-three years later he would give birth to genetics when he reported his discovery of the laws of inheritance from pea hybridization experiments. It took about forty more years for his work to be rediscovered and applied.

 

The Finch and Pea is half-named in honor of Mendel’s pea hybridization experiments. The discovery of genetics combined with Darwin’s ideas about evolution form the foundation of modern biology (along with molecular methods from physics – but they do not have a model organism that makes a cool pub-y name).

Happy 189th Birthday, Gregor! You look great.

 

 

 

Puppets, outside the box

A while ago, The Frogger returned from a story-time/art project event with two puppets, of which she was understandably very proud. One she created under her own creative direction, with technical assistance from SuperMom. The other was created with the assistance of an adult helper, who “helped” her make a puppet. Can you guess which is which?

To my eye, both puppets have a recognizable face, but they are not equal. Continue reading “Puppets, outside the box”

Watch out for that Sun!


I’m not sure this is really a comet (mostly made of ice and dust – but I really don’t know what I am talking about here), but we do have video of something small crashing into the Sun thanks to the Solar Dynamics Observatory. And that is cool.

If you are having trouble seeing the object in the video, the picture below will help you figure out where to look.

*Hat tip to io9.

Camouflage

If this rabbit were being hunted by my iPhone 3GS, I like its odds.

What? You don’t think iPhone’s hunt cute, fluffy bunnies? Then, why do you think its battery is always so low in the morning?

Legitimate anxiety

I’m not even going to pretend that you care about my opinion on the Rebecca Watson/Elevator Guy/Stef McGraw debacle. If you feel that Rebecca did not have a right to feel uncomfortable or speak out about it, then you should go read Greg Laden and John Rennie, while I weep for your soul.

I have been particularly troubled by the suggestion that female anxiety over being in an elevator alone with a strange man late at night is of a piece with the anxiety of a white person who finds themselves at an urban bus stop surrounded by black people and then approached by one. The suggestion is that the anxiety felt is the product of negative stereotypes. J. Earl Davis makes some good points in his article on this issue, but this comparison is not one of them. All analogies eventually break down. This one does not even get out of the starting gate. Continue reading “Legitimate anxiety”