Readers of this blog will have to indulge me from time to time so that I can respond to personal attacks from creationists. I write about science, and I strive to do so accurately. I also point out misinformation about science and explain why it’s wrong. So when someone claims I can’t admit a mistake when I make one, or that I suffer from an overactive imagination, I have to respond.

The Discovery Institute, which promotes Intelligent Design, tried to cast doubt a couple weeks ago on a transitional fish-tetrapod called Tiktaalik. The author of the post, Casey Luskin, wanted to convince us that despite the claims of scientists that it had a wrist, it didn’t seem to have one.

Continue reading “They Call Me Mister Zimmer” →

In 2005, researchers made headlines when they reported that they had found intact blood vessels from a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex. The discovery raised hopes that paleontologists could get their hands on the flesh and blood of vanished animals. This week, however, other scientists challenged the results, arguing that the dinosaur flesh was in fact just coatings of young bacteria. But the original researchers stand by their results, calling the new argument weak. “There really isn’t a lot new here,” says Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

Continue reading “Slime versus dinosaur” →

Colm Ó Dúshláine writes,

“I got a tattoo of a double helix on my arm (see attached) to “mark” the occasion of the submission of my PhD thesis. I felt I should have something that records my passion for genetics in the same way that another one I have, a celtic knot, records my ancestry. Anyway, a year later, my research group starts up a collaboration with James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. I thought it was pretty cool that I had the chance to meet him, so I showed him the tattoo! I was pleasantly surprised (and also felt VERY nerdy) when he at first couldn’t believe it was real!!”

Continue reading “The Torch Is Passed…” →

I’ve been offered a few islands to do my work.

Craig Venter said this in passing, almost under his breath, as he spoke Wednesday night about the future of biology at the Oxonian Society in New York. It was a perfect Venterism. Venter, of course, is the scientist who declared he would lead a project to sequence the human genome faster, better, and much cheaper than the official government effort. He’s the guy who then had the audacity last year to publish the most accurate genome sequence to date–his own. 

Continue reading “Clone Armies And Designer Life” →

If you’re new to the Loom, you may not be aware that I have a thing for science tattoos. It’s been exactly a year since I noticed a tattoo on the shoulder of a friend who’s a geneticist at Columbia. The tattoo was DNA, and it spelled his wife’s initials in the genetic code. So I wondered aloud if there were other scientists who had inked themselves with science, and the answer was a shockingly loud yes. In fact, I was soon inundated with so many pictures of tattoos (and enlightening stories behind them) that I had to separate them from my old blog to keep them organized. The tattoos have become fodder for stories in places like New Scientist and Wired. Now that the Loom has arrived at Discover, I’m bringing them back into the fold.

Continue reading “Re-Discover the Science Tattoo Emporium” →