On Larry Summers

Apparently a transcript does exist of Larry Summers's remarks at the Infamous Lunch Talk.

Bitch, Ph.D rants very nicely about it.

Eeeeeeevolution!

Textbook disclaimer stickers (click on the bottom-right one...)

Avida (from the Digital Life Lab at Caltech). This is the computer model of evolution that appears to confirm Darwin. Download it yourself and play!

National Center for Science Education -- pro-evolution-education group

Understanding Evolution: an evolution website for teachers (Berkeley) -- This is hands down the best website on evolution and evolution education I've ever seen.

And for a giggle, creationist Dr. Kent Hovind's "Questions for Evolutionists." Every one of these questions is based on either ignorance or misunderstanding of evolution. Good times. (These would actually be good questions if they were asked in good faith, because they'd lead to better understanding. Unfortunately, we all know he's not interested in the answers.)

Science writing

Although I've applied to Ph.D programs for next year, I heard about the MIT master's program in science writing today, and couldn't help getting excited.

From the website: "Science writers may, or may not, hold academic credentials in science or engineering. But they are always humanists, one foot in the sciences, the other in the arts, as apt to be seduced by a shapely sentence as by an elegant scientific idea.

"It is this dual nature that MIT's Graduate Program in Science seeks to foster.

"The need for men and women who can lucidly interpret and explain science to the wider public has never been greater. Modern technological society leaves a widening gap between citizens and wielders of scientific expertise; graduates of our science writing program will help narrow that gap. The values and practices of science and technology pervade modern life; our graduates will probe and knowledgeably question them."

I have to say this is me. Immodest as it may be for me to say, I know I have a talent for synthesizing scientific concepts (especially physics concepts) and expressing them in English. Moreover, I know I have a talent for writing. And I've always loved the idea of bridging science and the humanities, without sacrificing either one. It drives me crazy when philosophers or artists try to co-opt scientific principles without understanding them. Quantum mechanics does not justify magical thinking, no matter what Lyall Watson says.

Of course, they do accept Ph.D scientists to this program. It might be something to consider after I've got a few more years of research experience.