Tag Archives: evolution

Hard knocks on science

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It’s that time of year again!  Crisp air, the start of a new school year, a hint of red in the trees, and the beginning of the NFL season–this is undoubtedly my favorite time of year.fall

This NFL season should be full of intrigue.  Will Ezekiel Elliot plow over all front lines?  Will Jim Caldwell, Mike McCoy, and Gus Bradley still have their jobs at the end of the season?  Will any AFC East team dethrone the 4-game Bradyless Patriots?  Will Colin Kaepernick’s stance–or lack thereof–result in a season-long seat on the bench?  Will mermaids rise from the ocean to cheer William Hayes and the newly relocated LA Rams?

I bet you thought this piece was going to be about concussions.  Although that is an ever-present issue for football players, what I really want to discuss is Rams defensive end William Hayes’ anti-science diatribe on the HBO show Hard Knocks. Continue reading Hard knocks on science →

Cool as a cave

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Mammoth caves - Historic entrance
Mammoth caves – Historic entrance

It was hotter than hot–over 90 degrees with a thick southern humidity that hits you like a bus when you step outside.  As I pulled on my long sleeve shirt, I chuckled at the thought of wearing it on the surface, 250 feet above my current location.  It was 55 degrees where I stood and boy was it fabulous.

With 405 miles of mapped cavities and some unknown distance of unmapped offshoots, Mammoth caves in Kentucky is the longest cave system in the world.  I experienced a mere few miles of this wonder, with at least a couple of those miles intertwining and overlapping each other like spaghetti in a bowl.  However little distance walked, crawled, & climbed, it was undoubtedly one of the coolest adventures of my life–both figuratively and literally. Continue reading Cool as a cave →

Growing up in the dark

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Wikipedia.com
Fruit fly (Drosophila) via Wikipedia.com

No, I’m not talking about unearthing some hidden family secret (you can exhale a sigh of relief, mom).  Here I refer to fruit flies growing up in the dark as participants in a 62-year long experiment at Kyoto University in Japan.  More than 1,500 generations of flies have been reared in total darkness ever since Syuiti Mori shut the blinds on his flies in 1954 starting one of the longest laboratory experiment on evolution.   Continue reading Growing up in the dark →