I was aware of Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno on the Sundance Channel, but not having access to that channel at home, had not really seen much of the show. Imagine my delight then, upon discovering, right when I am in the midst of teaching sexual selection in my Evolution class, that videos are available on their website - and are even embeddable! What a fantastic and entertaining teaching resource for us evolutionary biologists interested in the kinkier side of animal behavior!

Since my lecture tomorrow will get to the topic of how duck penises and vaginas seem to have rather run away wildly in the battle of the sexes, what better to accompany it than Ms. Rossellini's interpretation of how it works:

Eugenie Scott and Kevin Padian of the National Center for Science Education lay down the law on what theory means in science, and why that word carries far more weight than people think when throwing around the word "theory" as it if is a mere guess or a wild idea.

In an autobiographic note Charles Robert Darwin (February 12, 1809 – 1882) remembered a childhood wish:

“It was soon after I began collecting stones, i.e., when 9 or 10, that I distinctly recollect the desire I had of being able to know something about every pebble in front of the hall door–it was my earliest and only geological aspiration at that time.“

Darwin today is mostly associated with terms like natural selection and evolution, but his first scientific achievements and publications were dealing – even against his own preconceptions – with geology.

A good history lesson for your Sunday. Well worth reading.

So I spent most of yesterday here in Mumbai putting together my very first full-length (and a bit more) lecture for Evolution delivered entirely via podcast! I imagine there are students back in Fresno bemused/frustrated/perhaps even angry that their professor has been missing from this class since the beginning of the semester. Yes, the first week was partly by choice as I had to attend 3 different conferences back-to-back - in Santa Barbara, Raleigh, and Davis - right when classes began. But then a tragic accident in my family, while I was in the middle of the third conference, brought me rushing back to Mumbai (more about it on my other blog, if you're interested). And I've since been stuck awaiting a renewal of my visa, entangled in consular red tape (perhaps a topic for a whole another blog post, but not until I have my visa and am safely back in Fresno!).

Fortunately, my extremely supportive colleagues have kept my classes going in my absence. Huge thanks to them! Now I am turning to the internet and a/v technology to reach my class and resume teaching even from my temporarily outsourced state. It took a fair while to re-tool my lecture into a suitable format and record my voice while I delivered it, only imagining the audience and unable to generate any of the discussions I so love to do in class. But, at least I can cover the content - and hopefully keep the students engaged through this medium. Its an experiment, and this first attempt has its share of glitches: poor audio due to the only crappy mic I have access to, slow internet speeds delaying uploads, etc. Maybe that is a good thing, lest I produce more perfect lectures that take on a life of their own, and I thereby talk myself out of my job! (Given the CSU's move towards virtual campuses full of online classes, a caveat is in order here: let's be clear (esp. if any admin types are watching) that this is a short-term experiment due to an emergency situation, not a trial for a future online-only class!!).

Anyway, my first lecture, on Mutations and Genetic Variation is up on the class blackboard site in various format, and this morning I finally got confirmation that it is also up on Vimeo, from where I embed it below. If you do sit through this (and if you're a student, you must!), do let me know your thoughts:

And so are you! So sing it...

(While I kick myself for having missed the opportunity to appear in the video!)

 

Coral might appear solid and inanimate, but surprising new footage of a mushroom coral inflating itself to escape a sandy burial has brought the organism to life.

A scientist from the University of Queensland used timelapse photography to capture the footage.

 

(Hat tip: Flying Trilobite")

Eugenie Scott has been playing whack-a-mole with the creationists for several decades now, and she still has to keep on going! Such a shame that someone as brilliant a scientist and communicator as her has to keep spending time on what should be non-issues in a properly educated world. Alas, we don't live in such a properly educated world - indeed here in the US we are regressing alarmingly when it comes to science literacy. So I'm glad we have someone like Genie at the front lines, fighting the good fight and keeping the candle of enlightenment lit against the politically motivated forces of dark ignorance. Here's Genie again, on why we have to keep taking the nonsense of creationism seriously: