Historians are frequently enchanted by things discarded as useless by the general public. But I think anyone interested in evolution would find the study of non-gene coding DNA fascinating, including the scientist featured here. This is Susumu Ohno, one of the United States’ foremost geneticists and evolutionary biologists, and he came up with the term […]
Susumu Ohno’s “Junk DNA” Read More »
“The Persistence of Memory” is one of artist Salvador Dali’s most recognizable paintings. The surrealist style is perfectly adapted to depicting the ways our minds preserve our memories — they are suggestive, dreamlike, warpable. For however imperfect or relativistic our memories might be, we owe them for much of our sense of identity.How we humans
Salvador Dali and the Arc Gene Read More »
Charles Darwin’s idea of Natural Selection as the key driver of evolution has been demonstrated many times over. However, in the century and a half since his lifetime, scientists have added onto his theories as various scientific discoveries have been made. Perhaps no one has reframed the picture of Darwinian evolution as much as the
Lynn Margulis and Eukaryotic Cells Read More »
And what would a week’s worth of Eastern European Vampire posts be without a story on Vlad “the Impaler” Dracula? I should especially include Vlad because Boston College, where I got my Ph.D., had not one but *two* Dracula specialists when I was studying there.In American pop culture, the Vampire repertoire takes its cue from
Vald “The Impaler” Tepes and His Minor Inspiration of Dracula Read More »
This is a satirical comic from the magazine _Life_ from 1888. In it, the moral crusader Anthony Comstock is shown accosting an artist painting a woman bathing. “Don’t you suppose I can imagine what is under the water?”, proclaims Comstock.It is a fitting caption for the man who gave his name to the indecency law
The Comstock Act of 1872 Read More »
In the early 20th century, science was trendy. Unfortunately, so was bigotry, and the eugenics movement took advantage of the scientific-sounding language of genetics to promote the idea that certain types of people (pretty much white, native-born, able-bodied, and Protestant) needed to propagate for the greater good of humanity. Enter the “Fitter Family Contests” held
“Fitter Family Contests” of the Early 20th-Century Read More »
The global situation right now is dominated by discussion of COVID-19, as well as the Herculean attempts to create a vaccine for the disease. And as reports of the Phase III trials start to come in, we can look at this photo — a scientist’s laboratory from the early 20th century, cluttered and filthy. Rotting
Thomas Morgan and Gene Studies Read More »
“The good thing about science,” writes astronomy popularizer Neil deGrasse Tyson, “is that it’s true whether you believe in it or not.” One could also state that the opposite can be the case — merely wishful thinking will not alter the rules of the material world. Or the biological one. But this is not what
Soviet Scientist Trofim Lysenko and Agriculture Read More »
I am going to do a magic trick for you — take a look at the two photos here: one is a 15th century painting of a Locust, and the other is Ernie Chambers, the longest-serving state senator of Nebraska (46 years and counting). And my hocus pocus will be to show how these two
The Similarities of a Locust and Senator Ernie Chambers Read More »
This is John R. Baylor, a politician and military leader for the Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In 1861 he brought his troops from Texas into New Mexico to threaten Union forces near Las Cruces. Although they were outnumbered 500 Union soldiers to 200 Confederates, Baylor’s men were victorious.The path towards the Union
Baylor Canyon and John R. Baylor Read More »
The landscape shown here is part of a vast and ecologically diverse ecoregion known as the Chiuahuan Desert. In the second image, a map shows its expansive territory, which encompasses about 250,000 square miles (647,500 km), making it the largest desert in North America.An unusual feature of this very young ecoregion (only about 9,000 years
Ecological Diversity of the Chiuahuan Desert Read More »
Here is the Tortugas Mountain in southern New Mexico, endpoint of a three-day religious festival among the American Indians of the region held from December 10-12 each year.The festival celebrates the Virgin Mary, but also the culture of the peoples from this area who trace some of their heritage to a mission called Señora de
Tortugas Mountains and Piro Indian Festivals Read More »
The Rio Grande is just a dry riverbed this time of year at La Llorona park in Las Cruces, New Mexico.The area is named for an old Latinx legend common throughout Mexico and the American Southwest: La Llorona or “the Weeping Woman” usually tells of a beautiful woman with dark flowing hair wearing white robes
The “Weeping Woman” of the Rio Grande Read More »
In the Organ Mountains of south-west New Mexico is a trail that leads to “la cueva,” home for some time to this famous hermit named Agostini-Justiniani.“El Ermitano ” as the monk was called locally, had been born of an aristocratic family in Italy around 1800. He became an ascetic wanderer by his 30s, foregoing his
The Famous Hermit Agostini-Justiniani Read More »
These ruins stand in solitude at the western foothills of New Mexico’s Organ Mountain range. Constructed in the late 1800s, they were part of a resort complex called “Van Patten’s Mountain Camp.” Even though it takes a while for hikers to pack into this area now, the buildings were isolated even when they were in
The Organ Mountain Ruins of New Mexico Read More »
The rocky vistas shown here include volcanic andesite and sedimentary limestone, deposited over two and a half million years ago. But it wasn’t until after the 1850s, when American Indians in the region had been mostly conquered, that the isolated and rugged terrain became interesting to investors for mining purposes.The image shown here includes the
New Mexico’s Modoc Mine Read More »
If only trees could talk . . . Here is a magisterial Alligator Juniper, so named because of the distinctive bark that resembles the reptilian skin of its namesake. Common from central Mexico to the American Southwest, Alligator Junipers are used to facing harsh conditions: they grow at relatively high altitudes (this one was around
Alligator Juniper Tree Read More »
This week’s stories focus on a subject in science history which is indeed topical across the world right now: the discovery of how the human immune system works. And to begin, I am introducing the image of this young girl, named Myrtis by the Greek archaeologists who reconstructed her appearance after excavating a mass grave
The Plague of Athens and the Immune System Read More »
Today on December 14, 2020, a critical care nurse in New York became the first American to receive the COVID vaccine. This begins a period of highly anticipated vaccine delivery in the weeks to come. The photo here harkens to another moment in American history when folks waited with bated breath for a cure for
The “Great Race of Mercy” for a Diphtheria Cure in Alaska Read More »
Shown here are Doctors Pear Kendrick and Grace Eldering, and together they developed the first successful vaccine against the childhood disease pertussis, or Whooping Cough.Whooping Cough is of course characterized by the sound of the hollow, forced, and unremitting chest cough that mostly younger people endured until the 20th-century development of a vaccine: it killed
Doctors Pear Kendrick and Grace Eldering Read More »
