I said I’d tell you when it was published – and it’s been published! Somewhat surprisingly, I was asked by my friend Khalil to write up my thoughts on the whole ENCODE project/junk DNA/the-human-genome-is-80%-functional fiasco for the Student Voices blog, but from the perspective of what intelligent design proponents were taking from it all. If you’ve been following pro-ID blogs Evolution News and Views and Uncommon Descent lately, there’s been little end to the victorious proclamations – because, as we all know, the more functional the genome is, [...]
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It’s now officially a holiday period for me (for some curious reason my university is giving everyone a two-week mid-semester break – but no one’s complaining), but I’m still busy as hell with multiple projects, including coursework, the YAS relaunch, the podcast and just generally trying not to go insane. So! Here are some more interesting/relevant things I’ve stumbled across in the past few days. Standford University has a free, online writing course through Coursera called “Writing in the Sciences” starting on the 24th of September! It’s free! [...] » Continue reading “Open up my spine and plug me in again” The Pseudo Scientists – Episode 56 Subscribe: iTunes / Libsyn RSS In this episode of The Pseudo Scientists, the official podcast of the Young Australian Skeptics, Belinda, Tom, Rachael and I wonder about the feasibility of DNA-based information storage, look at a new breakthrough in the development of a male reproductive pill and touch on an update to the Kinesio Tape story from Episode 51. Plus, Ted interviews James Randi, living skeptical legend, magician and founder [...] Why have I been staying away from writing about the Discovery Institute? Stuff like this keeps happening: Yesterday our friends at Biologic Institute were being pestered on their Facebook page by science writer and Discover magazine blogger Carl Zimmer on the subject of Science and Human Origins. Facebook is really no place for a substantive debate — the format is such that it doesn’t repay the time you put in. So I wrote to Zimmer to invite him to participate in a genuine and informative online debate here at ENV, [...] » Continue reading “Patience: lost” The Pseudo Scientists – Episode 50 In this episode of The Pseudo Scientists, the official podcast of the Young Australian Skeptics, I host discussions with Belinda and Richard about the illegality of infant circumcision in Germany, equations vs. publication impact in biology, the death of the giant tortoise Lonesome George, and “Science: It’s A Girl Thing!” Plus, we announce the details of a very special caption contest to celebrate our 50th episode! You just know you want to caption my [...] The Pseudo Scientists – Episode 49 In this episode of The Pseudo Scientists, the official podcast of the Young Australian Skeptics, Richard, Belinda, and special guest panelist Laura Henderson discuss ‘vagina’ (walrus), a new leadership study, tuberculosis in India, and a dystopian future Civilisation. Also, Belinda had a bad day, and the much overlooked classic Troll II. This week’s “Houston, We Have A Problem” clip is Joe the Plumber running for office on the ‘never check your facts’ platform. Follow [...] The Pseudo Scientists – Episode 47 In this episode of The Pseudo Scientists, the official podcast of the Young Australian Skeptics, Jason, Richard and I discuss a mysterious burst of cosmic radiation in the 8th century, the genetics of ultra-conserved elements in animal and plant genomes, and a billboard campaign arguing against Richard Dawkins. Plus, Jason has some unfortunate news… This week’s “Houston, We Have A Problem” clip is a lesson in “seeing energy”. Don’t hurt your eyes, guys, I [...] Today’s science link is Skeptic Wonder. Protists! This oft-maligned and neglected group of organisms deserves some major love. Everyone cares about the cute mammals, the cool fish, the infectiously fun bacteria, the probably not-so-infectious but no-less-fun archaea, but rarely do you see (okay, fine, nobody cares about archaea except me) people campaigning to learn more about protists. You’d be allowed think that – unless you read this blog. Written by an Arabidopsis researcher/aspiring protistologist, under Psi Wavefunction, a blogging pseudonym, Skeptic Wonder is a great science [...] » Continue reading “Monday Science Link – Skeptic Wonder” It’s currently O-Week (Orientation Week) at my university, and I start classes on Monday. I’ve been doing a lot of timetable planning these past couple of days, removing clashes and making sure I know what prac groups I’m in – and this has lead naturally to me planning my, er, entire Bachelor of Science out. Yeah, technically you’re not supposed to do that yet, but I thought, “What the hell, I know what I want to do – why not structure my course completely now on paper so I don’t [...] » Continue reading “My Science Degree: A Preliminary Plan” |
Homologous Legs is the personal blog of Jack Scanlan, an Australian science communicator and biology student. Topics of interest here include the intelligent design/evolution "war", biology, philosophy, religion, music, and mostly coherent thoughts from a scattered brain. 
 
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