10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2015

Flight has evolved multiple times; it has emerged in lizards, snakes, fish, bats, maybe bats again, distant relatives of primates, regular primates, rodents, and a few other unlikely taxa, in a rather half baked fashion, not “true” flight. Science 12 December 2014: 346 (6215), 1253293 [DOI:10.1126/science.1253293].

Rodents 183

Rodents Primates Bats Science 183

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2014

There is a fantastic paper just out in Science : “Sustained miniaturization and anatomoical innovation in the dinosaurian anceestors of birds” by Michael Lee, Andrea Cau, Darren Naishe and Gareth Dyke. The paper that just came out in science has the following spectacular conclusion. The point is, of course, that whales are not cows.

Camels 195

Camels Whales Whaling Apes 195

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2011

And if you look into it enough, it presents a classic case where science can fail us. I believe in science. Science is based on logic and evidence, which I think is a very respectable way to look at the world. But what many people fail to realize, and too often scientists themselves, is that science is elastic.

Emotional 197

Emotional Science Birds Mammals 197

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2018

In a voice that is friendly but unceasingly adamant, Prum presents questions, reasons out answers, finds holes in these answers, and then reasons things out some more. Videos, like the illustrations and diagrams included in the book, help make literature about science, especially theoretical science, more accessible to us non-scientists.

Ducks 100

Ducks Research Animal Stud 100