Year of Darwin: Videos and More

You will hear a lot about Charles Darwin for the next year. This is because it is the bicentennial of his birth and 150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species. Case Western Reserve University is celebrating their "Year of Darwin" with a line-up of lectures. Many of them are available online. I especially recommend two of them: Neil Shubin gave a paleontology-oriented talk about the discovery of Tiktaalik, and Sean Carroll gave a more gene-oriented talk (see below). I think you'll find both of them worth your time.

Meanwhile, the January 2009 Scientific American has a number of interesting articles. Several that I liked are:

1. Evolution of the Mind: 4 Fallacies of Psychology (a critique of pop evolutionary psychology)

2. Testing Natural Selection with Genetics

3. Diversity Revealed: From Atoms to Traits

4. The Evolutionary Origins of Hiccups and Hernias (this will be familiar if you've read Neil Shubin's book, Your Inner Fish)

5. The Latest Face of Creationism in the Classroom


Go forth and be edified!

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