Archetype

Eickwort’s Manual of Insect Morphology

George Campbell Eickwort (1949–1994)

The Department of Entomology at Cornell University saw a time of great research and teaching in insect morphology at the end of the Twentieth Century, most of which came from the efforts by two extraordinary systematists: William L. Brown Jr. and George Campbell Eickwort.

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Tags: Cornell University, George Campbell Eickwort, William L. Brown Jr.

Three succinct reasons why scientists should communicate science to the general public

Raghavendra Gadagkar, social insects biologist, writes:

I believe that most working scientists should spend part of their time explaining and discussing their work with a larger audience. There are at least three important reasons for this. One is that science needs to become an integral and essential part of society and not be perceived as an outside force that is at loggerheads with society. Second, scientists need to recruit the best young minds to make up the next generation and that can only happen if we devote time to communicate with the general public. Third, I have no doubt it will help us appreciate our own work better.

From the book review of  Keller, L. & Gordon, É. 2009: The lives of ants. – Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, XI + 252 pp.¹

Tags: Raghavendra Gadagkar

Spider silk on display

… at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Tags: AMNH, Silk, Spider

Cladistics wars 2.0

There is a skirmish going on at Dechronization blog right now¹. This is a coauthored blog about phylogenetics. I like used to like this blog (its was right there on my blogroll —->²). There are surprisingly very few blogs about phylogenetic methods these days, despite the wide use that phylogenies currently have  in evolutionary biology and beyond (e.g., linguistics). I will complain that, for nine authors, they post little, sometimes not a single post during a month.

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Early call from Science

My brother had the courtesy of regressing me to a time in our childhood that may be partially responsible for our choice to become professional scientists. You see, our parents had bought us a Batman comic book that came with an audio cassette. Playing the audio cassette, one could hear the story in voice acting and special effects while following the artwork. A bell ring would indicate when to turn the page.

In the story, “Trumping the Joker”, Batman and sidekick Robin chase after the Joker that had just escaped from Arkham Asylum and stolen a famous Picasso from the Gotham City Museum of Fine Arts. Great story. After apprehending the Joker and saving the Picasso the story ends with a short dialog between our superheroes that includes a profound, final reflection by Batman.

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Tags: Batman, Lobotomy