We interrupt this series on "junk DNA" and rampant folk science to bring you a months-overdue Journal Club. I wonder how many of my readers remember this little tidbit of American genius: I remember some very funny spoofs, mostly on T-shirts. (Back then, I think the Internet was still a toy for geeks at the NCSA.) "This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. This is your brain on drugs with a side of bacon.
I suppose I should report on the activities I mentioned in last week's sampler. Phil Keaggy was fun: the first set was a complete – and, I'm told, "verbatim" – rendition of the 1978 instrumental album The Master and the Musician. I'm neither an audiophile nor a musician, but I liked Keaggy's guitar and especially liked the band behind him.
Several weeks ago, I started this series on "junk DNA" by noting that the shoddy nature of anti-evolution folk science is rarely more clearly displayed than in discussions of genomic and genetic findings that are aptly explained by common descent.
In another post in this ongoing series, we looked at creationist distortions of the nature of research into non-coding DNA, or "junk DNA." There I mention how creationists of all stripes are quite fond of the claim that "Darwinist" assumptions led to the labeling of all non-coding DNA as non-functional, and thereby to the neglect of research in the field for three decades.
Some of you might remember the disheartening events at Olivet Nazarene University several months ago: a biology professor's book banned and the professor removed from intro classrooms, due to his authorship of a book that was unpopular with donors and trustees. The professor is Richard Colling, and the book is Random Designer.
Well, the Pats lost, and I was a little disappointed (I'm a huge fan of Tedy Bruschi, Arizona '95), although I've always loved upsets and underdogs. More importantly, I enjoyed seeing my hometown in the spotlight. (I grew up in west Phoenix, just a mile from Glendale, and 8.5 miles from the stadium.) That's all the football you'll get on this blog, though.
Hey! Welcome to Tangled Bank #98, and thanks for stopping by. If you've never been to Quintessence of Dust, the lobby is below and to the right. I hope you'll poke around a little.PZ didn't give me a budget for refreshments, but if you come to the house I'll make sure we at least have plenty of guacamole. Chips are here, and beer is over there.
The next Tangled Bank science blog carnival will be here at Quintessence of Dust on Wednesday. Send me your submissions!The previous edition included articles on cooking & evolution, shower temperatures, dental plaque, and plant identification, all with a theme of keeping warm.
This week's theme is, um, "fun with biology." Seemed apropos after all the bickering I did this week. Which I'll mention as well.1. So I assume you saw that Craig Venter's outfit produced the first "synthetic genome" recently. All this means is that they synthesized a very long piece of DNA, and included within it all the components known to be necessary for bacterial life.
At about the same time that I posted on Tony Campolo's flawed piece on Darwin and racism, Christopher Heard posted a vastly better analysis – "Campolo gets Darwin all wrong" – on Higgaion. Required reading. There may be a quiz.