Carnival of Evolution

On how to submit posts to Carnival of Evolution

2012-01-20T16:10:00.002-05:00

Carnival of Evolution only works if people submit posts.
      A person can only submit posts when they know they exist.
            The first person to know about the existence of a post is the author.
                  When you write a blog post about evolution, submit it right away right here.
            The first person to know about the existence of a post is the author.
      A person can only submit posts when they know they exist.
Carnival of Evolution only works if people submit posts.

Hosts needed

2012-01-03T18:18:00.003-05:00

We need hosts for CoE in February. And March. Not April, though. If you would like to take a shot at hosting - a fun and rewarding experience - send an email to bjorn[at]bjornostman.com*.

* Do bots not see through this and replace [at]?

Carnival of E #43 is live

2012-01-03T18:16:00.001-05:00

At The Eeb & Flow.

Scientific inquiry:

146,000 BCE
Targ: "Hey Lerb, why big cat have long teeth?"
Lerb: "I dunno Targ, but cousin Seb went for look. He gone"
Targ: " Cat lucky, seem good for people eating. I go for closer look."

#42: Answers to life, the universe and everything

2011-12-05T09:22:00.001-05:00

Carnival of Evolution #42 is now up at the Ocelloid: Answers to life, the universe and everything.

Psi Wavefunction (not her real name!) is a recent graduate now working in Indiana, and people like that generally don't have a lot of spare time on their hands, so an extra cheer for getting it done.

Next edition is the killer: January 1st. I'm glad I'm not doing that one. After that edition on The Eeb and Flow we have no more hosts lined up. If you would like to try it, drop me a line...

Hitchhikers Guide to Evolution?

2011-11-27T23:38:00.000-05:00

Finally, finally, finally. We've reached the answer. In a week or so, that is, when it's time for the forty-second (42) Carnival of Evolution, we'll know the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything. I do believe that was the question.

So, how about a theme? This edition will be hosted by Psi Wavefunction on The Ocelloid, and I wonder is Psi will bite. Hitchhikers Guide to Evolution?

Well, it just ain't gonna happen without some people submitting some more posts, eh?

November edition is up

2011-11-02T10:05:00.000-04:00

So, despite voicing concerns that the Carnival of Evolution is in a slump, it was posted on time yesterday, and contains 26 posts. Which is in the lower end (hmm, I'm considering generating some stats on this now), but still more than enough for a blog carnival - if you compare to many other carnivals, e.g. on BlogCarnival, you'll see 26 isn't so bad after all.

This is the hand of Australopithecus sediba [wiki], a 2 million year old fossil. What was the use of this hand? It has been suggested that it was used to handle tools, and thus that this was the reason it came to look like this. And by inference, that our hands evolved for tool use. But is there evidence for this explanation, that there was selection for hands that could handle tools? Ken Weiss argues that there is not, and that an equally good explanation is that they evolved for masturbation.

However, as hypotheses, I still think we can differentiate. Ken admits his hypothesis may appear silly, but explains that there really isn't evidence for either one. So okay, I can also come up with a hypothesis that is even sillier (I surmise that hands evolved as adaptations for sign language*), but some hypotheses are more equal than others, I'd say. Tool used may be a "tired old idea", but it's still a viable one.

* Wait, that may not be so incredibly silly after all...

Slump?

2011-10-31T09:24:00.001-04:00

What's up? Seems to me the number of submissions to CoE is not. This summer we had one edition with 60+ submissions, but last month is was down to less than half that. And it looks like tomorrow's November edition will be the same, because right now I see only 27 posts submitted on BlogCarnival.com, and some of those are spam.

Are people just writing less about evolution these days? Or are bloggers feeling that carnivals matter less than they used to think, so they can't bother submitting? Is creationism winning, with more and more science bloggers avoiding topics in evolution?

I, for one, am blogging less these days, or months, but I have excuses. What about the rest of you? Are you also inundated with teaching, applications, deadlines...? Emotional upheaval? If so, I get it. Otherwise, you can submit right here.

Lordy, lordy, look who's forty

2011-10-05T20:59:00.003-04:00

The 40th Carnival of Evolution is up today at Kevin Zelnio's blog, EvoEcoLab at Scientific American.

Next month it will be over at EcoDevoEvo aka The Mermaid's Tale. Never too early to submit...

#39 is up, and some notes on how to improve CoE

2011-09-03T09:18:00.001-04:00

September 1st edition of Carnival of Evolution has been up for a couple of days already at The End of the Pier Show - biology editor of Nature Henry Gee's blog.

Despite carnivals going extinct here and there, CoE is doing really well. When I can get my act together, it is really no problem finding hosts; right now all slots are taken through January next year (go here and click on 'future hosts'). And while the number of submissions does vary quite a bit - between the low thirties and to over sixty - there are always plenty for the host and readers to dig into. Probably few people get thought them all, except of course for the host who has to, and that is easily a full days work, if not more. So from here a heartfelt thanks to all past and future hosts, and everyone doing what they can to keep CoE running, whether it be by submissions or by linking on their blog, tweeting, updating their FB status, announcing CoE at conference talks*, making it required reading in college, etc. Thanks!

I'm often thinking about new ways to improve the carnival, both in terms of making each edition better and in terms of increasing the number of readers. It's up to the hosts how to put the CoE together, though suggestions are allowed. If you have good ideas that you'd like to share, you'd be welcome to let us know (comments, email, @carnyevolution #carnyevol). And if you think of new ways to promote CoE, feel free to let us know that too. Right now, when a new edition is up, an email is shot out to the email list, which has some 80 contacts, and then a number of people link to CoE on their blog (though that number is usually not greater than ten or so, which I think is too little). If you have done that, go ahead and put a link to your blog in the comments of that edition, like this. And I tweet (ir)regularly now, so perhaps a few of the current 442 followers find their way to it like that. But I really don't know, as I never get around to asking the hosts to find out how many visitors they get to their edition and how they get there. Except, when Larry Moran hosted last month, he showed me that visits went up an order or magnitude compared to the baseline, which was mostly due to a link on Pharyngula. Oh how I wish PZ would link every month, but alas that is like getting the attention of a celebrity.

Now, go check it out.

* Incidentally, I did this recently, and I got nothing but blank stares from an audience of about 200.

Call for submissions and Twitter

2011-08-24T16:35:00.000-04:00

Next CoE edition, number 39, will be hosted at Henry Gee's blog, End of the Pier Show.

It's time to make sure that you all don't forget to submit one (good) or two (better) posts on evolution to Carnival of Evolution. Use this online form to spread your writings. And note also that it is perfectly legitimate to submit a post written by someone else, so if you read a great post about evolution that you think ought to be shared more widely, don't hesitate to submit it. The author will thank you for it, particularly if you leave a note in the comments that you've done so.

If you can't wait for the monthly Horn of Cornucopia, you might like following the (not always) daily updates on Twitter @CarnyEvolution. In the last few days that has included updates from the 13th congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology, #ESEB2011.

CoE #38 at Sandwalk

2011-08-01T13:38:00.002-04:00

Carnival of Evolution #38 is just up at Sandwalk. I believe this is the biggest edition we've ever had in the nearly three year history of CoE: 60 posts.

For example, The Cambrian Explosion song:

Can anyone tell me what's up with the "Canada~~~~" int he end?

Next edition on Sandwalk

2011-07-23T06:09:00.002-04:00

The 38th edition of CoE will be on Larry Moran's Sandwalk. Don't forget to submit one (good) or two (better) posts on evolution before August 1st. Larry promises it's going to be a grand edition.

#37 is up - Canada, yeah!

2011-07-01T15:13:00.001-04:00

The July 1st edition is now up at Lessons of Evolution.

Submit to next edition, won't you?

2011-06-23T19:49:00.001-04:00

With the Evolution 2011 meeting just over, we can all get back to blogging. Coincidentally, the next edition of Carnival of Evolution is just one week away, and what better place to get your writings about the conference promoted?

Okay, Pharyngula would be a better place, but after that?

Okay, after that The Colbert Report might be a better place.

But then, getting the attention of those people is as easy as getting Dembski to admit that he can't actually define specified complexity, so a better option is to submit your posts on evolution to Carnival of Evolution. Next edition will be hosted by William Bell on Lessons of Evolution.

From Williams blog: "I'm thirteen years old and I hope to become an evolutionary biologist but I have diverse interests."

Let's urge him along in the right direction by submitting one (good) or two (better) through this link.

See you at Evolution 2012 in Ottawa.

Some carnival lore

2011-06-07T00:26:00.000-04:00

Latest edition of CoE was the thirty sixth. ±1.

Going back to the beginning (can be done here if you click on 'past posts'), you will find that the first edition was the first, and the second the second, and so on, all the way up to the fifth, which was the fourth (later rectified). But then the sixth was the sixth, so all was well for a while. Until the seventh was also the sixth.

But then, if you look at the first sixth, you'll see it wasn't an edition at all, so the seventh really was the sixth. Skipping ahead, the fifteenth was the fourteenth, and rightly so, but then, alas, so was the sixteenth (which no longer exists). However, the seventeenth was the sixteenth, so now all was then in order again. And has been ever since, actually.

Just checking. Nothing to see here. Move along.

36th edition is up, already

2011-06-01T13:11:00.002-04:00

The 36th Carnival of Evolution is now up at Greg Laden's blog.

Also, if you have any thoughts on what the relevance of blog carnivals are, please see this discussion.

CoE 35

2011-05-01T17:15:00.001-04:00

The thirty fifth Carnival of Evolution is up on Lab Rat.

Carnival relevance?

2011-04-29T15:03:00.003-04:00

Recently I have been thinking about the use of blog carnivals. Do they get read by enough people to be considered useful? Do the people who read them actually click through to blog posts they wouldn't have otherwise? Presumably people who read carnivals regularly read a number of blogs regularly, too. So does the carnival add anything for these readers? And what about people who aren't regular readers of featured blogs? Are there any? Do people who don't usually read about the subject matter learn about it through carnivals?

Is there a point in continuing Carnival of Evolution? Sometimes I get the suspicion that readers are a very select group of people who would read these posts about evolution anyway, in which case I don't think the carnival has much to offer. What do you think?

I have been trying to get CoE hosts to think of new ways to spice up the monthly edition, with limited success. And yet I wonder if that makes any difference at all to anybody. Are more people reading more blog posts on evolution due to CoE? That's really the core question, because that would and should be the purpose of the carnival.

I'd like to know what the answers are, and to that end I tam thinking about making a questionnaire and get it featured on the June edition of CoE. However, I often find that such polls end up not really answering the overall question, so I am asking you what those questions should be. If you can think of specific question to ask CoE readers that will get to the relevance of CoE, please post them here or send me an email.

If you have ideas for how to increase the relevance of carnivals, please feel free to share them here as well.

34th edition...

2011-04-02T00:02:00.002-04:00

Just up at Quintessence of Dust.

Thanks to Steve Matheson for hosting.

Anyone interested on hosting an edition this summer?

33rd edition on Genome Engineering

2011-03-01T15:06:00.002-05:00

We're overwhelmed with posts this month. Suzanne Elvidge has had a lot of reading to do indeed. See the result on her blog Genome Engineering.

Spread the word!

And if you're interested in hosting Carnival of Evolution yourself, email me at bjorn@bjornostman.com.

Call for submissions for CoE #33

2011-02-21T23:13:00.002-05:00

This is a short month, so here's your reminder to submit posts to the thirty third edition of Carnival of Evolution. Go here to submit one (good) or two (better) posts that you or someone else wrote on a blog about something or other under the rather large umbrella term that evolution is. Do it, or else!

CoE #33 will be hosted on the excellent blog Genome Engineering. If you are interested in writing a very excellent and profound CoE #34 or #35, email me at bjorn@bjornostman.com (replace the @ with [at]).

CoE #32: Letter from Darwin

2011-02-01T11:57:00.002-05:00

Darwin's birthday is February 12th. Today he writes a letter to his friend Sir Joseph Hooker.

Down. Bromley. Kent.
Febr. 1, 2011

My dear Hooker,

I was grateful for your very kind wishes; and for the book about the Anoles of the West Indes, which I expect I shall read with much enjoyment. The merest thought of an approaching 202nd birthday makes me feel the need for another trip to Malvern; but I do find some relief in my reading, of which I must needs do more every day it seems, only to keep abreast of the latest work. My great-grandson presented me last month with an i-Pad, a charming device; I can now consult the "web-logs" in the garden, when it is pleasant.

Read the whole letter here.

The carnival needs a host for next month's edition. Any volunteers? We prefer bloggers who have contributed but have not yet hosted. Send an email if you're interested in substantially increasing visits to your blog.

You need to straighten your posture and suck in your gut

2011-01-24T15:21:00.003-05:00

Evolution-bloggers.

You need to submit what you write about evolution to the Carnival. Need.

Jeremy Yoder (no relation to Jedi of Oz) is hosting the February edition of CoE (#32), and he is nothing less than desperate for your contributions. See for yourself:
Carnival of Evolution—one week left to submit!
Carnival of Evolution—two weeks left to submit!

And he's right; it is extremely exciting to be the host of CoE - but only if you submit the usual one (good) or two (better) posts through this link.

Would you like to host this March, April or May? We prefer previous contributors who haven't hosted before. If that fits you, and you want a gazillion pageviews, leave a message after the beep.

Follow CoE on Twitter.
Like CoE on Facebook.

With thanks to Cake. Here, have some:

#31st Carnival of Evolution at The dispersal of Darwin

2011-01-02T15:02:00.003-05:00

As we enter the new year blah blah blah, etc. etc., we are pleased to announce that counter all intuition, the 31st edition of our beloved Carnival of Evolution has already been in readiness for well over 24 hours.

Michael Barton is hosting at The Dispersal of Darwin, and there is enough to go around for everyone.

We are still inviting entries to our little logo-competition. To repeat, we are quite happy about the green logo,

but a different one for putting on submitted posts would be great to have, too. More details here.

30th edition on This Scientific Life

2010-12-02T22:53:00.000-05:00

The thirtieth edition is hosted by Bob O'Hara on This Scientific Life. Enjoy! And spread the word.

Before you go, did you know you can follow CoE on Twitter? Yes you can! CarnyEvolution.

Become a top evolution blog

2010-11-22T22:22:00.000-05:00

This site has been "awarded" the title of a Top Evolution Blog. So has quite a few others, and I realize, of course, that it's just a gimmick to drive people to a site made to earn money.

Be that as it may, the list of blogs is actually fairly good, with links to many good blogs at least to some extent about evolution.

Now, if your blog is not on that list (and, incidentally, mine isn't), and if you want it to be a top evolution blog, what better advice can I give you than to always remember to submit one (good) or two (better) posts every month to Carnival of Evolution?

Logo/button competition

2010-11-03T22:44:00.002-04:00

← Carnival of Evolution has a splendid logo, don't you think? We don't need a new one. However, I'd like to get another one for a specific purpose.

When people have their posts included in a CoE edition, wouldn't it be nice if they could put a little image on the post to identify it as a CoE-post? I think so. Like a stamp of approval, similar to the image that posts on Research Blogging has (see example here).

However, I have zero skills in that direction, so I'd like to ask someone else to make one.

Logo Competition:

What: Make a 70x85 pixel logo that CoE contributors can put on their CoE posts.

Why: So that we may make more people aware of the carnival, and promote both reading and writing about evolution.

How: I don't know how, but once you have figured that out, send it to me at bjorn@bjornostman.com.

When: No hard deadline, but I won't start choose among any submissions before the next edition of CoE is out (which will be on December 1st).

What's in it for me? The creator of the new CoE button will of course be featured both here and on my own blog Pleiotropy, but beyond that I'm afraid CoE has no funds for a monetary prize.

The button should be recognizable and distinct, so that people will quickly learn that it refers to Carnival of Evolution. I could suggest that it used the same colors as the CoE logo, for example, but that's not a strict requirement.

If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Number twenty-nine is ready

2010-11-01T07:00:00.000-04:00

The 29th edition of Carnival of Evolution is now ready at Byte Size Biology. It's a great game of evolution this time.

Kick-off is a post about how penguins got their coats:

According to an international team of researchers, a close examination of feathers from a recently unearthed giant penguin fossil revealed that it was clad in reddish-brown and grey, instead of the familiar black-and-white colors worn by its modern relatives. Additionally, the researchers found differences in feather structure between ancient and extant penguins; differences that may offer clues for how modern penguin feathers evolved.

At Punctuated Equilibrium.

Next month our host is This Scientific Life, and you can submit one (good) or two (better) posts about evolution here. Go on, don't be shy now.

Survey of CoE readers - results

2010-10-27T11:58:00.000-04:00

34 people took the survey of CoE readers (31 completed it). Here are the results:

1. For how long have you known about Carnival of Evolution?
Since the beginning (August, 2008): 38.2%
Since sometime in 2009: 32.3%
Since sometime in 2010: 35.5%

2. How often do you read Carnival of Evolution?
Every month/edition: 44.1%
About every other edition: 32.4%
Less than every third edition: 8.8%
This is my first time: 14.7%

3. On average how many posts featured in the Carnival do you click through to read on the authoring blog?
0: 2.9%
1: 5.9%
2: 17.6%
3: 32.4%
4: 11.8%
5: 17.6%
6: 5.9%
More than 6: 0.0%
All: 5.9%

4. How often do you contribute blog-posts to Carnival of Evolution?
Never (I don't blog): 32.4%
Never (I don't write about evolution): 2.9%
Never (other reason): 11.8%
Every month: 11.8%
Other: 11.8% (most answers were every other or every third edition)

5. Is evolutionary biology your main interest in science?
Yes: 50.0%
No: 50.0%

6. What is your highest level of education?
High school degree: 5.9%
College degree: 14.7%
Master's degree: 35.3%
PhD degree: 32.4%
Something else: 11.8% (all four getting degrees)

7. Do you work in science?
Yes: 61.8%
No: 38.2%

8. Do you believe in evolution?
Yes: 91.2%
No: 5.9%
Unsure: 2.9%

Why/why not?
1. Evidence
2. "believe in" ?? that's mighty weird wording!
3. Biology is kinda pointless without it...
4. But you should rephrase "Do you accept evolution?"
5. However, Evolution is NOT a matter of belief. It is a matter of fact. Poor phrasing of the question on your part.
6. Evolution is a fact.
7. "Believe in" is a dymb way to put it. I accept evolution.
8. Because of all the mountains of evidence!
9. SCIENCE...
10. Really - I ACCEPT evolution. One should not use 'believe' in this context!
11. Best explains mountains of evidence.

★ ★ ★

Thanks to all who took the survey. Also to those whose pet peeve is that one should not say 'believe in evolution'. To those of you: You need to look up what 'believe' means. It does not only refer to a faith-like belief, but can be a belief grounded in evidence, such as "I believe that E. coli have evolved an ability to metabolize citrate" or "I believe whales evolved from land animals". To believe irrespective of evidence - on faith - is only one meaning. Don't let the 'believers' distort the meaning of the word 'believe', please.

Merriam-Webster | Cambridge | Urban | Encarta | Newbury House

Carnival of Evolution #28 - Featuring Sandwalk

2010-10-01T23:59:00.003-04:00

WELCOME

to the 28th edition of Carnival of Evolution! This time the carnival has returned home. Not since the first edition back in August 2008 has an edition been posted here. That is cause for celebration, so let's do that with a little survey. I am curious who reads Carnival of Evolution, so please spend the next two minutes tops taking this brief survey about yourself and CoE. Results will then be posted here for the bemusement of all.

And now we'll try something new. As previously mentioned, I thought it might be glorious to feature a single blog that features outstanding posts about evolution. Today, that blog is Sandwalk, by Larry Moran.

Larry got his PhD from Princeton University in 1974, and is now a professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto. He is co-author of two textbooks in biochemistry. His research interest are molecular evolution and evolutionary theory, which he studies using heat shock genes in various organisms. And he blogs a lot about evolution.

For example, he has blogged about our relationship with Charlemagne: Our Ancestor Charlemagne: Taller than Average?, Are You a Descendant of Charlemagne?, and My Family and Other Emperors.

Other recent posts about evolution are Mutations and Complex Adaptations, about Michael Lynch's research on molecular evolution, and On the Origin of the Double Membrane in Mitochondria and Chloroplasts. Larry also has a profile on Research Blogging, which is a collection of posts on peer-reviewed articles.

Sandwalk has also featured a series of posts by Arlin Stoltzfus. The series of six posts is an "introduction to the history of evolutionary theory and the concept of mutationism. There are many ways in which the so-called "Modern" Synthesis has to be revised and extended. One of them is to reinstate the concept of mutationism which was purged from evolutionary theory in the 1940s. If you want to understand why this is important then these articles are the place to start," in Larry's words. You can start with the last post in the series on the Mutationism Myth.

Larry also blogs extensively about creationism: Stephen Meyer Explains Modern Evolution, Four Nails Exposed, The Parting of the Red Sea: Science vs. God, and On Describing IDiots as Creationists, to mention just a few.

But Larry is not alone. There are lots of blogs about evolution, and the very aim of this carnival is of course to highlight those for the benefit of all. And in this edition posts from a total of 19 blogs are included. Enjoy!

Byte Size Biology Iddo Friedberg thinks we should credit viruses a lot more when it comes to evolution. In Life serves viruses, we learn that viruses are imbedded in the genomes of most/all other genomes in all three domains of life. The post is about a recent paper in PLoS Biology, Genomic Fossils Calibrate the Long-Term Evolution of Hepadnaviruses.

Punctuated Equilibrium GrrlScientist blogs about the same story in Fossil virus leaves evolutionary footprints in songbird DNA, suggests new ways to predict pandemics, and elaborates the point that the viruses were found to be much older than previously thought, pushing back their origin from 6000 years ago to 19 million years ago (which must be particularly disappointing for the Young Earth Creationists).

360 Degree Skeptic Andrew Bernardin discusses male mating strategies, slimeballs vs. good guys. The Logic of Objectifying Females.

Beasts in a Populous City Olivia V. Ambrogio fails to convince a creationist in the zoo that evolution is true. Beasts in a Populous City: Creationism at the Zoo (or, How I Missed Seeing the Gorilla Outdoor Pavilion).

Kind of Curious John reviews a book, The Invention of Air, and discusses how oxygen influenced life on Earth, in The Evolution of Air.

Tripbase Every month CoE gets spammed with submissions from blogs that exist to promote some business, and they are almost always lists with 50 this or 15 that that has nothing at all to do with evolution. They are never included here, but for once I will make an exception, because Katie Sorene's post on 10 Evolution Exhibits that will Blow Your Mind is actually very good. Nine of these natural history museums are places that I really want to visit. The last, not so much. Take a look to see what I am talking about.

PLoS Blogs Network Eric Michael Johnson discusses a paper on confirmation bias in psychological tests with human subjects, in Reflections on the WEIRD Evolution of Human Psychology. This has ramifications from the discipline that is always under attack from practitioners of evolutionary biology: evolutionary psychology. Here, however, EP is shown to also have problems that have nothing to do with biology. In summary, American undergraduate students so commonly used as test-subjects, are highly unrepresentative of the human species.

The Atavism David Winter discusses a paper on mating behavior in a marine snail, Sunday Spinelessness - Throwing pesky males off the scent. As with many other species where males produce many more sperm than females produce eggs, it is an advantage for the males to mate with as many females as possible. The females, however, don't gain anything from copulating with more than a handful, typically, and in these marine snails, the mating behavior of the males is quite aggressive, and are therefore dangerous to the females. The females counter by smelling like males, making males accidentally copulate with other males.

Kele's Science Blog Kele Cable has two posts on how to think about Evolutionary Theory as a Theory of Forces and Drift as Biology's First Law.

NeuroDojo Zen Faulkes tells us that in wolf spiders, eating large meals is heritable: NeuroDojo: Eat ‘til you can’t eat no more: Evolution of the pig-out. Such gluttonous spiders do better than normal spiders in the wild with no predator birds, but worse than the wild spiders when predators are around.

The Online Laboratory of Kevin Zelnio Kevin Z discusses some papers on Evolution and Costs of Firefly Lights. Novel gains of light production appear more rare than losses, not to anyone's surprise, I would think.

Teenage Atheist Raithie explains how stupid evolution is once in a while. In Unintelligent Design: Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve, we learn why mammals are so badly designed, and how that is in fact evidence of evolution.

Down the Cellar Graves writes about a paper on Elephant fish diversification via rapidly evolving electrical signals. In elephantfish it appears that rapid speciation is driven first and foremost by rapid signal evolution, and also that the signaling trait is under sexual selection only, rather than natural selection.

Pleiotropy Bjørn Østman wonders how a crackpot got a manuscript published in a supposedly serious peer-reviewed journal, with drawings of developmental processes, claiming that they have something to do with evolution: Pivar's pure fantasy published. And in memory of the life of an evolutionary biologist who died recently, George Williams on pleiotropy, on the importance of pleiotropy (i.e., when a gene affects more than one trait) in evolution.

Why Evolution Is True Jerry Coyne explains his own recent paper in Science, A test of the snowball theory for the rate of evolution of hybrid incompatibilities, about a test of the "snowball theory" using Drosophila: Our new Science paper.

Denim and Tweed Jeremy Yoder presents his take on a recent Nature article by Martin Nowak, Corina Tarnita, and E.O. Wilson that has made quite a splash among evolutionary biologists: The evolution of eusociality. Their idea is that eusociality does not need kin selection to evolve, and that kin selection and inclusive fitness anyway don't explain many cases of eusociliaty. Contrary to what a good number of people have claimed, the paper does too present an alternative model. In New cooperation theory has major Mommy issues, Jeremy argues that if Nowak et alia are right, then eusociality isn't a good explanation for coorporation, since eusociality would be more like enslavement. (If one wants to be up to date on the latest of evolutionary theory, this paper is a definite must-read.) Prominent biologists are adamant that the three authors are on the wrong track, e.g. Jerry Coyne and Richard Dawkins (Dawkins has been hostile towards group selection for decades).

It Takes 30 Another biologist who attacked the paper by Nowak et al. is Stuart West. Just a week prior to the Nowak paper, West is co-author on another Nature paper, Promiscuity and the evolutionary transition to complex societies, that uses phylogenetic analysis of birds to show that kin selection and low promiscuity explains cooperative behavior. And in To help or not to help?, Becky Ward explains the paper. She also has a post about a paper on the evolution of cooperation in microbes, Trade balances in microbial communities.

Lab Rat SE Gould's sister writes about Guest Post - Survival of the fittest? and takes issue with the phrase 'survival of the fittest' - coined by Herbert Spencer, but used by Darwin in the fifth edition of The Origin from 1869 [wiki]. The paper explores the reason why some members in a microbial population confer antibiotic resistance to members who do not. Altruism, or just a side-effect of metabolism?

We've reached our only friend, then end. Next edition is scheduled to be hosted by Iddo Friedberg, assistant professor at the Microbiology and Computer Science departments at Miami University, Ohio, on Byte Size Biology. Submit your posts about evolution using this form, and don't forget to take the survey for CoE readers, if you haven't already.

28th edition of CoE to be hosted right here

2010-09-23T12:04:00.000-04:00

The upcoming edition of Carnival of Evolution will be hosted here on Carnival of Evolution. With this 28th edition I am planning to initiate a new feature, which will not be about bugs. Rather, in addition to the regular blog-entries about any topic in evolution hosted on the many great blogs that at least occasionally feature evolution, I will feature one particular blog that I think features many good posts about evolution. Whether this feature feature will continue will be entirely up to the hosts to come (for a list, go to Blog Carnival and click on 'future hosts' on the CoE widget - also available on this page).

Which blog will be featured, you ask? Well, I'd be a fool to give it away, I think, so just stay tuned.

And the next edition is scheduled for October 1st, so there is just enough time to submit one (good) or two (better) posts about evolution through the online form. And on that note, I'd like to encourage everyone to also submit posts on evolution that they didn't write themselves. There is nothing wrong with passing on a great post to share with everyone else.

After taking over the administration of CoE from Irradiatus in the beginning of 2010, I have been thinking about ways to expand the carnival. I have not had too much success with this, but I am happy to observe that we are at least surviving, thanks to yourselves. However, I do wonder if we are all there is. Does this email list (which currently contains almost 80 emails of people who have either previously contributed, asked to be on the list, or could potentially contribute to CoE) represent everyone in the blogosphere who blog about evolution, or is there perhaps some segment that we have not yet reached? Do any of you know of blogs that should obviously participate in bringing evolution to the masses? If so please let them know of CoE, or shoot me an email so I can do it.

Carnival of Evolution #27 – Feed Your Head Edition

2010-09-01T19:03:00.000-04:00

It's that time of the month, again. A new edition of Carnival of Evolution has just been posted at 360 Degree Skeptic. Andrew Bernadin present an appetizing menu of evolutionary items that's (not) guaranteed to satisfy anyone's palate.

A sample (never has that been a fitter term):

8. The Thoughtful Animal is hungry, so we’ve got a two-course feast featuring spotted hyenas, matrilines, and female preference. First, Silver Spoon Hyenas? Followed by Silver Spoon Hyenas: Maternal Social Status Affects Male Reproductive Success. Bravo, Jason G. Goldman.

August edition has come to town

2010-08-04T12:06:00.001-04:00

The 26th edition of the reliable, the dependable, the capital, the sublime Carnival of Evolution has come to town. Town of The Thoughtful Animal, to be precise.

A sample:

Continuing with female sexual preferences, Kevin Zelnio claims that female urochordates have few, if any inhibitions. "Yep, that's right. They get it on with any male gamete that passes their way. They just don't give a [rhymes with duck]. Boom chaka-laka-boom. These loose lizzies are all about increasing genetic diversity if you know what I mean."

Sad (very sad) that you didn't get a post in this edition? Hurry and submit to the September edition already, then.

Reminder: Submit to CoE

2010-07-26T00:44:00.000-04:00

Much as usual, and to my delight, I have personally seen a tremendous amount of posts on various aspects of evolution in the last month. I may be biased in that I happen to follow blogs that write about evolution more than, say, developmental and cell biology, but I'd still wager that developmental an cell biologists wished that they had their own creationists to stimulate interest in a wider audience.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Carnival of Evolution plays a huge role in distributing the best on the web about evolution to the masses... okay, I would say that, actually. It is doubtful, in my cocky mind, that 2009 would have been the big thing it was for evolution without us.

You know what I'm getting at, so here it is:

Use the form on Blog Carnival to submit one (good) or two (better) posts.

CoE #25 on Culturing Science

2010-07-01T14:24:00.001-04:00

The 25th edition of Carnival of Evolution is ready at Hannah Waters' blog, Culturing Science.

A sample:

As we know, the process of evolution takes an incredibly long time. How do evolutionary biologists study the process of natural selection just in their lifetimes? Two posts this month feature experimental methods to test traditional theories of natural selection.

I'm not sure I know this myself. There's good of evidence that some processes can be very fast (e.g. my favorite Croatian lizards described by Herrel et al., 2008). Yes, some things take millions of years, like the morphological change from terrestrial ungulates to whales, but many other events can be observed in our lifetimes. Another example is Drosophila speciation.

CoE #24 on NeuroDojo

2010-06-01T17:02:00.000-04:00

Since Zen Faulkes is a brainy scientist, we thought it might be fun to have a special CoE edition on all things brain evolution. It is now up on his blog, NeuroDojo.

My lawyers are working on deciding whether Zen can be sued for this:

I like it a lot, but I like a good lawsuit even more.

Here's my favorite of the brain evolution posts:

Evolutionary changes in brains must often force evolutionary changes to occur in other structures, not the least of which for the vertebrates in the skull. The complex relationship between brains, faces, and skulls in primates is discussed over at A Primate of Modern Aspect.

Next month the carnival will be hosted by Hannah on Culturing Science, winner of the Research Blogging award for Best New Blog 2009. Expectations run high.

We're featuring brain evolution in the upcoming edition

2010-05-30T01:51:00.000-04:00

The next edition of Carnival of Evolution will be on NeuroDojo in just a few days (June 1st). Zen Faulkes will be featuring posts anything related to brain evolution prominently in this edition, but I fear that not very many bloggers are writing about brain evolution, so here are a few pointers for those with enough enthusiasm.

The RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan has lots of resources on brains, including this primer on brain basics and evolution:

Through the course of evolution, the brain has undergone considerable changes. In many invertebrates, such as worms, the nervous system consists of no more than a net or bundle of nerve cells. In fish, amphibians, and reptiles, the brain is a well-developed organ consisting of several distinct structures, such as the cerebellum, tectum, and basal ganglia. These structures are specialized for different basic functions, such as detecting visual patterns, generating walking or swimming movements, generating reflexive responses, and so on. Mammal brains also contain many of these primitive structures, so scientists can understand many aspects of our own brain function by studying these areas in other animals.

Journals on brain evolution: Brain, Behavior and Evolution | Brain | Current Anthropology | Journal of the History of the Neurosciences | Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience

There's plenty, so get crackin'! Submit one (good) or two (better) posts on anything about evolution, and particularly about brain evolution, through this online form.

CoE featured on Blog Carnival today

2010-05-13T13:39:00.000-04:00

Today Blog Carnival the website with all the carnivals, is featuring Carnival of Evolution on their home page and on Facebook.

The big event captured for perpetuity:

May edition up today on Springer

2010-05-01T20:47:00.000-04:00

The 2010 May edition of our beloved Carnival of Evolution is up today on the official blog for Springer Verlag's journal, Evolution: Education and Outreach. And with that, surely getting your post accepted in CoE is now akin to peer-reviews on some level. Thanks to Adam M. Goldstein for hosting.

An excerpt:

The squeamish are advised to prepare themselves before visiting GrrlScientist’s post about a newly identified genus of leech (“those spineless blood sucking animals”) which makes its home in the nose of mammals. The photographic evidence is compelling, to say the least; indeed, so is the science. A second posting discusses recent work on the genetics of personality based on the genetics of the Great Tit, a bird (Parus major). Those Tits with a variant in the DRD4 gene show a greater tendency to explore their environment, offering suggestions about how humans with this variant might behave. (Incidentally, the title of this post, “What do great tits reveal about human personality,” is no doubt likely to show up in Internet searches for topics not having to do with evolutionary biology….) She also writes about recent work in which UV rays are used to shed some new light (sorry, couldn’t help it) on fossils, revealing details about fossilized feathers in a Microraptor gui skeleton.

Next month CoE will be hosted by Dr. Zen on Neurodojo. We are going to try to make it a special edition featuring brain evolution, but that of course only works if people submit posts about brain evolution. Doesn't take much brains to figure that out. Or does it? So, you have a whole month to write up one (good) or two (better) posts pwning brain evolution. CoE has a fast track review system, and Dr. Zen will be the functioning as both editor and reviewer(s) in this edition. Use this form on Blog Carnival to submit your posts.

Follow CoE on Google.
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Subscribe to the CoE email list (send email to bjorn@bjornostman.com).

Next edition of CoE is fast approaching

2010-04-30T01:02:00.000-04:00

Get on board! Don't miss the fast train! Don't be left hanging to dry. Skedaddle!

Every month some sucker or other sends me a note saying that they had this great post written up, but they just forgot to submit it to CoE. What a shame that is. Every time.

Fret not, though. Here's your warning:

The May edition of Carnival of Evolution is less than two days away. Currently submissions are about half spam and half serious posts. We can do better than that! I know, because I have seen plenty os posts in April on evolution that have not been submitted. Tsk tsk.

So, use this online form to submit one (good) or two (better) posts that you have written about anything pertaining to evolution.

Also, if you're interesting in hosting CoE, drop me an email. For the heck of it I suggest we let people who haven't hosted before have a go at it until we run out of volunteers. After that the usual suspects can go again.

22nd edition is up at Beetles In The Bush

2010-04-02T12:03:00.000-04:00

Carnival of Evolution #22 is now live at Beetles In The Bush.

There’s a new kid on the blog, and Chadrick Lane jumps right into fray with his inaugural post at The Ancestral Mind. In Ancestral Mind in the Twitterverse: Discovering the information age through evolution, he recounts the magical feeling of visiting the Smithsonian Natural History Museum’s David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, prompting him to ask “How is it that we have gone from a common ancestor with chimpanzees to a blogging, social networking, moon walking, singing and dancing species in just around 6 million years?” An impressive first post!

CoE featured on Discovery Channel

2010-03-21T01:23:00.000-04:00

Yes, it's true. Carnival of Evolution has made its way into the (more) popular media of television. Sort of.

On TV, Larry Moran, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto and author of the blog Sandwalk, very deliberately chooses to show his blog post with the CoE logo on it, clearly to build his credibility as an expert on evolution. And nipples.

All you professors out there who are will be giving interviews, take a hint! Have The Origin on your bookshelf and the CoE logo on your screen. That way no one will doubt your expertise on evolution.

See TV-clip here, and Larry's post about it here.

P.S. This post is not an endorsement of Larry's statements about why men have nipples.

The carnival is up at Mauka to Makai

2010-03-02T01:39:00.000-05:00

The twenty-first edition of CoE is now up on Mauka to Makai, and it has its fair share of the stuff we evophiliacs love to death.

Help spread the word, so we can as many visitors over there as possible. Twit it (I like twit better than tweet), facebook it, blog it, phone it, say it, author it, sign it, and read it.

Next edition on April first (fools edition) will be hosted by Ted on Beetles In The Bush. Go on and submit your evolution posts, already.

Time to submit those posts on evolution

2010-02-28T13:49:00.000-05:00

You've got the rest of this Sunday to submit your posts about evolution and anything related to Carnival of Evolution. Use this online form to submit one (good) or two (better) posts.

Kelsey is hosting on Mauka to Makai, and if all goes well, the March edition will go up tomorrow.

We need your posts on evolution

2010-02-23T13:29:00.000-05:00

Next edition of Carnival of Evolution is less than one week away!

The next edition will be hosted on Mauka to Makai, and in order to even come close to outdoing Psi Wavefunction's phylogenetic blog-post edition from February 1st, it is imperative that you all submit at least one (good) or two (better) posts on the subject of evolutionary biology. Remember, only __________ (your name here) can prevent CoE from burning to the ground.

Please use this online form to submit your posts.

Carnival of Evolution #20

2010-02-03T11:37:00.000-05:00

Psi Wavefunction posted the newest edition of CoE late last night on Skeptic Wonder. And I do declare that this is the awesomest edition I have ever seen - of this carnival, and if any blog carnival. And, it's all about evolution.

Psi actually, genuinely, did phylogenetic analysis of the submitted posts, converting the URLs into amino acid sequences, and then made phylogenetic trees based on them. How out of this world is that?!

It going to be very hard to outdo CoE #20, but I know future hosts will try their very best. Because that's what they've signed up for...

CoE #21 will be at Mauka to Makai.

Next edition at Skeptic Wonder

2010-01-16T12:25:00.001-05:00

I have finally gotten admin permission to edit the account at BlogCarnival, so now I can assign bloggers to the next editions of Carnival of Evolution.

CoE #20 will be hosted by Psi Wavefunction on Skeptic Wonder on February 1st - which is really close, so go on and submit your evolution-posts already! Use this form to submit them.

Mighty soon I plan to announce who will host the coming months. More volunteers are still needed, so send me an email if you're interested (bjorn@bjornostman.com).

Update Jan. 17th:

The schedule now looks like this.
Feb 01, 2010 Skeptic Wonder
Mar 01, 2010 Mauka to Makai
Apr 01, 2010 Beetles In The Bush

Carnival of Evolution #19

2010-01-03T03:54:00.001-05:00

A new edition is up on Christie Wilcox's blog, Observations of a Nerd.

Notice that this is a very important edition: It is the first after the celebration of Darwin 200th birthday (year) has ended, and there is some speculation that nothing much will happen in evolution research and blogging in 2010. Fourteen submissions for January 2nd isn't bad at all in that light. However, those posts and that research was of course done last year, so maybe the February edition is going to really slim?

It is still to be decided what the hosting schedule for this spring will be - just a few have volunteered so far, and I'd like to hear from more before I write a list. But, rest assured there will be a new CoE #20 up somewhere in the beginning of February, so don't forget to submit one (good) or two (better) posts about evolution before then. Please use this online form to submit.

Image from Lab Rat's post on bacterial cell wall evolution.

CoE #19 call for submissions

2009-12-20T01:44:00.001-05:00

The 19th edition of CoE is going to be hosted at Observations of a Nerd, but so far we only have a handful of submissions. There is still time to get one (good) or two (better) in before January 1st, but don't let the holydays (be they a celebration of Kwanzaa, Yuletide, Hannukah, Winter Solstice, etc.) get in the way!

As usual you can submit using the form at Blog Carnival, which will send your submission directly into Christie's inbox.

Your posts can be specifically related to current science concerning evolution, opinions, or dealing with whatever current anti-evolution attacks you find in the media or world. Really, anything related to evolution, whether direct or tangential, is fair game. Your inclusion in to the carnival is up to the current host.

We also need new volunteers to host the carnival starting February. As this is an immensely popular job, I'd like to give the chance to those who have submitted to the carnival before, but hasn't hosted themselves. Any takers? Please email me at bjorn@bjornostman.com with the subject 'CoE hosting' if you're interested.

Carnival of Evolution #18 - Biochemical Soul

2009-12-11T12:04:00.000-05:00

First off - big news here at the Carnival. As you can see, my edition is late again. I can't seem to find the time to keep up online anymore (thanks alot starfish gene cloning). Thus it is with both disappointment and excitement that I am turning over administration of this carnival to Bjørn Østman of Pleiotropy. Bjørn has been a constant contributor to the CoE, and in his own last edition, he really rallied the troops and put out a great edition. He has shown such a constant passion for the subject that I have every confidence that the Carnival of Evolution will be much better in his hands than my own.

Now: Go read the latest crop of evolutionary writings in the Carnival of Evolution #18!

CoE#19 will be hosted by the always superb and funny writer (and my friend) Christie Lynn at Observations of a Nerd.

For now, you can still submit your posts using our carnival submission form. This form may change – but you can always find out submissions information at http://carnivalofevolution.blogspot.com/.

Carnival of Evolution #17 - Adaptive Complexity

2009-11-09T09:51:00.000-05:00

Another month - another great batch of evolutionary blogging! The latest edition of the Carnival of Evolution is brought to you by Adaptive Complexity. Go check it out!

Be sure to submit your own writings next month to the Carnival of Evolution #18, which will be hosted by me at Biochemical Soul.

Use this form to submit your posts for next month's edition.

*image credit: AAAS via Observations of a Nerd.

Carnival of Evolution #16 - Pleiotropy

2009-10-02T14:34:00.000-04:00

Well folks, I'm happy to report that this month has seen the production of one of the best editions of the Carnival of Evolution yet! And this is largely thanks to the determined mind of Bjørn Østman, author of the wonderful Pleiotropy blog.

In fact, you should be reading it now, instead of these words...

Bjørn showed a lot of dedication for this month's edition, spreading the word, calling out for carnival submissions, sending emails, and generally showing an immense enthusiasm for making this Carnival great.

I sincerely hope future hosts will show the same love of the subject as Bjørn has.

Be sure to submit your own writings next month to the Carnival of Evolution #17, which will be hosted by Adaptive Complexity.

Use this form to submit your posts for next month's edition.

*image credit: Filler AG. Homeotic evolution in the Mammalia: Diversification of therian axial seriation and the morphogenetic basis of human origins. PLoS ONE 10(e1019) (2007). Open Access

Carnival of Evolution #15 - Southern Fried Science

2009-09-09T10:10:00.000-04:00

This month's CoE edition comes from one of my absolute favorite bloggers, WhySharksMatter over at Southern Fried Science (proof that the South will rise again :).

Read it. Love it.
(and support sharks :)

Be sure to submit your own writings next month to the Carnival of Evolution #16, which will be hosted by Pleiotropy.

Use this form to submit your posts for next month's edition.

Carnival of Evolution #14 - Quintessence of Dust

2009-09-09T09:54:00.000-04:00

I will spare you all any more lame excuses for the lateness in posting this link - other than stating that I just moved to a new city (Pittsburgh) and began a new job studying evolution (in Echinoderms!).

Steve Matheson at Quintessence of Dust has put together yet another excellent edition of the CoE. If you have not seen it yet, go check it out.

Carnival of Evolution #13 - FYI:Science!

2009-07-07T23:07:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I'm a week late posting the link, but the Carnival of Evolution #13 is now live in technicolored form at FYI:Science!.

Quite a selection of excellent articles is up for your perusal - so go over and get some summer evolutionary reading under your belt!

Be sure to submit your own writings next month to the Carnival of Evolution #14, which will be hosted by Quintessence of Dust.

Use this form to submit your posts for next month's edition.

*image source:Parallel FoxP1 and FoxP2 Expression in Songbird and Human Brain Predicts Functional Interaction via AK's Rambling Thoughts.

Carnival of Evolution #12 - Deep-Sea News

2009-06-03T21:31:00.000-04:00

The Carnival of Evolution #12 is now live over at that bastion of oceanic information and enthusiasm, Deep-Sea News, carefully assembled by Kevin Zelnio. From the nitty-gritty details of evolutionary mechanisms to that old chestnut, the never-ending peddling of creationism, Kevin wraps up the last month's worth of excellent evolutionary writing to scratch that itch you know your brain's been feeling since the last edition (despite the lack of nociceptors in your brain).

Be sure to submit your own writings next month to the Carnival of Evolution #13, which will be hosted by FYI: Science!

Use this form to submit your posts for next month's edition.

*image source: Amazon via Living the Scientific Life.

Carnival of Evolution #11 - Oh, For the Love of Science!

2009-05-04T23:47:00.000-04:00

The Carnival of Evolution #11 is now live over at Oh, For the Love of Science!, care of the wonderful writer, Allie. Take a stroll with her through the Museum of Natural History as she ponders the ontogeny and phylogeny of life and the implications thereof, all the while pointing you to some of the best evolution writing from the past month.

Be sure to submit your own writings next month to the Carnival of Evolution #12, which will be hosted by the so-famous-he's-infamous Kevin Zelnio at Deep-Sea News.

Use this form to submit your posts for next month's edition.

*image source: Alex Wild / Live Science via The Primate Diaries.

Carnival of Evolution #10 - The Oyster's Garter

2009-04-01T19:51:00.000-04:00

I couldn't imagine how Miriam Goldstein of The Oyster's Garter could top her previous hosting of the Carnival of the Blue #21 in which she waxed lyrical and poetic.

However, as I have come to expect from Miriam, she completely knocked the socks off of my expectations with her shiny new edition of the Carnival of Evolution (#10), composing the entire edition as a series of hilarious diary entries.

Excerpt:

"Dear Diary,

Friendly creationists were a bust. First Gravity and Levity refuted creation “science” comprehensively and with citations. Then Adaptive Complexity introduced them to the basic evidence for evolutionary by reviewing the book Why Evolution Is True. When the no-longer-friendly creationists feebly countered with examples of evolutionary frauds, Tangled Up in Blue Guy beat them lightly about the head and neck with the real facts about Haeckel and Piltdown Man and peppered moths and Archaeopteryx.

The sauciest one muttered about half a wing being useless, but Migration demonstrated that half a wing is useful indeed. The final straw was when the Evolving Mind noted that evolution does not inevitably lead to intelligence. They ran away, leaving me alone once more in the internet wilderness."

Be sure to check it out, for it will certainly go down as one of the more creative editions - owing in no small part to the excellent evolutionary writings linked from within. Among those included is my own recent post on the Evolution of Channichthyidae Icefish Blood and Antifreeze.

I guess this just goes to show that Miriam didn't get syndicated by Slate's XX Factor for nothing (just announced by Miriam herself in the Podcast of the Blue #1)!

Next month, Carnival of Evolution #11 will be hosted by Allie of Oh, for the Love of Science!

Use this form to submit your posts for next month's edition.

Carnival of Evolution #9 - Moneduloides

2009-03-01T16:07:00.000-05:00

The next edition of the Carnival of Evolution is now live over at Moneduloides!

It's clear that moneduloides put alot of work into this edition, which contains a great amount of commentary on each submission.

So waste no more time here - go check it out now!

Next month, Carnival of Evolution #10 will be hosted by none other than Miriam Goldstein of The Oyster's Garter.

Use this form to submit your posts for next month's edition.

Carnival of Evolution is now on Twitter

2009-02-25T21:43:00.000-05:00

For those of you who care to receive updates on current and future Carnival editions, you can now follow it @CarnyEvolution.

Also, be sure to follow @carnivalblue, the Carnival of the Blue, devoted to the marine world.

Carnival of Evolution #8 (Parts One and Two) - Biochemicalsoul

2009-01-30T21:15:00.000-05:00

The latest edition, Carnival of Evolution #8, is finally in!! Due to a BlogCarnival.com issue, this edition includes two separate parts: Part One and Part Two.

As the host this go round (over at Biochemicalsoul), I cannot attest to its quality, though I hope you'll find it as enjoyable to read as it was to write.

Oh, what the heck...yes I can..this edition rocks!

Please note that due to the lateness of this edition, the next will be hosted on March 1st at Moneduloides. Use this form to submit your posts.

"Wait a minute!" I hear you say, "that's a month from now!"

Yes, well, after discussion with other bloggers at the amazing ScienceOnline09 conference, I've decided to make this a monthly rather than biweekly carnival. This is intended to increase the number of entries per edition as well as increase the quality.

We need more hosts so pop me an email if your interested in hosting your own edition.
I am committed to making this Carnival succeed!

Carnival of Evolution #8 - Biochemicalsoul (Update)

2009-01-01T20:54:00.000-05:00

One thing natural selection is powerless against is selecting for or against anything in an organism post-reproduction. Hence, our bodies are fairly impotent when it comes to fighting cancer (with many exceptions, of course). The mechanisms of evolution are simply blind to most cancers.

It is for this reason that I must delay today's edition of the Carnival of Evolution. My grandfather "Papaw" finally and thankfully ended a long fight with lung cancer thirty minutes before midnight on New Year's Eve. He had just received word that day that the cancer had spread pretty much all over and the prospects for '09 were not looking particularly pleasant.

So, in perfect characteristic fashion, Papaw proceeded to thumb his nose at the potential of an agonizing death by having a heart attack in his sleep.

He will be missed by many.

The next edition, which was due to be published today, will be published as soon as I return from the funeral next week. Much apologies to all contributors. Rest assured - you will all be included.

Carnival of Evolution #7 - Forms Most Beautiful

2008-12-17T22:43:00.000-05:00

Well, the stack of final exams are graded and it's time once again (a couple of days late) for you to indulge your selective pressure pleasure in the next Carnival of Evolution. This biweekly installment is hosted by Peter Buckland over at Forms Most Beautiful (by far one of my favorite science blogs - partially because he has an amazingly keen and witty way with words and partially because his blog is sprinkled with posts on Heavy Metal).

The next installment in two weeks will be hosted by me, Irradiatus, over at biochemicalsoul on January 1st. So get your brains and fingers writing about what you enjoy and let the joys and sorrows of another semester melt away. Submit your posts here.

Also, please consider hosting an upcoming edition. If you have already done so before, you can most certainly host again. Quite a few people have begun reading this Blog Carnival, and here's hoping that the exposure will only grow. Just email me at irradiatus [at] biochemicalsoul [dot] com if you'd like to host. We have had quite an impressive list of article contributors (see the side bar to the right), so perhaps it's time that you contributors hosted as well.

Carnival of Evolution #6 - Observations of a Nerd

2008-12-03T20:13:00.000-05:00

After a 2 week involuntary hiatus, the Carnival of Evolution is back with a vengeance (okay - so I'm prone to hyperbole). Christie Lynn over at Observations of a Nerd has written the superb 6th edition of the Carnival, filling it with an excellent platter of Darwinian hors d'oeuvres nestled amongst her own highly entertaining prose.

So go check it out.

Next up on December 15th is Peter Buckland over at Forms Most Beautiful (and such a fitting blog title for a CoE host). Submit your evolutionary goodness using this handy form.

Carnival of Evolution #6 - update

2008-11-22T15:54:00.000-05:00

Hey folks,

Well it seems that our scheduled host for November 15th is a no show.

So we'll just shift over to the next host, Christie Lynn, the incredibly entertaining and talented science blogger over at Observations of a Nerd.

If you submitted posts to Life Before Death, feel free to resubmit them the Christie using this handy submission tool.

Carnival of Evolution #5 - The Other 95%

2008-11-02T13:05:00.000-05:00

Kevin Zelnio over at The Other 95% (and the Discovery Channel's Deep Sea News) has put together another excellent edition of the Carnival of Evolution. This edition contains much deep delving into the science, both current and past, within the field of evolutionary biology, and it makes for a truly edifying read.

Next up for the Carnival of Evolution #6 in two weeks is Felicia Gilljam over at Life Before Death. Submit your posts using this form.

Carnival of Evolution #4 - Clashing Culture

2008-10-15T15:31:00.000-04:00

Mike Haubrich's latest edition of the CoE, Carnival of Evolution #4 is now live over at Clashing Culture.

I have yet to dig deep into the Darwinian goodness, but it already seems that Mike has put alot of effort into editorializing and highlighting the best entries, in perhaps the best edition yet.

Next up in two weeks, CoE#5 will be hosted by Kevin Zelnio over at The Other 95%, so get those posts ready!

Carnival of Evolution #3 - Greg Laden's Blog

2008-10-01T15:09:00.000-04:00

It's here!

The next edition of the Carnival of Evolution is now live over at the eminent ScienceBlog, Greg Laden's Blog. Dig in and enjoy.

CoE#4 will be up in a fortnight, hosted by Mike (Tangled up in Blue Guy) over at Clashing Culture. To submit your posts, you can use this form at BlogCarnivals.com.

Carnival of Evolution #2 - EvolutionBlog

2008-09-15T20:16:00.000-04:00

The latest edition, the Carnival of Evolution #2, is now posted over at Jason Rosenhouse's EvolutionBlog. So go wrap your brains around the tidbits he has served up. Also, though he didn't link it within the CoE, he posted his own excellent article on the Anglican Church's apology to Darwin.

Next up is Greg Laden's Blog to host CoE #3. You can use BlogCarnival.com for your submissions (the widget on the right-hand sidebar).

CoE #2 call for submissions

2008-08-30T16:43:00.000-04:00

Jason Rosenhouse, the eloquent ScienceBlogs writer over at EvolutionBlog has graciously offered to host CoE #2.

So get those intelligent fingers a tappin' and send your posts to him (deadline for this edition is September 14th). There's a world of evolutionary change out there to discover, and I for one want to know about it.

While you're at it, if you feel so inclined, offer yourselves up in Darwin's name and volunteer to host a future edition.

Carnival of Evolution #1

2008-08-28T20:42:00.000-04:00

I sit now, preparing to hear Barack Obama’s Democratic Nominee acceptance speech, hoping that soon science and intellectualism will once again take strong root within our government and culture. I know, I know – it’s there already to a degree – but sometimes I find it hard to see hope through the forests of ignorance that have sprouted from school boards and government education priorities across this country - decrying the single Theory that manages to explain this incredible order and complexity that has arisen around us and that has created us.

But I do have hope, mainly because of the hundreds of like-minded individuals I have managed to discover recently on these great internets. There is an entire underworld of scientist bloggers out there, reaching out to the masses or speaking out to almost no one and hoping to reach a single pair of eyes.

I am currently much closer to the latter.

Nonetheless, it is with this desire to reach out, to educate, and simply to marvel at the wonders of evolution that I have created this first Carnival of Evolution. I know not yet how often this Carnival will be updated. I hope that enough may find it interesting and worthwhile, allowing this Carnival to take a life of its own. I hope that it may evolve itself. If you have an interest in evolution, volunteer to host an issue yourself.

Some Blog Carnival hosts manage to weave posts into a coherent theme or narrative. For this first short carnival, I shall simply lay out several recent posts dealing with evolution that I have managed to find throughout the cybersphere.

And since I am starting this Carnival of Evolution, I will start with a post I recently wrote on biochemicalsoul in which I talk about the prospects of directing our own evolution and enhancing ourselves, from the perspective of developmental biology. I doubt our cultural barriers will ever allow this to the extent I dream. But I still have hope.

“There is no doubt that we will eventually have all the pieces of the puzzle of our own development (assuming we last long enough). But there is one key element glossed over in discussions of how we apply our scientific knowledge to human enhancement: experimentation and research on developing embryos. I think that regardless of how much data and understanding we obtain from animal studies and studies of human disease and genetics, we will never be able to apply any directed changes without experimentation on humans. This is a simple fact.”

Ricardo Azevedo at Evo.Sphere has written an excellent and intriguing summation of the history of the initial formation of the theory of Natural Selection, with a focus on some of Darwin’s contemporaries, and also containing the following beautiful poem on evolution written by Charles Darwin’s grandfather Erasmus Darwin.

"Where milder skies protect the nascent brood,
And earth's warm bosom yields salubrious food;
Each new Descendant with superior powers
Of sense and motion speeds the transient hours;
Braves every season, tenants every clime,
And Nature rises on the wings of Time."

GrrlScientist at Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) considers the evolution of an arms race between cuckoo and their hosts.

“This cuckoo specializes in laying a single egg in the nests of fairy-wrens, but sometimes parasitizes nests of other species such as thornbills or robins. The cuckoo chick has a shorter incubation period than the hosts' chicks, and after the cuckoo chick hatches, it pushes the host's eggs out of the nest and imitates the begging calls of the host's offspring, thereby deceiving the parent birds into feeding and caring for the interloper.”

Andrew at The Evolving Mind has written on the evolution of spicy Mexican food. Well, technically it’s about the evolution of the capsaicinoids that make peppers hot and delicious and also just happen to prevent fungal growth.

“The buffet tables of evidence for evolution keep multiplying. Oh sure, a person can get narrow-minded and select an anomaly à la carte. Or he/she can turn to the kiddies menu and settle on the “Happy Argument from Ignorance” (because I can’t wrap my brain around it, it must be wrong).

My attitude toward both cuisine and ideas is identical: bring it on! For man does not live well by stale bread alone.”

For anyone who teaches evolution, Greg Downey at Neuroanthropology has posted his excellent and informative syllabus for his new course on Human Evolution and Diversity.

“I felt that anthropologists needed to respond to Fraser’s ideas (as well as a lot of other things) with a serious biological anthropology unit on evolution and diversity in humanity. But our department has, of late, been offering almost entirely sociocultural anthropology, as many European and Australian departments do. And that’s how I got to offer a unit, ‘Human Evolution and Diversity,’ for Macquarie first-year students.”

Jason Rosenhouse at EvolutionBlog has written a series of reports on the Sixth International Conference on Creationism. In part four he tells of a rather hilarious researcher who has found patterns (Fingers of God he calls them) in clusters of galaxies, which to him indicate that Earth is the center of the Universe. Jason does an excellent job refuting these claims in entertaining ways.

“Matthews joined the party by pointing to the fingers and saying that you can see them, plain as day. They weren't an illusion. I pointed out that constellations weren't an illusion either. I also pointed out that you could pick out other spots on the diagram where an astronomer might notice little lines of galaxies as well.”

Scott Nance at Life, The Universe… reports on a recent study suggesting that binocular eyes originally evolved not so much for the depth perceptive abilities, but for an “X-ray” ability – an ability to see “through” things immediately in front of the eyes, such as leaves of a forest. It’s basically a slightly different way of thinking about the selective advantages gained by having two eyes with overlapping fields.

Coturnix at A Blog Around the Clock has written a truly excellent article on the difficulties in teaching evolution to creationists. It is also a reaction piece to the NYT column by Olivia Judson on the importance of teaching evolution.

Adrian Hayter at The Atheist Blogger hilariously debunks Ray Comforts redefinition of taxonomic relationships between species.

“At least we have a reason why Ray Comfort doesn’t understand Evolution. When you redefine basic tenets of Biology so that the theory of Evolution collapses, of course you will think that it doesn’t work! Using Ray Comfort’s methodology I will now debunk a couple of “popular” scientific notions.”

Michael White at Adaptive Complexity gives us an educational multi-part review and summary of a new book, The Plausibility of Life, by Marc Kirschner and John Gerhart, in which he talks about evolution’s most important molecular inventions.

Mike the Mad Biologist asks whether focusing on molecular evolution when teaching evolution is a better way to get the core concepts across (due to the “hardness” of molecular science).