… Spore is not an evolution simulator. Not even close. It has a lot of good things going for it, and the fact that it doesn’t in any way simulate evolution did not detract me from spending eight hours with it on Saturday. But it is not evolution.
In fact, if [...]

Karin made her way to the mall last night after Claire went to bed, and was kind enough to return home with a brand new, sealed copy of Spore for me to try out this weekend.  The linger geneticist in me is curious, and the few fragmented remains of my video game addiction always did [...]

Need any more proof? Someone posed a link to Discover magazine who’s archives have a beautiful article on the work of two researchers who postulated that the course of human evolution has shaped us as ideal runners:
From our abundant sweat glands to our Achilles tendons, from our big knee joints to our muscular [...]

And if you were one of those chicken littles, running about broadcasting insane claims about and impending end of the world due to a physics experiment in Switzerland, for shame. Don’t be messing with quantum physics. It’ll mess with you.
I did recently read Flashforward by Robert J Sawyer which is definitely recommended. And [...]

If one ever needs a reminder of the sad state of medical and science reporting in the modern media, one can often just turn on the television and witness a lemming-like approach to sensational news stories. This morning, for example, after Karin and I watched last night’s The National (CBC) report on a new [...]

If you thought I was keeping a garden in my backyard because I love fresh summer produce you’d be only half right. At heart I’m really a big kid who loves to do science experiments, and a garden is nothing less than an outdoor biology lab with ongoing informal research on horticulture, entomology, and [...]

Every day I get up early in the morning and drive to work amongst the hoards of trucks migrating to the oil-fueled town where my non-oil-related job is located.
Every day I watch out my window as heavy equipment destined for some none-too-distant rig is shuttled around or between various industrial production yards.
Every day I sit [...]

It was all over the news yesterday that WE’RE KILLING OUR BABIES WITH SHAMPOO! Chemical leach through their precious skin and melt their reproductive organs. It’s the end of the world. It will be just like that movie Children of Men and it’s all due to us and our fascination with… AHHHHH!
Take a [...]

December 29
Thanks to an invite from Nina, Claire and her family spent a few hours this afternoon wandering around the ‘Telus World of Science’ — formerly known as the Odysseum — which was formerly known, back in my day (harrumph!) as the Edmonton Space and Science Center.

Day 29: Oh, how true it is…

Yes, [...]

December 6
Claire was finally vaccinated this afternoon. I say finally because not only is it about two weeks past the ideal two-month date when she was supposed to receive them, but originally she had been signed up to participate in a scientific vaccination study for a new broader-coverage vaccine — she made the short-list, [...]

I was enjoying our new receiver last night. It comes across as quite droll, I’m sure, but — apart from my car — I haven’t had good access to a high quality radio in years. The AM band still holds a certain randomized mystique of you-never-know what you’ll hear kind-of pleasure. Click [...]

I kid you not. I found this article posted on Digg this afternoon. It caught me off guard and I got a little chuckle.
Title: Why Doesn’t Evolution Get Rid of Ugly People?
Quote: (about half way down the page) “…scientists studied red deer…”
Link: Click here.
Check. It’s in there. I’m just saying…. [...]