30 Thursday Aug 2012
Posted in Foraging
Tags
It’s time for another congeries of bits from around the web. One of the links in this post (the bee videos) was sent in by a reader. If you come across something that you think should be including in the next Foraging post, either leave a comment below or get in touch!
19 Sunday Aug 2012
Posted in Language, Words of Science
Tags
Alluvial fan, Alluvium, deposit, environment, etymology, flood, nature, Popular science, science, Words of Science
Like many other fields, science has its own style of communication full of specific jargon and guided by unwritten rules. Most of the posts on this blog focus on breaching this barrier to the public’s understanding and appreciation of science. In this series, I’d like to take another approach by highlighting scientific words which have escaped (or should escape!) the confines of jargon to reach a broader appeal because of their sound or their evocative power as metaphors. Today’s word is alluvium. [Previous words: petrichor]
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13 Wednesday Jun 2012
Posted in Foraging
Tags
fun, israel, language, occupy, Open Access, photography, science, Science communication, video
I’m sorry that I haven’t been posting regularly lately — I’ve been unexpectedly busy with “real life” lately. Things seem to have settled down a bit, so hopefully I’ll be back to my normal frequency soon. In the meantime, here’s a collection of various things I’ve come across recently. Continue reading
07 Monday May 2012
Posted in Foraging
26 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted in Bacteria, Language, Words of Science
Tags
earth, etymology, geosmin, petrichor, Popular science, rain, scent, science, smell, Words of Science
Like many other fields, science has its own style of communication full of specific jargon and guided by unwritten rules. Most of the posts on this blog focus on breaching this barrier to the public’s understanding and appreciation of science. In this series, I’d like to take another approach by highlighting scientific words which have escaped the confines of jargon to reach a broader appeal because of their sound or their evocative power as metaphors. Today’s word is petrichor.
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09 Monday Apr 2012
Posted in Evolution, Natural Selection
Tags
altruism, biology, emergence, emergent properties, Gene, Gene-centered view of evolution, Group selection, macroevolution, Popular science, Richard Dawkins, science, selfish gene, Stephen Jay Gould
I briefly mentioned “gene centred views of evolution” in the final paragraph of my previous post in this series about natural selection. In this post, I’d like to expand a bit on the “selfish gene”, which has proven to be quite a powerful idea, and to present my thoughts on why it nevertheless provides an incomplete view of evolution. I know this can be a controversial subject, so feel free to chime in and start a discussion in the comments.
Earlier posts in this series: Modes of selection, Sexual selection, On fitness.
Inspiring Science 
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