(Mind nod to the Thumb and ResearchBlogging)

A post at Further Thoughts discusses a paper in Nature Biotechnology that reviews the research on the evolution of resistance to a Bt toxin that has been engineered into Cotton.

Cotton, as you may or may not know, requires a HUGE amount of pesticides to grow a good crop. The introduction of Bt cotton in China in 2001, engineered to produce a bacterial gene toxic to certain insects (but not mammals), eliminated a quantity of pesticides roughly equal to all the pesticides that California uses in a year.

The insects were not particularly pleased. Evolution charges on, however, and it would seem that resistance is only a matter of time, and eventually we’d be back where we started. Read More…

Friday night I attended a dinner with two prospective graduate students for the PBPG program here at UW-Madison. It’s so interesting, being on the other side of the prospecting process. (It will be even more interesting if I become a professor/PI.)

The prospective students were split up into three parties, one that came the Friday before last, another last Monday, and two the Friday that just passed. I didn’t meet any of the other students (been too busy), but I did get a couple of data points, and saw a bit of how I looked one year ago this month. Read More…

Neil Shubin, who was just on the Mindcast two weeks ago, has just been interviewed by Quirks and Quarks in Canadia (where the Canadians are from, duh.) Apparently, those annoying hiccups are another example of how the awkward evolutionary history of our species has taken us from one form to another. Another challenge for anti-science zealots - explain Hiccups. And then tell us that an omnipotent omniscient being unknown unnamed designer created designed it. Without making us laugh.

It’s Intelligently Designed Stupid!

Read about it at The Panda’s Thumb.

Ariela and I just got back from seeing The Dreaming perform at a night club here in Madison. It was great! Myself not being very knowledgeable, it sounded like heavy metal to me, but it had a very clear melody to it - two of the band members called it “Radio Rock.” “Punk, Metal, and New Wave,” if you read their MySpace page. A bit of goth too.

If you read my blog or listen to my show regularly, you might notice something funny in the names of the band members: Read More…

I sent a message this week to the Clinton campaign, suggesting that during the Thursday night debate, Senator Clinton should bring up the issue of science policy, which has been only barely touched-upon by either her or Obama’s campaign lately. Wouldn’t it be so cool if this moment in the debate was a direct result of reminding them about the political predicament of science? (via onegoodmove)

It really goes to show that it had to be inserted into the debate, instead of being a pre-planned topic…

Departmental seminars with all kinds of attendees, some annoying, but most silent. RPM lists your common departmental seminar participants and their funny quirks. He left one out, which I have witnessed. Which one am I? Answer below the fold.

I wanted to add that he left one out: Read More…

I’m late in posting the latest Mindcast - it’s been an interesting 24 hours. No, nothing humongous or shocking happened, but let me explain. Last night, I decided to take a brief nap at 7:30 before recording the show. Then, the next thing I know, it’s midnight, and I feel paralyzed below the clavicle, so it’s back to sleep I go. Then I woke up really early, and got a bunch of work done before class, had a great couple classes, and worked on a poster in preparation for a big event for next week. (post about that to come.) Finally, I find myself at home, waiting on the fish in the oven, before I set about putting together episode 77.

Maybe I just needed all that sleep, but it sure made me feel good and really made this day work out great.

I learned a few new things, too. Apparently it’s a hoot to travel the world in search of carrot and garlic germplasm, and carrots today have about 3 times as much carotene as they did 40 years ago. All thanks to plant breeders!

In the meantime, have a look at Tangled Bank #99!

Update 2/21: I am swamped with stats homework, and preparations for a trip to a conference, so I’ve taken the week off from doing the show. Episode 77 should be done and posted Tuesday the 26th, before I go to Washington D-

I’ve said too much.

I just went to my first political rally today. Senator Hillary Clinton made it through the Wisconsin storms to finally host a rally in Madison. The presentation was good, and the spirits of the attendees were up. Just in case there was an opportunity for questions, I prepared one about science policy. It was a long shot, but there was no space for it. I did, however, have my iRiver along, and recorded the talk. Download and listen to it here. (It has also been added to the Mindcast Extras.)

I have a few pictures, but I don’t have the time to edit them tonight. Ariela and I waded up to the front at the end, to shake hands and get close-up pictures, but they left before we were up there. I got a couple good shots of Chelsea Clinton, and Hillary was in the corner of one of them.

Hillary said a few brief things related to science, such as energy independence and global warming. But not enough attention is being paid to it. ScienceDebate2008 hopes to change that.

Politically and socially I would be happy with either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Their health care positions are similar, their approach to the Iraq War are similar, and they would both be a “first” president of one kind or another. I suspect that their equal popularity will put them on the same party ticket anyway. Then they will be unbeatable. Read More…

(via Pharyngula)

I’ve been waiting to find out where this skit was from, so I could see it again. It turns out that The Upright Citizen’s Brigade made this great parody of creationism in science classrooms. Oh, this takes me back to my days as a freshman! Behold, Spitty-Slurpy! Read More…

The Skeptic’s Circle #80 is up at Bug Girl’s Blog. It’s the Valentines Day edition! Show us how much you love skepticism and check it out.