sudo life

Hulu recently made Carl Sagan‘s famous PBS documentary series Cosmos available for free viewing online.  If you’ve never seen it, I highly recommend watching it.  It is the best documentary series I’ve ever seen, and for me, it was a complete life changer.  There is a moment in the last episode of the series that completely shattered some cognitive dissonance that had been building up for months: the amount of evidence for evolution, versus my dogmatic rejection of it.  The moment is just a simple statement:  “[we] accepted the products of science, but not it’s methods.”  The intensity I felt in that moment has been rarely replicated.  It perfectly described my actions in a way that was undeniable, but also provided the solution: drop my dogmatic beliefs in favor of evidence based knowledge.

Since that time, I sometimes forget what it’s like for people who reject evolution.  Sometimes, as hard as it is to believe, I forget that anyone actually rejects evolution.  It’s so obvious to me now, that I forge that there are other perspectives out there.  There are probably many causes for this, but there is one that I want to focus on for this post:  Nearly everyone benefitting from modern technology has implicitly accepted evolution.

The theory of evolution was a breakthrough of truly monumental proportions, and today, it’s applications have extended well beyond just academic biology.  For example, it’s used in forensic science to help solve crimes.  How many people accept DNA evidence, but don’t realize that without the theory of evolution, we wouldn’t be able to analyze DNA?  How many people use materials everyday that were designed using principals derived from the theory of evolution?

How many people wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for the theory of evolution?  Modern medicine depends on an understanding of evolution.  If the theory of evolution didn’t accurately reflect reality, modern medicine would not be successful at all.  Instead, we see life expectancy growing at an exponential rate.

Shouldn’t someone who truly believes evolution wrong and even evil, reject all these things? If they’re truly dedicated to their beliefs, they should.  Instead, we see their rational side appear when they need it.  If they’re sick, they ignore the man behind the curtain, and implicitly accept the benefits of evidence-based knowledge.  Next time I’m pulled back down to earth by someone who doesn’t believe in evolution, I just want to ask them this:  then why do you accept it’s products?

Science biology, christianity, evolution, medicine, Philosophy

I was excited to see that the H.M.S. Beagle people have launched an online version of their store.  This is the local science store where I bought my chemistry lab, microscope, and a few books.  While it appears that they could use some help in the design portion of their operation, they’re awesome for everything science related.

Science biology, chemistry, lab, resources

The H.M.S. Beagle Blog has published an e-mail they sent to a local science teacher:

Your students are reporting to us that you are offering a non-scientific alternative to how plant and animal species evolved on earth. Many of them are quite disconcerted with what seems to be a blatant attempt to subvert scientific fact and theory with unfounded speculation, mythology and beliefs. Since we have not personally heard your presentations we cannot accurately judge what you are, in fact, presenting or what your approach to teaching science is. If there is even a whiff of creationism or intelligent design being offered as a legitimate alternative to science in your classes then that would go against the basis of the recent Dover decision in Pennsylvania (Kitzmiller v. Dover, 2005, Judge John E. Jones presiding).

You can read the rest over at their blog.  I realize this is an issue that goes under-reported so I feel it’s important to bring as much attention to it as possible.

The word delusion is defined as “an erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary.”  Given the mountains of evidence that exist in support of the theory of evolution, is it a stretch of language to call rejection of the theory a delusion?

Science biology, education, evolution

It’s painful to admit it, but I am a former ditto-head. Yes, I used to tune in everyday to the Rush Limbaugh show, and even called in once. But all that’s in the past now, as I’ve come to a more enlightened view of the world. It also helped that I’ve had run-ins with other members of the Limbaugh family, Limbaugh’s nephew who drew this wonderful picture of/for me. But this post isn’t about that. I happened to tune in a while back (on accident), and I just happened to hear a commercial I was very familiar with from those old days. I had a somewhat different reaction this time around though.

What was the commercial? Zicam Homeopathic Medicine (pdf). To add insult to injury, this was mere moments after hearing Rush call himself ‘the voice of reason.’ How disgusting. Rush Limbaugh has said some pretty outrageous things in his time, most recently with his comments about ‘phony troops,’ so this doesn’t even rank that high, but it is, never-the-less, a perfect example of just how convoluted conservative / christian thinking can be.

I wonder if he even knows what homeopathy is?

There are a few twists to this story, though. According to the PDF linked above, studies demonstrating the efficacy of the treatment have been published in peer-reviewed journals, and according to this post I discovered from a few years ago, it seems the homeopathic label may just be a marketing ploy.

What the hell?

But the situation is even more muddled a few paragraphs further down in the pdf, where it says:

Zinc gluconate is recognized as a homeopathic drug because it has known “homeopathic provings” and/or known effects which mimic the symptoms, syndromes or conditions associated with the common cold, which it is administered to treat.

So, Zicam is homeopathic? It’s homeopathic and has demonstrated it’s efficacy? Someone call James Randi.

Really, what the hell is going on here?

The James Randi Education Foundation Forums provides a little insight.

1. It seems that Zicam has been sued and lost when someone lost their sense of smell.
2. It’s homeopathic because it’s active ingredients causes the symptoms they’re trying to cure.
3. It’s dosage is much larger than normal homeopathic ‘medicine.’
4. Zicam seems to be trying to do an end-around the FDA in order to bypass the scrutiny needed to bring their ‘medicine’ to market in a non-homeopathic way.

The bottom line. Zicam seems to be some really messed up ‘medicine.’

Looking at all that, is it really that surprising that Rush Limbaugh personally endorses the product? It’s a match made in heaven.

Science critique, idiocy

On Saturday I ventured out of my apartment to a place in Kansas City I’ve not been before: Parkville. I’ve been near it, but never in it. I’ve been missing out. This is a charming little town, right on the missouri River and smack dab in the middle of the KC Metro area, but strangely isolated. The town only has about 5,000 people in it, so it’s small, but it’s home to Park University, which I wish I had known about before. Of course, as a private institution, it would have been out of my price range, but still, it looks like such a nice place.

Saturday was a nice day, and there were people milling about, I really got the whole small town feeling. But I wasn’t there to just check the town out; I was a man on a mission. About a week ago, I heard about this store, called the H.M.S. Beagle. I had posted to a local freethought group about available local amatuer science clubs, and someone mentioned this store. If only I had known about it before… This store isn’t like those dinky ’science’ store like the Discover Channel store. Those stores sell little more than ’science toys.’ This is the real deal. And it’s a nice looking store as well.

They have glassware, Science and Technical books (new, used, and rare). A ton of telescopes. Geological tools. Slides. Chemistry Sets. Kids science clubs. Adult science clubs. The people who work there all have backgrounds in science (either already have a degree, or a student working towards a degree). I talked to the owner, and he informed me that they can order anything they don’t already have, including… dissection specimans! Dissections have always given me the willies in the past, but now I’m actually looking forward to doing one. That’s a ways off in the distance, though. There’s probably a bunch of legalities I need to find out about, too.

They also supply chemicals, which would have been wonderful to know while I was making my movie over the summer. Well, a nice person supplied me with some Sodium anyway. Thanks again, nice person!

I don’t yet have the resources to start working on my lab, but next month, I ought to. It’s probably a good thing, because I need to have some idea of some specific things I want to do first. Right now, some bacterial cultures are on the list, but I won’t get a microscope until Christmas time, so I should probably hold off on that. There was a neat little book at the store called ‘Grandads Wonderful Book of Chemistry,’ that may offer some pointers. The biology book I’m working on has been great so far, but I’ve not gotten too in depth yet. I want to finish Gödel, Escher, Bach first. (BTW, if you haven’t read GEB, then I highly recommend it.)

Science chemistry, Kansas City, Science

I’ve added a few blogs to the old blog roll this week:

• Halfway There - The author appears to be a College Mathematics Teacher, and has insights on several different subjects, which are both amusing and thought provoking.
• Neurophilosophy – Because Neuroscience is cool. And the author is interesting.
• Respectful Insolence – A medical blog that is very interesting to keep track of.  The author is great at explaining different issues, and also posts along skeptical topics.
• Somatopsychic – Still trying to figure out what this name means…  The author is a grad student at the University of Missouri – St. Louis studying Neuroscience, and had a very interesting post on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.  This insight into their graduate program has got me looking at UMSL as another choice for myself.

I’m looking forward to the long weekend.  It’s been a long week.  Next month, I start gathering my lab equipment and will truly enter the field of amatuer biology/chemistry.  I’m already looking forward to growing my first cultures.

Science blogging, neuroscience

I got up early this morning and headed into campus to view the lunar eclipse. Wow! It was as beautiful as ever. Before this year, I had never taken the time to view a lunar eclipse. However, this is the second one I’ve seen this year. Sure, I lost a few hours sleep, but man was it worth it.

This was a two-for-one morning, since the eclipse was right at sunrise. First I got to see the beautiful red-moon, and then watch it disappear as the sun rose in the opposite sky.

There has been a rumor going around, re-enforced by legitimate news sources reporting that Mars will be as big as the moon for a while. This is completely false, of course, but looking up at the moon this morning, I can see how the rumor could have gotten started. It took only the tiniest leap of the imagination to think of the moon as mars up close. Never-the-less, it was still imaginary.

So if you missed out this morning, too bad! Next time around, take my advice: Lose a couple hours of sleep and see something beautiful.

Science astronomy, eclipse, sunrise

Well, I’ve wrapped up my viewing of the Planet Earth series from the BBC, narrated by David Attenborough. Only one word is needed to describe the experience: WOW! If you have not seen this yet, you will not be disappointed. And for only $55 at amazon, there is no excuse not to have it as a part of your DVD collection.

The series is marked by the footage of things that have never been captured on film before (and in some cases, never even seen before), incredible camera work to capture the scenery, and jaw-dropping scale. The first time I saw the footage of Angel Falls was nearly overwhelming.

One thing the film really brings to my attention, and something I’ve been loath to think about in the past, is the knife edge we are now walking in reference to our global environment. Some of the things they caught on film is likely to never be seen again; the animals will be gone. After seeing these on screen, the disaster that would be their loss is really driven home. Sadly, in some cases, it might be too late.

So check it out! As I said, you won’t be disappointed.

Science biology, inspiration, Science, videos