darwin

[fyfer]

I'd like to share this quote. You may all have seen it, but I like to reread it anyway.

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. —Charles Darwin

I'm sitting at Ritual Coffee Roasters on Valencia, coding and reading. What I'm doing right now is a tangent, pulling me away from my molecular evolution project, but it's always inspiring to recognize evolution as the common thread tying together everything I work on.

On Tuesday, Nick and l_stboy and I went to Ask a Scientist at Axis Cafe. This month's talk was about history of science more than science itself. The speaker was Richard Carrier, a blogger and historian who gave a really good outline of what the Greeks and Romans got right and how they figured it all out. We got to the bar afterwards too late to talk to him more about it, but I'd love to hear more. Luckily, his thesis is coming out as a book next year, and it looks like it might be a nice accessible summary.

Comments

[cos]

I just went to a talk about evolution this evening, during which the lecturer flashed a Darwin quotation on screen (about group competition being a form of natural selection).

[frogpyjamas.livejournal.com]

I wanted to go to AAS so badly this month, but sadly I teach on MW nights. Did Julianna record it?

[edge-of-within.livejournal.com]

Ask A Scientist was fun!
And my god, showed up 30 min early and had to hunt for a seat!