The Primate Diaries

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Science vs. Norse Mythology
2007-09-30 15:39:00
Your Sunday Skepticomic from The Pain - When Will It End?Click image for a larger viewTo view last week's comic click here.
More About: Science , Mythology , Norse , Holo

Atheist Alliance International Convention Sold Out
2007-09-29 16:14:00
Enormous demand at New Atheist Conference The AAI Conference kicked off last night with keynote speeches by Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion) and Sam Harris (The End of Faith). Later today will be Christopher Hitchens (god is not Great) and actress Julia Sweeney (Letting Go of God).There has been such a rush to attend that organizers have extended the deadline to sign up for a live stream of the conference proceedings. For more info on that see the AAI website.There are several blogs that have promised to update those of us unable to be there in person.No God BlogFriendly AtheistFree Mind JoeHomo economicus' blogUntil they update their sites enjoy the following You Tube links:Julia Sweeney and Christopher Hitchens in recent CBS report:Excerpt from Julia Sweeney's performance "Letting Go of God"For a complete AAI conference schedule click here.
More About: International , Convention , Alliance , Sold

Courts Dismiss Great Ape Personhood
2007-09-28 16:41:00
Austrian court case hits a snag, but the campaign is ongoing.Matthew Hiasl Pan, a 28-year-old chimpanzee orphan is in legal limbo.In my earlier post Trapped Between People and Property I highlighted the recent court cases raising the issue of primate personhood and legal standing. It seems there has been a temporary setback in the case of Matthew Hiasl Pan, a chimpanzee that has been making headlines in Austria.The Associated Press is reporting that Pan?s case was dismissed from the provincial court on a technical issue because the judge ruled that his human advocates ?had no legal standing to argue on the chimp's behalf.?According to the AP:The association, which worries the shelter caring for the chimp might close, has been pressing to get Pan declared a "person" so a guardian can be appointed to look out for his interests and provide him with a home.?Their upkeep costs about ?4,800 (US$6,800) a month. Donors have offered to help, but there's a catch: Under Austrian law, only a...
More About: Great , Courts

Jane Goodall Speaks Out on Biofuels
2007-09-28 00:01:00
Primatologist highlights environmental damage of emerging "green" market.Primate scientist Jane Goodall said on Wednesday the race to grow crops for vehicle fuels is damaging rain forests in Asia, Africa and South America and adding to the emissions blamed for global warming."We're cutting down forests now to grow sugarcane and palm oil for biofuels and our forests are being hacked into by so many interests that it makes them more and more important to save now," Goodall said on the sidelines of the Clinton Global Initiative, former U.S. President Bill Clinton's annual philanthropic meeting.As new oil supplies become harder to find, many countries such as Brazil and Indonesia are racing to grow domestic sources of vehicle fuels, such as ethanol from sugarcane and biodiesel from palm nuts.The United Nations' climate program considers the fuels to be low in carbon because growing the crops takes in heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide.But critics say demand for the fuels has led compan...
More About: Biofuels , Fuels

Climate Change and the Causes of War
2007-09-27 18:42:00
New study makes Pentagon report all the more alarming.Periods of warfare in ancient China peaked during climate crises (in grey).A fascinating article in the latest edition of Discover magazine discusses a study in the journal Human Ecology. Earth scientist David Zhang and colleagues at the University of Hong Kong used high-resolution palaeo-temperature reconstructions and compared that to the complete historical record of warfare in eastern China.As Zhang et al. state in their study (subscription required):There is no academic consensus on the causes of historic cycles of war and peace. Historians cite government mismanagement and concomitant social turmoil; military scientists and politicians emphasize power imbalances among competing groups or entities; psychologists and biologists relate warfare to innate human aggressiveness; while the Marxists hold that warfare is the unavoidable consequence of class struggle. However, none of these explanations adequately accounts for war?pe...
More About: Climate Change , Climate , Change , Chang , Chan

Tangled Bank #89
2007-09-27 02:54:00
The new Tang led Bank is now up at Aardvarchaeology.Don't piss him off, check out these posts!That's right campers, two excellent blog carnivals on the same day.My picks include:GrrlScientist at Living the Scientific Life has a fascinating post about one species giving birth to an entirely new species.Factician at Conspiracy Factory discusses worms that borrow DNA from other organisms to see how it works for them.Finally, CL at Planet Doom has an appropriately dire article on how global climate change is affecting Antarctica. He ends his post with words that I will proudly second:We must move away from our addiction to oil. In order for mankind to have a future, this sort of selfish short-term thinking must be avoided, while embracing a sustainable, one-planet paradigm. It is the only way forward.The next Tangled Bank will be on Oct. 10 at The Other 95%."I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express in...
More About: Angle

Dig in!
2007-09-26 17:54:00
Time to feast on another edition of Four Stone HearthFreshly butchered mammoth anyone?The blogsophere's best (and only) anthropology blog carnival is now up at Paddy K's Swedish Extravaganza.My favorite entries from this edition include:Vanessa at Bonobo Handshake explains the exciting new research she and her colleagues are doing as well as what life is like at a bonobo sanctuary in Congo.The always wonderful Anthropology.net has an excellent overview of the Dmanisi fossil hominins in their post Early Homo Postcranial Fossils from Dmanisi.Archaeozoo offers an insightful look at how mistaken interpretations of exotic animals could lead to mythological fancy in his post Narwhals or Unicorns?The next edition of Four Stone Hearth will be Oct. 10 at Remote Central. So get those posts over to Tim as soon as you can.

Creationist Dinosaur Hunters
2007-09-26 15:17:00
Creationist revisions and baloney detection.Richard Dawkins.net linked to this creationist comic strip this morning. It's really unbelievable, you have to see it for yourself. Spoiler alert: God saved the dinosaurs and then his followers systematically slaughtered them.I know I'm supposed to be "framing science" so as not to intrude on people's delicate fantasy lives, but if ever there was baloney that needed detection this is it.Credulous acceptance of baloney can cost you money; that's what P. T. Barnum meant when he said, "There's a sucker born every minute." But it can be much more dangerous than that, and when governments and societies lose the capacity for critical thinking, the results can be catastrophic -- however sympathetic we may be to those who have bought the baloney.In science we may start with experimental results, data, observations, measurements, "facts." We invent, if we can, a rich array of possible explanations and systematically confront each explanation...
More About: Creationist , Hunters , Hunt , Dino

The Potent Fear of Male Menopause
2007-09-26 14:47:00
"Male enhancement" and reproductive senescenceThree products that profit on male insecurities (Enzyte, Viagra and Tiger Penis Wine)In my earlier post The Evolution of Menopause I discussed how accumulating evidence suggests that reproductive senescence in women is an adaptation promoting inclusive fitness. In response Stew asked the question:Where does this leave the so-called ?male menopause?? . . . Is male menopause a real phenomenon, and if it is what could its benefits be to survival?I confess that I had never even heard of male menopause before, so this question intrigued me. A quick Google search revealed an onslaught of online ?health? sites ready to sell me a host of products to fight this, previously unknown, affliction. These ranged from ?new super potent herbal formulations? to ?pure potent 200:1 Tongkat Ali Extract? (whatever the hell that is) to the more general ?Ultimate Male Potency Booster?. I think I?m noticing a trend in their advertising approach.Even Harvard ...
More About: Fear , Tent

A Religious Movement I Can Believe In
2007-09-25 17:05:00
Buddhists put American Evangelicals to shame.Monks march for justice in Myanmar.Unlike the mainstream American religious movement over such frivolous issues as opposing family planning, trying to get prayer in school or forcing biology teachers to promote Intelligent Design pseudoscience, some religious movements are actually working to promote freedom and tolerance.The New York Times is reporting today on thousands of Buddhist monks in Myanmar defying their country?s dictatorship to march for democracy and social justice. Not only are they resisting the government?s warning not to join the popular movement, they?re directly violating their religious leader?s directives:On Monday the head of the official Buddhist organization, the Sangha, directed monks to confine themselves to learning and propagating the faith. It said young monks were being ?compelled by a group of destructive elements within and without to break the law,? the newspaper said.The minister was quoted by the newspa...
More About: Religious

But What About the Crocoduck?
2007-09-25 13:58:00
Michael Behe's hypothesis still pseudoscienceCreationist argument for how evolution couldn't happen.The California Literary Review has an interview with Intelligent Design guru Michael Behe. The comments have some decent information (especially about his Dover testimony that was referred to as ?breathtaking inanity? by the conservative judge). The rest of the interview is filled with garbage like this:Is there any way to test the concept of a designer? Is there any evidence of his or her actions interceding in the development of life on earth?Well, it depends on what you mean by ?test? and ?evidence?. If you and a friend walked by Mount Rushmore, even if you had never heard of it before, you would immediately realize that the faces on the mountain were designed. Not for a moment would you think they were the result of random forces such as wind and erosion. Your conclusion of design would be certain, because you would see how well the pieces of the mountain fit the purpose of po...
More About: Croc

Save the Salamander, Save the World
2007-09-25 04:50:00
A new season of Heroes and the biology of regenerationClaire from Heroes has a genetic mutation that allows her to regenerate.Tonight?s Heroes premiere was one of the most anticipated new shows of the fall season. While the idea that a genetic mutation could allow someone to freeze time, read minds or defy gravity requires a small suspension of disbelief, there is one heroic genotype that scientists are currently exploring for it?s real world applications.Claire has been one of my favorite characters in the series, and not just because she was the only one in her class who knew that Charles Darwin is famous for the term "survival of the fittest" (though it was actually Herbert Spencer who coined the phrase). I've always been fascinated with the possibility that humans could one day understand cellular mechanisms well enough to regrow damaged tissues, even stave off the inevitable. Now it seems we have the capability within our reach.According to the journal Science the new field...
More About: World , The World , Save , Save the World , Salamander

Creationists vs. Catholics
2007-09-25 01:47:00
Vatican says creationism is a ?superstition? that is ?a plague in our midst.?Evangelicals manage to make this look sane.Answers in Genesis, the Young Earth Creationist outfit responsible for the Kentucky Creation Museum, has helpfully brought out the following tidbits in their current edition of Answers magazine.At one session of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Father George Coyne, an American who is the director of the Vatican Observatory, declared that people who take Genesis 1?11 literally are ?a plague in our midst.?At about the same time, Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno declared that a belief in the doctrine that God created the universe in six days is ?superstition? and ?at the end of the day is a kind of paganism.?I know what you?re thinking: the Pope employs astronomers? Of course, AiG then goes on to say that the Vatican is helping to undermine God?s word by working in tandem with known evolutionists.While many Roman Cathol...
More About: Catholics , Creationists

Adding Fuel to the Fire
2007-09-24 16:46:00
Bush is skipping UN forum on global climate changeBurn, baby burn!The New York Times is reporting that the leader of the nation contributing the most to global warming won't even bother attending a meeting today at the United Nations. Instead he's going to create an alternate meeting later this week where polluters can decide for themselves how much they should reduce their CO2 emissions.Bush's chief environmental adviser, James L. Connaughton (a former industry hatchet man for General Electric and ARCO), stated that:?It?s our philosophy that each nation has the sovereign capacity to decide for itself what its own portfolio of policies should be.?Perfect, a representative of the oil and electricity industries deciding on climate change policy. While we're at it let's allow the lumber industry to decide on the rules for deforestation and the mining industry to regulate Superfund cleanups. Oh wait, they already do.
More About: Fuel , Fire

Monkey Mugs
2007-09-24 15:02:00
Photos from Jill Greenberg's book Monkey Portraits. Read more about her collection at The Scientist.
More About: Mugs

Religion and Politics on Planet Glox
2007-09-23 18:59:00
Your Sunday Skepticomic from This Modern WorldTo view last week's comic click here.
More About: Politics , Religion , Planet , Anet , Politic

The Grassroots of Scientific Revolution
2007-09-23 05:19:00
Rejection of authority and working-class values inspired the scientific method.Drawing by Renaissance physician VesaliusAs everyone knows, when food is digested it is processed into chyle and turned into blood by the liver. This blood then flows to the lungs where it releases any impurities into the air. Flowing from the lungs into the left ventricle of the heart the blood then mixes with air and is charged with animal spirit ? where it changes from dark purple to bright red. This charged blood then passes through the arteries and throughout the body.At least, if you had lived anywhere in the Western world up until the early 1600s this would have been common knowledge. This system developed between 150 and 200 AD by the Greek physician Galen was viewed as medical dogma by centuries of physicians and professors to follow. The revolution that accompanied the rejection of Aristotelian physics with Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo found its biological equivalent in the work of physic...
More About: Revolution , Grassroots , The G

The Original Cast of Survivor
2007-09-21 14:34:00
"The Hobbit" was a distinct species that adapted to an island habitat. Homo floresiensis, our 3-foot tall hominin cousin also known as ?The Hobbit,? lived approximately 18,000 years ago on the Indonesian island of Flores. There has been a great deal of debate about whether the skeletal material was from a unique species as originally described or was in fact a human with a growth disorder.In the new edition of Science (subscription required), Matthew W. Tocheri and colleagues have analyzed the wrist bones of this controversial specimen and determined that the species retains a primitive morphology from before the origin of modern humans. Wrist elements can be powerful diagnostic tools in classification because the bones are so numerous and can undergo evolutionary changes through both adaptive pressures (such as morphologies necessary for grip structure or style of locomotion) or because of neutral changes as the result of reproductive isolation.As the authors described the bones ...
More About: Survivor , Original , Cast , The O , Origin

The Evolution of Menopause
2007-09-20 18:35:00
The "Grandmother Hypothesis" is confirmed in a new studyGrandmothers from Gambia are crucial to infant survival.In my earlier post Life Lessons I discussed the grandmother hypothesis as an explanation for human reproductive senescence, or menopause. A problem arises in understanding why women forgo one-third (and sometimes as much as one-half) of their reproductive lives, a condition unique in the natural world. What selection pressure(s) could result in this unique human adaptation? One cause may have been that, since childbirth is risky in humans, menopause allowed older women to survive longer and better raise their existing children. Another possibility is commonly known as the grandmother hypothesis and argues that women who stopped ovulating in their golden years were freed from the costs of reproduction and were better able to invest in their existing children and grandchildren (thus helping to ensure that more individuals with their menopause inducing genes thrived and h...
More About: Evolution , Menopause

Smothered to Death
2007-09-18 23:08:00
Collective defense of honey bee nests show grisly adaptations in actionHoneybees cooperate in the asphyxiation of a trespassing waspCyprian honey bees under attack by predator hornets have evolved a grisly and lethal way of fighting back which scientists have called "asphyxia-balling."An intruding hornet looking for a snack in a beehive may suddenly find itself enveloped inside a buzzing ball of black-and-yellow worker drones. The bees squeeze in tightly around the abdomen ? where hornets breath ? until the would be aggressor dies of suffocation.A team of Greek and French biologists, led by Alexandrous Papachristoforou of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece, have observed this insect drama dozens of times, both in the laboratory and in nature. They report the find today in the British journal Current Biology.The researchers had noted that the mobbing bees targeted the hornets' abdomen, which is critical for the insects' ability to breathe. By pumping their abdominal muscl...
More About: Death

Bloggers for Peer Reviewed Research Reporting
2007-09-17 15:30:00
Here are the top three entries in the contest to design a universal icon that everyone can use on their blog posts whenever the post is a serious commentary about a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal. In order they are Kevin, Uriel and Jeff's.Go to the BPR3 website for more details.
More About: Research , Peer , Bloggers

Unintelligent Designs
2007-09-16 14:03:00
Your Sunday Skepticomic from David Horsey.To view last Sunday's comic click here or search the web for skepticomic, coined first right here.
More About: Designs , Gent

The Primate Diaries on Facebook
2007-09-16 00:45:00
We've reached 50 members so join up and network!What George Lucas originally envisioned for Star Wars.You're the reason I keep writing so I want to hear from you. If you prefer Myspace (and choose to work for the Dark Lord Rupert Murdoch) then you can join us there too. Just click one of the images below and you're on your way.
More About: Facebook , Diaries , Prim , Diari

Extinction Crisis Escalates in New Report
2007-09-15 23:48:00
Great apes hardest hit in conservation crisis.Bonobos are one of the critically endangered great apes with fewer than10,000 estimated to live in the wild. (Photo by Vanessa Woods)The World Conservation Union has just released its 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The report states that of the 41,415 species now on their Red List, 16,306 are threatened with extinction (up from 16,118 last year). Currently one in four mammals, one in eight birds and 70% of the world?s assessed plants that appear on the List are in jeopardy.The great apes are the most critically endangered:A reassessment of our closest relatives, the great apes, has revealed a grim picture. The Western Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) has moved from Endangered to Critically Endangered, after the discovery that the main subspecies, the Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), has been decimated by the commercial bushmeat trade and the Ebola virus. Their population has declined by more than 60% over the las...
More About: Report , Extinction , Crisis , Esca , Cris

The Anthropologists are Coming!
2007-09-14 15:40:00
Four Stone Hearth, the anthropology blog carnival, is up at John Hawks' Weblog.Some terrific posts this time include:Pure Pedantry has a thought provoking post entitled Why Pairing Science and Atheism is High-Brow. My own two-cents are that there are plenty of good reasons not to believe in God without invoking science (for example see the following) and in most cases there is no connection between religious belief and scientific research because science is a tool and theism is a philosophy. But when dealing with evolutionary biology (and particularly human evolution) the tools of science fundamentally conflict with the philosophy of theism and unless you ignore the science, ignore the religion or paint yourself into a logical corner there is no way to reconcile the two.Two of the high profile "New Atheists" are scientists (Dawkins and Harris, who is in a grad program in neuroscience) but the other two are not (Hitchens and Dennett). However, when religious believers continue to...
More About: Ming , Polo , Logi

Primate Experimentation Under the Microscope
2007-09-14 01:20:00
Europe moves towards banning experiments on non-human primates.As I wrote in my post The Dangers of Technological Adolescence, the history of experimentation on unwilling human subjects has a long and despicable record. However, the use of invasive experiments on primates from everything from cosmetics testing to HIV infection studies is ongoing. There have been numerous recent court cases on the rights of primates in the legal system (for example see Trapped Between People and Property). The evidence of advanced primate cognition and emotional richness raises important questions about what are appropriate scientific ethical norms for necessary, and potentially life saving, research.Ghandi said, ?The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.? Currently, the United States has the most lenient policy on primate experimentation in the Western world (see Nature 417, 684-687 ? subscription required). According to a resolution to en...
More About: Microscope , Peri , Rime , Prim , Cope

Tangled Bank #88
2007-09-12 14:36:00
Tangled Bank , the best and longest running science blog carnival, is up at Behavioral Ecology Blog.Be sure to check out:Laelaps has a wonderful post on Convergence or Parallel Evolution.Evolgen writes a post entitled I'M IN UR GENOME, ADAPTING UR HOST-SYMBIONT RELATIONSHIP.Andre at Biocurious rounds out my triad with his post Life: What, when, how?Enjoy!"It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us?. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, ...
More About: Tangled , Tang , Angle

The Dangers of Technological Adolescence
2007-09-12 04:46:00
A brief history of scientific "progress" in human experimentation.A diorama showing Japanese researchers testing biological weapons on villagersin Ping Fan, China during the 1930s.(This post has also been picked up by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Join the debate at their blog or in the comments below.)Perhaps it?s because today is overcast or perhaps it?s due to the generalized sense of self-reflection I feel on this morose day. But as we champion ?economic progress? beyond all other concerns (including the integrity of our ecosystem) it?s only appropriate that I take a good, long look in the mirror at the ugly history behind ?scientific progress?. The legacy of cruel experimentation on primates is well documented and ongoing. But the history of scientific experimentation on unwilling human subjects should warn all wide-eyed science enthusiasts about the costs of placing progress above all other concerns.Recently the abused orphans of the University of Iowa ?Monster Study?...
More About: Adolescence , The D , Dole , Logical , Logi

Twin Towers on a Pale Blue Dot
2007-09-11 07:02:00
Reflections on 9-11 amidst a world gone mad. Earth photographed from the edge of our solar system, 3.7 billion miles away.?It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than the distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.?- Carl Sagan, commencement address delivered May 11, 1996If we continue along our present course future generations may well look back on our time (if they look back) and condemn us for our monumental stupidity. What did we do with the natural resources while there was still an abundance? Where were our priorities when there was still time to avert climate calamity? When a great crime was committed that exposed the seething anger from other lands did...
More About: Blue , Pale , Twin Towers , Twin

The Primate Diaries appears in the Chronicle of Higher Education
2007-09-10 18:23:00
Issues over Young Earth Creationism being promoted at university website.As I posted earlier, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill computer science professor David A. Plaisted has been using his department website to promote Young Earth Creationism in the public schools. Join the debate at their blog.According to William Allan Kritsonis, PhD:CREATIONISM has always caused much debate. We should encourage discussion on both sides of the issue.What a marvelous idea! Let's make that standard policy across the sciences. What would that look like I wonder?
More About: Education , Higher , Chronicle , Higher Education , Diaries