Comments

  1. Reginald Selkirk says

    A late question for Prof. Shubin: with the discovery of Tiktaalik, you and your colleagues have done a great deal of damage to ‘Darwinism’ by opening up two new gaps in the fossil record. Will you be attempting to fill those new gaps?

  2. says

    A late question for Prof. Shubin: with the discovery of Tiktaalik, you and your colleagues have done a great deal of damage to ‘Darwinism’ by opening up two new gaps in the fossil record. Will you be attempting to fill those new gaps?

    Adding to that, Why are there still WORMS + SHARKS!?

  3. says

    Finished reading it last night. Very good book; and the tale about choking up while seeing the Apollo module had me choking up.

    In his comment, Professor Shubin talked about trying to get across to general audiences how inspirational science can be, as well as educating about the process and facts. Mission accomplished. I’ve already recommended it to a lot of other folks who, when told about it, always respond, “That sounds really cool.” And it is.

    The more I learn about the world (be it in my own field of sociology, all this biology, physics, literature, etc) the cooler place it becomes.

  4. Richard Harris says

    MAJeff, did you mean, WORMS at the Discovery Institute, & SHARKS at the Megachurches?

  5. Immunologist says

    Reg- I hope this is a tongue in cheek question. Else, you would appear to be in the camp that doubles the number of “gaps” in the fossil record every time one of your previously identified gaps is filled. Illogical at best, and I suspect disingenuous.

  7. Bob L says

    Reginald Selkirk @A late question for Prof. Shubin: with the discovery of Tiktaalik, you and your colleagues have done a great deal of damage to ‘Darwinism’ by opening up two new gaps in the fossil record. Will you be attempting to fill those new gaps?

    Just think, Prof. Shubin and his team hate Jesus so much they spent five years of their life on a luxury, tax payer paid vacation dodging polar bears, hyperthermia and artic storms because they wanted to find that Tiktaalik fossile. Did you see the picture of Shudin’s opulent dome tent with it’s plush rock walls, guaranteed proof against 50 mph winds? There is a word of that tent; “academic ivory tower” and it should make any TRUE Christian™ sick.

    You certainly don’t see the guys at the Discovery Institute in tents like that.

  8. says

    Neil Shubin wrote, in one part of his gracious and thoughtful remarks,

    I don’t completely follow the framing discussion, as there seems to be a lot of history here, so please excuse if I do not reply to the next batch of comments.

    The understatement in the phrase “there seems to be a lot of history here” is enough to warrant a Molly.

  11. says

    Last night I came home to find the telltale delivery notice in my mailbox that means my latest shipment from Amazon is waiting for me at the local post office.

    As soon as I can get out of the office, I’ll be communing with my inner fish.

    I am positively squiddy with excitement!

  12. J-Dog says

    I think Bob L should be in the running for the Feb. Molly.

    “You certainly don’t see the guys at the Discovery Institute in tents like that.”

    No, you certainly don’t!

  13. says

    I appreciated the comments about cupcakes, recipes and teaching. But as I’ve been thinking about it since the show, I almost wonder, in some ways, if bread might be an even more fun analogy, particularly sourdough breads made from the same starter:

    Yeast is involved, a reproducing living thing. Using yeast in a sourdough starter, in particular, allows to point out modification and descent. Each loaf of bread made from the starter will be slightly different. It might involve a “mutation”/change in recipe (use of honey instead of brown sugar as the sweetening agent; whole wheat flour instead of rye flour…). It might also involve interaction with the environment (changes in the humidity alter the amounts of flour needed; changes in altitude can alter cooking temperatures and times…) And, although all of the bread will be made from the same starter, it most likely won’t be identical to itself from year to year.

    Just thinking out loud about how examples might be used.

  14. says

    Blake @8,

    The understatement in [Shubin’s] phrase “there seems to be a lot of history here” is enough to warrant a Molly.

    Shubin is one of the world’s coolest people, but that alone shouldn’t get him a Molly; we need to uphold certain standards. Mollys are for commenters here.

    However, Shubin has now commented here. Accordingly, let him be showered with the damned things!

  15. jimvj says

    Dr. Shubin:
    When an important find like Tiktaalik is made, what is the protocol about other digs around the same location? Do other researchers/teams rush in to piggy-back on that discovery, hoping to find similar, or perhaps, even better preserved fossils, or fossils slightly differing from Tiktaalik. Should we expect to see a flood (hah!) of similar fossils?

    BTW, great Colbert interview and thanks for the posts here.

    — a curious non-biologist

  17. says

    I finished reading it last night. Very enjoyable. My dad has gotten through chapter 1, and his response thus far was, “It’s pretty interesting,” which is high praise from an understated rural midwesterner.