Quintessence of Dust

A few days ago I wrote about scientific thinking as an antidote to intuition . Not just an alternative to it, but something like the opposite of intuition. The intentional, energy-consuming move ...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/08/science-intuition-and-strange-inversion.html

As I work on a book that will claim that evolution is easy, I have a parallel task of exploring the reasons we sense that it is hard or even impossible. Some of those influences are the result o...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/08/scientific-thinking-as-antidote-to.html

A few years ago, I somehow realized that I wanted to read more stories. My work as a journal editor involved hours of intense scientific reading every day, and my insatiable interest in biology...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/08/what-i-learned-about-me-when-i-started.html

'Genome' is now a pretty standard word in our social vocabulary. We have to put up with overloaded metaphors like "blueprint" and reverent talk like "language of god" but it does seem to me that...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-known-unknowns-of-biology-welcome.html

This week in the Blaugust 2023 blogging festival , the broad theme is "Introduce yourself." Yesterday I alluded to my bardolatry and its place in the cornerstone of Quintessence of Dust , but tha...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/08/rebel-scum.html

This blog's name captures my longstanding interest in human nature : humans are apes, and animals, and yet somehow able to create music and gods, and sometimes plays like Hamlet. But what's that...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/08/thoughts-on-quintessence-mutation-and.html

Let's think of places on Earth where scientists have done great big natural "experiments" on evolution. Looking east from near the top of Mount Lemmon, January 2021 Here are some that ought...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/08/sky-islands-one-of-earths-great.html

What is a library? If you ask a biologist (especially a molecular biologist) this question, they are likely to ask for clarification. In their work, they are likely to make regular use of two ver...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/08/contemplating-libraries-in-biology-not.html

>  >  > Bates Hall at the Boston Public Library One of the most effective metaphors for evolutionary change is the image of an exploration of a space, perhaps a map that shows "fitness ...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-library-of-possible-proteins-is.html

March of 2020 seems a very long time ago. The coronavirus pandemic was roaring to life in the US, and it had arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts where I lived and worked. I was leading an interna...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/08/an-extroverts-response-to-nightmare-of.html

> ARIEL: > Full fathom five thy father lies. > Of his bones are coral made. > Those are pearls that were his eyes. > Nothing of him that doth fade > But doth suffer ...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/08/change-is-hard-evolution-is-easy.html

The messy smelly death of social media is causing a few meaningful losses — most notably damage to or destruction of some online communities that really were valuable. There are some things to...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/08/a-blogging-festival-im-in-for-blaugust.html

One motivation for relaunching Quintessence of Dust  was my desire to write about things I'm reading, whether books or articles. So here is this month's entry in my new series, WHAT I'M READI...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/08/what-im-reading-in-august.html

One motivation for relaunching Quintessence of Dust  was my desire to write about things I'm reading, whether books or articles. So here is this month's entry in my new series, WHAT I'M RE...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/07/what-im-reading-in-july.html

I've been writing and thinking about design in biology since I started Quintessence of Dust. I want to write and think about it a lot more, so in my last post I introduced my view of the concept...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/06/design-without-designer-explaining-and.html

One of the most interesting books I've read in the last few years was The Gene's-Eye View of Evolution  by J. Arvid Ågren . The author explains the gene's-eye view both scientifically and hist...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/06/design-without-designer-british.html

One motivation for relaunching Quintessence of Dust was my desire to write about things I'm reading, whether books or articles. So here is this month's entry in my new series, WHAT I'M READING...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/06/what-im-reading-in-june.html

I've reviewed a few books over the years here at Quintessence of Dust, but From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds: Six Myths of Evolution  by Simon Conway Morris was the first book I blogged t...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/05/beshrew-my-heart-but-i-pity-man-final.html

Full series on From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds: Six Myths of Evolution by Simon Conway Morris. Introduction and overview Chapter 1: The Myth of No Limits — Part 1  — Part 2 ...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/05/reviewing-from-extraterrestrials-to.html

> ALONSO: This is as strange a maze as e’er men trod, > And there is in this business more than nature > Was ever conduct of. Some oracle > Must rectify our knowle...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/05/do-not-infest-your-mind-with-beating-on.html

Before I explain the rot at the heart of this chapter (Chapter 5 of From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds: Six Myths of Evolution , "The Myth of Animal Minds," by Simon Conway Morris), I'd like...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/05/a-gruesome-autopsy-of-chapter-5-of-from.html

It's one of the most famous misquoted lines in the English language, spoken by Lady Gertrude (Hamlet's mom) during the intense scene featuring a play ("The Mousetrap" aka The Murder of Gonzago)...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-author-doth-protest-too-much.html

There are some truly vexing and annoying myths of evolution. They are almost exclusively recited and embellished by religious propagandists, some of whom actually know what they're doing. Rarely ...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/05/missing-links-are-myth-but-whose.html

If you read about natural history, even just popular accounts, you know about the epic mass extinctions visited on the living world throughout life's tenure on Earth. Words like 'devastating' an...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/05/mass-extinction-as-acceleration-chapter.html

The concept of randomness is caught up in evolution, in two broad ways. The first and most famous aspect is the oft-misunderstood randomness of mutation. The second aspect is the role of chance i...

http://sfmatheson.blogspot.com/2023/05/confusion-and-convergence-but-no-myth.html