When all is said and done, I expect that 2021 will end with more good news and less news overall about coronaviruses than 2020 had. In the short term, we are going to have more epidemiology and virology to talk about. The topic most interesting to me is the new B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2 (also known by several other alphanumeric identifiers). It was identified in December in the UK and has been found in samples taken there from as early as September. Since then it has be isolated from patients in numerous countries including the United States. Evidence suggests it is more contagious, making it worth knowing something about.
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evolutionary biology
Science Corner: Observing Black History Month on Darwin Day
Since today is Darwin Day, some comment seems warranted–especially because I see which science & faith topics are most popular here on the blog. At the same time, I feel pretty conflicted about the idea. While I appreciate Darwin’s contributions to science, I also appreciate why honoring him specifically seems like a deliberate tweak of folks who find evolution challenging. And I think it’s possible to put too much focus on Darwin himself and exacerbate the impression that evolution was just an idea he had that caught on for ideological rather than scientific reasons. So let’s talk about Joseph Graves, Jr., the first African American to earn a PhD in evolutionary biology.
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Science Corner: The Force of Cuteness
Large swaths of the Internet have fallen under the spell of Baby Yoda, and I guess I’m not immune to those charms either. (Yes, I recognize they’re not actually young Yoda, but the character doesn’t have an actual name and Baby Yoda has a satisfying lilt.) Actually, part of the charm is intrinsic to our biology and psychology as humans; certain features common to human babies, like big eyes and proportionately large heads, read as cute to nearly all of us across a variety of contexts. One might expect baby chimps and monkeys to elicit a paternal response, but even creatures like squids which have few features in common with mammals, or inanimate objects like Pop! vinyls, or puppets of fictional 50-year-old aliens can exploit our neural pathways to get an “Awww.”
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Science Corner: Welcome to the Human Club
In What Evolution Is, Ernst Mayr floats the idea that humans are born 17 months premature. I don’t think he intends to critique humans or human development; he is simply describing a difference between humans and primates like chimpanzees. Our neurological development is not very far along at birth; baby chimps are much more capable. Maybe you’re not familiar with baby chimps, but perhaps you’ve seen (video of) a baby deer or horse or giraffe tentatively taking its first steps within hours of birth; that’s a skill humans need a year to be ready for. That’s the price we’ve paid for greater capabilities mediated by a proportionately larger brain; we have to wait longer for the full functionality and spend more time taking care of our infants.
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Science Corner: Summer Science News Round-Up
We’ve had a busy summer–traveling, going to the movies, releasing a book–leaving less time to talk about current research. And there have been several recent stories making the rounds in Christian circles. They touch on questions many of us have about Adam and Eve, Noah, and the early history of the world. So I thought it might be worth a quick round-up of that research and what we’ve learned from it.
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