Category Archives: Biology

Inside a Herbarium (finding history amongst the science)

Posted on April 6, 2012 by

This week I had the pleasure of seeing inside the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. I have, very often and from earliest childhood, enjoyed walking in the gardens and hothouses, but this was the first time I … Continue reading →

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Frauds, Fakes and Fossils

Posted on February 7, 2012 by

Almost every student of earth sciences knows the hoax perpetuated on poor Dr. Johann Bartholomäus Adam Beringer (1667-1738), often told in textbooks as warning of blind faith and argument from authority in science. However careful study of the still existing “lying … Continue reading →

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Monday blast from the past #11 (on a Tuesday)

Posted on January 17, 2012 by

Who was John Ray?

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On the Track of Ichnology

Posted on October 20, 2011 by

“We can do nothing . . . that does not leave its impress behind, for good or for evil, for a blessing or a curse,..[] Our footprints are left in whatever we do. . . . The traces of our … Continue reading →

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[Review] The Genius of Erasmus Darwin

Posted on July 14, 2011 by

C.U.M. Smith & Robert Arnott, eds. The Genius of Erasmus Darwin , Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2005, xvii + 416 pp., illus, $130. As we approach [This review appeared in Journal of the History of Biology 41(4): 766 – 768 in 2008] the bicentennial of … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Book Reviews, History | 1 Comment

[Review] Richard Owen. Biology Without Darwin.

Posted on July 8, 2011 by

Nicolass Rupke. Richard Owen: Biology without Darwin. xxiv + 344pp., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009. $29.00, (paper). The Natural History Museum in London recently unveiled its Darwin Center, the most significant expansion of the Museum since it opened at its present site in … Continue reading →

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Putting the lead in your pencil

Posted on March 28, 2011 by

Anyone who has regularly reads this blog (does anybody regularly read this blog?) will perhaps be aware of the fact that I have a soft spot for polymaths. There is an expression in German “Fachidiot”, which translates as “discipline idiot” … Continue reading →

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What is systematics and what is taxonomy?

Posted on February 5, 2011 by

Over the past few years there have been increasing numbers of calls for governments to properly fund systematics and taxonomy (and a number of largely molecular-focused biologists insisting they can do the requisite tasks with magic molecule detectors, so don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Biology, Epistemology, Evolution, General Science, History, Philosophy | 1 Comment

The Ibis in myth, science and palaeontology

Posted on January 6, 2011 by

“Every one has heard of the Ibis, the bird to which the ancient Egyptians paid religious worship; which they brought up in the interior of their temples, which they allowed to stray unharmed trough their cities, and whose murderer, even … Continue reading →

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The greatest show on Earth

Posted on December 30, 2010 by

In antiquity malformations on both men and animals were regarded as warnings from the gods, this old belief still today survives in the word “monster”, from the Latin verb “monere” – meaning “to warn”. Collected first in Cabinets of Curiosities, … Continue reading →

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