tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post332322462803241043..comments2024-03-27T14:50:47.345-04:00Comments on <center>Sandwalk</center>: The Plausibility of LifeLarry Moranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756598746605455848noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-24732247860827835132011-09-01T14:49:04.745-04:002011-09-01T14:49:04.745-04:00Dawkins is deluded about "God". The resu...Dawkins is deluded about "God". The result is his God Delusion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-91814405993947771702008-01-18T17:11:00.000-05:002008-01-18T17:11:00.000-05:00Say what you will about the contents of the book (...Say what you will about the contents of the book (I've never read it) but it does have a nice looking cover. :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-26816203021761719932008-01-18T12:45:00.000-05:002008-01-18T12:45:00.000-05:00God Delusion? Not a bad pick. ;-)<EM>God Delusion</EM>? Not a bad pick. ;-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-30475751477503524012008-01-18T11:30:00.000-05:002008-01-18T11:30:00.000-05:00The important contribution of developmental biolog...The important contribution of developmental biology is merely an extension of what Jacques Monod said 35 years ago, "What's true of E. coli is also true of an elephant."<BR/><BR/>Actually, Monod predicted the extension. The untruncated, truer, and much funnier quote is: "What is true for E. coli is alo true for the elephant - only more so."<BR/><BR/>In any case I'd argue that the huge advance in thinking about evolution over the last 15 years has again come from bacteria. It is the recognition that large amounts of horizontal gene flow have dominated the evolution of microbial populations. The ongoing revolution is in understanding the vast complexity of mixed microbial and phage populations. <BR/><BR/>Evo devo is deeply interesting and important, but it has not <I>fundamentally</I> changed our large-scale view of evolutionary pattern and process. The microbial genomic and ecology efforts have.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-43334399604904289522008-01-18T10:22:00.000-05:002008-01-18T10:22:00.000-05:00We seem to live in an age where people feel they h...We seem to live in an age where people feel they have to hype <I>everything</I> as the latest revolutionary advance. Maybe it's lingering damage wrought by Kuhn. Maybe it's the extreme tightness of both research funding and the academic job market. I don't know, but from the perspective of one who has been out of academic science for a long time now, it does seem odd compared to the atmosphere and <I>mores</I> that I remember.Steve LaBonnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05315820864846104986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-8330218705104324152008-01-18T09:36:00.000-05:002008-01-18T09:36:00.000-05:00dan asks,But, Larry, what do you think the best bo...dan asks,<BR/><BR/><I>But, Larry, what do you think the best book of the decade was? (just curious)</I><BR/><BR/>You mean other than <I>The God Delusion</I>? :-)Larry Moranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05756598746605455848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-82067382579318258792008-01-18T09:33:00.000-05:002008-01-18T09:33:00.000-05:00PZ opines (not surprisingly),I hate to say it -- I...PZ opines (not surprisingly),<BR/><BR/><I>I hate to say it -- I'm one of those people who think the developmental perspective does contribute to our understanding of evolution ... </I><BR/><BR/>I agree with you. <B>All</B> biology perspectives contribute to our understanding of evolution. <BR/><BR/>My beef is with those who think that developmental biology is going to radically change our view of evolution. That's just silly hyperbole.<BR/><BR/>The important contribution of developmental biology is merely an extension of what Jacques Monod said 35 years ago, "What's true of <I>E. coli</I> is also true of an elephant." We now know that his prediction is correct. <BR/><BR/>We know that small changes in regulation can produce large changes in phenotype. These ideas were incorporated into thinking about evolution about 25 years ago.Larry Moranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05756598746605455848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-36013819190869440832008-01-18T07:18:00.000-05:002008-01-18T07:18:00.000-05:00I think my view matches PZ's mostly. Evo-devo con...I think my view matches PZ's mostly. Evo-devo contributes something, supplementing previous views into a more complete picture; and I agree that the book wasn't the best book of the past decade for the field. It was <EM>a</EM> good book however, and worth my time to read even if it was unclear at important points. <BR/><BR/>But, Larry, what do you think the best book of the decade was? (just curious)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-12974671960913341392008-01-18T00:16:00.000-05:002008-01-18T00:16:00.000-05:00I hate to say it -- I'm one of those people who th...I hate to say it -- I'm one of those people who think the developmental perspective <I>does</I> contribute to our understanding of evolution -- but I hve to agree with you. I was <I>very</I> disappointed in that book. "Facilitated variation" struck me as nothing but an empty buzzword, poorly explained and offering no new insight.PZ Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10911078800554129822noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-1362346943855433802008-01-17T23:29:00.000-05:002008-01-17T23:29:00.000-05:00If I am not mistaken, John Gerhart was the infamou...<I>If I am not mistaken, John Gerhart was the infamous ID guru Jonathan Wells' PhD advisor at Berkeley.</I><BR/><BR/>You're not mistaken. Gerhart is one of the leading developmental biologists of our era. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall in those committee meetings... especially given that Wells's productivity was <I>very</I> sub-par.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-7808482481629293782008-01-17T23:03:00.000-05:002008-01-17T23:03:00.000-05:00Not to be pendantic, but I think including a micro...Not to be pendantic, but I think including a microbial eukaryote, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in your ending examples of microbial processes. This would avoid the argument "Well them there's are bacteria and we're talkin' 'bout animals which is eukaryotes." which I expect some will consider upon reading your penultimate paragraph.The Loraxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-59808575521555930872008-01-17T18:21:00.000-05:002008-01-17T18:21:00.000-05:00If I am not mistaken, John Gerhart was the infamou...If I am not mistaken, John Gerhart was the infamous ID guru Jonathan Wells' PhD advisor at Berkeley.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com