Today is Tuesday so, once again, it's time for Monday's Molecule.1 
Both molecules are fat-soluble vitamins.
The first molecule is Vitamin D3, or cholecalciferol. The IUPAC name is (3â,5Z,7E)-9,10-secocholesta-5,7,10(19)-trien-3-ol.
The second is Vitamin A, or retinol. The IUPAC name is (2E,4E,6E,8E) -3,7-dimethyl-9- (2,6,6-trimethylcyclohex-1-enyl) -nona-2,4,6,8-tetraen-1-ol
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929 pertinent to the above two molecules was awarded to Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, who was the first to propose the existence of vitamins, which he termed "accessory factors".
1. I took a day off from posting, just because I was lazy and it was a holiday.
Helena Curtis is another science writer who didn't make it into The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing. She died in 2005. One of many obituaries appeared in The villager [Helena Curtis, 81, wrote ‘elegant’ science textbooks].Helena Curtis, a noted science writer and college biology textbook author, died on Feb. 11 at the age of 81. She was a resident of Sag Harbor and Greenwich Village.
Her first book, “The Viruses,” published in 1965 by Natural History Press, was followed in 1968 by “The Marvelous Animals.” In 1966, she was signed to a contract for a college biology textbook by Worth Publishers. The idea of a textbook written not by an academic, but by a professional science writer, in consultation with biology experts, was at that time revolutionary and greeted with skepticism. However, when Curtis’s “Biology” was published in 1968, it received a laudatory review in Scientific American by Nobel Laureate Salvador Luria. Through five editions in English it has sold 1.3 million copies. A shorter book, “Invitation to Biology,” has sold 600,000 copies. Both books have enjoyed success in Spanish and Italian editions, with more than 1 million of the books sold in Italian. On the later editions of both books, she was joined by N. Sue Barnes as co-author. Curtis also co-authored “Biology of Plants.”
Curtis’s books and her articles for encyclopedias, journals and magazines were praised for their scientific accuracy, elegant writing and wit. In 1988, Professor John O. Corliss of the University of Maryland said, with regard to the fifth edition of “Biology”: “The writing is about the closest to poetry that a scientific textbook can ever hope to get. It is thoroughly enjoyable, stimulating, imaginative, yet beautifully factual.”
The passage I've chosen is from her biology book. It's the opening paragraphs of Chapter 1. Her phrase "You and I are flesh and blood, but we are also stardust" is one of the most widely quoted sentences ever to come from a biology textbook.Our universe began, according to current theory, with an explosion that filled all space, with every particle of matter hurled away from every other particle. The temperature at the time of the explosion—some 10 to 20 billion years ago—was about 100,000000000 degrees Celsius (1011 °C). At this temperature, not even atoms could hold together; all matter was in the form of subatomic, elementary particles. Moving at enormous velocities, even those particles had fleeting lives. Colliding with great force, they annihilated one another, creating new particles and releasing great energy.
As the universe cooled, two types of stable particles, previously present only in relatively small amounts, began to assemble. (By this time, several hundred thousand years after the "big bang" is believed to have taken place, the temperature had dropped to a mere 2500°C, about the temperature of white-hot wire in an incandescent light bulb.) These particles—protons and neutrons—are very heavy as subatomic particles go. Held together by forces that are still incompletely understood, they formed the central cores, or nuclei, of atoms. These nuclei, with their positively charged protons, attracted small, light, negatively charged particles—electrons—which moved rapidly around them. Thus, atoms came into being.
It is from these atoms—blown apart, formed, and re-formed over the course of several billion years—that all the stars and planets of our universe are formed, including our particular star and planet. And it is from the atoms present on this planet that living systems assembled themselves and evolved. Each atom in our own bodies had its origin in that enormous explosion 10 to 20 billion years ago. You and I are flesh and blood, but we are also stardust.
This text begins where life begins, with the atom. At first, the universe aside, it might appear that lifeless atoms have little to do with biology. Bear with us, however. A closer look reveals that the activities we associate with being alive depend on combinations and exchanges between atoms, and the force that binds the electron to the atomic nucleus stores the energy that powers living systems.
Yesterday I attended a symposium on evolution at the Royal Ontario Museum [Darwin Symposium at the ROM]. The emphasis was on Charles Darwin, in line with the Darwin exhibit that is currently running at the ROM. 10. Then the Lord looked upon Ben Stein's work and declared: “Though I am a loving God, quite frankly, Ben, this film is an appallingly unscrupulous example of hack propaganda and it sucketh mightily. What's more, I didn't laugh once.”The rating is "0." Denyse is going to be so disappointed in her journalist friends.
Jonathan Eisen is excited because the Mars company is planning to sequence the cocoa genome [Combining two of my favorite things - chocolate and genomes]. See why this turns him on and why it isn't an example of science by press release.Mars plans to make the research results free and accessible through the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture, a group that supports agricultural innovation, as they become available. The intent is to prevent opportunists from patenting the plant's key genes.Kudos to Mars if this turns out to be true.
In the interest of full disclosure I reveal that one of my children (Jane) works for Mars.
Of all the scientist writers who didn't make it into The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, David Suzuki surely counts as the most famous rejected Canadian.OFF the coast of British Columbia in Canada is an island called Quadra, where I have a cabin that is as close to my heart as you can imagine. From my porch on a good day you can see clear across the waters of Georgia Strait to the snowy peaks of the rugged Coast Mountains. It is one of the most beautiful views I have seen. And I would gladly share it with a wind farm.Today I was reminded of David Suzuki when John Pieret quoted from an article that Suzuki just published on cnews.canoe.ca [What a difference 50 years makes]. Here's an excerpt ...
But sometimes it seems like I'm in the minority. All across Europe and North America, environmentalists are locking horns with the wind industry over the location of wind farms. In Alberta, one group is opposing a planned wind farm near Cypress Hills Provincial Park, claiming it would destroy views of the park and disturb some of the last remaining native prairie in the province. In the UK more than 100 national and local groups, led by some of the country's most prominent environmentalists, have argued that wind power is inefficient, destroys the ambience of the countryside and makes little difference to carbon emissions. And in the US, the Cape Wind Project, which would site 130 wind turbines off the coast of affluent Cape Cod, Massachusetts, has come under fire from famous liberals, including Senator Edward Kennedy and Walter Cronkite.
It is time for some perspective. With the growing urgency of climate change, we cannot have it both ways. We cannot shout from the rooftops about the dangers of global warming and then turn around and shout even louder about the "dangers" of windmills. Climate change is one of the greatest challenges humanity will face this century. It cannot be solved through good intentions. It will take a radical change in the way we produce and consume energy - another industrial revolution, this time for clean energy, conservation and efficiency.
We have undergone such transformations before and we can do it again. But first we must accept that all forms of energy have associated costs. Fossil fuels are limited in quantity and create vast amounts of pollution. Large-scale hydroelectric power floods valleys and destroys animal habitat. Nuclear power is terribly expensive and creates radioactive waste.
Wind power also has its downsides. It is highly visible and can kill birds. The fact is, though, that any man-made structure can kill birds - houses, radio towers, skyscrapers. In Toronto alone, it is estimated that 10,000 birds collide with the city's tallest buildings every year. Compared with this, the risk to birds from well-sited wind farms is very low.
Even at Altamont Pass in California, where 7000 turbines were erected on a migratory route, only 0.2 birds per turbine per year have been killed. Indeed, the real risk to birds comes not from windmills but from a changing climate, which threatens the very existence of bird species and their habitats. This is not to say that wind farms should be allowed to spring up anywhere. They should always be subject to environmental impact assessments. But a blanket "not in my backyard" approach is hypocritical and counterproductive.
Pursuing wind power as part of our move towards clean energy makes sense. It is the fastest-growing source of energy in the world - a $6 billion industry last year. Its cost has dropped dramatically over the past two decades because of larger turbines and greater knowledge of how to build, install and operate turbines more effectively. Prices will likely decrease further as the technology improves.
Are windmills ugly? I remember when Mostafa Tolba, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme from 1976 to 1992, told me how when he was growing up in Egypt, smokestacks belching out smoke were considered signs of progress. Even as an adult concerned about pollution, it took him a long time to get over the instinctive pride he felt when he saw a tower pouring out clouds of smoke.
We see beauty through filters shaped by our values and beliefs. Some people think wind turbines are ugly. I think smokestacks, smog, acid rain, coal-fired power plants and climate change are ugly. I think windmills are beautiful. They harness the power of the wind to supply us with heat and light. They provide local jobs. They help clean our air and reduce climate change.
And if one day I look out from my cabin's porch and see a row of windmills spinning in the distance, I won't curse them. I will praise them. It will mean we are finally getting somewhere.
I began speaking out on television in 1962 because I was shocked by the lack of understanding of science at a time when science as applied by industry, medicine, and the military was having such a profound impact on our lives. I felt we needed more scientific understanding if we were to make informed decisions about the forces shaping our lives. Today, thanks to computers and the Internet, and television, radio, and print media, we have access to more information than humanity has ever had. To my surprise, this access has not equipped us to make better decisions about such matters as climate change, peak oil, marine depletion, species extinction, and global pollution. That's largely because we now have access to so much information that we can find support for any prejudice or opinion.
Don't want to believe in evolution? No problem - you can find support for intelligent design and creationism in magazines, on websites, and in all kinds of books written by people with PhDs. Want to believe aliens came to Earth and abducted people? It's easy to find theories about how governments have covered up information on extraterrestrial aliens. Think human-induced climate change is junk science? Well, if you choose to read only certain national newspapers and magazines and listen only to certain popular commentators on television or radio, you'll never have to change your mind. And so it goes. The challenge today is that there is a huge volume of information out there, much of it biased or deliberately distorted. As I think about my grandson, his hopes and dreams and the immense issues my generation has bequeathed him, I realize what he and all young people need most are the tools of skepticism, critical thinking, the ability to assess the credibility of sources, and the humility to realize we all possess beliefs and values that must constantly be reexamined. With those tools, his generation will certainly leave a better world to its children and grandchildren 50 years from now.
[Photo Credit: Wikipedia: The copyright holder of this file, Joshua Sherurcij, allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all other use is permitted.]
The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, Richard Dawkins ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom (2008)Into such a universe we have stumbled, if not exactly by mistake, at least as the result of what may properly described as an accident. The use of such a word need not imply any surprise that our earth exists, for accidents will happen, and if the universe goes on for long enough, every conceivable accident is likely to happen in time.Many of Dawkins' choices have nothing to do with biology but, of those that do, most extol the virtues of design and natural selection. For example, there is a passage from Helena Cronin's The Ant and the Peacock that's as fine an example of science-related prose as can be found anywhere in the anthology. It is good writing but I don't it is good science. Dawkins does, and it's his book and his choice.
Let me end this section with a declaration of my own. In all territories of thought which science or philosophy can lay claim to, including those upon which literature also has a proper claim, no one who has something original or important to say will willingly run the risk of being misunderstood: people who write obscurely are either unskilled in writing or up to some mischief. The writers I am speaking of are, however, in a purely literary sense, extremely skilled.
1. In contrast to Dawkins' praise, I found the passage from Hoyle to be almost incomprehensible. It is not good science writing, in my opinion, and it certainly isn't "insightful."
2. There are exceptions. Dawkins included a passage from R.A. Fisher's book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection even though he (Dawkins) recognizes that it may not be an example of good writing.
3. I'm going to post some examples of my own biases with respect to good science writing, concentrating almost exclusively on those writers that don't appear in The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing.
"for his discovery of the genetic principle for generation of antibody diversity"
Susumu Tonegawa (1939 - ) received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for working out the mechanism of generating antibody diversity. This was one of the fundamental problems in immunology—and, indeed, all of biology. How do antibodies recognize so many different antigens?Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The defence of our body against infections is carried out by the immune system, a talented cellular society with a capacity to distinguish between self and non-self and with a memory capable of remembering a previous contact for decades. The system is managing this through the inbuilt capacity in a single human being to produce billions of different forms of protective molecules, antibodies. The Nobel Prize of this year is given for the elucidation of the unique capacity of the immune system to produce this enormous diversity of specific antibodies.Susumu Tonegawa is the great molecular biologist in immunology. In a series of ingenious experiments carried out in the middle of the 1970's he solved the problem how our limited genetic material is capable of generating the diversity required to create protection against established as well as future disease provoking microorganisms. When Tonegawa did his experiments at the Basel Institute of Immunology in Switzerland other scientists had already generated a-considerable amount of knowledge regarding the features and functions of antibodies. But this knowledge had also led to uncertainty and even confusion. Antibodies are proteins and their structure is strictly ruled by genes, by the DNA in our chromosomes. When Tonegawa carried out his experiments it was commonly believed that each protein, each polypetide chain, was governed by its gene in a relation one to one. But at the same time calculations on the number of genes in the chromosomes in man determining proteins gave a number probably below one hundred thousand genes. They should suffice to all the proteins in the body, to the hemoglobin in the red blood cells, to the pigment in our eyes and so on. Only a minor part, maybe one percent, could probably be used for the creation of antibodies. Around one thousand genes being able to create billions of different forms of antibodies? The equation seemed impossible to solve.
Our antibodies are made up of two sorts of polypeptide chains, short and long ones. Tonegawa did first acquire a toolbox, filling it with the best precision tools there were of hybrid-DNA nature, developed new methods and started to study the actual construction of the genes determining the short chains of antibody molecules. He discovered something entirely new and revolutionary in genetics. On the chromosome where the gene for the short chain was expected to be located, there was not one single, but a string, of pearls of genes. One special gene resided at one position whereas two other sets of variable genes create two gene families, in all maybe around one hundred genes. When a cell should start to make antibodies - this was preceded by a gene-lottery.One member of the largest gene family selected at random was cut out from the chromosome and moved close to a member of the second gene family, whereafter they created a functional gene for the short chain together with the solitary gene. Three and not one gene participate in the creation of the short chain of antibody molecules. Each member in one family can probably be linked to any one of the members of the second gene family, increasing variability by multiplication. The results showed beyond doubt that our body has the capacity to carry out advanced recombinant DNA processes. The intelligence of Nature can also be seen as the studies went on. The recombination of genes and their coupling together do not occur in exactly the correct manner. While such relative misfits should in other systems be bad, here they constituted yet another mechanism of increasing the diversity of antibodies. Experiments by Tonegawa as well as other scientists also revealed that the same genetic lottery principle did apply to the generation of the long chain although here the number of variants were even larger. Four different genes could be shown to create these chains together. The number of variant short chains should then be multiplied by the combinatorial possibilities of the heavy chain to give the variation at the antibody level, a fact which will also drastically enhance the diversity of antibodies.
The equation was in essence solved. A few hundred genes are used by the body in a new, revolutionary way and can thus generate billions of different antibodies. Through this genetic lottery the immune system is always prepared to react against known as well as unknown microorganisms. The economic usage of precious DNA is compensated by wasting more dispensable material. Every minute our body produces several millions of white blood cells - lymphocytes. Each one of these has undergone the hybrid-DNA procedure and is prepared with its own, unique antibodies. If not called upon to react they will rapidly die. If, however, they make contact with the fitting foreign structures they receive a reward, i.e., they are allowed to proliferate and live longer. After the great randomized gene lottery natural selection will pick the winners, thereby generating specific immunity, the cheapest and most efficient protection there is against infections.
Dr. Tonegawa,
On behalf of the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institute I would like to congratulate you on your outstanding accomplishments and ask you to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine from the hands of His Majesty the King.
[Photo Credit: Nature]
[Figure credit: The figure showing immunoglobulin gene rearrangment is from carthage.org]
The latest issue of Tangled Bank is #108. It's hosted at Wheat-dogg's world [The Tangled Bank #108].Welcome to The Tangled Bank 108 and to the little-known but still fascinating Wheat-dogg’s World. I hope that after you peruse the fine entries in this edition of The Tangled Bank you’ll stroll around and check out things here in my neck of the Worldwide Woods.
Today we have science bloggers musing on some of the greater profundities of the universe as well on more concrete issues closer to home. Some of these posts ask more questions than they answer, but heck that’s what science is all about, hey?
If you want to submit an article to Tangled Bank send an email message to host@tangledbank.net. Be sure to include the words "Tangled Bank" in the subject line. Remember that this carnival only accepts one submission per week from each blogger. For some of you that's going to be a serious problem. You have to pick your best article on biology.
The Center for Inquiry (Toronto) is looking for someone to help out with their various activities. This is a part-time job. It's a wonderful opportunity for a student.CFI ONTARIO IS HIRING A LONG-TERM PART-TIME
CENTRE & FIELD ORGANIZER!
Please spread the word to anyone interested in taking on a decisive leadership position in the expanding freethought movement in Canada. Position starts mid July.
Deadline to apply: Monday, July 7.
Full info and updates will be provided online.
Visit Center for Inquiry.
The Centre for Inquiry is an international education and outreach organization dedicated to promoting and advancing reason, science, secular ethics and freedom of inquiry in all areas of human endeavour. We engage in educational lectures, debates and conferences, coordinate 30 campus freethought groups across Canada, run a robust series of secular humanist social and community services, and undertake advocacy defending church-state separation, the integrity of science and equality rights for non-believers. The new CFI Ontario is CFI's first location in Canada and our nation’s premiere venue for secular humanists, skeptics and freethinkers.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
This position is two-fold:
- The successful candidate will act as an assistant director at CFI Canada headquarters in Toronto. He/she will lead CFI Ontario’s in-house and ongoing programming, event planning and hosting, promotions, newsletter publishing, social services, campus outreach and membership committees. There will be numerous leadership opportunities through support staff and volunteer recruitment, training, supervision and delegation.
- CFI's Canadian operations have recently expanded with the launching of new Communities in Montreal and Calgary and the anticipated launch of a Community of Vancouver in the next few months. The successful candidate will provide organizing assistance to our new CFI Communities in Canada.
HOW TO APPLY
If you are interested in applying, please email a cover letter, resume/CV and writing sample as a text, Word or PDF attachment, to Justin Trottier at jtrottier@centerforinquiry.net. Include a brief statement of your academic background, interests, your activities with the skeptic or humanist movements and/or other extracurricular, community, work or voluntary experience of relevance, and why interning at CFI is something you want to do. You are also encouraged to include any documentation or samples of your relevant experiences (eg. media coverage of your event, political policy statement you wrote, poster you created, etc).
This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the overall growth of the secular community in Canada and to strengthen your relationship with CFI. We hope you will consider joining us.
Position starts mid July. Deadline to apply: Monday, July 7
TIMING/DURATION:
This position will last one year with the possibility of renewal. The daily and weekly time commitment are flexible but would work out to ~ 15-20 hours/week. Please indicate your daily and weekly availability as well as the duration of your commitment.
JOB REQUIREMENTS:
An understanding of the freethought/humanist/skeptic community and/or some demonstration of commitment to the values of free and critical inquiry is essential.
To perform this job successfully an individual must possess excellent skills in organization, promoting and leading. The individual must also have the ability to exercise independent judgment and manage multiple priorities, the ability to organize and lead volunteers, strong verbal and written communication skills, and the ability to represent CFI via public speaking and media appearances. The job frequently involves speaking in front of crowds and other PR activities for which the successful candidate must be comfortable, experienced and proficient. Knowledge of the non-profit sector and community development strategies is ideal.
Since there is some travel access to own car is very helpful. In addition, because the computer resources at CFI Ontario are limited, access to own laptop is also ideal.
Since the successful candidate will be involved in setting up our Community of Montreal, he/she must be very comfortable conversing and writing in the French language. In addition, some knowledge of Montreal and Quebec culture is ideal.
ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE
To assist in specific projects, the following technical background is helpful, though not completely required. Candidates without such background should still apply. Candidates with such technical knowledge should highlight it in application:
- Web development experience
- Basic image editing skills in Adobe Photoshop or similar program
- Experience using and maintaining SQL databases (eg. MySQL) or similar technology
- Basic understanding of video technology and video editing, uploading and embedding (e.g. through youtube or google video)
- Proficiency in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Microsoft Publisher or similar program for poster and ad creation
In honey bee colonies the queen is the only fertile female. She lays all the eggs. The worker bees are female but sterile. The process of ovulation in worker bees is suppressed in response to phermomes. This is an example of genetic altruism where the reproductive benefit of worker bees is suppressed in favor of the good of the hive. There are good theories about why this would ultimately benefit the workers. The all-female worker caste of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) is effectively barren in that workers refrain from laying eggs in the presence of a fecund queen. The mechanism by which workers switch off their ovaries in queenright colonies is pheromonally cued, but there is genetically-based variation among individuals: some workers have high thresholds for ovary activation, while for others the response threshold is lower. Genetic variation for threshold response by workers to ovary-suppressing cues is most evident in "anarchist" colonies in which mutant patrilines have a proportion of workers that activate their ovaries and lay eggs, despite the presence of a queen. In this study we use a selected anarchist line to create a backcross queenright colony that segregated for high and low levels of ovary activation. We used 191 informative microsatellite loci, covering all 16 linkage groups to identify QTLs for ovary activation and test the hypothesis that anarchy is recessively inherited. We reject this hypothesis, but identify four QTLs that together explain approximately 25% of the phenotypic variance for ovary activation in our mapping population. They provide the first molecular evidence for the existence of quantitative loci that influence selfish cheating behavior in a social animal.This is an interesting paper but that's not the reason for this posting. The real reason is to contrast the actual paper with the press release from the University of Western Ontario (Canada) [Discovery proves 'selfish gene' exists]. Here's the complete press release.
A new discovery by a scientist from The University of Western Ontario provides conclusive evidence to support decades-old evolutionary beliefs about the existence of a so-called selfish gene.So, what's the beef? The problem is that the press release is horribly confusing. In The Selfish Gene Dawkins argues that one can look at evolution from the perspective of the gene and not the organism. The goal of each and every gene, according to Dawkins, is to replicate itself and pass on copies to future generations. Every gene (allele) is selfish in his view. The selfish gene of The Selfish Gene has nothing to do with altruism. At least not directly.
Since renowned British biologist Richard Dawkins ("The God Delusion") introduced the concept of the ‘selfish gene’ in 1976, scientists the world over have hailed the theory as a natural extension to the work of Charles Darwin.
In studying genomes, the word ‘selfish’ does not refer to self-centred behaviour but rather to the blind tendency of genes wanting to continue their existence into the next generation. Ironically, this ‘selfish’ tendency can appear anything but selfish when the gene does move ahead for selfless and even self-sacrificing reasons.
For instance, in the honey bee colony, a complex social breeding system described as a ‘super-organism,’ female worker bees are sterile. The adult queen bee, selected and developed by worker bees, is left to mate with male drones.
Because the ‘selfish’ gene controlling worker sterility has never been isolated by scientists, the understanding of how reproductive altruism can evolve has been entirely theoretical – until now.
Working with Peter Oxley of the University of Sydney in Australia, Western biology professor Graham Thompson has, for the first time, isolated a region on the honey bee genome that houses this ‘selfish’ gene in female workers bees.
“We don’t know exactly which gene it is, but we’re getting close.”
“This basically provides a validation for a huge body of socio-biology,” says Thompson, who adds the completion of Honey Bee Genome Project in 2006 was crucial to this discovery.
[Photo Credit: The Telegraph (UK)]
Oxley, P.R., Thompson, G.J., Oldroyd, B.P. (2008) Four QTLs that Influence Worker Sterility in the Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera). Genetics. 2008 Jun 18. [Epub ahead of print]Click here to read [PubMed] [DOI: 10.1534/genetics.108.087270]
Today's molecule is related to a previous Monday's Molecule. This time you have to name the molecule and identify the various symbols on the cartoon. Be as specific as possible.
The movie is called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Perhaps you've heard of it? After flopping in the USA it's about to open in Canada on June 27th. I heard an ad on the radio today as I was driving to work. Although you're probably not aware of it, scientists, lobby groups, the media and the courts are all united in a massive conspiracy to destroy your freedom. But have no fear, freedom fighter Ben Stein is here.
That, in effect, is the thesis of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, the new anti-science "documentary" which opens across Canada on June 27, was produced by Vancouver's Premise Media, and stars Stein, the lawyer, actor, game show host and speechwriter for former U.S. president Richard Nixon.
The subtitle of the film is wholly appropriate as there is precious little intelligence displayed in its more than 90 minutes. But the subtitle's reference to the content of the film was unwitting -- it was meant to refer to a giant conspiracy to banish intelligent design theory from the halls of academe and the culture as a whole.
[Hat Tip: John Pieret]
Come to the Darwin Symposium at the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto) this Friday.Darwin Symposium
Friday, June 27, 10:30 am - 3:30 pm
Status: Available
Join these leading thinkers in Evolution and Darwinism for a day of fascinating presentations.
10:30 am - 11:30 am
Michael Ruse: Has Darwinism Expired?
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Spencer Barrett: A Darwinian Perspective on the Evolution of Plant Sexual Diversity
12:30 - 1:30 pm, LUNCH BREAK
1:30 - 2:30 pm
Rosemary and Peter Grant: Darwin's Finches
2:30 - 3:30 pm
Alan Baker: Modern Darwinism: Natural Selection and Molecular Evolution
Talks will be approximately 40-45 minutes long with a question and answer period after each talk. Lunch is not included.
Location: Royal Ontario Museum, Level 1B
Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre; Please enter through the South Entrance.
Cost: Free Lecture. Museum admission not included.
