I must offer an apology for the delay in adding new posts. I have been back from Churchill for some time now, but am still not caught up. With the fall semester approaching, papers to finish, lectures to prepare, and grants to write, I am pretty much swamped these days. But that does not mean I have abandoned Genomicron! For now, however, the most I can offer is a short summary of what’s new since I last posted.
1) I found out that the subarctic is too hot. It was 30C (86F) in Churchill for several days, when the normal temperature for July is only about 18C (64F). Apparently it rained and cooled down after I left, but it’s something else to be sitting in polar bear country complaining about the heat.
2) We moved to the New Science Complex at the University of Guelph, and are getting settled in nicely.
3) Apparently Homo habilis and H. erectus may have cohabitated for some time. Ok. I guess to the media and anti-evolutionists this is big news, but the fact that human (or any) evolution is not simple or linear is no shock to those of us who actually study the topic. In fact, I just authored a paper (Evolution: Education and Outreach, in press) about how the fact, theory, and path of evolution are different issues and that arguments about theory or path do not bear on fact.
4) I was invited to become a “featured writer” at Scientific Blogging. It would not replace Genomicron but could be a nice venue for more detailed posts. Sounds interesting, though obviously finding the time is an issue. Anyone have thoughts on this?
5) While I have been busy, Genomicron had its 10,000th unique visitor. No alarms sounded and no balloons dropped from the ceiling, but I did smile when I noticed. So thanks everybody.
Finally, here for your enjoyment is one of my favourite pictures from the trip north.
Welcome back Ryan.
Any news when the new journal’s first issue will drop?
As to the scientificblogging gig, I say go for it. Good science writing is few and far between, so I hope you can find the time for posting there.
Oh, and it’s in the mail, by the way.
Glad to see you are back.
As for scientificblogging, I didn’t know they had unique content, I thought they just aggregated blog content.
I don’t really read anything from their site, but that’s just me… I prefer Genomicron 😀
That Polar bear looks to be pretty close. How far was this photo taken from?
Obviously you know how we feel about the idea! 🙂
I am sort of tickled at Ricardo’s comment. Once a week I read something new saying what we are supposed to be about by people who haven’t read us. It’s “education by competitors”, I think.
400,000 people read us last month so we’re doing something right. We’re not the size of Science but we’re well respected by non-bloggers. The blog reading community tends to prefer its science with more polemic so we’re a little boring in that regard.
Anyway, we hope you write something for us here and there but we’ll come here for your daily stuff too.
How are you liking the new lab? I was lucky enough to spend a few months in a top-floor mountain view lab in this building – a welcome change after 3 years in a converted bakery with yeast spores everywhere and the windows boarded up due to construction of the new lab.
There’s nothing like a fresh start in a purpose-built lab!