Old house in the woods. On Flickr.
Coming soon: online biology text
Nature Publishing Group is coming out with Principles of Biology this fall. For $49, students get lifetime access to a biology textbook updated to reflect the latest research. It will include interactive animations, visualizations, and data sets. The price is kept low mostly because of the savings on color printing. Textbooks are due for a change — I am curious to see if researchers can get data on the effectiveness of this book within the year. I’m signed up for updates.
Tall Grass in Brookland, Washington, D.C. On Flickr.
Urban Ecology
We stumbled upon this red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) enjoying a meal of freshly caught pigeon in Dupont Circle (Washington, DC), and it was happy to let us snap photos for over 15 minutes. It was undisturbed by the traffic, honking horns, and our presence right beneath his tree. This bird was clearly well-adjusted to life in the city. On Flickr.
Yellow Vinyl, Archie Bronson Outfit - Coconut. On Flickr.
The Cautious 60%
An article in the latest issue of Science calls attention to some alarming numbers. Of U.S. high school biology teachers, 28% are enthusiastic and well-informed about teaching evolution, 13% explicitly endorse Creationism or Intelligent Design, and the other 60%… don’t seem to have an opinion either way.
Feeling under-prepared to teach the subject matter, and fearing parental backlash, they avoid the matter as much as possible. Some only teach evolution in the context of microbes, others lean on the crutch of state-mandated tests and suggest to their students that whatever their opinion is on the subject, they must memorize it a certain way just for the test, and still others “teach the controversy.” The Science piece nicely sums up the problem with this method:
… A sizable number of teachers expose their students to all positions — scientific or not. Students should make up their own minds, explained a Pennsylvania teacher, “based on their own beliefs and research. Not on what a textbook or on what a teacher says.” Many of these teachers might really have great confidence in their students’ ability to learn by exploration. But does a 15-year-old student really have enough information to reject thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers? This approach tells students that well-established concepts like common ancestry can be debated in the same way we debate personal opinions.
A final shocker: for about a quarter of U.S. high school graduates, biology will have been their only high school science class.
Sometimes it’s a bit challenging to have time after a winter work day to get a good photo in since it gets dark so early. One evening exiting the Dupont Circle Metro, I had just enough light to get this shot. The orange glow is from street lights, and the dark blue is the fading twilight sky. I’m really looking forward to brighter evenings in the spring, though! (On Flickr).
Sun, smoke and clouds over construction and buildings at Rhode Island Avenue NE. This is a notable example of the worst kind of suburban shopping development just a couple of miles from the center of DC, but it was an impressive sky. On Flickr.
Leaves and grass on the forest floor. Dutch Gap Conservation Area, Henricus, VA. On Flickr.
Maple leaf on a weathered trunk. Dutch Gap Conservation Area, Henricus, VA. On Flickr.
Bench in the woods. Dutch Gap Conservation Area, Henricus, VA. On Flickr.
Album of the Year - Living by Pontiak
Over the past few years I’ve given up on reading or creating “end of year” lists for music or other similar things. Why? Because a year is such an arbitrary measure of time, especially when measured end to end. If an album or book came out in December 2009, is it so different from one that came out in January 2010? I liked a lot of music recently, and some of it definitely wasn’t recorded or released this year. I’ve realized over time that it’s an unnecessary struggle to try to keep on top of new music just for the sake of its newness.
But I won’t pass up an opportunity to promote our favorite album of the last year, Living by Pontiak. It is heavy, has intense riffs, and it’s a very complete “album experience” — that is to say, it’s only intended to be listened to from start to finish, with no gaps left in between songs, much like their live show. That means that there are no standalone hit singles to make this excellent band hype-worthy, but it seems like that is the fate of this somehow un-hip heavy non-metal sound. Fantastic album art too — golden orange vinyl and a textured matte/glossy gatefold LP cover. Don’t miss out on Living.
Why can’t books be more like records?
I see the benefits of both electronic and physical media, so much so that in my ideal world “owning” something would mean having both a physical copy and an electronic copy to access at will from any device I choose. Luckily, many record labels these days are including free digital downloads when you buy an LP. You pay one flat rate for the vinyl, the album art, and a way to put it on an iPod. Sadly, books have not gone the same way.
I love to go to my local bookstores and browse (Idle Time Books, Second Story Books, Kramerbooks, Red Onion Records & Books) — I find books I never would have run into using online shopping suggestions. I love the feel of old books and it’s nice to curl up and read something that’s not a screen sometimes. However, a thick hardback book doesn’t pack that easily into a pocket or purse for reading on the metro or while travelling. It would be great if publishers started including digital downloads with each physical book they sold. They could charge extra for it, but it would be worth it to me for the convenience of being able to access it in any format (and still cheaper than buying it twice, in different formats).
