Tag Archives: animals

A Change of Pace: Family Stories

I’m taking A Catholic Citizen in America in a different direction, at least for a while. I’ll still post something each Saturday, but will be focusing on what I call ‘family stories’. It’s not that I’ve lost interest in science, … Continue reading

Posted in Being a Writer, Being an Artist, Discursive Detours, Family Stories, Journal, Series | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Animals, Consciousness, and Conscience

I haven’t researched it, but I’m guessing that ‘animals are conscious’ headlines peaked about two months back. “Animal consciousness” makes more sense than some headlines suggest — so this week I’ll be talking about new research, old ideas, and how … Continue reading

Posted in Discursive Detours, Journal, Science News | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Evolution and a Gene Expression Code Library

Scientists have found gene groups we have in common with nearly all animals: thousands of them, from a code library that’s more than half a billion years old. I’ll be talking about that this week, plus why I see no … Continue reading

Posted in Discursive Detours, Science News | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Cabrières Biota: an Ordovician Snapshot

When I saw “epic importance” and “fossils” in the same headline, I figured whatever’d been found would be at least somewhat out of the ordinary. I’ve learned to take journalistic puffery with at least a few grains of salt. But … Continue reading

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T. Rex, or Not T. Rex, That is the Question

Headlines about Tyrannosaurus rex, scientists, and “what we thought we knew” being wrong started showing up in my news feed last week. It’s been a while since I talked about dinosaurs, and I found Nicholas R. Longrich and Evan T. … Continue reading

Posted in Being Catholic, Discursive Detours, Science News | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments