Skeptophilia

Yesterday's post, about the remarkable similarities between mythological gods and goddesses in cultures widely separated in space and ti...

Most people know of at least two reasons that organisms can evolve.  The first, of course, is natural selection; members of the same species...

Convergent evolution  occurs when only distantly-related species are under the same selective pressures, and evolve to look alike.  A partic...

My writer friend Vivienne Tuffnell, of the lovely blog Zen and the Art of Tightrope Walking , frequently amuses her friends with photos of t...

About fifteen years ago, I fulfilled a lifelong dream to go to Ecuador, a country I've been fascinated with since I was a kid.  I'm ...

Ever heard of André Thevet ? Born around 1516 in Angoulême, France, he was educated in the convent school of that city, although his teach...

One of the things I love most about science is its capacity to astonish us. You can be really knowledgeable in a field, and then the natur...

As a language geek, the loss of our ability to understand communication from past civilizations always strikes me as tragic. It's wors...

I just got back yesterday from my expedition to Ecuador with the phenomenal birding tour company Wings , an outfit which I cannot recommend ...