There can be no progress in life without transitions – the ability to move from one state to another. The transitions can be physical, emotional, intellectual, whatever. If not for evolution, Earth would be lifeless. Evolution is all about transitions in genetics resulting in new species. Without mutations – biochemical changes in DNA – there [...]
The gallery in this post features strong pieces of art, masterfully done, that make the case that jellyfish proliferation affects all of us and has filtered to art, as important issues always do.
On April 22, Earth Day, I joined thousands of frustrated people marching for science from the Washington Monument to the Capitol. This was my second protest march this year, the first being for Women’s March the day after Trump’s inauguration. The rain didn’t keep anyone away. To my eye there were thousands marching, holding [...]
Let me state outright: I am not a supporter of “alternative facts” and am equally aghast at the concept of “fake news,” which we are bombarded with at present. Lies are sadly common these days, but I believe politicians, not journalists, are the guilty party. I am a scientist and believe in observed facts. Claims [...]
In her comprehensive biography, The Invention of Nature (Alfred A. Knopf, 2016), Andrea Wulf tells how Alexander Humboldt (1769 -1859) was the first to understand that the natural world “was interwoven as with ‘a thousand threads’.” Humboldt saw “unity in variety.” He was the first to consider different plants, animals and inanimate nature interdependent and [...]
After closing my laboratory in 2009 after fifty years of research on gene expression and evolution of the eye, I turned my attention to writing and finishing my novel, Jellyfish Have Eyes (IPBooks, 2014). I had taken workshops in fiction at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, written short stories and started the novel more than [...]
