NESCent / The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
I also got to hear some talks and discuss opportunities with members from:
Archive for June, 2006
sex, ploidy, and infection
Here is a revision of the graphic that I posted earlier for my master’s thesis and a poster I did for the 2006 Evolution meetings. This version is, in my opinion, greatly improved. Thanks to Tia-Lynn Ashman, Ceriese Allen, and Naoki Takebayashi for their comments during the poster session.
(above) Pie graphs in the figure show the infection
prevalence (percent infected in white) of Microphallus in
P. antipodarum hosts. Treatments consisted of either
same sex or cohabitating conditions. Infection was
determined as the presence or absence of Microphallus.
Within the all female treatment, likelihood ratio chi-
squared analysis revealed a significant relationship
between infection status and ploidy (LRX2=59.62; df=2;
n=276; Sig. p < .001). Males were more infected than
females (t34 = 6.9, P < 0.001). Ploidy was not determined
for the all male treatment.
evolution 2006: creation vs. evolution
Today’s special panel on the Kitzmiller vs. Dover School District Case discussed the controversy that pitted intelligent design proponents and evolution proponents against each other in the school board and local community. The panel was composed many important actors in the case, including one of the plaintiffs, the lead attorneys, as well as expert witnesses.
Over the course of the day I wrote down my thoughts as I listened to the accounts and conclusions stemming from the trial. Here, I summarize some of them:
“It wasn’t reason & logic that won the election …it was public perception.”
–Brian Rhem, on his election to the Dover School Board replacing those that advocated the teaching of intelligent design.
**This theme would persist through the entire symposium- the idea that perception is important in the creationism/evolution so-called controversy. I personally remember the Evolution meetings in 2000 in Bloomington, IN. There, Mike Lynch introduced the need for the Society for the Study of Evolution to address creationist inroads that threatened federal funding for evolution research. The result was the creation of a whitepaper led by Doug Futuyma that outlined what, specifically, research in evolutionary was all about and it’s relationship to society. My cynical view is that it took funding threats to instigate any response to the problem from the evolutionary biology community. What has been done since then (~6 years) to improve public perception? After all, creationists have 1000’s of years of art and visual “evidence” to support public perceptions. At best, biologists have been presenting visual evidence for evolution for 150 years- not to mention that it only became illegal to teach creationism in public schools in 1968. Given Michelangelo Sistine Chapel or a phylogenetic tree diagram, which would you “believe”?
Sistine Chapel (detail: image from USC)
Human Phylogeny from Tree of Life
“Does it matter that evolution is largely a verbal narrative when creationism is both verbal and significantly visual”, I asked of Brian Alters after he finished his talk on good pedagogy.
His answer unfortunately did not satisfy me much in that same way that Richard Lewontin’s response to Jay Lemke’s question about the role of visual metaphor seemed to simply suggest that its place is complicated and mostly subservient to verbal articulation (this question was asked at a recent talk given at the university of michigan- not at the evolution symposium).
Has anyone checked to see if the forthcoming SPORE video game from the creator of the SIMS is consistent with evolutionary theory?
?? As the living world becomes increasingly designed by biotechnology and landscape development, what additional challenges can we expect when providing evolution as an alternative to intelligent design ?? My question is based on the idea that people are prone to interpret life as designed and that evolutionary theory is non-intuitive.
–A solution: compare the visual weight of evolutionary theory with that of intelligent design theory…literally.
Reporter Laurie Lebo: “[Evolution] lacked any of the obvious elements of drama.”
Here’s a nice graph by Nick Matzke that (pretty much) won the case for the plaintiffs.
an info-graphic from a poster I’m giving…
(left) Dark circles in the figure show the infection
prevalence (percent infected) of Microphallus in
P. antipodarum hosts. Treatments consisted of either
same sex or cohabitation sex conditions. Infection was
determined as the presence or absence of Microphallus. Within the all female treatment, likelihood ratio chi-squared analysis revealed a significant relationship between infection status and ploidy (LRX2=59.62; df=2; n=276; Sig. p < .001). Males were more infected than females (t34 = 6.9, P < 0.001). Ploidy was not determined for the all male treatment.
evolution 2006
Today the rain ceased- for the most part. I’m spending the weekend in Stony Brook on Long Island attending the annual joint meetings of the Society for the Study of Evolution, the American Society of Naturalists, and the Society for Systematic Biology- or something like that.
It’s actually a lot of fun. Part of it is that I’ve gotten to meet a ton of new exciting people- some of whose names I’m familiar and some that just introduced themselves to me or vice-versa. I even got invited to a BBQ by someone I just met this afternoon where I got to converse with a bunch biologists about (mostly) how art and biology intersect and some of the amazing introgressions artists are making into culture and life science.
Plus, I have a bunch of friends here that I knew and got along with extremely well in my former life at Indiana. It’s been a challenge and a pleasure to relate the work that I’m doing now to them, and they are generally very open and encouraging. Even new folks that don’t have any knowledge of me have been great and willing to talk at length. I’ve made it my goal to pay close attention to the visual images and language that is in play here. It’s truly been facinating. Some examples of flagrant metaphors and other areas to be addressed:
- Personification of genes and their activities;
- The adaptive landscape (do populations really ‘climb’ towards higher fitness; think protestant work ethic)
- Population genetics is to Adaptive dynamics as Muhammed Ali is to Bruce Lee?
- BAD, BAD, BAD graphics and design.
On the plus side I learned about the National Center for Evolutionary Synthesis <www.nescent.org>. I think there might be some great possibilities for collaboration, interdisciplinary work, and synthesis with this organization, and I’ve had promising conversations to that effect.
ELSA Genomics: State of the Art & Beyond
Recently I had the opportunity to travel to Amsterdam, Netherlands to attend an international workshop on the Ethical, Legal, and Social Aspects of Genomics. The participants largely came from the northern/western hemispheres and met at the International School for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam.
Here was the view from my temporary apartment in the heart of the UA campus.
In Amsterdam, bikes are the only way to travel- unless you are in a boat.
During one of the sessions sponsored by the Art & Genomics Centre at the University of Amsterdam, Adam Zaretsky led us in an investigation of “gross”
DNA extraction techniques using common household reagents. Here we are pouring off the supernatant (what is left in suspension after a mixture is homogenized and centerfuged).
The set of the organic material used for the DNA hybrid isolation consisted of:
Banana
Starfish
Yellow Flower
ApriPeach
Basil
Cherry
Half Eaten Banana
Hair
Tnagerie
Easter Layer Egg
Old Pizza
Moldy Buckeye
Chives (with roots)
Spit
Fingerail
Marigold Seeds (Gamma Irradiated 4 mil. rads)
The reagents used to isolate the DNA from the mixture basically consisted of soap, salt, pineapple juice or contact lens solution, and cold ethyl alcohol.
The resulting concoction had many names:
Mixgen
Grandmother’s Soup”Bodo
Fructo-Ovo-Minestrone
DNA-Minestrone
Glosh
Animax
Postmodern DNA
Pig
Ulysses
Tangpie
Voodoo
What? Soup
The ELSA Gloob
Baby Spice
Gnibby
Gamma Punch
Here you can see the DNA isolate at the interface of the solution and the cold ethyl alcohol layer on top. It’s the white opaque stuff.
Here is the DNA isolate on the end of a chopstick.
Add to noodles, snow peas, and black bean paste with garlic and enjoy!
Other topics during the workshop included discussions of ethics involved in genetic testing, definitions and politics of public engagement, benefit-sharing among the stakeholders in genomics, the challenges and implications of public databases, and risk-assessment in commercial, technological, and clinical applications of genomics.
One highlight for me was the presentation by Sheila Jasanoff on the Comparative Politics of the Gene. Dr. Jasanoff presented how differently gene concepts have been articulated to policital constituencies around the world. Her comparative approach across different nations provided a useful view of how policy is constructed around the various interpretations of “life.” Dr. Jasanoff employed an extension of Latour’s hybridization/purification model to address how different political propositions win out and become policy. Dr. Jasanoff’s talk also entered an exciting area by introducing the visual as a discusive tool in the formation of “known certainty” in science. In this area of investigation, there is much work to do.
evolution poster- revisions
here are three iterations of a science conference poster. Can you guess which one I printed?
