Knots as a Tracers of Language Evolution

Juan Uriagereka (via John Hawkes) on the evidence that a mutation in the FoxP2 regulator gene about 200,000 years ago lead to the appearance of language in humans:

What show up in the archeological record around this time are drastically different human behaviors. For instance, Marta Camps and I have shown that there is no evidence for the ability to tie and untie knots prior to the FOXP2 mutation. No other animals besides humans can tie or untie knots, and based on its computational complexity, it seems likely that this ability is a parasite, piggybacking on the mechanics of language. It was knots which then gave us the means to produce footwear, arrows, jewelry, and other similar objects not observed prior to this time.

Random Acupuncture

Over at Bad Science, Ben Goldacre has a nice account of a study which suggests that 'proper' acupuncture might be no more effective than sticking the needles in at random:

The results were fascinating: they set a threshold for “improved” (which was either a 33% improvement in 3 aspects of one score, or 12% improvement on another measuring scale). They found that people having acupuncture were almost twice as likely to reach this level of improvement in back pain as people on medical treatment (which had already let them down for 8 years of course). But even more interestingly, the pretend acupuncture group, where they just bunged needles in any old place with a bit of ceremony, did just as well as the people having proper, posh, theatrical, genuine acupuncture.

A well-designed randomization test can be a most satisfying way of demolishing a theory.  By concentrating most of the assumptions into the randomization process they leave very little room for argument.

Naughty Pluvialis!

Pluvialis takes her goshawk rabbit hunting in a nature reserve:

I glassed the car-park and the field.  No dog-walkers.  Check.  No birdwatchers.  Check.  No punters out for an evening stroll.  Check.  And off we crept, gos and I, off to the top wood, where the rabbits are. Sneaked around the corner of the wood.  About thirty yards away, a little way out from the margin of the wood, were three rabbits, in sillhouette, ears glowing backlit by the sun.  Surely there were more there, crouching to feed.  Ah yes.  Fringes of dry grass.  There.  Hop hop.  And next to them, a cock pheasant.  Such a quiet, lovely, sylvan scene.  Into which I intended to let slip havoc and murder.

The Single Helix by Steve Jones

A collection of science articles from Jones' View from the Lab column in the Daily Telegraph.  All are short, easy to read and entertaining.   No great depth but then they were written for newspaper readers.  Jones is the friendly geneticist and most of these articles are pretty amiable, but in one or two he does bare his teeth, in particular when talking about creationists and anti-vivisectionists.

The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch

Bradley Pearson, an aging writer suffering from writer's block has decided to go on a holiday to see if that will get him writing again.  However, a cascade of visits by friends, relatives and hangers-on conspire to prevent him from leaving.  We learn about his relationship with his younger, and now more successful, protege Arnold Baffin, Arnold's wife Rachel and daughter Julian.  Complications ensue as Bradley's ex-wife turns up and then his unhappily married sister come to stay.   A sort of black hole forms around Bradley, preventing him from getting away to do his writing.  Then Bradley and the 20-year old Julian fall in love, elope, and all hell breaks loose.  Eventually Bradley does get down to writing, but not in quite the way he was expecting.  Quite gripping.  I came away from this book with the impression that Murdoch is a seriously powerful writer, a sort of Beethoven of the novel.