I recently had several photo shoots in Pennsylvania and Scandinavia.

evolgen: You Call This a Blog?

Aardvarchaeology: Prof Steve [Steve] Hits Scandinavia

Aardvarchaeology: Professor Steve Steve Studies Norwegian Archaeology

Aardvarchaeology: Stockholm Blogmeet 11 September

With great pleasure I hooked up via teh internet with those crazy cats at the AtBC (After the Bar Closes) disscussion forum last month, to visit the Darwin Exhibition at the Field Museum in Chicago! (I love people who diss creationism.)

Before I describe our adventure, I want to remind you that you can join my Facebook group, or friend me on MySpace. The Facebook group also serves as the fan group for PT. I also have a gallery of pictures from my adventures that you can look through. I working on collecting all my pictures there.

Also don’t forget to submit your best science blogging posts to the 2007 Science Blogging Anthology and join us at the 2008 Science Blogging Conference.

I recently had the opportunity to return down-under to visit with some esteemed colleagues at Evolution 2007.—I last visited the Evolution meeting in 2005 when it was held in Fairbanks, Alaska.—Prior to the start of this meeting, I blazed across the South Island, in a stylish “rental car”—more like a cardboard box with bicycle tires—with two old drinking companions from the University of Arizona. No sooner had I begun my adventure than I had a close encounter with a truck full of sheep driving down the wrong side of the road. It was a close shave. Now, it turns out those crazy Kiwis drive on the left. Don’t they know “left” and “sinister” are synonymous in certain languages?

I didn’t let their harebrained traffic laws hinder my opportunity to explore as much of the South Island as possible. During my travels, I had the opportunity to become the first panda (and the first J.D.-M.D.-Quintuple Ph.D.) to climb a glacier.

Despite an attempt on my life when one of my companions “fell” in an ice river, I reached the top unscathed. With the help of my guide, Rebecca, I left a University of Ediacara flag upon the Glacier to memorialize my illustrious achievement.

I recently finished up my trip with Bora to the Bay Area by attending Science Foo Camp at Google’s Headquarters, where I met several famous people.

Bora has many pictures of our last days in the Bay Area.

1. Last day in San Francisco

2. Science Foo Camp—Friday

3. Science Foo Camp— Saturday Morning

4. Science Foo Camp—Saturday Afternoon

I want to remind you that you can join my Facebook group, or friend me on MySpace. The Facebook group also serves as the fan group for PT. I also have a gallery of pictures from my adventures that you can look through. I working on collecting all my pictures there.

Also don’t forget to submit your best science blogging posts to the 2007 Science Blogging Anthology and join us at the 2008 Science Blogging Conference.

And yes that is me allowing Martha Stewart to examine my kimono.

I’ve been a busy little bear this summer, and no, I’m not talking about my duty to return Ailuropoda to its once great numbers. I’m referring to my travels around the globe these last few months. I’ve been to so many interesting places that you’d think that I can exist in multiple places at the same time. Call me the Quantum Panda ™ if you want to. My reports from Evolution 2007 will be up later in the week, but I can now give you some links to blog posts done by some of my companions.

But before I do, I want to remind you that you can join my Facebook group, or friend me on MySpace. The Facebook group also serves as the fan group for PT.

Now to the blog posts.

From Sandra Porter at Discovering Biology in a Digital World:

Professor Steve Steve caught experimenting with human subjects!—Don’t look at me like that. I have IRB approval from UE.

Professor Steve Steve bears all at Virginia Tech—Strike a pose. Vogue!

Meanwhile Bora of A Blog Around the Clock and I have been busy in SF:

Professor Steve Steve is helping me work—Is it working hard or hardly working?

Professor Steve Steve at PLoS—PLoS: Pandas Love Open Science

San Francisco—a running commentary—I saw a flock of seagulls in the bay.

San Francisco—a running commentary #2—And I ran so far away.

Professor Steve Steve meets Harry Potter—Not to spoil the ending, but I had no idea that it was all a dream, and Harry would wake up and find Ron in the shower.

Hi, Michelle!—I meet the most interesting people for lunch.

Framing San Francisco—Bamboo frames are my favorite.

A looong time ago, I mentioned that I spent St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, at a symposium I helped to plan (but neglected to blog! Oops). Along with other scientists, theologians, philosophers, and generally interested persons, we worked for a bit over a year to put this symposium together. Why?

The principal aim of the conference is to clarify the causes of the conflict between science educators and those who wish to have Intelligent Design taught in public schools. We do not claim to be neutral on this issue. We are convinced that ID is not good science and should not be presented as such. Our position is consonant with that of the National Center for Science Education and the Iowa Academy of Science. We believe that the polarization of opinion on this issue has created misunderstanding and confusion and that a clarification of terminology and concepts is essential for productive dialogue and decision making.

How did it turn out? I have the write-up over at Aetiology…

On June 17, I had the opportunity to return to Ken Ham’s House of (take your pick - Horrors, Thrills, Bible Stories) and really poke around the place. My friends Jason, Tara, and Wesley were there, along with some other great folk. I really learned a lot from the place, and I thought I would share some of my adventures with readers. Let’s take a look. (Warning - lots of images below the fold, may load slowly, especially for dial-up connections.)

I was back in Ohio last week to celebrate my grandparents’ 60^th wedding anniversary. While I was in the area, a number of the PT regulars also met up south of Cincinnati to take our own tour of Answers in Genesis’ Creation Museum. (Wesley has a picture of the group here; I’ll also try to scan in another “official” picture tomorrow).

My brain still hurts. My thoughts on everything over at Aetiology (with photos, of course).

After having dinner with Dr. Irene Pepperberg, Prof. Steve Steve was pandanapped by a man in a top hat. Perhaps one of those intelligent-design activists at Telic Thoughts, who recently accused the professor of being a panda puppet. They seem to be more familiar with him than they should be.

I know it would mean a lot to Prof. Steve Steve if you friended him on Myspace or joined his fan club on Facebook.

Three weeks ago I attended the the 2007 Drosophila Conference at the Philadelphia Marriott Hotel. RPM of evolgen was nice enough to allow me to stay in the hotel with him, sleeping on the floor and giving me the bed. RPM took losts of picture and has posted a four part series on his blog.

Steve Steve has the Smarch of his Life – Volume 1: Marriott Hotels Suck

Steve Steve has the Smarch of his Life – Volume 2: Visiting the Poster Session & Grabbing a Beer

Steve Steve has the Smarch of his Life – Volume 3: 12 Drosophila Genomes

Steve Steve has the Smarch of his Life – Volume 4: The Morning After

Hi all,

Last weekend I meet a few friends for lunch in Raleigh’s Cameron Village. We had a great time sitting out side drinking coffee and eating sandwiches. I really want to do it again, both in Raleigh and other great towns. On that note, I’ll be tagging along with Evolgen’s RPM to the Fly Conference in Philadelphia next week. If any of my fans will be at the conference or just in the area, go drop RPM a line and see if we can meet up for cheese steaks and bamboo beer.

Now for some pictures of the Raleigh meetup. [Note: You can find many of my pictures in my gallery, including ones from the Science Blogging Conference, where many people were begging me for photos.]

Nic George, a postdoc at NCSU, is agreeing here to be my vassal. I made him a offer he couldn’t refuse.

A Blog Around the Clock and The Intersection have recently posted some pictures that I took of Prof. Steve Steve: gallery.

Professor Steve Steve - new pictures

Prof. Steve-Steve Drinks Me Under the Table

In the next few days, I’ll post pictures from the Triangle meetup.

I’m just here reminding y’all that Prof. Steve Steve will have lunch at Cafe Cyclo in Raleigh, NC’s Cameron Village today (Saturday). Come by at 1 PM if you want to hang out with a septuple-PhD.

Directions

Greetings again!

I’ve just returned from the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS for you acronymophiles) in San Francisco. What a city! I mean, sure, I hang out here a lot with the NCSE folks, but I rarely have a chance to schmooze with other scientists of my caliber from out of town. I mean, not that anyone I met has quite my qualifications, but I had a lot of fun meeting people (including the hottie in the picture) and, of course, hearing more about evolutionary biology in the meantime. Read all about it over at Aetiology.

Prof. Steve Steve and his trusty sidekick Nick Matzke plan to be at the NCSE booth at the AAAS Annual Meeting at the Hilton in downtown San Francisco from 10-5, Saturday, February 17. I know many PT people and ScienceBloggers are at the meeting, so stop by and see us! (transport info)

Prof. Steve Steve, and perhaps Nick, will also be in attendance on Sunday and Monday. It looks like Saturday and Sunday have free Exhibit Hall admission on account of 2007 Family Science Days.

As with every AAAS meeting, the true goal is to get invited to the Science Journalists’ Party, which I hope is Saturday night. They always throw quite a bash, although it will be hard to trump the molten chocolate fountain from the DC meeting a few years back.

Reed and I went to a flock party that was held at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science last night. We had a great time and got to talk with Dr. Randy Olson, who is the filmmaker behind Flock of Dodos, a documentary about intelligent design’s culture war with evolution.

Reed has posted a more detailed report on his blog. I just want to mention the film’s two important points:

1. that the intelligent design movement consists of nothing but lies invented for a public relations campaign and seeks nothing less than the overthrow of the cultural legacies of the enlightenment, and
2. that scientists are utterly unable to communicate their profession to normal people, which only helps the crusade of anti-intellectualism.

Likewise, I want to suggest that y’all visit Reed’s blog and respond to his challenge about coming up with some sound bytes that frame the issue in our favor. Comments will be disabled here to encourage our readers to leave them at DRN. Don’t forget to try out the “quote comment” feature while you’re there.

Read the full report at De Rerum Natura.

Interesting choice of headline. Prof. Steve Steve is pleased:

Baby pandas! Baby pandas! Baby pandas!
POSTED: 10:07 a.m. EST, January 3, 2007

BEIJING, China (AP) – A mini-baby boom last year has pushed up the number of pandas bred in captivity in China to 217, state media said Wednesday.

Some 34 pandas were born by artificial insemination in 2006 and 30 survived – both record numbers for the endangered species, Cao Qingyao, a spokesman for the State Forestry Administration, was quoted as saying by the Xinhua News Agency.

The previous record was the 21 baby pandas born in China’s zoos and breeding centers in 2005.

National Geographic a photo of them all lined up a few months back…

In the spirit of the season, Tom Lehrer, Weird Al Yankovic and overwhelming evidence, and as we can’t do flash animations with flatulence noises, once more the Panda’s Thumb Offensive Morris Dancing Troop and Precision Yodelling Team bring you …

The Twelve days of DISCO redux:

On the first day of DISCO the DI gave to me … No original peer-reviewed work.

On the second day of DISCO the DI gave to me … A Dover Pro-Science Victory, and no original peer-reviewed work.

On the third day of DISCO the DI gave to me … Judge Jones Bashing, A Dover Pro-Science Victory, and no original peer-reviewed work.

On the forth day of DISCO the DI gave to me … More Science-Free Books, Judge Jones Bashing, A Dover Pro-Science Victory, and no original peer-reviewed work.

On the fifth day of DISCO the DI gave to me … More Sternberg Spin! More Science-Free Books, Judge Jones Bashing, A Dover Pro-Science Victory, and no original peer-reviewed work

On the sixth day of DISCO the DI gave to me … Clogging Student Blog sites. More Sternberg Spin! More Science-Free Books, Judge Jones Bashing, A Dover Pro-Science Victory, and no original peer-reviewed work

On the seventh day of DISCO the DI gave to me … Clueless Dover Denial, Clogging Student Blog sites. More Sternberg Spin! More Science-Free Books, Judge Jones Bashing, A Dover Pro-Science Victory, and no original peer-reviewed work

On the eight day of DISCO the DI gave to me … No Biologic Institute Research, Clueless Dover Denial, Clogging Student Blog sites. More Sternberg Spin! More Science-Free Books, Judge Jones Bashing, A Dover Pro-Science Victory, and no original peer-reviewed work

On the ninth day of DISCO the DI gave to me … More Judge Jones Bashing, No Biologic Institute Research, Clueless Dover Denial, Clogging Student Blog sites. More Sternberg Spin! More Science-Free Books, Judge Jones Bashing, A Dover Pro-Science Victory, and no original peer-reviewed work

On the tenth day of DISCO the DI gave to me … Conspiracy Paranoia, More Judge Jones Bashing, No Biologic Institute Research, Clueless Dover Denial, Clogging Student Blog sites. More Sternberg Spin! More Science-Free Books, Judge Jones Bashing, A Dover Pro-Science Victory, and no original peer-reviewed work

On the eleventh day of DISCO the DI gave to me … A Cheesy Flash Animation, Conspiracy Paranoia, More Judge Jones Bashing, No Biologic Institute Research, Clueless Dover Denial, Clogging Student Blog sites. More Sternberg Spin! More Science-Free Books, Judge Jones Bashing, A Dover Pro-Science Victory, and no original peer-reviewed work

On the twelfth day of DISCO the DI gave to me … A Cobb county pro-science Victory, A Cheesy Flash Animation, Conspiracy Paranoia, More Judge Jones Bashing, No Biologic Institute Research, Clueless Dover Denial, Clogging Student Blog sites. More Sternberg Spin! More Science-Free Books, Judge Jones Bashing, A Dover Pro-Science Victory, and no original peer-reviewed work

Dear everybody,

I have braved the intellectual desert that is philosophy in order to bring enlightenment to these poor philosophers of science at the Philosophy of Science Association conference in Vancouver. I allowed the lovely Janet Stemwedel to host my report and the photos she took of me instructing various people in the real truth about science.

Here is me avoiding that Wilkins guy and having fun, before it went downhill, as these things do, but it has some famous philosophers (if that’s not a contradiction in terms) with me. And here is some more of me with other philosophers, who are only famous to other philosophers. That Wilkins guy keeps getting into the shot, though, so close one eye to avoid seeing him.

Okay, cubs, it’s time to play everyone’s favorite game, “Who Said Something Stupid?” Rules are simple: in your comment to this post, identify the dim bulb who uttered each of the following outrageous statements. Creativity in your guess will be rewarded, but points will be deducted for snorts and guffaws that lead to spewing coffee on your keyboard.

After finding the author of the quote, place your vote for the stupidest statement of the month. Winners will be decided by me at an arbitrary point in time, and will be notified telepathically. The prize for correctly identifying all of the authors will be a sincere pat on the back (i.e., with claws retracted) and a virtual pint of virtual Pilsener at the virtual Pub.

The prize for the author of the winningest statement will be the negative attention of a small number of people for a fairly short period of time. And the perpetual linking of his or her name with his or her stupid comment on web archives everywhere.

Ready? Let’s play!

Butterstick, my youngest, was talking the other day about this new website he found, Myspace. After checking out the site and seeing all the cool people I can be friends with, I decided to sign up.

So if you want to become my friend, an official Pandit, you can do so on Myspace.

Hi, everyone! This is Prof. Steve Steve blogging the Evolution 2006 meeting here on Long Island at SUNY-Stonybrook, home of Douglas Futuyma, Massimo Pigluicci, and other muckety-mucks of evolutionary biology like me. I am a special guest for the spiffy day-long symposium on the Kitzmiller v. Dover case that showed that the ID movement had no clothes, which of course I helped to win. Many of the experts and lawyers, as well as a plaintiff and reporter, are going to be speaking at the symposium.

My buddy Nick Matzke is also here, unfortunately that idiot forgot to bring a camera so this will be a picture-free blog by Prof. Steve Steve. If anyone else has a camera, don’t bother trying to find me at the meeting, because I am currently practicing my invisibility superpower and hanging out with the Invisible Pink Unicorn. Don’t believe me? Invisible Pink Unicorns and Invisible Prof. Steve Steves are not testable hypotheses, you say? Well, do you hold a B. Amboo Chair in Creatoinformatics at the University of Ediacara? Are you a J.D.-M.D.-quintuple Ph.D., seven-time Nobel nominee, often called the Izaak Walton of information theory and the Ulysses S. Grant of drinking contests? I didn’t think so. It takes special training, like mine, to understand IPU and IPU-like phenomena.

Dr. Reed and I are at the University of Washington, Seattle this week attending the Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics.

Anybody got suggestions for what we can do with our down time? We are staying on campus and don’t have a car.

This should have happened last week, but longtime PT contributor and author of the much-beloved “The Quixotic Message”, or “No Free Hunch”, and also the equally beloved Quixotic References, formerly known as theyeti, and catcher of broadheaded skinks and legless glass lizards, mild critic of hydrogen as an alternative fuel, HAS SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED HIS PHD!!! (although he somehow lost his original post announcing this). He somehow managed to do this while writing all of these great PT posts, including classics like Phillip Johnson’s Bold Stand and Phillip Johnson’s Bold Stand, Redux.

More importantly, Steve can now finally achieve his true reason for getting a PhD, which was to join the list of Project Steve Steves.

I don’t actually know what Reuland’s PhD was about, something biomedical I think, but for now I think I will assume it had something to do with getting Sunbeams From Cucumbers.

I dined yesterday with folks in San Francisco. The FASEB coference is going on now there. Larry Moran and John Harshman are attending, so I decided to visit with them. Both Larry and John should be familiar to readers of the talk.origins newsgroup. Harshman and I met before, at the Evolution 2005 conference in Alaska. Nick Matzke and Wesley Elsberry from NCSE came along, too.

John picked the place, Zante’s Pizza on Mission. Why there? “You can get pizza anywhere, and you can get Indian food anywhere, but if you want Indian pizza, you have to come here,” he explained. We got a large non-veggie version, and the rest of the fellows said it was delicious. I’m somewhat upset at how few restaurants there are that provide for my particular dietary needs.

Over dinner, the conversation started with how to make the point that evolutionary biology is not incompatible with faith while not encouraging a double standard on who gets to express their support of evolutionary biology. Larry is concerned that atheists are being told to keep quiet, and even being the targets of criticism, while people of faith loudly proclaim their religiosity when talking on the topic. Then, we discussed the recent breaking news – Pianka under attack by Mims, lies being made about Brian Rehm in the Dover, PA case, and so forth. Oh, and Wesley insisted that we get a picture of the group. He’s funny that way. From left to right, there’s Nick Matzke, Wesley Elsberry, John Harshman, yours truly, and Larry Moran. That John Harshman, he’s such a card. Next time, I’ll give him rabbit ears in the picture and see how he likes it.

Editor’s note: Now that Judge Jones has issued his opinion in the landmark case Kitzmiller v. Dover, Professor Steve Steve feels that he is finally free to publicly discuss his role in the case. Prof. Steve Steve is the official mascot of the Panda’s Thumb blog. For the previous adventures of Prof. Steve Steve, see the this link. For the full story of Prof. Steve Steve’s expert witness experience, please click the link below.

Editor’s note #2: Alert reader David Fickett-Wilbar has noted that the name of Matthew Chapman’s great-great-great-great grandfather and Prof. Steve Steve’s true hero, pottery magnate and Lunar Society Member Josiah Wedgwood, was misspelled as “Josiah Wedgewood.” Prof. Steve Steve attributes this to some really good bamboo beer and the prominence of the Discovery Institute’s revealing Wedge Strategy during the court case. Prof. Steve Steve notes that at least he didn’t put Alfred Russel (one “L” please) Wallace’s photo on the cover of Darwin’s Autobiography. Prof. Steve Steve also notes that his copyeditor, Nick Matzke, has been sacked.

Courtroom sketch of Prof. Steve Steve by Mary Kay Fager, courtroom artist. She is available for:

1. Conventions, Fairs, Shows, Board Meetings, Shopping Malls, and Parties
2. Commission work in oils, pastels, water color and ink
3. Personalized work in cards, stationary, pamphlets and program covers
4. Courtroom sketching

Write to:
Mary Kay Fager
645 St. John’s Drive
Camp Hill, PA 17011
Or phone (717)737-8088

Dear all, I must apologise for the lateness of my report on the December visit to London and the Natural History Museum. Blame Nedin, I do. I am in the midst of a walkabout in the wilds of Australia, encountering a number of highly venomous creatures, but more on that in a later update.

Anyhow, In December I travelled to London with Nedin. I, of course travelled at the pointy end of the plane, as befits my role as roving ambassador and famous panda. As you can see from the photograph, they have nice seats up the front end, plenty of leg room, and lots of bamboo shoots specially ordered. So, after a relaxing, comfortable 20 hour journey, I arrived in London, where I spent a pleasant evening going through Nedin’s duty free scotch (which was only fair as Nedin had not arranged for bamboo shoots to be available).

The next morning (Saturday) we headed off to central London. Me, bright and eager, Nedin with a near visible burden of jet lag. Being a panda, I am of course, immune to jet lag.

The list of attendees (as best as Nedin can remember) was:

David Clark
Tom Morris
Jeremy Bone
Bob Ding
Steve (another one)

As an international, jet setting public intellectual there are many calls on my time, and I find myself rushing from pillar to post with my busy diary. However, at last I was able to take up the offer of that nice Dr. Musgrave to visit Adelaide, and amongst other things, take in Chris (“how can Nedin be trusted”) Nedin’s Big Dick (Chris was so excited about it, how could I resist). Despite being nearly devoid of bamboo, Adelaide is renown in song (“just another boring night in Adelaide” “people ask me, why Adelaide?”) and justifiably famous for being perched on the edge of umpteen square kilometers of burning desert.

But the desert holds many treasures, one of which is the finest collection of fossils from the Ediacaran period, a Precambrian era that features lots of weird, squashy creatures and mysterious animal tracks, and some things that Intelligent Design creationists don’t want to talk about, because they throw doubt on the so-called “Cambrian Explosion” that they claim evolution can’t explain. But now a creature has been found that wipes out the Cambrian Explosion (clue, see picture).

Last summer I travel to Fairbanks, Alaska to attend the Evolution 2005 conference at the University of Alaska. During my travels, I visited North Pole and stopped by Santa Claus’s house. Santa was there that day and eager to hear my Christmas list.

I can’t say exactly what all I asked for because otherwise it won’t come true. However, the jolly old man came through for me earlier this week. Yes, Dover, there is a Santa Claus.

On my way out I feed Donner, who was looking a little warm in the surprisingly hot Alaska afternoon.

I have many more pictures from my Alaska trip and will post the rest of them when I catch another break.

Hi all. I’m on a quick trip back to the states, after having recently been in China with Dr. Steve Case visiting my relatives at the Panda Reserve. Today I was invited to a meeting of Kansas Citizens for Science (KCFS) by my friend Jack Krebs, newly elected president of KCFS. Of course things are hopping in Kansas – the state standards which Jack and Steve worked on received an F from the Fordham Foundation because the state school board inserted a bunch of creationist stuff in them, the much awaited Dover decision may have bearing on the potential legal situation in Kansas, elections for the state Board of Education in August may determine whether the creationists stay in power, and so on.

Of course it wouldn’t be my place to comment on any of the day’s deliberations, but I thought I would share with you all a little bit of the flavor and ambience of a KCFS meeting.

Hi everyone. I have a few free minutes from my extensive itinerary (currently in Australia again) to let people know that I will be heading to the UK shortly. Chris Nedin, with whom I am currently staying, will be heading over there next week and I am taking the opportunity to travel with him (although I’ll be travelling much closer to the front of the plane than Nedin, as befits my role as roving ambassador and famous panda). I plan to take Nedin around the British Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London on Saturday Dec 10^th to educate him in matters evolution in general and palaeontology in particular. Should be fun (for me anyway). Any locally-based readers of the Panda’s Thumb are welcome to join us, and I will be happy to pose for photos and sign autographs, and maybe later accept generous quantities of fine alcoholic beverages at a local public house. I plan to be under the big dinosaur in the entrance hall at 11.00 am, and, as I’m pretty confident of being the only panda present, I should be easy to spot. However, on the off chance that other panda’s may be present, I’ll be the one wearing the mortarboard. I you plan to attend, I’d be grateful if you could contact me either through this forum, or directly via [Enable javascript to see this email address.], just so that I know how long to hang around.

Look forward to seeing you in London

Professor Steve Steve

Recently I had the opportunity to visit some of my relatives at the Panda Reserve in Chungdu, China. I was invited to visit the Reserve by my friend Dr. Steve “Number 42” Case. Number 42, besides being one of the original Project Steve Steves, is also co-chairperson of the Kansas Science Standards Writing Committee as well as Director of the Center for Research on Learning at the University of Kansas.

It was certainly moving to see my ancestral home and native habitat. I don’t run into many pandas in the scientific circles I inhabit, nor many real bamboo stands for dinner.

I imagine that Number 42 is enjoying doing research in China right now rather than dealing with the continuing shenanigans of the state Board of Education back in Kansas. He tells me that his next stop is Zhengzhou, the place where KU recently acquired fossil dinosaur eggs from. He is going to see if he can acquire some - maybe I’ll be able to visit him there also.

Welcome to the second edition of Ask Prof. Steve Steve. Today’s question comes from Michael in Newark, Delaware.

Hi, my name is Michael, from Newark, Delaware, and I’ve noticed you’re running a little question and answer session on the Panda’s Thumb, a wonderful little blog I’ve run across and that I read quite faithfully.

That said, I am a junior at high school, and one of my areas of interest is in the environmental sciences. I am self studying in the area (partially for myself, and partially for the yearly envirothon competitions) and I’m wondering if you could suggest a textbook that is a bit more advanced and more detailed then my current text (Environmental Science, Eighth Edition, written by Richard T. Wright and Bernard J Nebel) or the one I’ve used in the past (the ecology chapters of Biology, 6^th edition, by Campbell and Reece)?

Thank you kindly for your time and your help.

I contacted a friend of Dr. Wesley Elsberry, Dr. Jane Packard at Texas A&M University, who recommended the following books for Envirothon:

1. EG Bolen and WL Robinson (1998) Wildlife Ecology and Management. Prentice Hall
2. JE Rodiek and EG Bolen (1991) Wildlife and habitats in managed landscapes. Island Press
3. ML Hunter (2002) Fundamentals of conservation biology. Blackwell Science

If you’ve got a question about science or cultural issues around it, drop me a line at [Enable javascript to see this email address.] or [Enable javascript to see this email address.]. I will not answers questions posed in comments.

Please include your name, school, town, and science course, as appropriate.

Yesterday, I was in Athens, GA meeting Dr. Steve “Number 22” Henikoff, who was visiting the Department of Genetics at the University of Georgia. Steve Henikoff is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and works at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA.

On Wednesday morning we talked science over breakfast before I dropped him off at the department to talk to various professors and students through out the day. At the end of his day in Athens, he gave a packed talk to the department about his research on histone variants, nucleosome inheritance, and epigenetic inheritance.

On an interesting note, Steve Henikoff and PT author Reed Cartwright (with Luca Comai) have back to back papers coming out in November’s Plant Cell on HOTHEAD reversion, which Reed will expand on in a week or so.

Welcome to the first edition of Ask Prof. Steve Steve. Our first question comes from Jeremy Porath of Purdue.

Professor Steve Steve,

I read an article a while back about a group of Australian scientists who were attempting to bring back an extinct animal, the Tasmanian Tiger (or Thylacine) with cloning.

However, about two years ago, I read a book (What Do Martians Look Like?) that contained a rant against Jurassic Park that lead me to believe this sort of endeavor would be impossible. The relevant portions of the book and article are quoted on my LiveJournal.

I was hoping that you, or one of your colleagues, could perhaps shed some light on this and tell me which group is “correct”–or both, or neither, as the case may be.

Many thanks, Jeremy Porath, Junior, Purdue University

Jeremy, the Tasmanian Tiger cloning experiment is possible because the species only went extinct in the last 100 years. Unlike, dinosaurs Tasmanian Tiger DNA is still young enough to be potentially usable.

Prof. Steve Steve always seems to have time to spare during his travels. (Traveling by parcel seems to give him some down time.) Now he and some colleagues have decided to answer questions submitted by students, teachers, and parents.

If you’ve got a question about science or cultural issues around it, drop the furry professor a line at [Enable javascript to see this email address.] or [Enable javascript to see this email address.].

Please include your name, school, town, and science course, as appropriate.

Do you worship Prof. Steve Steve?

How about showing it this Halloween?

Dress up as the fuzzy professor for Halloween and send us a photo to enter the costume contest. Worthy entries will receive prizes like t-shirts or maybe a visit from the Professor himself.

To submit your photo, upload it to the Internet and place a link to its location in a comment to this post. You must give us a way to contact you in your comment either an email or a link to a site with an email address.

(Note that the actual prize has not been decided yet.)

During a break in the Dover Trial, I traveled to historic Cambridge, MA to attend the Fifteenth 1^st annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Visiting Cambridge allowed me to visit several friends at Harvard University, where the Ig Nobels were held. Over the years, Harvard has attracted many famous evolutionary biologists, but also many creationists. Not counting its pilgrim founders, who had no knowledge of the modern scientific method (“methodological naturalism,” as my creationist friends call it nowadays) developed in the 17^th century after the puritans fled England, Harvard has been home to a few influential creationists, from Louis Agassiz in the 19^th century to modern day Intelligent Design creationists. I had a chance to visit them both on this trip, and you’re welcome to join me on my travels.

I am at Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board supporting the plaintiffs with my unique expertise. As the holder of the B. Amboo Chair in Creatoinformatics at the University of Ediacara, I was invited to attend an “evolution is stupid” seminar at Dover Fire Station 6. The seminar was mainly an infomercial for Mr. Kent Hovind’s DVDs.

The lone bright spot was that I was able to meet Matthew Chapman, the great-great-great-great-grandson of my idol, Josiah Wedgewood. (Oh, yeah–I almost forgot–he is also related to Charles Darwin.)

I ended up chatting with Chapman, my good buddy Burt Humburg, and some reporters, but they didn’t allow me to say much.

Update: USA Today managed to identify my colleague, Dr. Patricia Princehouse, but they seem to have forgotten my name, referring to me only as “a panda puppet.” What is journalism coming to these days?

During my recent visit to New Mexico, one of my hosts, Dave Thomas (standing to the side of the sign in the picture - I’m the one on top of the sign), got me very interested in some curious fossils that he said “blew creationist flood geology right out of the water.” When I encouraged him to publish these finds, Dave asked me if I wanted to blog about it here. And so, I spent part of my tour of New Mexico going with Dave and some of his family and friends to the Bisti Badlands near Farmington. And there, in the rugged beauty of the De-Na-Zin Wilderness, deep in Navajo country, I helped find definitive proof that creationists are really confused about geology! Join us, then, for the story of my exciting adventure to the past, and our search for the mysterious Fossil-Fossils of De-Na-Zin!

I Arrive in New Mexico

I arrived in New Mexico last week, having been called on by concerned citizens of that state to look into “Intelligent Design” encroachment into public school science classes. I was immediately greeted by one of the local residents. Fortunately, I am well versed in many things, including Great Dane Standard Greeting Protocol (GDSGP) in which one always sniffs the right sides of noses. To sniff the left sides can cause one to have a very bad day.

As part of the Australian Science Festival, I went to one of the ABC's Science in the Pub programs on The Science of Siblings, in the congenial surrounds of King O'Malley's Irish Pub in Canberra. Paul Willis (another ex-palaeontologist! - not surprising as he can't spell it either) and Bernie Hobbs (pictured) led a stimulating discussion about siblings and twins.

G’Day mate! Struth! Crack open a tinnie and chuck another bamboo shoot on the barbie, she’ll be right!

As you can see, I’ve mastered the local dialect, or ‘Strine’, pretty quickly thanks to my strong linguistics background. Parted company with that Wilkins fellow in Canberra. He can philosophise at the drop of a hat, but can’t read a bus time table to save his life! After 3/4 of an hour actualizing the concept of the non-bus, I left him contemplating the concept of the taxi. I hear he made it hope, but goodness knows how. My primary reason for being in Canberra was to visit with a couple of t.oers from the “good old days” of talk.origins (when t.oers were really geeks, Ted was really Ted, and communication was via pigeon), Chris Nedin and Jim Foley. I left the Wilkins at the taxi rank and went to visit with Chris Nedin (pictured below), where a welcome, and generous, glass of fine Irish whiskey was waiting to fight off the winter chill (panda fur only goes so far you know).

I have just had a truly amazing adventure. From July 29 - August 6, I accompanied Alan Gishlick and Eugenie Scott (and members) on NCSE’s “Creationism and Evolution” raft trip down Grand Canyon. Here are “Gish” and Genie, my hosts.