Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Back to blogging with Darwin, India and scientific peer review

It has been a nice long break away from the blog, but hopefully regular weekly programming will resume shortly.

Till then, I'll leave you with these.

First up, a lovey article by the always excellent Vikram Doctor in the Times of India (yup, even the Times sometimes publishes something worth reading) on Edward Blyth, a self trained zoologist and contemporary of Charles Darwin, who was the curator of the Asiatic Society Museum in Calcutta at the time. He corresponded extensively with Darwin, and his exchange of letters with Darwin reveals much about the lives of fortune seeking scientists of the time who weren't from the privileged upper class. The article is well worth your time.

Also, here is an excellent writeup by Suvrat Kher digging deeper into Darwin, Blyth and Alfred Russel Wallace.

Finally, in lieu of an apology for being away from the blog for so long, I'll leave you with this hilarious spoof video of scientific peer reviewing, circa 1940's.