I've posted a brief article (On the gain of genes and gene function) over at Wonderful Life on two recent papers that reveal something of the rate and nature of gene duplication and diversification within the species of Drosophila.  This is by way of response to recent review article written by the prominent supporter of Intelligent Design creationism, Michael Behe.

The Wordpress blog I described the other day has been fully launched - Wonderful Life - and is hosted here rather than at Wordpress.com.  I wanted to be able to do some css tweaking, and that proved a bit easier I installed it in my own domain.  I'm rather pleased with the clean and uncluttered layout of the template I chose.

I've entitled the blog Wonderful Life because it's the sense of wonder and excitement I gain from observing and explaining the world around me that motivates me as a biologist.  It's a forum for me to sound off on atheism and related matters.  Of course, it remains to be seen whether I keep it (the blog, I mean, not my biology!) rolling after the initial excitement.  And of course this blog will still be needing attention, as does the Team Grumpy blog (though that's more of a joint effort). 

I was interested to know more about Stephen Green, the man who has filed a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority against the Atheist Bus ad campaign.  The blog site mediawatchwatch has an interview with Stephen Green, dating from June 2005.  In it, he demonstrates an astonishing lack of understanding of biology and evolution by natural selection.  For example, on one of the classic examples of sexual selection, the peacock's tail:

Why does the peacock have such a magnificent tail? ‘So he can attract a mate', the evolutionist replies. So how does the hedge-sparrow do it? 

Via the excellent Pharyngula blog, I came across this ridiculous article by Bryan Appleyard in The Times:  For God's sake, have Charles Darwin's theories made any difference to our lives? - published on 11th January (so I got to it a little late - I'm more of a Guardian reader!).

Yes, Bryan, they have made a difference, and not the spurious negative ones you build up to in your article.  To be charitable, one must suppose the point of Appleyard's article is to point out that many (usually from the under-educated religious wing) do not accept evolution by natural selection (and I come back to the difference between comment and reportage later).

I picked this story up from Pharyngula.  The crazed Islamic creationist Harun Yahya, real name Adnan Oktar has been banged up for three years by an Istanbul court (Reuters).

Oktar runs a bizarre publishing enterprise that sends out huge and lavishly illustrated but bizarrely argued tomes vainly trying to discredit evolution.  The strategy seems to be to compare fossils with extant species, claim no morphological difference between them, then state this proves evolution to be false.  As a wild-eyed strategy this is rather amusing, such as the comparison of a spider crab with a spider.  He is certainly taxonomically challenged.  Perhaps I'll scan some examples later...I have a copy of one of these volumes that was sent to me a year ago...

He's been convicted of "creating an illegal organization for personal gain".

Well, actually, a bunch of American Baptists burnt an effigy of Richard Dawkins. It is pretty impressive that standing up for your views on life and religion can provoke such a response. On the other hand, they also burnt an effigy of Hillary Clinton (reportedly described by the fruitcakes as "a Hitler named Hillary Clinton – the anti-God baby killer who plans to turn the United States into Sodom and Gomorrah").

Wild stuff in the realms of a "god" who's believers claim is kind and benificent. Me, I rather like Dawkins' portrayal of the Old Testament god in The God Delusion. I notice the amazon.co.uk listing has garnered 700 reader reviews, which seem on first glance to be very polarised...