I must say that it discomfits me a bit that biology posts are overlooked in favor of ones on atheism and religion—nay, even ones on cats! Now it takes about five times longer to write a biology post than one on, say, a HuffPo piece on Bart Ehrman, because I have to read the science paper twice, look up ancillary references, and try to explain it as best I can in non-technical language. Despite that, posts on Jesus, atheism, and the like garner the lion’s share of attention.
Well, I’m judging that by comments alone. My working theory, which I use to console myself, is that people still pay attention to the biology but most, not being experts, have little to say to contribute to the discussion, while everyone has an opinion on Jesus and atheism. At any rate, biology is still my first love (next to cats), and I intend to continue posting about it. Although I write about what interests me regardless of the expected traffic, I’d like to know whether anyone pays attention to the science.
Okay, here’s some cat stuffz.
As a Ph. D. carrying biologist trained in your department, I read the biology posts. Often, however, I want to read the primary reference, which I have time to do maybe, 20% of the time, on top of reading things for my own research, etc. So I use the post to get familiar with the findings, then hopefully get to the details at a later date (sometimes this is weeks or months later).
I was drawn to your website because of its cogent commentary on religious lunacy. An interesting question is: Why are people in the life sciences like yourself, Richard Dawkins, and PZ on the front lines in the battle with religion? But then I imagine I already know the answer: evolutionary biologists have seen the acceptance of their science opposed at every turn by religion ever since Charles Darwin. By comparison physicists have had it pretty easy.
Okay, I must comment on several of your GMO posts because I am puzzled by your embrace of this biotechnology.
I would like to hear from you and not those who appear to merely pile on those with whom they disagree.
As you say about evolution, it is a proven fact, but what is not entirely explained are all the specific mechanisms/modes involved.
Evolution responds to many pressures over time. Many generations; long periods of time.
So why would one want to short-circuit this process with the laws of unintended consequence lurking, possibly, as in any technological process, polluting the gene pool to a dangerous point?
As a layman, your explanation of how evolution works would make it seem you would exhibit a more cautionary approach to the idea of what looks like a crude, simplistic way of altering the carrier of evolutionary seed.
I am truly puzzled.
I read every post on WEIT, they all interest me but I don’t always comment. I’m on the wrong side of the planet and very often what I would have said has already been said, and more than once by the time I get to it. I love the biology posts and I’d hate for them to stop. Please keep up the great work Jerry.
The science posts are the most interesting to me, and I think you’re right that they get fewer comments because people don’t have as much to say.
I like the biology posts, and try comment on them when I feel competent to do so. (I had some biology training in college, but that was decades ago.)
I also read the atheism posts, but frankly am less interested in the comment threads on those because reading through those long strings of comments takes more time and is less likely to teach me something I don’t already know.
So do continue with the science, and I will try to keep up as best I can. (That said, I am about a week behind due to travel exigencies.)
Guilty. I only read the other-than-Kitteh stuff.
I’m usually a lurker (like 40-90%, depending on the study). My knowledge is in a very different area and I feel quite unqualified to comment, but I love the eclectic nature of this site and am interested in it all.
One more for the biology posts, though I’m also one more for the biologists. 🙂
Again, keep the biology posts coming.
I live with three cats I serve and they are in this merely for the cat pictures.
Oddly, they show absolutely no interest in your biology posts.
It’s sad, really.
I don’t comment much, mostly because I rarely have anything of value. I’m here mostly for the biology but I do also enjoy the atheism. I tend to skip the cat posts.
“Ditto.”
b&
Do you want people to comment with “Thanks!” if that’s all they’ve got? I could do that.
I originally came here for the science stuff. I share what I learn here, as far as I’m able, with people I know. I like the rest of it, too, though there is a lot to keep up with. I am usually late to any thread (two weeks behind, right now) (except for this one, since it was addressed to me, a reader, lol) and am unqualified to comment on a science post, anyway. I often end up following my curiosity to learn something basic so that I can have an inkling of what you’re writing about. I like that.
I have a lifelong mental block on the squishy sciences. Dr. Coyne, your elegantly written science-focused posts (and WEIT, the book) have gone a long way towards helping me chip away at that block. I plan to keep at it and appreciate the assistance you provide here. Way cheaper and more convenient than going back to school 😉
Professor Coyne, I really LOVE science — biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, ALL of it, the whole shebang of physical reality.
I also think cats are way cool, I enjoy eating (almost) everything that is palatable, and I even like the occasional western boot.
I read virtually everything you post, and my being principally educated in the physical sciences (physical-organic chemistry), I learn most new things from your MOST APPRECIATED biology posts.
But at the same time, I find very little that contradicts the science I know, or that is highly controversial, in the biology that you post (that is NOT a criticism!). And it is controversial subjects which get the dialogue really going, pulls in the posting participation on occasions even of the normally more timid and quiet, controversial subjects like the clash between science (natural history) and the claims of religion and other philosophical claims (metaphysical claims, free will yea-nay, the nature of consciousness, dualism, reductionism), and politics or politically polarizing subjects which present the most controversy, and thus which gets the most dialogue and attention here.
Said another way, we (people generally) do not feel the need to say “I agree” very often (though perhaps we should feel that need, but for some reason we don’t feel that need often). Yet all TOO often we feel the need to say “no, you’re wrong” or “I disagree…” Clearly human psychology is the most intractable phenomena in the universe — I predict it will NEVER be derivable from first principles.
“I must say that it discomfits me a bit that biology posts are overlooked…”
Please don’t be.
Biology posts would be great Jerry. They’ll take on a life of their own through the twitterverse, etc.
Dr. Coyne, I too read your biology posts. Also own your book. I don’t have a degree in any field, so my comments would be useless.
This is a great blo… err, website!
Jerry,
Moe the cat says pleeze more evolutionary biology.
I’m a physically-inclined inorganic chemist and read your website every day. The biology posts are terrific and I too fall into student-mode with respect to them. I love most of the topics here, even the Chicago-stuff since I postdoc’ed at U of C 28 years ago. The quality and entertainment value of the commentary is first-rate! I understand that you can’t really help yourself concerning your obsession with free will and can overlook your anti-dog bigotry most of the time.
I’m an evolutionary biologist of sorts, and I look forward to biological posts. I have no interest in the God/atheist posts and do not read them. I once had 23 cats, so I see no need to read cat posts either.
It is, of course, your website and you can do with it as you will. However, I am disappointed whenever I find that a web site’s title and contents don’t match up.
Well, I suggest, since you’ve seen fit to inform me about the “disappointing” disparity between my title and my contents, that you go elsewhere. Really, go.
Way too passive aggressive there, Jerry. Mellow out.
He can still enjoy the biology posts you DO post, while not enjoying the rest (which really does indeed do nothing to relate to the specific title you chose for this “website”).
Why should it? It’s rare to see a blog that only has posts relating to the title. Bloggers post on whatever interests them and only a fool would criticize them for posting whatever they choose. The author doesn’t actually owe the readers anything.
“It’s rare to see a blog that only has posts relating to the title.”
So many problems here.
1.) The word “only”. Toss it out, then we can begin, because it’s suddenly no longer rare at all.
2.) Many blog titles are a general but eye-catching name that just barely relates to an overall subject. However, a specific title such as “Why Evolution is True” or “Tetrapod Zoology” does have a sense that the blog would contain at least a sizable chunk of things relating to the matter (WEiT ratio of evolution posts to atheism/lolcats is tiny, whereas TetZoo is almost 100% TetZoo stuff).
3.) As the above states, blogs where the author writes about anything and everything typically have a general catchy name, whereas more focused and specific blogs have a more focused and specific name.
4.) I thought this was a “website”.
“The author doesn’t actually owe the readers anything.”
Nobody said it did. Are you enjoying strawmanning?
I usually do read the biology posts though, I confess, if they get too technical for me I only skim through lightly. But I appreciate them, nevertheless.
I prefer the ones on atheism and religion.
And I tend to skip the ones on food … unless it’s about pie. Everybody likes pie.
.. and cats!
Everyon… errrr ….all smart people like cats!
I tend to skip the cats. Oh, … um …
I love the biology stuff! The stuff about loony Christians is good for a laugh and more commentable upon, but the biology is what I read properly and take on board.
Keep it up please!
First thing in the AM, I open up my yahoo homepage, just to see if WWIII started overnight. If it didn’t, and so far this is the case, I then pop in here. I am rarely disappointed.
If you’ve written something about science, great, because I love to learn things at the start of each day. After nourishment and coffee, I might add a comment to a post about religion (it’s accommodationism that can really get me going btw). But frankly, I find the majority of your posters knowledgeable and erudite, so I read more than comment. You’ve attracted a great bunch of posters (which means that you’re doing it right, IMHO).
Cheers!
You’re doing it wrong. Start at WEIT: if WWIII begins, Jerry will certainly mention it. Other readers will then comment on various interesting aspects, and links will be provided.
But what if Jessica Alba has a baby bump, will he comment on that? I think not!
I’m just kidding, my wife has Entertainment Online on our homepage and they’re always talking about some starlet’s baby bump (excuse me while I barf).
Besides, Chicago could have been ground zero for the first launch…so there might be nothing left except cinderized cowboy boots.
I pretty much ignore the religion posts completely. I have no interest in arguments about religion.
I love the science posts more than the *religion* posts but I’m not qualified to comment – on either! I will remember to put a *like* on them though 🙂 THe *cute* & the cats – of course I love ’em. O enjoy your blog – full stop.
Jerry, there are few sites that cover biology and evolution as well as yours. It would be a loss if you reduced or stopped posting on these topics. I enjoy Mathew Cobb’s posts too.
Controversy does seem to draw a crowd though. And your science posts are less controversial than your posts on religion, theology, etc.
I too read the biology/science posts and absolutely love many of them but I am a fiction writer and library worker. I have nothing to add and wouldn’t think to criticize or argue as I obviously I have no expertise in those fields. I also love the religion posts but I was a theology student former evang. christian so I do feel capable of commenting there. Don’t read many of the cat posts although some are quite funny.
Nothing that many others haven’t already posted, but another data point nevertheless. I really appreciate both the biology/evolution posts, and the religion/atheism posts, as escaping religion and learning biology and evolution are, for me at least, two sides of the same coin. Also I greatly enjoy seeing a top-notch, widely-educated mind hold forth; Stephen Jay Gould was the ne plus ultra, but you, Dr. Coyne, as well as Richard Dawkins, Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, and Sam Harris are those whom I read most frequently. Thank you.
i estimate that i read 90% of the posts on the site, and frequently send links to friends. i’m fascinated by nearly all science, and a large proportion of the people i most admire are scientists. you run a great site, and i look at it daily.
The science posts take longer for you write, but also for us to digest and respond. Sometimes the topic has gone into the archives before I’ve figured out exactly what I want to say.
The speciation discussion a few months back went away much too quickly. Two days or so is the end of the discussion around here. Usually even 24 hours and things are dying. Topics that don’t require pondering on this end will draw more comments.
Maybe if you gave us a heads-up a couple of days in advance of a pending science post we could at least get our brains warmed up.
Read ’em all – every day pretty much. I am a geologist but almost went the biology route in university. I work geology but I read biology – and the atheism posts are great. I am still trying to come up with a winning argument concerning free will!
I try to read the biology posts, or at least get the gist of them, but while they may take you longer to write, they also take longer for us to digest. And I simply don’t always have that time.
As a biology graduate student, I enjoy all of your posts but pay special attention to your commentary on biology and genetic manuscripts. My wife loves all of your feline posts and I like her exposure to anti-theism when she searches your website for the kittehs.
Your working theory is true in my case. I love reading the biology posts, I just have no idea what I could ever add to them.
Your observation is no doubt correct.As you are probably aware your posts are widely read by foreigners and the problem is that language of sciece is much more dificult to understand. Thats why comments are less common compared to stres on religion, secularism etc. But be sure, we read them all as long as we can understand them well.
I do greatly enjoy the biology posts even though it is rare that I would comment. On either topic. But really, I do tend to focus on lengthy posts if it immediately strikes an interest or is related to my current course material. Last semester this was biology, but now it’s really more focused on human sexuality and economics.
I do check, like many others, this site daily and am grateful for your work, including of course, the biology posts.
you’re 100% right, professor coyne.
i’m one of the lurkers who reads all of your posts, but being a literature student, i don’t feel i’d have something interesting to contribute the biology posts. but i like them, i’m still learning a lot.
but i commented on posts about religion, because the topic concerns almost everybody in one way or another.
so keep on writing about what you like, i’m going to read it all!
I really like the biology posts, though I never have a reason to comment on them. There’s not really one can say other than “how interesting”, so what would be the point on doing that post after post?
The interactivity is bound to be on contentious topics where people feel like their opinion might count for something.
I came for the Biology and stayed for the atheism. Keep it up.
Thing is I have a creak 30 year old BSc in Genetics whereas you’re a prof or something swanky, so I don’t always have much to add in the way of comments
I’m another reader that thoroughly enjoys the biology posts. A good proportion is beyond my ken, but I read everything that is posted on this website. I came for the religion, but stayed for the science. And the cats, of course. You can never have too many cats.
I skip every cat post, not because I don’t like cats but because that’s not what I’m here for.
The science/religion topics I find interesting from time to time although as a whole it’s a rather depressing situation.
Love the biology posts, to see progress in science and knowledge and also the people behind it who achieve this. Those are the topics I find most pleasurable to read about.
Given the number of comments on this topic, it seems that the subject of “meta” may be in the top three 🙂
Plz, moar science.
My reading is like your writing. I rapidly scan the religion/atheism posts – because I know roughly what to expect – and I comment because I have made the journey from religious fanatic to rational atheist. But I study the biology post in depth and I cannot comment because there is essentially nothing that I can add.
Keep on keeping on Jerry.
If it wasn’t for the science I wouldn’t frequent this site, so please do concentrate on it!
Science demands rationality and evidence, that obviously leads to a critique of religion, but science is what comes first.
The biological sciences are so awesomely multidimensional that they challenge science far more than physics, astronomy or what ever. It is truly fascinating reading and learning about advances in this.
Thanks for your efforts publicizing scientists’ efforts. We need more of it!
To be honest I find the scientific posts more interesting and tend to skip over the cat stuff. I’m a lurker and don’t usually comment (this is the first time I’ve commented on this blog!), but that doesn’t mean I’m not reading/enjoying.
I remember how completely enthralled I was when I first learned about the Lenski E. Coli experiment. It made me wish I had gone into the biological area instead of physical science. Alas, while I am still relatively young, a career change just isn’t possible because I don’t have the financial resources available. And thus it brings me great pleasure to learn more about the happenings in the field of biology.
I’m more lurker than commenter, but I read ’em all, Jerry. Bachelor’s in biology a long time ago, but I like to keep up as much as possible.
I read every post on this site, and the only ones I skim through are the cat posts.
Please keep up the excellent work. Your biology and evolution posts are my favorite, by far.
It’s the art-stuff that makes my eyes glaze over.
I come from a family containing several biologists as well as folks (including one or two of the aforementioned) with a diversity of religious beliefs, even ordained clergy! For me, the biology posts are the most interesting — You even posted one I suggested – Thanks! — and they are often so well presented, I don’t feel the need to add anything. As an atheist, I am not among the family members with religious belief, but I do have some interest in knowing the “enemy” (unwitting faith), and have learned much from the atheist posts and comments about how to discuss this.
I have to admit, though, I don’t get the free will issue at all.
I came here initially due to science articles and continue to find them excellent, so please keep them coming.
My favorite posts have been ones where you engage philosophical issues, especially free will. I’m a philosophy student and I consistently find myself agreeing with you more than I do with the “sophisticated” philosophical talk. I won’t get tired of posts on free will.
Keep the biology coming, and may ceiling cat purr in your name.
Love the blog, but I only read the science posts (although I do appreciate the food pictures!)
Jerry, not only do I devour your science posts, especially the biology ones; I also wish there were more of them.
Lots more!
Not only does it take you “about five times longer to write a biology post”, it presumably takes us, unless we happen to be specialists, ten times as long to jot down anything worthwhile. Opining about religion and politics is so much easier! So it may be that the prodigious cadence of your own output is self-defeating: a piece on Bart Ehrman will of necessity generate a much faster response rate than a piece on Yutyrannus huali.
I started out in biochemistry and ended up as an archaeologist and a statistician. On the rare occasions when my modest professional skills could really contribute something to the debate, it takes me, typically, at least half a day to get the references, check the data, do the calcs and compose 30-40 lines of intelligible prose. By which time you have posted two New! and Improved! pieces on hot subjects, and the interest on the slightly more technical one drops to the asymptote (and with it, my motivation).
Truly, the Better chasing the Good.
I love the biology – it was what brought me to these august pages!
PS It also takes about five times as long to digest a science entry – well, slightly longer than a social commentary entry! Don’t stop – they are good stuff, & good for you & the cause of communicating science to a popular audience.
Hell Yes! I am a science groupy. I am specially interested in evolutionary biology. I enjoy taking my limited knowledge and try to unravel the mystery of such things as population genetics, phylogenetics, speciation and ecology. The last two books I have read are from John Maynard Smith & E. O. Wilson. I wouldn’t mind reading a new book from you sometime soon –a biology book.
You are right in saying the we will express our anger about an idiot who has bazar beliefs and an open hostility to science but we are not about to tell you about the fine points of speciation.
Remember we know that the name of your site is ‘Why Evolution is True’ not ‘Faith is False.’
I’m here for the science, yo.
And in the same way it’s easier to write a religion post, it’s easier to comment on a religion post.
I read and enjoy both kinds. Like #155 said, it’s easier to comment on a religion post, but the posts that stand out in my memory are mostly science ones.
If I’m not mistaken, a little while ago you posted the stats for the top linked-to posts, and the list was topped by science posts.
Thanks for writing them, and please keep it up!
I could with lots less rabid atheism, and with lots more science.
Let me try that again … I’d like to more (quality) science posting, less (quantity) atheism posting.
Add my vote to readers who love biology posts, and I thoroughly enjoy the nice mix of interests represented on this site. As a college biology instructor, I’m always looking for new findings to keep my lecture material interesting and up to date. As I can’t possibly keep up with all the primary literature, I rely upon news sites, science blogs, and sites like WEIT to stay informed. My reading habits are such that I tend to lurk and not leave comments, and on the few occasions where I think I have something useful to add to the conversation, I invariably find that some other astute reader has already made the same point.
I am really only interested in the science. I sometimes look at the other posts, but I love the science posts. I usually end up using them in class, along with your book, so in my opinion, you can skip the rest of the posts and only post about science.
Please don’t stop posting on biology topics!!
I enjoy all the posts, especially the biology and evolution posts.
You can easily leave the rabid atheism to good ol’ P-zed over at Pharyngula. He’s often over the top on the subject, but somebody has to be that way. By doing nothing more than telling us all about new evidence for evolution, you’ll be doing quite enough.
Stick to biology, with a sprinkling of kittehs and reports on what and where you ate well. You can leave out cowboy boots: I’ve written to President Obama and asked him to introduce you to his tailor next time he’s in Chicago. Be prepared for sartorial upheaval.
Now, while I have everyone by their mental balls and their hearts and minds are quickly following, let me draw everyone’s attention to a very funny, very informative book on biology: Olivia Judson’s “Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation”, which has the subtitle “The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex”.
This was a chance purchase in a used book place (one of those ones with many rooms, many shelves, many books even on the floor), and the book is a marvel, well worth reading by anyone interested in evolution.
I don’t usually pay much attention to the Biology posts simply because by that time I’ve read the same post on Not Exactly Rocket Science, Wired, BBC, i09 and Science Daily. But for goodness sake, don’t stop posting about them. I hear you though, people on my blog love political and controversial posts. Then I spend at least an hour doing my homework for a chemistry or civet post and it goes over like a lead balloon. But it’s your blog, you should write whatever you want.
Right in one, Jerry. I read all the biology posts, I can’t comment on them, being now almost twenty-five years from my last bio course. On the other hand, I read about religion regularly, and am familiar with the antic and arcane behaviour of cats. The only pieces I ignore are the ones on free will, about which I have no opinion, beyond since I seem to have free will, I will assume I do, for now.
I do not overlook the biology posts, Jerry. I just rarely comment on them because I don’t like leaving vacuous comments like ‘cool’ or ‘neato’. I am not a biologist, and I am well-practiced in my professional life to constrain my contributions to science and mathematics to my field of expertise, and to listen attentively and carefully to what someone with expertise in another field says when s/he speaks on that field qua expert in that field. To that end, when you say something I don’t understand, I ask other biologists I know on the internet or in ‘real’ life to explain to me, or to direct me to a book that’s written for an educated audience who are not learned in that field.
I’d hope creationists (well, people in general I suppose) would adopt my example as good practice: in the absence of knowledge, the uninitiated should remain quiet and listen to the educated, speaking up only to say thanks and to ask questions.
This is an immensely helpful response, and will be presented to creationists saying stupid things in future discussions. Thank you!
I read, enjoy, and learn from your biology posts, but as you said, I’ve got little to add in that area.
Dr. Coyne, Jerry I’ve been reading your articles for four plus years. Your science articles have been/are educational and informative. As an atheist I enjoy your posts on religion, food, music and travel. Your website is part of my continuing education.
I rarely comment on articles. Usually I’m too late, lack expertise or have nothing to add. Thank you for your continuing efforts in communicating your loves in your articles.
Yes please more biology posts! I’ve been looking for evolution blogs lately and I happily found yours, but after (only) seven days of reading I was starting to wonder if it was really a blog about biology or more about religion.
So I take advantage of this post to ask you if you know other good blogs that deal with evolution stuff?
(I’ll read the 220 comments above too in case you’ve already answered that)
Thanks.
Yeah, Jerry, I ain’t no scientist; but I watch and attempt to learn. Keep up the science stuff, it’s enlightening; remember, Hitchens was no natural philosopher, but he lapped up enough of the cream to savour a good anti-religious rhetorical diatribe. That’s what we scientific illiterates come here for. Why would we not want to be educated?
This is precisely why I read many of the biology posts but do not comment on them. I once hoped to become a physicist but flunked calculus, and ended up taking my degrees in linguistics. While I have an avid interest in most of the physical sciences and find the biology posts interesting, I will confirm your working theory, at least in my case, by admitting that, as a nonspecialist, I seldom feel that I have much to contribute to the conversations on those posts.
As a former biology researcher I enjoy your science blogs as a chance to keep a toe in the field, although I now have a different career. I also love your cat (and other animal) posts as a bit of light relief or illustration of interesting behaviour. Personally I am less interested in the atheism/theism debate, but do occasionally read your blogs on that topic.
I very rarely comment on your posts as, like some of your other readers have said, I don’t usually feel I have much to add.
Oh and I also like to read your food/travel posts to learn a bit more about American/other culture 🙂
So, thanks for putting your time into the science and other blogs and Happy Easter!