Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Today we have our annual selection of tiger beetle photos from reader Mike McDowell, whose notes and IDs are indented.
Of a possible 16, this collection represents 8 of Wisconsin’s tiger beetles, mostly found in the southern part of the state. Others not included, like Boreal Long-lipped and Cow Path Tiger Beetle, require a trip further north, and the Splendid Tiger Beetle is a species easier to find in September. Anyway, I was super thrilled to find Ghost Tiger Beetles at a sandlot just 20 minutes away from my house (near Madison), which in past years meant a trip to central Wisconsin. All photographs were taken with a mirrorless Nikon, a 60mm Tamron macro lens, and a ton of patience crawling around on the sand.
Starting tomorrow, Professor Ceiling Cat (Emeritus) is having moar visitors, and posting will be thin until Wednesday of next week. Grania will be on Hili Duty (thanks!), and posting will be light. I do my best.
And it’s the day in 1687 when Isaac Newton published his seminal work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. He was 45. On this day in 1841, Thomas Cook conducted the first package excursion: sadly, it was from Leicester to Loughborough. On July 5, 1915, the Liberty Bell—although it did not ring on July 4, 1776, as often assumed—traveled by train to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. It was the last time the bell left Philadelphia.
On this day in 1937, the luncheon meat Spam, produced by Hormel, entered the market. And of course that gives me an excuse to post this skit:
On July 5, 1946, the first bikini went on sale in France, advertised as the world’s “smallest bathing suit”. After striving to find a model willing to be photographed in it, designer Louis Rénard got an exotic dancer, one Micheline Bernardini, to don one. Here is that first bikini with photo and caption from Wikipedia:
The new ‘Bikini’ swimming costume (in a newsprint-patterned fabric), which caused a sensation at a beauty contest at the Molitor swimming pool in Paris. Designer Louis Reard was unable to find a ‘respectable’ model for his costume and the job of displaying it went to 19-year-old Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris. She is holding a small box into which the entire costume can be packed. Celebrated as the first bikini, Luard’s design came a few months after a similar two-piece design was produced by French designer Jacques Heim. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
But there were earlier and even skimpier bikinis: here’s one depicted in a mosaic from Sicily, dated about 300 AD:
On this day in 1954, Elvis recorded his very first single at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. Here it is: “That’s all right.”
On July 5, 1975, Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win the singles title at Wimbledon. Exactly 21 years later, Dolly the Sheep became the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.
Notables born on this day include David Farragut (1801), Robert FitzRoy (1805, captain of HMS Beagle), P. T. Barnum (1810), Cecil Rhodes (1853), John Howard Northrop (1891), Ernst Mayr (1904, a famous evolutionary biologist who worked on speciation; you can read two of my pieces on him: an obituary in Sciencehere, and a summary of his work in Evolutionhere), Robbie Robertson (1943; 75 today), and Huey Lewis (1950). Few notables died on July 5; they include Walter Gropius (1969), Howard Nemerov (1991), and Ted Williams (2002).
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili emits some wisdom during a temporary heat wave. I’m pleased to report that late rains saved the cherry crop, so there will be plenty of pies for me during my next visit.
Hili: It’s a golden rule.
A: What rule is that?
Hili: When there is a heat wave it’s cooler in the shade.
In Polish:
Hili: Złota reguła.
Ja: Jaka?
Hili: Kiedy jest upał w cieniu jest chłodniej.
Matthew’s comment on this one: “It doubles up as a metaphor for the appearance of terrestrial tetrapods”:
Darwin called marine iguanas “imps of darkness" and “disgusting, clumsy lizards,” but I loved them! Check out this prehistoric looking, sea foraging beastie! pic.twitter.com/1EFgOfJmgs
I saw a stuffed specimen of this bird at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. Its bill is a stunning feature.
Meet the unrivaled Sword-Billed Hummingbird. One of the most fascinating and elusive birds I've ever seen in the wild, and the only one in the world with a bill length that is longer than its body. From the cloud forests of Ecuador last week. pic.twitter.com/1jwUofBNPy
And tweets from Grania. First, Buddy the Miracle Cat:
On a happier note: fifteen years ago today I saved the life of Buddy the Miracle Cat. He was just a kitten trapped in an underground pipe with no way out amid rising water. Spent almost 24 hours digging him out of the cold and the dark. Best move I ever made. pic.twitter.com/Tz9nnXFQ2X
— J. Michael Straczynski (@straczynski) July 5, 2018
This one is a clever ad. Kudos for the proper use of an apostrophe:
Reader George is kindly totting up the results of the WEIT 2018 World Cup Contest and scratching off the many who have lost. But some are still in the running! Here’s his latest report to me:
The Second Quadrennial WEIT World Cup Contest is not doing well. It will probably suffer an untimely death. There were 95 entries. After the group stage, only 25 were still alive. After the round of 16, we are down to four. By comparison, in the Inaugural WEIT World Cup contest in 2014, there were 91 entries, 42 still alive after the group stage, 39 alive after the round of 16 and eight entries competing in the final (Argentina vs Germany). The big difference was that in 2014, the favorites won. The semifinals were Germany vs Brazil and Argentina vs Netherlands. In 2018, carnage. Germany getting knocked out took out 42 entries. It has been downhill from there.
After the quarterfinals there will be zero, one or two entries still alive. The scores no longer matter – just the winner and loser.
If Brazil beat Belgium and –
1) Croatia beat Russia, contest is over
2) Russia beat Croatia – FB still alive. He/she picked Brazil 2 Russia 1.
If Belgium beat Brazil and –
1) Croatia beat Russia – deacjack still alive. He/she picked Belgium 3 Croatia 1
2) Russia beat Croatia – robkraft still alive. He picked Belgium 3 Russia 1.
If Belgium beat Brazil and England beat Sweden – Martin C. still alive. He picked Belgium 2 England 1.
As part of the continuing decline of the New York Times, we have this new op-ed by Steve Petrow, a writer from North Carolina who, the paper says, “is a regular contributor to Well” (the paper’s health column). But this is more about woo than about health. Click the link below to read the piece.
Petrow’s point is apparently twofold: curative “placebo” effects can result from the use of talismans, amulets, or comforting objects like plush rabbit toys. Further, he says, these objects can soothe one and even make one optimistic. I’m prepared to accept the second claim but not fully the first.
Petrow was apparently cured of testicular cancer when, 34 years ago, he was diagnosed and also given a “velvety rabbit with big floppy ears” named “Fairy God Bunny”. He brought the rabbit to all his appointments and, sure enough, has been cancer-free for decades. Of course, testicular cancer is one of the most curable forms of the disease, and I doubt that a fluffy bunny could have helped him with mesothelioma or pancreatic cancer. Still, to be fair, Petrow adds that conventional medicine is also responsible for his cure, but the rabbit played a substantial role:
You’d expect me to be skeptical. I’d grown up in an age of science, when facts and data reigned supreme. I’d excelled at Manhattan’s Stuyvesant High School, famous for its geek curriculum. As a three-time visitor to the nearby 1964 World’s Fair, a paean to new technology, I’d drunk DuPont’s Kool-Aid: Better living through chemistry.
When I first got sick, I read every evidence-based, peer-reviewed study I could get my hands on, so I could make the best-informed treatment decisions. My odds of survival were actually pretty decent, but I found that data wasn’t enough. As a twentysomething, I simply couldn’t accept any chance of not making it to 30. Put simply: Science could not guarantee me a 100 percent successful outcome.
Enter the bunny. I needed another tool in my tool belt to improve my chances.
And I was not alone. Stuart Vyse, a psychologist and author of “Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition,” told me that many people turn to “irrational beliefs” in times of dire need. Whenever medical science does not provide a cure, there’s going to be a “psychological gap, the need of something better,” he said. Enter superstition, magic, paranormal beliefs and religion.
“It’s not uncommon to be of two minds and to say, ‘I know this is crazy, but I’ll feel better if I do it anyway,’” Dr. Vyse said.
This bit is confusing at best. Was the effect purely psychological, making Petrow feel better, or did it help cure the cancer? Both are implied.
Five years after my diagnosis, my oncologist said I was cured. I believe science played the key role in that. But I also think the hope embodied in the bunny made a difference to my well-being, reducing anxiety and giving me more good days than bad.
Can I prove it? No. Does that mean it’s not true? No. As Dr. Kaptchuk told The New Yorker, “We need to stop pretending that it’s all about molecular biology. Serious illnesses are affected by aesthetics, by art, and by the moral questions that are negotiated by practitioners and patients.” All ways of saying, by luck or magic.
Sorry, but these things are neither luck nor magic: they are the effect of brain functions and their attendant physiological changes, on one’s feeling of well being or even on the progress of a disease. Using “luck” or “magic” implies that the numinous was involved.
Now I doubt that the plush bunny “improved his chances” (how could he tell?), but it could surely have made him feel better, as Stuart Vyse notes. But feeling more positive and having a higher rate of cure are two different things (though well being might affect disease). Petrow sort of recognizes the distinction, but the two effects are not the same, and are conflated in the article. After all, it is one thing to document the effect of amulets and other placebo objects on feelings of well being, another altogether to show that they increase cure rates. Petrow cites a physician who claims the latter (my emphasis):
Do I sound like a kook? I don’t think so, but no kook ever does.
Dr. Kaptchuk is the chief of Harvard’s program in placebo studies and the therapeutic encounter, which is focused on studying the power of the mind to influence health outcomes. In that same interview, he noted that medicine has known for centuries that some people respond to the power of suggestion — but not why or how.
During his tenure at Harvard, Dr. Kaptchuk wrote in an email, “I haven’t been twiddling my thumbs.” He sent along a list of the more than a dozen studies he’s either led or participated in that show how placebos, rituals, beliefs and talismans play a role, albeit “modest,” when compared with surgery and medication.
When you’re in a fight for your life, “modest” is something to hang on to.
I’ll leave it to the readers to check out the list of Kaptchuk’s studies to show if they’re sound and, if so, how big that “modest” effect is. I’m prepared to believe that placebo effects can also increase cure rate, as we simply don’t understand the interaction between mind and body, and some experiments I know of show they can work. For example, a 2013 article in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that “sham surgery” for a meniscus tear in the knee, in which patients were not really operated on but thought they were, had the same outcome as real knee surgery. That’s remarkable. Here’s how the sham surgery proceeded:
For the sham surgery, a standard arthroscopic partial meniscectomy was simulated. To mimic the sensations and sounds of a true arthroscopic partial meniscectomy, the surgeon asked for all instruments, manipulated the knee as if an arthroscopic partial meniscectomy was being performed, pushed a mechanized shaver (without the blade) firmly against the patella (outside the knee), and used suction. The patient was also kept in the operating room for the amount of time required to perform an actual arthroscopic partial meniscectomy.
So there’s no harm in patients using amulets or plush bunnies to supplement their therapy. What is harmful is when these items are thought to be curative as well, especially if there are no controlled trials to show it. Remember that a Templeton-funded study of intercessory prayer on the outcomes of heart surgery, which surely involves a placebo effect since patients either knew they were prayed for or might be prayed for, showed no difference between those patients and those not prayed for. In that case, prayer was useless, though harmless (actually, prayer had a slight negative effect).
The downside of the Times article is that it doesn’t point out the many failed experiments in which even placebo effects were not useful, and it implies that there is “magic”, which is not really what is going on here. If there is any psychological or even curative effect of amulets and lucky objects, it it purely natural, not “magic.” In fact, I’m not sure why the Times published this rather than a more sober and less personal analysis of what we know about placebo effects, which would have been far more interesting. And shame on them for implying that anything beyond natural phenomena were involved.
After tying 1-1 after regular time, England beat Colombia 4-3 on penalty kicks. Farewell Colombia and good-o on England, though I hate seeing matches decided by penalty kicks.
Here’s the schedule for the quarter finals. Not many people who entered our World Cup contest are still eligible to win:
It’s Wednesday, and that means Jesus and Mo Day, the strip that got this site banned in Pakistan. (I’m still fuming about that one.) Today’s strip, called “taxes,” refers to the UK, where “faith schools” are indeed supported by the taxpayer. It’s absolutely on the mark as Mo reveals the scam:
Today’s photos are a batch from Colin Franks, whose infrequent but wonderful contributions are much appreciated. (His website is here, his Instagram site here, and Facebook page here). The IDs, indented, are his; click photos to enlarge. The fourth picture from the bottom asks you to identify a species of scaup.
