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.
I suppose this is the appropriate day for a biology post relating to our new (ack!) President. In particular, reader Brigette Zacharczenko, a graduate student in Ecology and Evolution at the University of Connecticut who studies moths (and is also a powerlifter), called my attention to a new species of moth named after The Donald—as well as several species named after Obama.
The moth, Neopalpa donaldtrumpi, is described in this paper written by Varick Nazari and published in ZooKeys; you can get it free by clicking on the screenshot of the title. The species lives in the Southwest U.S. and Baja California, and could easily fly over Trump’s proposed Big Wall:
Here’s N. donaldtrumpi; the scale bar is 2 mm long:
The author explains the choice of name,
Etymology. The new species is named in honor of Donald J. Trump, to be installed as the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017. The reason for this choice of name is to bring wider public attention to the need to continue protecting fragile habitats in the US that still contain many undescribed species. The specific epithet is selected because of the resemblance of the scales on the frons (head) of the moth to Mr. Trump’s hairstyle. The name is a noun in the genitive case.
To wit:
Dare I add these statements from the description of the male genitalia?
Genitalia comparatively smaller than for N. neonata, tegumen slender and parallel sided, anterior margin laterally notched, uncus long and narrow with a round tip; gnathos a short spine with distinct V-shaped arms about same width; culcitula weakly developed.
. . . In the male genitalia, the valvae are strongly curved, the saccus has an acute tip, and the highly-developed bilobed processes of the vinculum, characteristic of N. neonata, are absent.
And of course there’s a cartoon:
According to the Torygraph, nine species have been named after Barack Obama, including this lovely basslet endemic to a nature reserve in Hawaii (click on screenshot to go to article):
Note that the Torygraph article gives a photo of the wrong species (they show Tosanoidesflavofasciatus); the fish below is T. obama:
(from EureklAert!): . Sylvia Earle gives President Barack Obama a photograph of Tosanoides obama on Midway Atoll. The photograph is from the film “Sea of Hope: America’s Underwater Treasures”, premiering on National Geographic Channel on January 15, 2017.
Tara Tanaka (flickr site here; Vimeo channel here) has provided us with two new wildlife videos; please be sure to watch them at the Vimeo sites (click on the word “vimeo” at the bottom right) and high definition (click on “HD” at the site). Her notes for each are indented.
The first video, “Biggun’,” shows a giant gator that lives near her property:
Jim called me into the living room this afternoon to see something in the scope. When I saw our big gator in the viewfinder, I took my digiscoping gear outside, out onto a small dike that extends from our yard into the swamp and shot this video.
Over the years we’ve seen bigger and bigger gators in the swamp, and I suspect we’ve been watching one gator [Alligator mississippiensis] – Biggun’, – growing up. I’m always a bit nervous when I go out in the dark to get in my blind, which I always keep right at the water’s edge. I am also worried whenever my husband goes out to work in the swamp, as he wades way out in the deeper, wilder recesses, not just near the edge. In what is extremely labor-intensive work, he uses a machete to cut up the floating mats of grass, and then pulls them into piles with a rake. The floating mat that the gator climbed up on is one of those pile. Without his work, we would have no open water, and we have an impressive amount.
Digiscoped with a GH4 + 20mm/f1.7 + Digidapter + Swarovski STX85 scope using manual focus.
This lovely slow-motion video shows a Great Egret (Ardea alba) coming in for a landing:
I was in my blind videoing a bird bathing when I heard the loud complaint of a Great Egret as a second bird chased him from his hunting spot. We have exactly one Egret that stays here each winter, but occasionally a second bird will arrive, and there is always a territorial dispute. I only caught his landing, but thought it was so graceful in slow-motion that it was worth sharing.
This video was shot with a GH4 + 300mm f2.8 + 1.4x at 1080i / 60fps using manual focus, and was slowed to 25% of its original speed.
It’s Friday, January 20, and the food holiday is both National Buttercrunch Day and National Cheese Lover’s Day. More important, it’s also Penguin Awareness Day; reader Dom informed me that the picture below, which shows all 18 species of penguins, was tweeted by the Royal Society. In my view, you should be able to name at least eight species: Start with the Emperor, King, and Galápagos (the northernmost species, which, endemic to those islands, lives on the Equator). In my view, the small Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae, named after the wife of a French explorer) is the cutest:
Adélies on the march:
And of course in the U.S. it’s Inauguration Day, described by Wikipedia like this:
Since 1937, Inauguration Day takes place on January 20 following a presidential election. The term of a president commences at noon (ET) on that day, when the Chief Justice administers the oath to the president. However, when January 20 falls on a Sunday, the Chief Justice administers the oath to the president on that day privately and then again in a public ceremony the next day, on Monday, January 21.
At noon today, then, we’ll be faced with having to say “President Trump”. But of course saying the name and title is the least part of our worries, which are predominantly, “What is this guy going to do to America?” As the time for Obama’s departure drew near, I went into denial, unable to even think about the consequences of a Trump presidency—combined with a majority Republican leadership in both houses of Congress and the certainty of a hyperconservative Supreme Court Justice to replace Antonin Scalia.
That day is now here. I cannot force myself to say that “Trump is not MY president,” for of course he is. We—and by that I mean America—elected him. But neither do I have any hope that he will mellow in office, for narcissism is one of the hardest personality disorders to cure. We are in for a rough four years—and let’s hope it’s only four years.
I bet several hundred dollars that Trump would lose to Clinton, for the prospect of Trump’s election was inconceivable, and I thought I’d take advantage of those scared liberals who, relieved at Clinton’s election, would be glad to pay up if she won.
I was wrong. The unthinkable has come to pass, and it starts today. As for those Americans who voted for Trump, I hope they are at least savvy enough to recognize the damage he will do to America. Truth be told, I am ashamed to be an American today, even though I’ve never been one to say I’m “proud to be an American”, which, after all, was just an accident. But neither am I one of those petulant luminaries who threatened to move to Canada if Trump were elected (did anybody actually do that?), for my home is here. But, for at least for the next four years, it will be a dysfunctional home.
h/t: Ivan
If you wish to watch the inauguration live (I can’t bear to), this page gives you a number of links. The formal “festivities” begin at 9:30 a.m. EST, but coverage can begin as early as 6 a.m.
As I’m dispirited, I’ll just give one event that happened on this day. That was in 1937, after the 20th Amendment to the Constitution moved the beginning of the Presidential term from March 4 to January 20. So, on January 20, 1937, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Nance Garner were sworn in for their second terms as U.S. President and U.S. Vice President—the first inauguration to take place on January 20. Roosevelt, elected four times, served as President for 12 years before dying in office.
A notable person born on this day was Buzz Aldrin (1930), one of the first two humans to walk on the Moon. And Audrey Hepburn died on this day in 1993.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the Hili dialogue demanded an explanation, which Malgorzata provided:
Lazy Hili is lying on the sofa without a worry in the world. Now, the work is waiting, Andrzej is impatient to get next article for Listy ready and the Editor [Hili] does nothing. And wants to continue doing nothing.
A: We have to get our act together.
Hili: Maybe a bit later.
In Polish:
Ja: Musimy się zmobilizować!
Hili: Może troszkę później.
From the Arctic wastes of Winnipeg, reader Taskin sends a Gus video:
Gus has a certain suspicion of the basement of our house. Instead of following me down, he walks down the narrow ledge that runs along the stairwell and peers into the basement while waiting for me. All the other cats I’ve had have been able to turn around on the ledge, Gus however does not. He demonstrates how awkward cats are when they go in reverse.
I have no use for Gwyneth Paltrow, her hauteur, and the ridiculously overpriced merchandise at her “goop” store, but I couldn’t resist highlighting one item, a jade “yoni [vagina] egg” that, claims goop, has all kinds of miracle properties. And it’s only $68! Sadly, you can’t get one as they’re all sold out. Here’s what, according to the ad below, this thing can do
harnesses the power of energy work, crystal healing, and a Kegel-like physical practice
The only thing I can see that might be useful is increasing muscle tone, but then again I don’t have a vagina. The rest is just pure scam, as, I’ve learned, so much of goop is. Gwyneth Paltrow is the female equivalent of Deepak Chopra, but with clothes and purses. Anybody who spends $68 bucks on this thing (and given that it’s sold out, many must have) deserves what they get.
If you want to read Shiva Rose’s unintentionally humorous paean to this thing, go to the goop article, “Better sex: Jade eggs for your yoni.” which includes this exchange (my emphasis)
Question:
There are specifications about where the egg needs to be from, how it’s been treated—can you explain a bit about that?
Answer:
The most important thing, just like when you’re buying a crystal, is to be careful where you get it from. Nephrite is a specific type of jade—it’s the most powerful, the most clearing, the traditional one used by women in ancient China, and the best to start with. It comes from Canada or sometimes Australia, and it’s a darker jade, deep green, almost black. The egg will get lighter in color, with use; if you feel like it’s been drained of energy, recharge it in the full moon just the way you would a crystal.
Nephrite jade is associated with cleansing, health, abundance, beauty, longevity, and healing for the heart. Really insist on nephrite jade—there are a lot of imposters and weird stuff on the internet that isn’t even actually jade.
The other egg people will use is rose quartz, which is more gentle, and brings in more love energy. But the jade is the most powerfully cleansing; go with the jade first, always. Then when you’re more practiced, you can use rose quartz to bring in love and heal wounds, in a gentler way.
At the end of Shiva Rose’s piece is this weaselly disclaimer:
The views expressed in this article intend to highlight alternative studies and induce conversation. They are the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of goop, and are for informational purposes only, even if and to the extent that this article features the advice of physicians and medical practitioners. This article is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and should never be relied upon for specific medical advice.
If the views don’t represent the views of goop, why are they selling the egg with all those wacky claims?
From The Hill we hear of the Trump administration’s plan for slashing government spending (my emphasis):
Staffers for the Trump transition team have been meeting with career staff at the White House ahead of Friday’s presidential inauguration to outline their plans for shrinking the federal bureaucracy, The Hill has learned.The changes they propose are dramatic.
The departments of Commerce and Energy would see major reductions in funding, with programs under their jurisdiction either being eliminated or transferred to other agencies. The departments of Transportation, Justice and State would see significant cuts and program eliminations.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be privatized, while the National Endowment for the Arts [NEA} and National Endowment for the Humanities [NEH] would be eliminated entirely.
Overall, the blueprint being used by Trump’s team would reduce federal spending by $10.5 trillion over 10 years.
This is all hard to bear, but I’m especially distressed to hear of the elimination of the NEA and NEH. What will replace government funding: corporations who slap their name all over the arts, and discourage inventiveness? Have a look at the NEA’s 2015 annual report, or the NEH impact report, to see the good things these organizations do. As for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, privatizing it will simply fill a once-engrossing venue with annoying ads—if the CPB survives at all.
If you want to argue that the arts and humanities are superfluities in a time of financial constraint, consider that they, along with much of science, deeply enrich our culture, or, as someone said, “make our country worth defending.”
What’s next: slashing of science? For the fact is that much of science has no practical value, but forms an intellectual pursuit designed to satisfy our curiosity about nature. True, we can’t predict what practical benefits can come from funding weird-sounding projects, and that has often served as a justification for such funding, but really, much of basic research is there not to make us richer or more technologically advanced: it’s to enrich our brains.
I love this quote, also from Mencken (his Chrestomathy) about the scientist:
“The value the world sets upon motives is often grossly unjust and inaccurate. Consider, for example, two of them: mere insatiable curiosity and the desire to do good. The latter is put high above the former, and yet it is the former that moves one of the most useful men the human race has yet produced: the scientific investigator. What actually urges him on is not some brummagem idea of Service, but a boundless, almost pathological thirst to penetrate the unknown, to uncover the secret, to find out what has not been found out before. His prototype is not the liberator releasing slaves, the good Samaritan lifting up the fallen, but a dog sniffing tremendously at an infinite series of rat-holes.”
And who is being vetted as Trump’s science adviser? Don’t ask!
Physicist Lawrence Krauss made quite a stir with his previous book, A Universe From Nothing. He took a lot of flak for defining “nothing” as a quantum vacuum, which of course could indeed produce a universe through the appearance of particles that pop into and out of existence, yielding the Big Bang. Theologians and philosophers, affronted, quibbled about the definition of “nothing” (see this review by David Albert, which is mean-spirited but makes a point.) But for a refutation of the “something from nothing” issue, see Michael Shermer’s latest column in Scientific American: “Why humans prefer to be the center of the universe,” where, inspired by Krauss’s new book (below) and others, Michael compiles a list of six responses, including this:
Nothing is nonsensical. It is impossible to conceptualize nothing—not only no space, time, matter, energy, light, darkness or conscious beings to perceive the nothingness but not even nothingness. In this sense, the question is literally inconceivable.
and this telling argument:
Nothing would include God’s nonexistence. In Leslie and Kuhn’s taxonomy of “nothings,” they list what categories of things might be included in “something” that would be negated by “nothing”: physical, mental, platonic, spiritual and God. . . .
But to the issue at hand: Krauss has a new book, The Greatest Story Ever Told. . . So Far: Why Are We Here?, coming out on March 21. The title is of course an antitheistic riff on the 1965 movie “The Greatest Story Ever Told”, a biography of Jesus. This book, however, appears to deal mostly with the history of quantum mechanics and the Standard Model, so it may be far less controversial. Given the “why are we here?” bit in the title, though, I suspect Krauss won’t refrain from showing the superfluity of God in physics. Here’s the summary from Amazon:
In the beginning there was light but more than this, there was gravity. After that, all hell broke loose…This is how the story of the greatest intellectual adventure in history should be introduced – how humanity reached its current understanding of the universe, one that is far removed from the realm of everyday experience. Krauss connects the world we know with the invisible world all around us, which is removed from intuition and direct sensation. He explains our current understanding of nature and the struggle to construct the greatest theoretical edifice ever assembled, the Standard Model of Particle Physics — and then to understand its implications for our existence. Writing in the critically acclaimed style of A Universe from Nothing, Krauss celebrates the beauty and wonders of the natural world and details our place within it and how this shapes our understanding of it. Krauss makes this story accessible through profiles of the scientists responsible for these advances, and clear explanations of their discoveries. Krauss takes us on a tour of science and the brilliant personalities who shaped it, often against political and religious indoctrination, enduring persecution and ostracism. Krauss creates a captivating blend of research and narrative to invite us into the lives and minds of these figures, creating a landmark work of scientific history.
The Amazon page includes a lot of short blurbs, including Eric Idle’s endorsement: “I loved the fight scenes and the sex scenes were excellent”. Here’s Shermer’s own blurb:
“In every debate I’ve done with theologians and religious believers their knock-out final argument always comes in the form of two questions: Why is there something rather than nothing? and Why are we here? The presumption is that if science provides no answers then there must be a God. But God or no, we still want answers. In A Universe From Nothing Lawrence Krauss, one of the biggest thinkers of our time, addressed the first question with verve, and in The Greatest Story Ever Told he tackles the second with elegance. Both volumes should be placed in hotel rooms across America, in the drawer next to the Gideon Bible.” — Michael Shermer
I will of course be reading this book (Lawrence: if you’re reading this, send me a free copy!), and, while I’m at it, would like to recommend another good book on quantum mechanics, which is much tougher going but immensely rewarding. It’s this one (click on screenshot to go to Amazon page), which summarizes the history of QM in 40 episodic chapters.
UPDATE: I should have done my usual checking, as the quote appears inaccurate, with the word “narcissistic” added. The correct quote is given in the comments, which is still pretty good, though we’ve had people close to downright morons in the Oval Office before.
As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
*******
The prescient and always entertaining H. L. Mencken, writing nearly a hundred years ago:
