L'ancêtre des baleines

J'ai blogué il y a quatre ans en anglais sur le Mesonyx, l'ancêtre des cétacés. Quand j'ai vu il y a environ trente ans cette reproduction au Musée de l'histoire naturelle, j'avais été profondément impressionné. Un mammifère pas marin qui est l'arrière grand-père des baleines et des dauphins, ça m'a donné une idée de ce que signifiait l'évolution des espèces. Rien que de revoir cette photo, j'en suis encore tout émerveillé.

The skeleton of a Smilodon

I am writing another post about a feline, but this one is sadly extinct. This (very bad) picture was taken at the Natural History Museum. It is of course the skeleton of a smilodon, the most famous saber-toothed cat. One of the museum's big attractions, it seems. The look is quite striking and even with only a skeleton the Smilodon is terrifying. Actually, he may look even scarier with only his skeleton on. You see his carnivorous teeth better and you could think he could jump, break through the glass and tear you apart with his fangs. I love all sorts of cats, big and small, and I love the predatory part of their nature (as I mentioned here). And you cannot have a more perfect predator than a Smilodon. Sadly, in the long road through life on Earth that is evolution, this big fella got lost. Which reminds me that however impressive a feline is, in the end he remains vulnerable, and might end up like this, a skeleton in a museum. So not only do I find the remains of this Smilodon impressive, I also find them tragic.

The Mesonyx

You can see on the picture on your right the Mesonyx, or rather a model of a mesonyx, which is a wolf-like mammal, of the Mesonychidae family, which are linked to... the whales and dolphins. They are their ancestors, which makes the now extinct mesonyx a distant relative of the sea creatures, a great uncle of some sort. I took this picture, of course, during my last trip to the Natural History Museum. It was a few minutes before closing time. I was really happy to find it: I had been obsessed with the mesonyx of the Natural History Museum since I was eleven, when I first saw it. I had forgotten its name, but not its look and not its affiliation with its sea dwelling grand-nephews.

The Natural History Museum

Partially in an attempt to make peace with the city of London, mostly because I love the museum itself I visited one of landmarks: the Natural History Museum. London's Natural History Museum is truly THE natural history museum, not merely A natural history museum. The first and last time I saw it I was eleven, during my very first trip to England. I had not been back there for all these years and yesterday was a rediscovery. I will post more about it in the upcoming days. I had wanted to go there in ages and more since I had missed Darwin Day. As a child, the museum gave me a crash course in the theory of evolution and in biology, among other things, that I never got at school. This museum made me discover and understand nature a bit more and our origins as a species. And it is a beautiful museum, architecturally speaking. This is why I wanted to upload first a picture of its main entrance. Walking in it is as much an experience as watching the displays. So there it is, I visited the Natural History Museum yesterday and you haven't yet you are missing something.

I missed Darwin Day

With all the flooding drama these days, I missed an important day to commemorate yesterday: Darwin Day, the birthday of Charles Darwin. Say what you will about my country of adoption, about how backwards some of its institutions are (yes I am thinking about this one), this country remains in many ways the birthplace of modernity and progress, and we owe it a lot to Darwin. He did not only revolutionize science, but the way mankind looks at itself. It is a shameful thing that some schools here and elsewhere in the Western world still teach creationism. But anyway, every time I see his face on a £10 bill, I remember why I admire England.

Les origines du Petit Chaperon Rouge

"On voit ici que de jeunes enfants, Surtout de jeunes filles Belles, bien faites, et gentilles, Font très mal d'écouter toute sorte de gens, Et que ce n'est pas chose étrange, S'il en est tant que le Loup mange.
Je dis le Loup, car tous les Loups ne sont pas de la même sorte ; Il en est d'une humeur accorte, Sans bruit, sans fiel et sans courroux, Qui privés, complaisants et doux, Suivent les jeunes Demoiselles jusque dans les maisons, jusque dans les ruelles ; Mais hélas ! qui ne sait que ces loups doucereux, De tous les loups sont les plus dangereux. "

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, Charles Perrault

Mon père m'a fait parvenir cet article de Cyberpresse, sur les origines du Petit Chaperon Rouge. Ca m'a rappelé mes études en littérature. Je n'ai jamais beaucoup fait dans la génétique, mais c'est un champ fascinant de la littérature, surtout dans le cas des contes et des légendes, alors qu'on peut, comme c'est le cas ici, appliquer l'évolutionisme à un phénomène non biologique. On fait cela souvent en linguistique, d'ailleurs. Le Petit Chaperon Rouge est sans doute mon conte préféré, incidemment. Enfin bref, il y a des moments ou je regrette de ne plus être universitaire.

About schools, faith and knowledge

How about a little bit of controversy for this Tuesday evening? It will change from the trivial posts, but don't worry, they will resume afterwards. I recently watched this (debate?) on the Channel 4 website, with people answering the question "Should creationism be taught in school?". Well, what to say? I was appalled that such a debate still has to be done, as the demonstration had been made more than a century ago: it should not. On the plus side, I found myself a new British hero in Stephen Law. But that in the country of Charles Darwin, where one could say modernity was born the forces of ignorance can still pull so much weight to have indeed creationism taught as a valuable htypothesis, illustrates pretty much how messed up (I was tempted to use the F word, but my mother is reading this) the educational system is here (and it doesn't even make the children know anything about religion, as I witnessed it myself).

I used to work in schools in England, I see how "secular" is pretty much a meaningless tag they stick on themselves to appear good. In so called "secular" schools, they have prayers in assembly, given by the head teacher or by a vicar of the Church of England. That they have prayers in schools, promoting faith, any faith is bad enough (to Hell with it, they are downright doing proselytism and being hypocritical about it), but teaching as facts, or even as valuable hypothesis claims that have been debunked a long time ago, using the excuse of free choice or freedom of opinion is plain wrong. It is unethical, it is obscurantist, it is immoral. One has the right to believe everything, but not to deny facts, not to willingly ignore facts and teach ignorance to children. The right to hold opinion is not the right to have your own reality. Because whatever your sacred book says, evolution is a fact, it has been verified and proven. You can believe in God all you want, it doesn't change anything about the reality of our origins as a species. It certainly destroys many claims of sacred books, but schools are here to educate, to give children knowledge, to have them exercise their critical thinking, not shut them from the world so they can feel safely safe in a make belief world.

And let's finish this by a neat little controversial statement: there are teachers who do teach creationism in those so called "secular" schools. They should be sacked. Plain and simple

Une nouvelle rassurante (un peu)

Lu dans Le Devoir, les résultats d'un sondage qui nous apprend que les tenants du créationnisme sont très peu nombreux au Québec, à 17% alors que les tenants de la théorie de l'évolution sont à 65%. Il est profondément aberrant d'apprendre qu'il y ait des membres haut placés du gouvernement qui sont créationnistes, mais au moins la peste obscurantistequi sévit aux États-Unis semble être contenue chez moi (cela dit, pas tout à fait autant que dans mon pays d'adoption). Il y a donc des raisons d'être optimiste pour la suite des choses. Et le cardinal Ouellet qui est parti. Décidément, je suisil doit faire bon vivre au Québec ces temps-ci.

Pensée sur les dinosaures à plumes

Petite nouvelle qui a attiré mon attention récemment: ils ont découvert un dinosaure avec des plumes en Chine. Les créationnistes doivent manger leurs bas, une fois de plus. C'est ce que je me dis à chaque fois qu'on fait une découverte du genre. Je ne suis pas scientifique, mais j'ai une fascination d'amateur pour la biologie. Ce qui me fait penser qu'il faut que je fasse mon pèlerinage au Musée de l'histoire naturelle pour y célébrer l'anniversaire de la naissance de la théorie de l'évolution de Darwin. La découverte du dinosaure à plumes tombe à point nommé.

L'anniversaire de la modernité

C'est l'anniversaire de Charles Darwin aujourd'hui. Je me devais de le souligner aujourd'hui, non seulement en anglais, mais en français aussi. C'est un autre des grands esprits anglais qui me font aimer ce pays malgré tout ce que je peux en dire parfois. Il représente ce qu'il y a de plus admirable chez ce peuple: l'intelligence, le pragmatisme, la faculté d'observation. Un homme qui a révolutionné la pensée humaine et l'a fait entrer dans la modernité. Hélas, l'obscurantisme nous menace encore aujourd'hui comme il y a 200 ans. Je ne m'étonne pas qu'il y ait des obscurantistes dans la Bible Belt américaine, mais ça me désole toujours d'en voir ici en Angleterre. Cela dit, on ne peut pas faire de leçons aux Anglais, les Québécois ayant aussi leur lot d'obscurantistes. Vous pourrez trouver une brillante chronique de Foglia sur Darwin et le fléau du créationisme ici, un dossier sur Darwin dans cyberpresse là.

In Ottawa, really?

For the first time in a long time (maybe since the beginning of my conscious life?), I envy something from our neighbours in Ontario, and I might find the Canadian capital appealing. I never liked Ottawa, I find the place boring, bland, the beige, saccharine version of a British town. But the atheist bus will soon show up there, it seems. That means before Montreal? That's unfair, but logical. After all, the current Canadian government is now composed by many God fearing idiots, so that will send the right message to the people of the capital. I envy my brother.

Oh, and here the Christians decided to ape the original campaign and launch a counter-advert, using a barely modified slogan. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. A little debate about both position, between Ariane Sherine and David Lharlam. He seems a nice enough guy, but she makes her point much better, I think (then again, I am a fan of hers). That said, I would have asked him if he thought the only essential way to go to Heaven was not to be moral in actions, but to be God's sycophant. Here is another interesting view on the recent debate, and the central role of British intellectuals in it. And, talking about great British intellectuals, it is Darwin's birthday today.