Ross et al.

Pharyngula: Evolution of the X chromosome

For an outstanding paper, our PhaWRONGulan thanks goes to:

Ross and Grafham, Coffey, Scherer, Muzny, Platzer, Bird, McLay,
and Burrows, Frankish, Howell, Lovell, Ashurst, Howe and Hodgson A,
and Wen and Scott and Ramser, Deadman, Havlak, Andrews, Hurles and Cree,
and Fulton, Sudbrak, Carter, Jones, and Whittaker, and Gunaratne,
Ansari-Lari, Metzker, Richards, Steffen, Barrett, Errington,
Aradhya, Wheeler, Worley, Ainscough, Barker, Barlow, Hamilton,
Bagguley, Ashwell, Babbage, Beasleys (H and O), and Banerjee;
These folk and more are learned in the letters A, G, C and T.

These folk and more are learned in the letters A, G, C and T.

Continuing with Bethel, Blechschmidt, Gilbert, Glockner, Ambrose K,
Ballabio, and Brady, Burford, Burgess, Ramsey, Ridler, Wray,
Bray-Allen, Burrill, Burton, Bonnin, Matthews, Cobley, Mistry, Clee;
They've helped us see a million years of evolution's history.

Bray-Allen, Burrill, Burton, Bonnin, Matthews, Cobley, Mistry, Clee;
They've helped us see a million years of evolution's history.

There's more that helped, there's Bridgeman, Bruford, Buhay, Steward, Skuce, and Shen,
Clerc-Blankenburg, Chinault, and Carder, Carrel, Chako, Storey, Sodergren,
Ciccodicola, Clifford, Chapman, Chavez, Conquer, Sehra, Swann,
Delgado, and Deshazo, Corby, Connor, Clark, and Clarke, and Khan,
Hernandez, Hennig, Hinzmann, Davies, Davis J, and Davis C,
And Laird, and Lloyd (DM and C), and Williams L, and Williams G,
Nyakatura, Nguyen, Nordsiek, Gribble, Griffiths, Gregory,
All worked to bring us stories of genetic archaeology.

All worked to bring us stories of genetic archaeology.

Let's not forget Trevanion, Tromans, Willard, Wilson, Gill, and Gu,
And Sheridan, and Sotheran, Lozado, Lewis, Lovell, Lu,
Zorilla, Zoghbi, Schueler, Shownkeen, Searle, Shaw-Smith, and Smith, and Zhou,
With Sulston, Scott, and Schlessinger, and Langford, Loveland, Lawlor, Liu,
Hume, Heitmann, Howden, Huckle, Hoffs, and Wilming, Willey, Williamson,
(There's two of them, an A and H), plus Whitehead, Whiteley, Wilkinson,
O'dell, de Jong, and Dunn, and Clegg, the Hunts (AR, PJ, SE);
Smart people who appreciate this life's delightful mystery.

Smart people who appreciate this life's delightful mystery.

There's Emery-Cohen, Evans, Faulkner, Francis, Draper, David R,
Kioschis, Klages, Kelly, Kershaw, Maheshwari, Milne, and Ma,
Steingruber, Palmer, Pandian, and Swarbreck, Pearce, and Dhami P,
All add to X's stable tale (compared with Y's degen'racy).

Steingruber, Palmer, Pandian, and Swarbreck, Pearce, and Dhami P,
All add to X's stable tale (compared with Y's degen'racy).

The list goes on with Waterston, and Dugan-Rocha, Dunham, Dinh,
Loulseged, Ellwood, Fraser, Jones, and Timms, and Thorpe, and West, and Lyne,
And Durbin, Hubbard, Rogers, Bentley, Reinhardt, Poustka, Yen, and Ding,
Patel, and Coulson, Frankland, Vaudin, Taudien, and Mullikin,
Beck, Beck, and Buck, and Beare, the Browns (AJ, MJ), and Wei, and Wang,
McDowall, Dodsworth, d'Urso, Durbin, Dutta, Burch, and Teague, and Zhang,
McMurray, Meidl, Miner, Morgan, Gwilliam, and Galgoczy P,
Have seen some hundred million years of edits in the gene debris.

Have seen some hundred million years of edits in the gene debris.

McLaren, Morris, Parker, Parrish, Pearson, Tracey, Taylor T,
Woodmansey, Rosenthal, and Cole, and Nelson, Weinstock, Johnson D;
They tell us how we regulate for male and female parity
And why our X codes proteins that have manly specificity.

They tell us how we regulate for male and female parity
And why our X codes proteins that have manly specificity.

No, please don't stop; we're nearly done. There's just a few more names to go,
Like Waldron, Warren, Warry, Meindl, Minx, and Eades, and Bates, and Ho,
Then Kosiura, Keenan, Knights, and Meitinger, and Pasternak,
And Isherwood, and Grocock, Jacob, Joseph, Thomas, and Lehrach,
Verduzco, Villasana, Muller, Pelan, Perez, Kovar-Smith,
And Okwuonu (though it's not a name that I'm familiar with)
As well as Leversha, and Bye, and Wall, and Heath, and Hillier,
This "et al." better finish soon before it gets much sillier.

So, (take a deep breath)

We're thanking Porter, Reichwald, Tabor, Hart and Rhodes, and Rice, and Hawes,
Our gratitude extends to all who worked upon this noble cause,
Including all the E and G and R and Y and Z - Chens
Who gave us this X-tended tale of chromosomal sequ-ence.

Floating and Sliming and Breeding Everywhere

Pharyngula: Subversion

These blogrolls? I won't be conceding
that they're only for sliming and breeding.
Let your readers beware;
in my metaphor they're
an excretion of what you've been reading.

PhaWRONGulans seek not ubiquity
with our tribute so framed in obliquity.
We court quality links
to our quirks and our kinks
(and occasional bursts of iniquity).

Pharyngula: The Musical (Contents)

Act One

• Scene One: A deserted Lab at the University
  
• Scene Two: The Classroom
  
• Scene Three: A Most Well-Appointed Church
  
• Scene Four: Enter His Holiness
  

Act Two

• Scene One: Another dilapidated Lab at the University
  
• Scene Two: The Steps of the Library
  
• Scene Three: The Same Church as Before
  
• Scene Four: The Courtroom
  
• Scene Five: More Courtroom

Act Three

• Scene One: A Dark Dungeon
• Scene Two: The Same Prison
• Scene Three: The Towering Scaffold
• Scene Four: The Decision

Would You Prefer Roast Turkey?

Pharyngula: Perfection (Billmon skewers Horowitz)

Okay sir, that's one beef with dill, served with Mao on wry.

Nursery Rhymes for the Stargazer

Pharyngula: Berlinski babbles some more

Twinkle twinkle little fact!
Where were you when clues I lacked?
In the reference that I cite,
Making farce of all I write.
Twinkle twinkle little fact!
Where were you when clues I lacked?


Thought lite, thought trite,
First thought I think tonight,
Wish it true, hold it tight;
Self delusion is my right.

That's the story of...

Pharyngula: It was twenty-five years ago today…

I sing a song of nascent love,
A suit beyond compare,
A meeting of two matching souls,
A complementary pair.

Yet tension marred their bold romance,
For from the very start
They never could dance cheek to cheek
One man held them apart.

Against their wedlock this foul cad
Had set his stubborn face;
The lovers knew, with two fell strokes
Their lives he could erase.

But, hearts are wild and love knows strength
That nothing can oppose:
Defiantly, they met, they kissed,
Right under PZ's nose!

Alas, my song concludes in tears,
For on one fateful day
Grim PZ raised his razor's edge
And whisked them both away.

A gem from the comments

PZ says:

Of course, we also were in competition with our enemy, the Soviets, and we raced to show that we were more technologically advanced and more scientific than they were. Now the enemy is Islam, and we seem to be in a competition to see who can be more theologically primitive and barbaric.

There once was a time when our war
was with Soviets, keen to explore
the technology race
both on earth and in space,
so our science had funding galore.

Islam is the enemy now
and we seem to be seeking for how
to be more theologically
crude—pathologically
playing "more fundie than thou."

A Zodiac for the Ziggurat

Pharyngula: Repeating myself because I can hardly believe it

I sought PZ's reading this morning
from a seer well acquainted with dope.
He gave me a clerihew warning
and a cinquain of whimsical hope.

Beware the Berlinski
who sees astrological links key
to science's re-mystification
and auctorial remuneration.

Today
many people
will observe randomness
and attribute it to God's Love-
craftness.

Gagging the Self-Blinded

Pharyngula: This One's for David Heddle

Question:
If a hermeneutic Heddle
in a metaphysics muddle
of apologetic piffle
chose to biblically blather
on tendentious texts of Townes or
on his chauvinistic choices
for subordinating spouses,
should a broad forbearing blogger
gag this gonad-godded gimboid
whose presuppositional seepage
cycles tiring tropes of trollage?

Answer:
Yes.

Extinction of less-improved forms

Pants humor is an essential part of Pharyngula, as a casual search for pants would show:

• And my kids are laughing at me for dancing around with my pants on fire.
  
• Isn't that the kind of thing that would make a good ol' redmeat Republican pee his pants?
  
• Again, when you are imbedded in a foam rubber appliance you do not have any way to pull your pants up.
  
• while still trying to rid himself of the pubic infestation, "I have ants in my pants!"
  
• At least I didn't propose that the uniform of the Resistance should be pants 4 sizes too big with exposed underwear.
  

With these quotes in mind, I present a slightly panted paraphrase of a famous quote.

Contemplate a tangled bank,
Clothed by ranks of diverse plants;
Songbirds perch while insects fly;
Worms are sliding (in its pants).

Watch the bank, observe and think:
Each distinct constructed form
Diff'ring from each other so,
Flock and row and clew and swarm,

Each dependent, one on one,
Intricate, yet under laws
All these forms have been produced
(Even worms loose in its drawers).

Wisdom framed in humor thrives,
Morphs, survives, in rhyme resolved;
These words too? Dare I propose,
"Look here Charles, your prose evolved"?

But, this mutant, mildly droll,
Lonely soul in culture's dance
Cannot hope to spread or breed--
Fitness? Nah, this screed is pants.


(Don't forget to read Tangled Bank #23)

Confabulatori

Pharyngula: Friday Random Ten: Spring Break edition!

PZ says:

For some reason, iTunes has apparently decided that I need to listen to more Tori Amos.

My auditori choices are random,
Not fixatori symptoms of fandom.
And I'm quick to deny amost scurrilous lie:
Ignore storis that say that I planned 'em.

The Jigsaw Puzzle: How does Intelligent Design Fit into Science?

Pharyngula: An interesting teaching example

Science has rules and a fine set of tools
To enable its own self-correction.

Every student should learn there is much to discern
When the process comes under inspection.

Putting puzzles together, you're testing out whether
Hypotheses merit selection.

Most times you expect that you'll be incorrect
So it shouldn't result in dejection.

It occasions delight when you find you are right;
Even then you'll fall short of perfection.

But to fail every test means it's time to invest
In some honest and frank introspection.

Should we talk of ID and its vain repartee
To obscure all life's interconnection?

Their creationist goal to find God in the holes
Gains us nothing, so meets with rejection.

We can learn from this hoard if we get them on board,
As opposed to complete circumspection.

Run your class with a grin; take an IDist in
And some jigsaws--you've guessed my direction?

In Biol. 101 it's a barrel of fun
Using jigsaws in class for dissection.