Science grows through accretion, but becomes potent through distillation.

- James P. Sethna, Entropy, Order Parameters, and Complexity

Now online, PNAS has a special evolution issue, based on a talks given at a conference, with pieces by Daniel Dennett, Francisco J. Ayala, Michael Ruse, Elliot Sober, and more. Some of the titles:

"Darwin and the scientific method"

"Natural selection in action during speciation"

"Human-induced evolution caused by unnatural selection through harvest of wild animals"

"Darwin's “strange inversion of reasoning”"

And don't miss this one:

"Postcopulatory sexual selection"

I largely agree with this (subscription required for full text):

The media not only influence public perceptions but also shape and reflect the policy debate. Few decisions are made by policymakers and stakeholders without the media in mind. Given this role and influence, there have long been concerns about distortion and hype in news coverage of biomedicine and biotech. The orientation toward hype is viewed internationally by many scientists, ethicists, policymakers and government officials as the primary shortcoming of the media.

Each individual decision along the way seemed rational at the time, but the result was insane.

- Former Secretary of State Robert McNamara on the development of the nuclear arms race, interview with Richard Rhodes in Arsenals of Folly, p. 99

You age. As you age, your cells age. Your telomeres wear out. Even single-celled yeast age, giving birth to only a limited number of daughter cells. So how is it that each new generation starts fresh, unaged?

This is a great mystery - part of which is explained by the fact that your germ cells (which later turn into sperm and egg), those cells that will produce the next generation, are preserved with extra special care right from the start of your embryonic development. The non-germ cells, called somatic cells, make up all of the rest of you, and they age.

I'm on the road, so here are two (dueling?) quotes to make up for the hit-or-miss blogging:

 God forbid that we should give out a dream of our own imagination for a pattern of the world.
    
- Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, p. 30