Say, wah? Way to go FAU!

Funding To Establish A Max Planck Institute In Palm Beach [County]
Florida
17 Sep 2007

The Max Planck Society has received an offer to establish its first
foreign institute in the US: Florida's Palm Beach County unanimously
proposed the sum of $86.9 million for the next 10 years. In the
coming weeks, it is expected that the State of Florida will
contribute funds to complete the financing, and that specific
negotiations on the establishment of an institute will take place.

The County's decision paved the way for the equally necessary
approval by the State of Florida, which intends to boost the sum
provided by the County to a total of $190 million. This would
facilitate the creation of a Max Planck Institute in the life
sciences on the Jupiter Campus of Florida Atlantic University (FAU),
in the immediate vicinity of the Scripps Research Institute.

"Yesterday's decision is a great compliment for the Max Planck
Society. We are very pleased that the County Commissioners have
demonstrated such great faith in us," said MPS President Gruss after
the vote. With the recent addition of Scripps, and now perhaps also
the Max Planck Society, the State of Florida aims to quickly gain a
place in the premier league of the world's biotechnology hubs. The
state hopes to attract yet further internationally renowned research
institutes and biotech companies to its emerging biotechnology
center. This would allow Florida to expand its basis of wealth and
thus ensure its long-term economic success.

The Scripps Research Institute, internationally renowned in the field
of biomedicine, opened its doors on the Florida Atlantic University
campus just three years ago. The prospect of close cooperation on a
shared campus with Scripps is the primary reason for the Max Planck
Society's interest in Palm Beach County. "Scripps and Max Planck are
a dream team for innovative basic research in biomedicine," says
Gruss. The offer extended to the Max Planck Society is also supported
by the local Florida Atlantic University (FAU). The FAU, the fastest-
growing university in the U.S., will be a key partner in educating
junior researchers and will provide the land for the new
construction.

First Institute on American Soil

"We met with incredible support and enthusiasm for our research in
Florida, not only on the business and political front, but also in
the private sector," says MPS President Peter Gruss. "Florida offers
a particularly dynamic environment for outstanding basic research."
If the State were to now follow the positive vote of the County and
also agree to provide funding for the institute, specific contract
negotiations could get under way and the institute could take up its
work as early as 2008. The institute would eventually have three
departments in which 135 employees from all over the world could
carry out their research. At the same time, the Max Planck Society
wants to offer a visiting scientist program and provide lab space for
internationally renowned researchers to carry out their work.

"The Max Planck Florida institute would give us an independent
foothold in the world's most important country for science," says
Peter Gruss, who views the negotiations in the U.S. as part of a
wider internationalization of the Max Planck Society. "We want to
export the Max Planck success model and step up our international
activities in Europe, the U.S. and Asia." In this context, forms of
cooperation can range from partner institutes all the way to full-
fledged Max Planck Institutes.

James Watson: the Bell Curve Part 2?

I'm not sure if anyone's reading this these days, but I just wanted to throw this out there--any comments on this Nobel Prize winning scientist's latest remarks? Or did the newspaper make 'em up?

Emily

Man, I'm slow

Will catch up on here soon (the start of classes was a bit of a train-wreck).

For now, I thought I'd post some EP poetry (apparently British) stolen from the EP listserv:

Epilogue

Older men like young fit girls,
That's the way of this old world,
Pretty girls choose wealthy men,
Tall, with status, scoring ten,
Out of ten as alpha males,
Strong protectors, hard as nails...

You may well differ and protest,
- A generalisation at the best,
May speak of values and of dreams,
Say life is never what it seems,
But there's one thing you can't deny,
Men don't give fruit to other guys.

Andy Morley 14/9/07

You can read the whole thing if you're so inclined, on this page:
http://www.andymorley.com

Follow-up to Dawkins' "Root of all Evil"

The first half of Dawkins follow-up to "Root of all Evil" is available on google video. It's called "Enemies of Reason." I've already watched it, and it's very good. It's not really until the end of this first half that he starts to talk about teleological reasoning and evolutionay explanations, so be patient. I don't want to spoil anymore before you've seen it. So go watch it and then we can discuss.

Here's the link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8669488783707640763&hl=en-GB

MyDawkinsSpace?

Did you guys see this (on the HBES listserv)? Anyone signing up?

http://richarddawkins.net/social/

Creationism Museum pictures

Just in case you've been jonesing to get to KY to visit the huge waste of multiple millions of dollars also known as the Creation Museum, here's a set of Flickr pictures someone took and put online for your viewing pleasure. I haven't examined them recently but when I looked at them a couple months ago, the comments below the pictures were definitely worth reading. Enjoy and try to avoid brain implosion: Creation Museum

A couple gems:
Darwin already explained the damn finches!!
Magical origins of incest

Creation Science Cartoon

Ok so here's something entertaining and yet a little on the scary side...just remember our children are the future and we should not let them become dangerous idiots!

Creation Science Cartoon

Enjoy!

Welcome, part II

Hey guys,
So in a super important email discussion (not really), Aaron, Judy and I decided to open up this old FAU EP blog to the rest of our evolutionary-minded colleagues. Who wouldn't love an(other) outlet to discuss evolutionary ideas and articles, right? Anyway, great to have you new people, and feel free to post any interesting findings you come across, questions, ideas, whatever.

So to kick it all off, has anyone come across any neat-o articles lately? What's the coolest paper you've read recently?

(P.S. Sorry for the very high dork factor in this post. I promise future posts of mine will be much more suave and entertaining. ;)

Emily