That's the name of our January term course, a trip to London and Edinburgh to learn about the Scottish Enlightenment and its relationship(s) to Christian belief. We'll be keeping a blog with pictures and reflections. So nothing on QoD till the end of the month.In the meantime, share Mike Beidler's several minutes of fame. Then maybe read up on experimentally-induced out-of-body experiences.

Well, wow, for the second year now one of my posts has been selected for inclusion in the science blogging anthology, The Open Laboratory. Last year it was the teosinte review; this year the honor goes to the post on Darwin's tomatoes.

Actually, my first post went up 3 August 2007, a little more than a year ago, but my first real article wasn't posted till 19 August, so I guess today is as good a day as any to celebrate. It's been a fun year, coinciding with my sabbatical, which ends [sniff] in 3 weeks. Once I'm back in my professor routine, I expect that my posting will be less erratic, especially since I requested a new office that's a bit removed from the beaten track.

Watching lay Christians discuss evolution in the public arena is very frustrating for me. As I've stressed repeatedly here, evolutionary biology is some of the most fascinating and dynamic science to be found.