Now on ScienceBlogs: The Galaxy's Biggest Valentine
David Dobbs on science, nature, and culture.
I write articles on science, medicine, nature, culture and other matters for the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, National Geographic, Scientific American Mind, and other publications, and am working on my fourth book, The Orchid and the Dandelion, which expands on my recent December 2009 Atlantic article. In August 2010, I'll be moving to London for a year to work on the book. I'll also serve as a senior fellow at City University London's MA science journalism program.
You're encouraged to check out my third book Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral, which traces the strangest but most forgotten controversy in Darwin's career; subscribe to Neuron Culture by email; see more of my work at my main website; or track Twitter feed, my Google Reader shared items, or my Tumblr log, which gets it all.
Category: Brains and minds
Carr has stronger arguments, and I think he needs to set this one aside. For the most vital part of the "genetic heritage" he cites is the very adaptability or plasticity he likes to emphasize.
Posted by David Dobbs at 6:35 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Journalism & media
In which David Sloan Wilson and Richard Dawkins lose a race with snails.
Posted by David Dobbs at 11:23 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
have trouble understanding talk of eliminating religion because it would make the world a more rational place. Eliminate religion? Good luck. It's odd to hear people sworn to empircal reasoning indulge in hopes so wildly unrealistic.
Posted by David Dobbs at 1:43 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Books
Our greatest distinction is that we're highly social. Yet in that we've got a lot of company.
Posted by David Dobbs at 8:31 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Ed Yong , Mo Costandi , Scientific American , and others have covered nicely a new paper finding that people with WIlliams syndrome (a condition I've been interested in since writing a long feature about it for the Times Magazine a few years back) show little or no racial bias. ... After I wrote in my Atlantic article about getting my serotonin transporter gene assayed (which revealed that I carry that gene's apparently more plastic short-short form), I started getting a lot of email — several a week — from readers asking how to have their SERT gene tested.
Posted by David Dobbs at 9:19 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Journalism & media
What I didn't get to. MSM stories, blog posts, and tweets cohabitating. Dogs and cats next.
Posted by David Dobbs at 5:17 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Genetics & genomics (incl behav genetics)
I had the pleasure of attending the Genomes, Environment, and Traits conference on Tuesday. Was wonderful and strange, with many inspiring, exciting, and/or entertaining moments -- and a few things a bit worrisome.
Posted by David Dobbs at 11:22 PM • 1 Comments •
This isn't something we'll figure out in a couple workshops; it's something the industry and the broader genomics community will need to consider carefully over the next few years, even as it rapidly grows.
Posted by David Dobbs at 11:03 AM • 5 Comments •
Category: Brains and minds
Early homind skulls, from A Kansan's Guide to Science (seriously) A couple weeks ago, the Guardian ran an article in which Oxford neurobiologist Colin Blakemore described " how the human got bigger by accident and not through evolution ."
...Because if "modern" humans suddenly showed up in Africa 200,000 years ago, and all of a sudden had vastly larger brains than any other hominins, wouldn't that be a simple and tidy story?
Posted by David Dobbs at 4:24 PM • 4 Comments •
Category: Public health
Evolution, healthcare reform, baboons, and Cheever in his underwear
Posted by David Dobbs at 11:01 AM • 0 Comments •
casaubon's book 02.13.2012
denialism blog 02.13.2012
respectful insolence 02.13.2012
evolutionblog 02.12.2012
starts with a bang! 02.11.2012
