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David Dobbs on science, nature, and culture.
I write 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. (Find clips here.)
I've also written three books, including Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral, which traces the strangest but most forgotten controversy in Darwin's career — an elemental dispute running some 75 years. Oliver Sacks found Reef Madness "brilliantly written, almost unbearably poignant." Check it out.
If you'd like, you can subscribe to Neuron Culture by email. You might also want to see more of my work at my main website or check out my Tumblr log.
Category: Culture of science
He walked away from it cold, and went on to live a rich, fulfilling life. He and Moyers talk about something else for a bit. And then Moyers returns to the climb, "I know you did so much else, but I want want to return to that K2 climb again...," says Moyer. And Houston says, "The best thing I ever did."
Posted by David Dobbs at 7:20 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Nota Bene
Maybe best argument yet for expanding the US rail system.
Posted by David Dobbs at 10:06 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Nota Bene
Hubbard Park, Montpelier, Vermont, Sept 21, 2009. via Neil Young
Posted by David Dobbs at 3:06 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture of science
I think it helps to have a sense of the history of science, which embeds in a writer or observer a sense of critical distance and an eye for large forces at work beneath the surface. Machinations in government surprise no one who has studied the history of government and politics. Likewise with science.
Posted by David Dobbs at 11:16 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Art
Perhaps because I so enjoyed the time I spent at sea learning about fish, I particularly enjoyed this collection of Nick Cobbing's photos of ice, sea, and people who work them — scientists, fishermen, adventurers
Posted by David Dobbs at 1:54 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture of science
Nold came up with the idea of fusing a GSR machine, a skin conductance monitor that measures arousal, and a GPS machine, to allow stress to be mapped to particular places. He then gets people to walk round and creates maps detailing high arousal areas of cities.
Posted by David Dobbs at 7:14 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Nota Bene
Oh I could do that. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z19zFlPah-o&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z19zFlPah-o&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Posted by David Dobbs at 8:50 PM • 1 Comments •
Category: Journalism
Tuesday, March 31, at 6 pm, at 20 Cooper Square in NYC, I'll be giving a talk/discussion on blogging and long-form journalism -- particularly on the different demands, pros and cons, possibilities and constraints, and reader and writer experiences those two different modes of writing (and reading) impose and offer. ... Instead we'll talk, at least for starters, about what this story's genesis, development, writing, and publication -- along with the blog reactions afterwards -- suggest about the differences between blogging and long-form, "slow-bake" journalism.
Posted by David Dobbs at 9:50 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Art
Were the makers of that sheepherding-art video I put in an earlier post (and further below in this post as...
Posted by David Dobbs at 3:40 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: History/philosophy of science
"Faith" is a fine invention For gentlemen who see -- But microscopes are prudent In an emergency. Emily Dickinson, poet...
Posted by David Dobbs at 2:01 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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