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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: Brains and minds
This is a good example of how reflexive diagnoses, as PTSD has become for any combat veteran (and sometimes even prospective combat veterans -- i.e., troops preparing to deploy), can do harm. They can lead you to ignore other possible causes of the symptoms on display.
Posted by David Dobbs at 11:36 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brains and minds
This is a transformative, even startling view of human frailty and strength. For more than a decade, proponents of the vulnerability hypothesis have argued that certain gene variants underlie some of humankind's most grievous problems: despair, alienation, cruelties both petty and epic. The orchid hypothesis accepts that proposition. But it adds, tantalizingly, that these same troublesome genes play a critical role in our species' astounding success.
Posted by David Dobbs at 8:15 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This implies that religious beliefs and behavior emerged not as sui generis evolutionary adaptations, but as an extension (some would say "by product") of social cognition and behavior. May be something to that, Razib says — but it would be nice "get in on the game of normal human variation in religious orientation (as opposed to studies of mystical brain states which seem focused on outliers)."
Posted by David Dobbs at 6:51 AM • 1 Comments •
Category: Brains and minds
As Obama explains, world leaders are puzzled that healthcare gets painted with a Hitler moustache. and other news.
Posted by David Dobbs at 6:27 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brains and minds
Animals first. Then everybody else.
Posted by David Dobbs at 2:22 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brains and minds
I regret I can't handle at more length, the following weighty and pressing matters:
Posted by David Dobbs at 12:12 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brains and minds
"I don't think we understand the brain much better for reading this paper. "
Posted by David Dobbs at 10:47 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brains and minds
Take this survey. It's quick, interesting, and will make your voice heard, in a tiny way, at Cold Spring Harbor.
Posted by David Dobbs at 9:02 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brains and minds
Old brains, depressed brains, new viruses, the death of healthcare reform?
Posted by David Dobbs at 11:56 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture of science
On my radar lately: spats over rates and seriousness of depression and swine flu. Reading this will NOT make you sick.
Posted by David Dobbs at 7:07 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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