John Hawks
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Tag archives for John Hawks
20,000 genes a surprise? Heck, this guy knew that long ago
Posted by David Dobbs on June 21, 2010 John Hawks, in his paleodreams. I mean that in the best way. John Hawks bumps into a prescient estimate of the total gene number in humans: While doing some other research, I ran across a remarkable short paper by James Spuhler, “On the number of genes in man,” printed in Science in 1948. We’ve been…
Accidental brain evolution suffers a reversal
Posted by David Dobbs on March 29, 2010 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.” Though I didn’t get to it at the time, I thought that an odd headline, since evolution actually…
The Week’s Best: Evolution, healthcare reform, clever apes, and Cheever in his undies
Posted by David Dobbs on March 26, 2010 from a different Daily Dish – 365 petri dishes, by Klari Reis House of Wisdom, the splendid new blog on Arabic science from Mohammed Yahia, editor of Nature Middle East describes an effort to map the Red Sea’s coral reefs with satellite, aerial, adn ship-based technologies. Nice project and a promising new blog. Brain and…
Hits of the week past
Posted by David Dobbs on January 29, 2010 Hits of the week: Savage Minds (with a spiffy website redesign) asks Why is there no Anthropology Journalism? Jerry Coyne takes sharp exception to both a paper and a SciAm Mind Matters article by Paul Andrews and Andy Thomson arguing that depression might be an evolutionary adaptation. Dr. Pangloss punches back. (NB: 1. I was…
Morning dip: reading, writing, merit pay, musical spouses, swine flu, and fire towers
Posted by David Dobbs on September 4, 2009 photo: U.S. Forest Service Notables of the day: John Hawks ponders the (bad) art of citing papers you’ve never read. Clive Thompson ponders the new literacy spawned of engagement with many keyboards. A poll on public education shows how much opinion depends on framing, context — and who else thinks an idea is good. In…