Just posted on the Seed website is an article about the evolution of language by Juan Uriageraka, from the October issue of Seed Magazine. Most of the article concerns the role of the FoxP2 gene in the brains of songbirds. (I discussed this gene earlier in the week in my post about echolocation.)
Also on the Seed website are the winners of the second annual Seed Science Writing contest, in which the contestants were asked to write an essay about what it means to be scientifically literate in the 21st century. The winners are Scientific Literacy and the Habit of Disclosure, by Thomas M. Martin, and Camelot is only a Model, by Steven Saus.
Comments
Loved the Seed essay winners! They bring a tear to my eye.
To do our part in promoting scientific discourse the Bayblab (a Canadian graduate student blog) is calling for nominees for the First Annual "Socrates" Awards - The Bayblab Awards for Scientific Discourse.
Would love to hear from you and get your nominees!
Thanks for your input!
-Bayman
Posted by: bayman | September 27, 2007 1:43 PM
The linguist Dr. Juan Uriagereka (another basque like me) and his biolinguistic approach seems very, very promising, but i doubt the forkhead box P2 gene is essentially related to language just because it is another trascription regulator gene, find in the chimpanzee as well with minor differences, and genes associated with musculature in the buco-laringeo zone and thorax are relevant too.
Posted by: Anibal | September 27, 2007 2:01 PM