Category Archives: Science without worms

The Evolutionary Psychology list used to be one of the most interesting places on the Internet. It was thoughtful, disciplined, multi-disciplined, and wide-ranging. There was seldom time to read all of it, but it was necessary to skim if you … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Adair Turner, criticising John Gray’s Straw Dogs, wrote in Prospect: mankind’s development of larger brains several hundred thousand years ago was a product of natural selection, pure and simple. But once the accident occurred, man was blessed or cursed with … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A naturally decaffeinated species of coffee plant has been discovered in Ethiopia. This disproves conclusively the argument from design. Continue reading →

I see that he died this week. He was one of the nicest and most interesting — at once intense and open-minded — scientists I have ever met. Continue reading →

Richard Lewontin’s 1992 book The Doctrine of DNA is one that I reread every couple of years, discovering new things. The tone of weary omniscient scepticism grated on me for some years, but no longer does. After all, he was … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I know almost nothing about African languages — so little that I don’t know what I don’t know, as Mr Rumsfeld would say. So it was a pleasure to come across Abiola Lapite’s refutation of the idea that we can … Continue reading → Continue reading →

says the future Wolf biologist: “Schenkel describes the courtship of the female wolf in detail. With raised tail, the rutting alpha-bitch moves in a feathery dance step, while whimpering or ‘singing’ ‘tenderly … meanwhile she moves her genitals in slow … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A rather mournful brain scientist said to me once that “The problem is that if you go looking for something in the brain then you are likely to find it.” IN this spirit I am delighted to discover that marmosets … Continue reading → Continue reading →

“It is now quite firmly established that the voice the schizophrenic ‘hears’ is his own; he is talking to himself silently without realising it. As simple an obstacle as having the patient hold his mouth wide open is sufficient to … Continue reading → Continue reading →