This is the 11th installment of an abridged version of my book Reef Madness: Alexander Agassiz, Charles Darwin, and the Meaning of Coral. (Earlier installments are listed at bottom.) Here Darwin hatches the theory of coral reef formation that will start a decades-long argument with Alexander Agassiz — and create a template for his species theory. ©…
Monthly Archives: August 2011
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Academic Publishers: Making Murdoch Look Good
by David Dobbs •
It’s no big secret that the scientific journal system, originally created to share scientific information, now operates mainly by restricting access to that information. The spring, in “Free Science, One Paper at a Time,” I wrote about what that walled garden feels like from the inside, as evolutionary biologist and extremophile microbiolgist Jonathan Eisen tried…
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Reef Madness 10: Darwin’s Earthquake
by David Dobbs •
Culture of Science, Uncategorized
Writing About Uncertainty — & Medicine That Ignores It
by David Dobbs •
At The Open Notebook, NY Times Magazine staff writer Susan Dominus talks about her fascinating feature about twins who are conjoined
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The VA Fails at PTSD Treatment – Again
by David Dobbs •
A few days ago the Times ran a story wondering why antipsychotics aren’t helping American combat vets with PTSD. The Times calls this finding ‘surprising.’ Yet it should surprise no one. For one thing, antipsychotics haven’t worked very well for off-label treatments in general. But the real problem is that almost nothing the US Veterans…
Culture of Science, Uncategorized
Reef Madness 9: Charles Darwin & the Pleasure of Gambling
by David Dobbs •
This is the ninth installment of an abridged version of my book Reef Madness: Alexander Agassiz, Charles Darwin, and the Meaning of Coral. Here we see, with some surprise, that the world’s most famous zoologist thought of himself, in his most crucial formative stage, as a geologist. © David Dobbs, 2011. All rights reserved. __________ The Beagle…
Culture of Science, Uncategorized
Reef Madness 8: A Dissipated, Low-Minded Charles Darwin
by David Dobbs •
This is the eighth installment of an abridged version of my book Reef Madness: Alexander Agassiz, Charles Darwin, and the Meaning of Coral. (Earlier installments are listed at bottom.) Here we meet Charles Darwin — first he experiences the thrilling geology of Chile, and then, in a flashback, as a young man who showed little promise…
Culture of Science, Uncategorized
Reef Madness 7: Alex Finds a Future
by David Dobbs •
This is the seventh installment of an abridged version of my book Reef Madness: Alexander Agassiz, Charles Darwin, and the Meaning of Coral. (Earlier installments are listed at bottom.) This excerpt finds Alexander reeling from the deaths, within ten days of one another in December 1873, of his father and his wife, and being comforted…
Culture of Science, Uncategorized
War, Beauty, Balls, and Fraud
by David Dobbs •
Neuron Culture’s Top 5 from July 1. Runaway most popular: The Toughest Plane Ever Built. This post about the plane in which my mother’s lover died spawned two amazing, entwined comment threads: one about tough planes; one about the morality of bombing cities. It also has pictures of B-17s that sustained unreal damage and flew home…