When a researcher fudges data or engages in other fraudulent behavior, among those most wronged are the collaborators who did nothing wrong. Often there are many. Their reputations and careers can suffer horribly; they experience a horrible betrayal by someone they put enormous trust in; and they feel compelled to remain silent, lest they court…
Monthly Archives: June 2012
Uncategorized
Growing Up on Zoloft – Talking Drugs, Depression, and Identity With Katherine Sharpe
by David Dobbs •
Uncategorized
Rowdy Beer-Guzzling Slobs v Estrogen-Sotted Girly Men: When Press Releases Go Manly
by David Dobbs •
One of the mixed blessings of being a science writer is the strange smorgasbord of press releases offered up in one’s inbox each week. Now and then one arrives and makes you think, Lordy, I should publish this sucker As Is, see what happens. A friend got one such today and shared it with me: “A…
Uncategorized
Fun in Cities: Feature, Not Bug
by David Dobbs •
From P.D. Smith, a man who knows cities and fun: I’ve written a piece for Arc 1.2, the new digital quarterly from the makers of New Scientist, about cities and fun: “Every year for three whole days in the picturesque Piedmont town of Ivrea, Italy, some three thousand people pelt each other mercilessly with oranges,…
Uncategorized
Seriously Tough Love: Morality the Hard Way
by David Dobbs •
My post yesterday on morality and evolution drew a useful heads-up from the writer and entrepreneur Jag Bhalla: a review he wrote for The Wilson Quarterly of a recent book on the same subject, evolutionary biologist Christopher Boehm’s Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame. This book, published last month, slipped under my…
Uncategorized
Do Evolution and Morality Talk Much? David Sloan Wilson & Simon Blackburn Discuss
by David Dobbs •
Morality, even when it doesn’t involve slick trolley problems like killing Whitey, poses a perennial puzzle, particularly in light of evolution. Does human morality rise innately, from culture, or both? Did we evolve merely a capacity to think morally, or a compulsion to do so? What do the evolutionary roots of morality, complex as they might…
Uncategorized
“How Full of Sh*t Are They?” and Other Questions Writers Ask
by David Dobbs •
Q: Is that a real skull? A: Yes Q: Just how full of shit are they — like, completely? A: Completely. What kinds of questions do writers ask? Particularly when writing a book about science? The writer Charles Quoi asked that question of me and several other writers the other day for an article at…