Having written quite a bit about the ruckus raised when Harvard psychologist Marc Hauser was caught fabricating data and committing other acts of scientific misconduct, forcing his resignation, I was intrigued to hear he was self-publishing a book titled Evilicious. (Not making this up.) Today, Ivan Oransky at Retraction watch looks at an odd and…
Finally made time to create a list of selected reading/sources for my Pacific Standard article “The Social Life of Genes.” (A few of you had asked.) The list is below, and also at http://daviddobbs.net/smoothpebbles/selected-references-for-social-life-of-genes/. Alaux, C, S Sinha, and L Hasadsri. 2009. “Honey Bee Aggression Supports a Link Between Gene Regulation and Behavioral Evolution.” In PNAS,…
Do all buildings hold secrets like this? Likely so. I just happen to know these two. Above you can see the planned implosion, carried out yesterday, of the decades-old Macy’s department store (formerly Foley’s’ department store) in downtown Houston. When Samuel Arbesman alerted me to a notice of this at The Atlantic Cities site, I…
Today at 6pm Eastern time, I”ll be on the program Virtually Speaking Science, where MIT science-writing professor Tom Levenson and I will discuss my recent Pacific Standard cover story, “The Social Life of Genes“; my book-in-progress, The Orchid and the Dandelion; the states of flux that genetics, neuroscience, and science writing find themselves in these days; and anything…
Bryan Pfeiffer, one of Vermont’s sharpest birders, most engaging and informative bird and dragonfly guides, and funniest people, is on Monhegan Island, Maine, scouting for a guiding trip he’s leading next week. Here’s a bit of his first report, describing some raptors hunting a bunch of blue jays. A young Cooper’s Hawk joined the fracas.…
SCIENCE Don’t miss David Quammen’s gorgeous, moving review of George Johnson’s beautiful masterwork, Cancer Chronicles. I read some great stuff this week, but nothing that moved me more than this. Brendan Borrell with an incredible story about a frog taxonomist who hops back in time to refresh the work of another, quite strange frog taxonomist who was…
Some of the more intriguing posts and links from my recent internet fishing trips. Apologies for all the great stuff I’ve missed. Been busy, plus doubtless forgot a few. Science How City Living Is Reshaping the Brains and Behavior of Urban Animals Brill piece by Brandon Keim — a model of science reporting: clear exposition, splendid…
I’ve a new feature, “The Social Life of Genes,” in Pacific Standard. It involves bees, birds, monkeys, and how our social life and our genes constantly converse, reshaping us (and our social life) as they go. One of the main characters is a young UCLA psychoneuroimmunologist named Steve Cole, who in the 1990s, reviewing the health…
He just refused to do the rational thing and quit. In a longer piece, well worth reading in toto, Brain Pickings describes how best-selling author Michael Lewis (barely) got his start in writing: Even though his thesis adviser at Princeton praised the intellectual angle of his senior thesis but admonished him to never attempt making a…