Homosexuality may persist because the associated genes convey surprising advantages on homosexuals’ family members.
If there is one thing that has always seemed obvious about homosexuality, it’s that it just doesn’t make sense. Evolution favors traits that aid reproduction, and being gay clearly doesn’t do that. The existence of homosexuality amounts to a profound evolutionary [...]
Kevin kelly follows up his New Rules of the New Economy (fee online) with the beginnings of the New Rules for the New Biology. Here are items 4, 5 and 6 from the nascent list:
4) All inovations follow a one-way migration from enhancements to normalcy.
5) One person’s biological ideal is another’s horror.
6) Understanding is not [...]
WASHINGTON (Associated Press) - A little strategically placed makeup quickly turns the wimpiest of male barn swallows into chick magnets, amping up their testosterone and even trimming their weight, new research shows. It’s a “clothes make the man” lesson that — with some caveats — also applies to human males, researchers say.
Using a $5.99 marker, [...]
In March 2003, social psychologist Richard Nisbett published his groundbreaking book “The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently…and Why“, which challenged the received wisdom that all human groups perceive and reason in the same way. He came to the conclusion, based mostly on observation and social psychology studies, that Asians and Westerners
“Have [...]
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
From Neurodudes:
So, Edge has a new question for 2006 for its All-Stars of Academia to answer: What is your dangerous idea? (Suggested to Edge by Steven Pinker, who perhaps got the idea from a colloquium series at his old haunting grounds.)
Offhand, one might expect a broad range of perceived dangerous ideas, varying by research [...]
From The Huge Entity comes: Sex, emotion and the female amygdala
‘According to a recent study, women are aroused by watching monkey sex. Sure, they’re more aroused by watching human sex, but the loving habits of the bonobo are enough to bring out the primate in any civilized lady…
Barbara Bartlik, a psychiatry professor at Cornell, said [...]
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Friday, December 30, 2005
Dancing advertises sexual quality - Study of Jamaicans shows symmetrical dancers shake it better.
Women love a guy who can dance, right? Well, a study using Jamaican volunteers might explain why. The results suggest that men who are better at busting a move also have more to offer as a mate.
Researchers led by William Brown of [...]
Monday, November 28, 2005
Brains are broadly wired for reproduction
Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have discovered a vast network of neurons in the brain of mice that governs reproduction and controls the effects of reproductive status on other brain functions. In their studies, the researchers found neural circuits that coordinate a complex interplay between neurons that control reproduction [...]
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Thursday, September 22, 2005
My friend and collaborator Jason Bates has launched a new weblog that will definitely be worth subscribing to or checking regularly.
http://www.canoworms.info
What is it about?
…exploring the assumptions hidden in the way that people do business in the “corporate world”, and investigating ways in which new assumptions can lead to increased performance. It’s about useful lies, [...]
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
From The Times:
WHAT DOES science teach us about war?
…when different group identities exist, war is the default position. Nature is unkind, so we primates have evolved to be highly suspicious of anything different, and our suspicions will spill over into the instinctive killing of strangers. War is endemic amongst tribal peoples, and Charles Darwin reported [...]