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Eric Michael Johnson

Eric Michael Johnson has a Bachelors degree in Anthropology and a Masters in Evolutionary Anthropology. He pursued his PhD in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke before joining the University of British Columbia to complete a doctorate in the History and Philosophy of Science.

Posts by this author

August 10, 2009
John Hawks points to a news story showing that orangutans make musical instruments: When in a tight situation, the orangutans will strip the leaves off a twig and make a crude musical instrument to alter the calls they use to ward off predators -- not exactly a Stradivarius, but it seems to get the…
August 7, 2009
For this week's Friday Follow I wanted to highlight two excellent sources for anthropology news and opinion. Greg Laden's Blog is my go to for informed commentary and daily entertainment. I'm constantly impressed by his prodigious output as well as his thoughtful and informative content. A must…
August 7, 2009
The Evolution of Spite is the Evil Twin of Altruism Someone walks into a crowded restaurant, looks about the diners calmly, and blows themselves up as well as everyone nearby. Why? This is a scenario that forces us to explain the dark side of human nature. Why do humans have a capacity for…
August 5, 2009
Japanese artists' depiction of the horrors at Hiroshima.Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped "Little Boy," the first of only two nuclear bombs ever used in warfare, on the Japanese civilians at Hiroshima. In an instant flash of light an estimated 140,000…
August 5, 2009
However, Orly Taitz does have one thing absolutely right. "Who cares about Ann Coulter?"
August 4, 2009
In 1996 Cornell astrophysicist and science popularizer Carl Sagan posed the question, "What are conservatives conserving?" It was not something he asked lightly. The question appeared in his final book following a prolonged battle with bone marrow disease. Faced with his own mortality, he wanted…
July 30, 2009
Artist Ricardo Cortes has a beautiful exhibition of his work in the current edition of Vanity Fair entitled Sketches of the Drug Czars. In his series he points out the steps that have led our country through the most expensive (and least effective) domestic policy in history. Starting with the…
July 30, 2009
In a review in PLoS Biology Axel Meyer discusses a new book by Sander Gliboff on the history of evolutionary biology in Germany following the publication of On the Origin of Species. While many are familiar with evolutionary biologist Ernst Haeckel, few may know about the scientist who is…
July 28, 2009
From Democracy Now: Newly declassified documents reveal that an active member of Students for a Democratic Society and Port Militarization Resistance in Washington state was actually an informant for the US military. The man everyone knew as "John Jacob" was in fact John Towery, a member of the…
July 28, 2009
Conservatives and liberals conflict over their basic views on human nature. As an evolutionary anthropologist and student of history, I'm always fascinated to learn what politically motivated figures have to say about human nature. It's one area of life where people require zero expertise but can…
July 27, 2009
The 40th edition of the Humanist Symposium blog carnival is up at The Evolving Mind. My picks in this edition include: Daylight Atheism looks at the story of Edward and Joan Downes who decided to die together when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer: Voluntarily laying down your own life is the…
July 26, 2009
In the 1960s military strategists promoted the "domino theory" as a rationale for why the United States needed to intervene in what later turned out to be a Vietnamese civil war. The logic was that, as communist influence extended from Russian and China, every country that fell before the "Reds"…
July 26, 2009
Facebook is a wonderful resource, but there's good reason to be cautious about how much information we put out there about ourselves (and not just to avoid stalkers and advertisers): You can friend me at facebook.com/eric.michael.johnson
July 25, 2009
On July 25, 1920 the English biophysicist Rosalind Franklin was born. She was instrumental in discovering the molecular structure of DNA, though her vital contributions were only posthumously acknowledged. After receiving her PhD from Cambridge in 1945 she worked as a research associate for John…
July 25, 2009
Stanley Fish, distinguished law professor and close friend of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., puts the arrest of Gates and President Obama's comments into perspective in his latest piece for The New York Times: Gates is once again regarded with suspicion because, as the cultural critic Michael Eric Dyson…
July 24, 2009
Jeff Hebert is an amazing artist. He created the banner for this page as well as that for Living the Scientific Life and Dispatches From the Culture Wars. His primary work is for HeroMachine and his work can be viewed at his online portfolio. Juan Cole at Informed Comment is, along with Robert…
July 24, 2009
English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588 - 1679) is widely held as the "father of political science." His 1651 book Leviathan makes the case for why monarchy is the only political system that is consistent with human nature. He bases his argument on the following assumption about humans…
July 23, 2009
Primate sociality is linked to brain networks for pair bonds. Social conservatives are fond of linking morality with monogamy and will be quick to condemn the moral crimes of adulterous felatio while ignoring the moral crimes of cutting social programs for poor mothers. However, in a bizarre…
July 22, 2009
President Obama just stated the following at a press conference: Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in…
July 22, 2009
Cambridge authorities are now dropping the disorderly conduct charge against the country's leading African-American scholar, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (see right), after he was arrested in his own home when police confused him with a burglar. This was after Gates showed both his…
July 22, 2009
Earlier this week a classified Scientology contract was leaked (full pdf document here), revealing the paranoid nature of the Church. The document is entitled Application, Declaration and General Release Declaration of Religious Commitment and Application for Membership in a Scientology Religious…
July 21, 2009
Dorothea Salo, the Digital Repository Librarian at the University of Wisconsin (see her professional website here) has arrived to teach us a thing or two about information science. She's already taught me something about loading powerpoints as website useful content (see below). It also serves as…
July 20, 2009
Mark Hemingway, the Conservative "tough-guy" for the National Review, has just posted a rant against health concerns for the endocrine disruptor Bisphenol A. I've seen some estimates that over a billion people have had exposure to BPA and there isn't proof of anything. So why the big scare? I…
July 19, 2009
A gay couple kiss in front of the Salt Lake City Mormon Temple / David Daniels For the second time gay activists and allies held a kiss-in at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. The action held this morning was to protest the arrest of two gay men two weeks ago who showed "inappropriate" public…
July 19, 2009
Jorge Cham has just posted his latest PhD Comic, this one taking on the rivalry between Nature and Science. Look behind the scenes at how the science publishing industry REALLY works. It's enough to make you want to publish only in PLoS ONE!
July 19, 2009
Monty Python: The scientists of silliness? I'm currently working on a book (scheduled for release sometime in the 2010s) that intends to be an extension of my research in evolutionary anthropology and the history/philosophy of science. In the coming months I may be tempted to write more about it…
July 18, 2009
July 17, 2009
The World's Fair is recreated in all it's glory! Skulls in the Stars is currently hosting the thirteenth installment of the History of Science Blog Carnival. There are some amazing pieces in this edition so head on over right now and check them out. GG was also kind enough to include my post…
July 17, 2009
How genes for altruism can benefit strangers as well as kin The generosity of adoption has long been considered a unique human hallmark. Image: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors For decades it was conventional dogma that humans were the only species that used tools. "Man the Toolmaker" was our…
July 16, 2009
With huge profits reported this week from two bailed-out institutions, Sacramento-based real estate investor Reggie Lal is euphoric: JPMorgan Chase & Co. posted a 36 percent jump in second-quarter profit Thursday, easily surpassing analysts' expectations, as strength in investment banking…