Reading while I am away

By purepedantry on November 21, 2006.

I am getting on a plane today, so here is some interesting reading from throughout the web to tide you over til tomorrow:

The Neurophilosopher has a fascinating article on how parasites affect the behavior of their hosts, sometimes even burrowing into their brains -- just like pod people!!!

The Scientist on a scientific approach to diversity programs.

The Economist on the floundering European climate change abatement program, and an appeal for the legalization of kidney sales.

Science Fiction Book Club has the top 50 best science fiction books of the last 50 years.

More like this

Advertisment

Donate

ScienceBlogs is where scientists communicate directly with the public. We are part of Science 2.0, a science education nonprofit operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Please make a tax-deductible donation if you value independent science communication, collaboration, participation, and open access.

You can also shop using Amazon Smile and though you pay nothing more we get a tiny something.

Science 2.0

Science Codex

More by this author

Best. Modelling Paper. Ever.

August 17, 2009

The abstract says it all: Zombies are a popular figure in pop culture/entertainment and they are usually portrayed as being brought about through an outbreak or epidemic. Consequently, we model a zombie attack, using biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies. We introduce a basic model…

Journal Editor Speaks about His Experiences

August 10, 2009

(I had this whole post ready talking about flexible representations, but now my computer is borked -- stupid monitor! -- so this is going to have to do.) Tyler Cowen over at Marginal Revolution links to a piece by a former editor at American Economic Review telling all about how papers are accepted…

Obesity is not a myth

July 30, 2009

There is a great conversation going on at Megan McArdle's blog with Paul Campos, author of The Obesity Myth. I say great because it give me the opportunity to show how astonishingly wrong Campos in suggesting that the obesity at the lower end of the BMI spectrum -- not just morbid obesity -- is…

Imaging a Superior Mnemonist

July 15, 2009

In neuroscience, we spend most of our time trying to understand the function of the "normal" brain -- whatever that means -- hence, we are most interested in the average. Under most occasions when scientists take an interest in the abnormal neurology, it is usually someone with who has something…

Key paper in depression genetics disputed

June 24, 2009

I wanted to draw attention to a new paper in JAMA recently because it reveals a lot about how conditional most of the statements we make in behavioral genetics are. Every time you hear a news article that says, "Gene for depression found," I want you to think about this case. //--> Risch et…