Deconstructing, psychoanalysing, close reading or rather viewing, rewinding ‘The Sopranos’…are academics watching a little too much television?… Read the rest

Jared Diamond reviews book on evolutionary explanation of religion in which contentious, often oversimplified ideas are treated fairly.… Read the rest

What seems like the reasonable compromise position, that human nature is half genes and half upbringing, can still get it wrong, Steven Pinker says. Sometimes it’s 100% one or the other.… Read the rest

Robert Wright invites Steven Pinker and Martin Seligman to talk about happiness, genes and psychology on Slate.… Read the rest

David Barash reviews S. J. Gould’s The Structure of Evolutionary Theory.… Read the rest

Paul Gross considers the reputation of Stephen Jay Gould among colleagues as well as the general public, and finds some discrepancies.… Read the rest

Even on the left, even the secular left, criticism of religion is not allowed.… Read the rest

Though the process worked and the fraud was exposed, scientists wish the process had worked a bit faster.… Read the rest

Jeremy Rifkin’s ideas about hydrogen fuel cells may depend too much on starry-eyed hopes for ‘new consciousness’.… Read the rest

John Tooby examines the paradox of Darwin’s celebrity despite widespread skepticism about natural selection.… Read the rest

Study of the psychological effects of inequality attracts thinkers to evolutionary theory, thus beginning to heal the breach between sociobiology and the Left.… Read the rest

Anti-abortion doctor who writes books on “healing power of Jesus” appointed by Bush administration to drug-review panel.… Read the rest

Economists add cognitive psychology, laboratory experiment to the old ‘rational choice’ view.… Read the rest

Steven Pinker interview explores why sociobiology is so upsetting to both left and right.… Read the rest

Studies on jealousy agree on evolutionary origin but differ on how it plays out.… Read the rest

Another skirmish in the long-running debate over how evolution shapes sexual differences.… Read the rest

A Georgia school board, in Postmodern vein, says diversity of opinion is the way to go–at least when it comes to evolution.… Read the rest

Didactic impulses or nationalist piety can shape the work of even the most detached biographer.… Read the rest

Marina Warner on the spiral of duplicity between thoughtful men and women and bogus mediums.… Read the rest

Vulgar Kaelism gets it wrong: she did not think popular movies were automatically art, and she was not a moral relativist.… Read the rest