Jared Diamond reviews book on evolutionary explanation of religion in which contentious, often oversimplified ideas are treated fairly.
Category: Latest News
Welcome to our archive of news stories relevant to the project of fighting fashionable nonsense. The stories are drawn from the electronic pages of the world’s media. On this page, you’ll find links to those stories that have been featured on Butterflies and Wheels during the current year. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find links to separate archives of stories from previous years.
We’re always pleased to hear about news stories that you think should be featured on Butterflies and Wheels. Just send an email here, if you want to point one out to us.
A note about links
Inevitably links go out of date. We suggest, therefore, that you make hard-copies of the stories that particularly interest you.
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Journalists adore, biologists not so much
Paul Gross considers the reputation of Stephen Jay Gould among colleagues as well as the general public, and finds some discrepancies.
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Relies too heavily on rhetoric
David Barash reviews S. J. Gould’s The Structure of Evolutionary Theory.
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Pinker, Wright and Seligman chat
Robert Wright invites Steven Pinker and Martin Seligman to talk about happiness, genes and psychology on Slate.
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Faked research and how it is caught
Though the process worked and the fraud was exposed, scientists wish the process had worked a bit faster.
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Audible gasp
Even on the left, even the secular left, criticism of religion is not allowed.
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Good idea but over-optimistic
Jeremy Rifkin’s ideas about hydrogen fuel cells may depend too much on starry-eyed hopes for ‘new consciousness’.
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He was admired, his ideas were rejected
John Tooby examines the paradox of Darwin’s celebrity despite widespread skepticism about natural selection.
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A Darwinian Left
Study of the psychological effects of inequality attracts thinkers to evolutionary theory, thus beginning to heal the breach between sociobiology and the Left.
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Senator Clinton queries theology-based research
Anti-abortion doctor who writes books on “healing power of Jesus” appointed by Bush administration to drug-review panel.
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Nobel economists go against the grain
Economists add cognitive psychology, laboratory experiment to the old ‘rational choice’ view.
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Venus and Mars revisited
Studies on jealousy agree on evolutionary origin but differ on how it plays out.
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Hobbes was right, Rousseau was wrong
Steven Pinker interview explores why sociobiology is so upsetting to both left and right.
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It depends on how you frame the question
Another skirmish in the long-running debate over how evolution shapes sexual differences.
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Just another theory, yet again
A Georgia school board, in Postmodern vein, says diversity of opinion is the way to go–at least when it comes to evolution.
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Euphemistic evasion or sententious aphorism
Didactic impulses or nationalist piety can shape the work of even the most detached biographer.
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Ghastly, shameful, inadvertently hilarious
Marina Warner on the spiral of duplicity between thoughtful men and women and bogus mediums.
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Pauline Kael against sleep-inducing lies
Vulgar Kaelism gets it wrong: she did not think popular movies were automatically art, and she was not a moral relativist.
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Self-esteem not a miracle cure after all?
When scholars actually look at evidence, they find rapists and failing students as pleased with themselves as the next person.
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When commitments hit home
Croatian President Stipe Mesic tells his fellow Croatians they must honour all their commitments, not only the painless ones.