Blogging and teaching
If you're an instructor curious about how to introduce blogs in your courses, you may want to read this post by Daniel Lende at the new Neuroanthropology. He describes his experiences getting students...
View ArticlePositive selection on killer whale mtDNA
I've written about the study of selection on human mtDNA many times, and discussed the signs that Neandertal mtDNA may have disappeared because of selection. I love how larger samples are starting to...
View ArticlePlagiarism in science
Yuehong Zhang reports in brief in Nature[1] the extent of plagiarism in scientific papers submitted to one journal in China: Since October 2008, we have detected unoriginal material in a staggering 31%...
View ArticleEdited volumes
There have been a lot of new edited volumes in paleoanthropology and Paleolithic archaeology during the last several years. I can get only a fraction of these from my local university library, which is...
View ArticleWalton Ford exhibition
Nature has Martin Kemp review an art exhibition by Walton Ford ("Monkey business"), of interest because of the fine watercolor depictions of animals -- reminiscent of 19th century illustration -- in...
View ArticleiPad textbooks march forward
A California pilot study is going to give students iPads with e-textbooks for algebra. Students with iPads will have instant access to more than 400 videos from teaching experts walking them through...
View ArticleHeritability and genetic test essay
Neuroscientist Dorothy Bishop provides a student-level opinion piece in the Guardian that addresses the "missing heritability" problem without using the term: "Where does the myth of a gene for things...
View ArticleScholarly communication
Savage Minds: Wiley has posted double digit gains in revenue this last quarter. What will all you anthropologists who have worked for Wiley-Blackwell for free (reviewing, editing and promoting W-B...
View ArticleLasting supper
This is a great story about "portion sizes" increasing over the centuries in "Last Supper" paintings, but I haven't been able to get the paper yet. The Cornell University team studied 52 of the most...
View ArticleLascaux anniversaire
Bing today has made their image a beautiful photo of Lascaux, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the cave's discovery.
View Article"Science Enemies"
Do you have a "Science Enemy"? Dr. Becca hilariously describes her hate-hate relationship with "Science Enemy". My history with Science Enemy goes back around 10 years, when I was presenting my first...
View ArticleQuote: James Randi on scientists
From Randi, J. 1988. "The detection of fraud and fakery." Cell Mol Life Sci 44:287-288: Scientists are very easily deceived. They think logically, extrapolate possibilities from evidence presented,...
View ArticleNeandertal "hybrids"
My Wisconsin genetics colleague Sean Carroll writes in the NY Times this week about hybridization. A passage on adaptive combinations in hybrids concludes with the Neandertal story: It now appears that...
View ArticleStar search
Should we begrudge the astronomers their "Lucy"? The cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallised carbon, 4,000 km across, some 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus. It's the...
View ArticleArthouse cave art
A new film to debut at the Toronto Film Festival is a 90-minute 3-D exploration of Chauvet Cave, directed by Werner Herzog. The LA Times reports on the film: "Is Werner Herzog's new 3-D documentary a...
View ArticleLIFE photo-essay at Lascaux, 1947
A LIFE magazine photo-essay brings 15 previously unpublished pictures of Lascaux by Ralph Morse, who was the first professional photographer to enter the site: "Inside Lascaux: Rare, Unpublished."...
View Article"Are you the spirit of an ancient king?"
I enjoy "Destination Truth" and "Ghost Hunters". Of course, they're totally fake. Like tonight, for example, the "Destination Truth" team is walking around Angkor at night. Well, logically it's always...
View ArticleIf they have tentacles, will pouring water make a difference?
Well, it looks like the British Science Festival is going to be a whole lot stranger than the World Science Festival was: "Pope's astronomer says he would baptise an alien if it asked him" Speaking...
View ArticleThe shrinking youth
Yesterday the Journal of Human Evolution released a new paper by Rhonda Graves and colleagues, titled “Just how strapping was KNM–WT 15000?” [1]. The paper challenges almost 25-year-old estimates for...
View ArticlePolygenic traits and directional selection
This has been an eventful week for those of us who study the dynamics of recent selection in humans. The most significant event was the publication of a paper describing genetic analysis of a long...
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