Now on ScienceBlogs: My Mother's Hairbrush and the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
David Dobbs on science, nature, and culture.
I write on science, medicine, nature, culture and other matters for the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, National Geographic, Scientific American Mind, and other publications. (Find clips here.) Right now I'm writing my fourth book, The Orchid and the Dandelion, which explores the hypothesis that the genetic roots some of our worst problems and traits — depresison, hyperaggression, violence, antisocial behavior — can also give rise to resilience, cooperation, empathy, and contentment. The book expands on my December 2009 Atlantic article exploring these ideas.
I've also written three books, including Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral, which traces the strangest but most forgotten controversy in Darwin's career — an elemental dispute running some 75 years.
If you'd like, you can subscribe to Neuron Culture by email. You might also want to see more of my work at my main website or check out my Tumblr log.
May 30, 2008
Category: Sports
A particularly nice post by the Times' Tyler Knepper, who keeps the "Bats" blog: Luke Scott explains why hitting is...
Posted by David Dobbs at 8:21 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 28, 2008
Category: Brains and minds
“If I don’t play for a couple of days,” said Dr. Conrad, a third-year surgical resident at Harvard Medical School who also holds doctorates in stem cell biology and music philosophy, “I cannot feel things as well in surgery. My hands are not as tender with the tissue. They are not as sensitive to the feedback that the tissue gives you.” Like many surgeons, Dr. Conrad says he works better when he listens to music. And he cites studies, including some of his own, showing that music is helpful to patients as well — bringing relaxation and reducing blood pressure, heart rate, stress hormones, pain and the need for pain medication. But to the extent that music heals, how does it heal? The physiological pathways responsible have remained obscure, and the search for an underlying mechanism has moved slowly. Now Dr. Conrad is trying to change that.
Posted by David Dobbs at 6:52 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 26, 2008
Category: Brains and minds
A Chopin Nocturne...from Derek Bownds' MindBlog by [email protected] (Deric)Bownds blogs on neuro matters -- and, each week, posts a video...
Posted by David Dobbs at 8:37 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture of science
If journalists ... want the information they present to the public to be taken as credible, they need to err on the side of transparency, presenting not only the voices but also the relevant financial interests of the experts they feature. Failing to do so only damages message and messenger alike. But in the wake of the repeated scandals about drug-company concealment of drug-trial data, it’s strange that I have to spell this out.
Posted by David Dobbs at 9:30 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 21, 2008
Category: Brains and minds
Treadmills have been tried in VR before, of course, but early models were unconvincing — either too small to keep goggled wanderers on the platform or too slow, bouncy, or gap-ridden to feel the least bit real. The CyberWalk solves these problems with a stiff, gapless, 20 x 20-foot floor and movement and feedback systems that enable quick, fluid changes of direction.
Posted by David Dobbs at 6:58 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 9, 2008
Category: Brains and minds
"Prozac Nation: Revisited" a radio piece on antidepressants and suicide that ran on many public radio stations recently, "featured four prestigious medical experts discussing the controversial link between antidepressants and suicide" who all reportedly have financial ties to the makers of antidepressants -- as does the radio series, known as "The Infinite Mind," that produced the show.
Posted by David Dobbs at 1:55 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 7, 2008
Category: Culture of science
From Well, Tara Parker-Hope's health blog at the NY Times: More than half of the task force members who will...
Posted by David Dobbs at 10:41 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Environment/nature
I've been remiss in tracking here the farmed salmon issue I wrote about in the April/May Eating Well. Much...
Posted by David Dobbs at 10:14 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 6, 2008
Category: Brains and minds
That our brains account for 20 percent of our calorie use tends to amaze people, as it did me. Now it appears that about a third of that is devoted to brain maintenance rather than electrical signaling. The full dish here: Link: Why Does the Brain Need So Much Power?: Scientific American.
Posted by David Dobbs at 2:22 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
