Reef sightings : Neuron Culture

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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.

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Reef sightings

Posted on: September 2, 2009 6:37 AM, by David Dobbs

I was pleased to see my book Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral written up in a couple of venues recently. Over at The Primate Diaries, Eric Michael Johnson, who does on history and philosophy of science, looks at the "terrific argument" that the book follows -- an argument simultaneously about how coral reefs form, how to do science, and (a third layer out), creationism versus empiricism. A nice write-up -- you can't go wrong starting a piece about the creationism-empiricism debate (among other things) with an atomic blast.

The book is also mentioned in a more wide-ranging interview of myself at The Reef Tank, a site that covers all things coral, and often runs interviews with scientists, writers, and others interested in reefs. We talked about Reef Madness as well as The Great Gulf, my book on the collapse of the New England fishery (and how to count fish). Among other treasures: This photo of me with a goosefish, taken while I was collecting survey data on a research cruise aboard NOAA's R/V Albatross IV, a decade ago this November.