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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.
November 23, 2009
Category: Orchids & Dandelions (behav genetics)
I'll be on WNYC's Brian Lehrer show this morning, 11:06 to 11:25, discussing my Atlantic story about the "orchid gene" hypothesis, which recasts some of our most important vulnerability genes -- depression, ADHD, hyperaggression and the like -- as genes that can also underlie heightened function both as individuals and a species.
Posted by David Dobbs at 1:00 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 13, 2009
I will suck your gruyere Tyler Cowen on why people love vampire tales: Vampire stories offer a platform for...
Posted by David Dobbs at 11:39 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One of my favorite Roz Chast cartoons shows a woman dumping out the high-falutin' contents of a filing cabinet...
Posted by David Dobbs at 2:26 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 12, 2009
Is this the foreshadowing of a highly unethical marketing practice? Marketing based on MAO-A genotype, as determined from mailed-in...
Posted by David Dobbs at 6:33 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brains and minds
This is a good example of how reflexive diagnoses, as PTSD has become for any combat veteran (and sometimes even prospective combat veterans -- i.e., troops preparing to deploy), can do harm. They can lead you to ignore other possible causes of the symptoms on display.
Posted by David Dobbs at 11:36 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture of science
Ray Tallis takes to those who paint all things neuro.
Posted by David Dobbs at 10:03 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 10, 2009
Category: Brains and minds
This is a transformative, even startling view of human frailty and strength. For more than a decade, proponents of the vulnerability hypothesis have argued that certain gene variants underlie some of humankind's most grievous problems: despair, alienation, cruelties both petty and epic. The orchid hypothesis accepts that proposition. But it adds, tantalizingly, that these same troublesome genes play a critical role in our species' astounding success.
Posted by David Dobbs at 8:15 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 7, 2009
James Fallows gets the shootings right, as he does so much else: In the saturation coverage right after the...
Posted by David Dobbs at 5:18 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 6, 2009
Category: Culture of science
It was in this unique archipelago that Alexander Agassiz found the evidence he felt proved beyond doubt that Darwin's theory of coral reef formation was wrong, dead wrong.
Posted by David Dobbs at 6:57 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 5, 2009
Tell me that doesn't leave you wanting more. Ed Yong delivers: Male bats create tents by biting leaves until...
Posted by David Dobbs at 2:46 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
