Winning ugly, but winning
The last time a president won with 60 percent of the vote, for instance, was when Lyndon Johnson trounced...
Posted by David Dobbs at 10:19 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Neuron Culture
David Dobbs on science, nature, and 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.
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.
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Recent Posts
- Top 5 Neuron Culture hits from January - plus Neil Young
- The mojo of open journalism, plus that itchy beta thing
- The Rise Of Marketing-Based Medicine (via Pharmalot)
- Hits of the week past
- Chess computing as a metaphor for Pharma. Who knew?
- Democrats Now See 'No Rush' on Health Care Bill
- Why do antidepressants work only for the deeply depressed? A neuroskeptical look
- Rice, alcohol, and really fast evolution in humans
- Ezra Klein - America spends way, way, way more on health care
- NEJM study finds post-event morphine cuts combat PTSD rates in half
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December 24, 2009
December 22, 2009
Is this where Gladwell wanders astray?
Amid the various recent whacks at considerations of Gladwell lately, I find this one, by Razib Khan, particularly helpful in...
Posted by David Dobbs at 7:08 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Sell the drugs, they pay you. Criticize the drugs, they sue you.
Category: Culture of science
So a company, angry at being accused of trying to suppress information, responds by ... sueing the guy who released the information.
Posted by David Dobbs at 3:13 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Rebooting science journalism, redux
Category: Culture of science
If good science writing were easy, we'd be choking on it. Instead, it's rare enough that when we find it, we celebrate it and pass on the links as something especially worth attending. Why pretend it's otherwise?
Posted by David Dobbs at 11:14 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 21, 2009
Jonah Lehrer on the Neuroscience of Screwing Up
Category: Culture of science
This Wired story from Jonah Lehrer examines something that too often goes unexamined: The monumental messiness of science. This merely puts science on a par with many other serious endeavors that people try to pursue with rigor and ambition -- like, say, writing.
Posted by David Dobbs at 4:38 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Radio hour - More orchidity, this time on New Hampshire Public Radio
Category: Brains and minds
I'll be on New Hampshire Public Radio's Word Of Mouth" noon-hour show tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec 22, talking with host Virginia Prescott about "Orchid Children," my recent Atlantic article about the genetic underpinnings of steady and mercurial ltemperaments. My segment will run about 10 minutes beginning at or just after noon.
Posted by David Dobbs at 1:26 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 18, 2009
Vaughan Bell on kicking the addiction habit. Get your fix!
Like a compulsive crack user desperately sucking on a broken pipe, we can't get enough of addiction. via slate.com...
Posted by David Dobbs at 3:48 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Is publishing really doomed by oversupply of writing?
Category: Digital culture
Agreed: There's robust supply of writing. But is there an oversupply of GOOD writing? If not, how to tap the people still willing to pay for it?
Posted by David Dobbs at 10:21 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Blogosauruses and bad bad bad bad science TV
Category: Culture of science
The times I've seen subjects I'd written about covered on TV -- DBS for depression, and Williams syndrome, which I'd written about for the Times Mag and both of which were subsequently covered by 60 MInutes -- the TV results were truly appalling.
Posted by David Dobbs at 9:24 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Stress is an old, old companion
Category: Brains and minds
That people in earlier times experienced a lot of stress shouldn't be a surprise. Yet, like Ford, I am surprised at how many people assume that stress is mainly a modern phenomenon, and an exception rather than the rule.
Posted by David Dobbs at 7:03 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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