Now on ScienceBlogs: Sibley and Ahlquist's 'Tapestry'
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.
Category: Brains and minds
PTSD, pharma, adjuvants, bad movies -- these are a few of my favorite things, and readers' too. How'd Neil get in here? I love him.
Posted by David Dobbs at 5:23 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brains and minds
The week's best -- with new features!
Posted by David Dobbs at 2:14 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
Neuroskeptic takes a sharp look at how our expanding definition of depression paralleled our expanding use of antidepressants -- and perhaps led to antidepressant's poor performance in the less severely depressed. T
Posted by David Dobbs at 8:11 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Art
The month's goodies included orchids and dandelions; more of those; Shakespeare; toddlers in many permutations; and, naturally, a bit of stress.
Posted by David Dobbs at 11:45 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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
Category: Brains and minds
The concern dominating the Motherlode commenter thread responses, and in a few other places as well, is whether the "Orchid Children" of my title are what many people call "gifted" children (defined roughly as very smart kids who have behavioral issues requiring some special handling). The short answer to this question -- that is, whether by "orchid children" I mean smart-but-difficult -- is No.
Posted by David Dobbs at 3:12 PM • 24 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Books
PTSD, orchid children, military suicides, coral isles, and adjuvants. That was a SLOW month at Neuron Culture.
Posted by David Dobbs at 3:20 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: 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
This implies that religious beliefs and behavior emerged not as sui generis evolutionary adaptations, but as an extension (some would say "by product") of social cognition and behavior. May be something to that, Razib says — but it would be nice "get in on the game of normal human variation in religious orientation (as opposed to studies of mystical brain states which seem focused on outliers)."
Posted by David Dobbs at 6:51 AM • 1 Comments •
built on facts 02.09.2010
starts with a bang! 02.10.2010
greg laden's blog 02.10.2010
casaubon's book 02.11.2010
uncertain principles 02.11.2010
