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February 25, 2002
The books in the following sections should be savored by anyone curious about human behavior, and particularly about their own humanity. Taken together they constitute a treasure trove of research, insights and wisdom. Click on a section for a list of book pertaining to that topic. You can click on a title for a very brief review, or click on "Buy It!" to order a copy for yourself.
June 11, 2003
Both history and the emerging discoveries in evolutionary biology argue that individual liberty and free markets are the social conditions mankind requires for achieving peace and prosperity. 
June 11, 2003
The science of evolutionary biology reveals the flaws in established parenting theories while providing more rational techniques for raising happy and successful children.
June 11, 2003
Natural selection has worked relentlessly over millions of generations to make lust and love the most powerful of all desires. Understanding our genes influence mating behavior can be your secret key to success in love, sex and marriage.
June 11, 2003
Evolutonary biology has opened a new window into the problems of disease and aging, and promising new techniques for curing diseases, maintaining optimum health, and dramatically slowing the aging process.
June 11, 2003
Evolutionary psychology has deepened out understanding of how emotions and thinking are triggered by our genes, and has given us the tools that can lead to powerful new strategies for undertanding our actions and for achieving inner peace and happiness.
June 9, 2003
Background books on evolutionary theory, from classics to the latest releases.
April 19, 2010
How should we explain the origins of novel behaviors?
May 18, 2009
Celebrities and news-makers get grilled in exactly five minutes in a series for the BBC News website. This week, evolutionary biologist, atheist and author Richard Dawkins talks about death, being good and the point of life.
April 8, 2009
It's funny how pondering our origins—the origin of the universe, of life, of mind—leads us to question everything we thought we knew about ourselves in the here and now.
March 11, 2009
On the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday two myths persist about evolution and natural selection.
February 6, 2009
Charles Darwin’s ideas have spread widely, but his revolution is not yet complete.
January 22, 2009
Evidence for an alternative form of inheritance.
January 20, 2009
Remember when life was simpler, and diets weren’t full of processed food and chemicals? No, not the 1950s. Increasingly, we are developing nostalgia for a much earlier epoch: the Pleistocene.
January 5, 2009
As the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On The Origin of Species" approaches, the moment has come to ask how Darwin’s insights can be used profitably by policymakers.
October 17, 2008
One group of researchers thinks headline-grabbing scientific reports are the most likely to turn out to be wrong.
September 3, 2008
A beautiful model is no substitute for good data.
July 15, 2008
An article on Edward O. Wilson and his work.
May 9, 2008
Switches within DNA that govern when and where genes are turned on enable genomes to generate the great diversity of animal forms from very similar sets of genes.
May 8, 2008
Science is cruel. Reports about the benefits of healthy foods should be treated with great caution.
April 25, 2008
A conversation with Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness
April 18, 2008
If you think you understand it, you don't know nearly enough about it.
April 17, 2008
The first drafts of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which have never before been seen in public, are being published online for the first time today. The papers, now published by Darwin Online, include early calculations on his theory of evolution, thousands of drafts of his scientific writings, records of his experiments, and even arguments in favour of a wife.
March 3, 2008
Science writer Matt Ridley introduces physicist Alan Sokal's talk on the science of enquiry as part of the Sense About Science lecture series. (A 42 min. audio recording.)
February 8, 2008
Charles Darwin had a big idea, arguably the most powerful idea ever. And like all the best ideas it is beguilingly simple. In fact, it is so staggeringly elementary, so blindingly obvious that although others before him tinkered nearby, nobody thought to look for it in the right place.
June 15, 2007
Molecular biology is undergoing its biggest shake-up in 50 years, as a hitherto little-regarded chemical called RNA acquires an unsuspected significance.
April 27, 2007
The theory of the origins of the human species, Homo sapiens.
August 30, 2005
Assuming that the new paper is itself correct, problems with experimental and statistical methods mean that there is less than a 50% chance that the results of any randomly chosen scientific paper are true.
October 1, 2004
In the beginning there was Darwin. And then there was intelligent design. How the next generation of "creation science" is invading America's classrooms.
March 2, 2004
Richard Dawkins was looking magisterial, his demeanour and his dark suit apt for an occasion devoted to an eminent Victorian. This was Darwin Day, February 12, the anniversary of the great scientist's birth in 1809.
February 27, 2004
Evolutionary psychologists seek rigorous ways to investigate complex human traits. In so doing, they're pushing the boundaries of scientific explanation and addressing aspects of human behavior once believed to be off-limits for scientists.
February 9, 2004
Dr. David Buss is one of the most highly regarded names in the field of evolutionary psychology. He is so well-known that it is practically impossible to find an evolutionary work that does not in some way allude to him
January 19, 2004
A slim man of 74, his Southern gentility apparently undisturbed by his years at Harvard, Wilson seems a bit bemused by his success. "In my teens and 20s, I realized that I was a better scientist than most, but I never thought that I was truly exceptional until I started winning lots of prizes in my 40s. And then, I started doubting their validity."
June 12, 2003
Few biologists start out checking stresses on plane wings-fewer still would be able to turn that engineering expertise to good use. John Maynard Smith is the exception. He has made a virtue of a youthful, rebellious choice to become an engineer and has brought a uniquely mathematical, information-based approach to evolutionary theory. At the age of 83, he is acknowledged to be one of the 20th century's great thinkers and continues to do cutting-edge research. And he's still a rebel, recently casting doubt on the true meaning of mitochondrial DNA.
June 5, 2003
For the humans who would like to know what it takes to be an alpha man--if I were 25 and asked that question I would certainly say competitive prowess is important--balls, translated into the more abstractly demanding social realm of humans. What's clear to me now at 45 is, screw the alpha male stuff. Go for an alternative strategy. Go for the social affiliation, build relationships with females, don't waste your time trying to figure out how to be the most adept socially cagy male-male competitor. Amazingly enough that's not what pays off in that system. Go for the affiliative stuff and bypass the male crap. I could not have said that when I was 25.
May 29, 2003
We're beginning to get some revolutionary new ideas about how social behavior originated, and also how to construct a superorganism. If we can define a set of assembly rules for superorganisms then we have a model system for how to construct an organism.
May 27, 2003
How can there be freedom and free will in a deterministic world? "Human freedom," philosopher Daniel C. Dennett writes in his important new book
Freedom Evolves, "is not an illusion; it is an objective phenomenon, distinct from all other biological conditions and found in only one species, us."
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