From American Scientist, Michael Berube reviews On the Origins of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction by Brian Boyd. How the scientist got his ideas: David Barash and Judith Eve Lipton explain why we shouldn't be too dismissive of our inner just-so stories. A review of The Three Cultures: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and the Humanities in the 21st Century by Jerome Kagan. A review of Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science by Carol Kaesuk Yoo. Does culture prevent or drive human evolution? Mark Stoneking investigates. Some biologists find an urge in human nature to help. Franz De Waal on how the most profound bonds between people begin in our bodies with imitation and synchronized movements. Edward Dolnick reviews de Waal's The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society (and more and more). A review of Why We Cooperate by Michael Tomasello (and more at The Onion). A review of The Selfish Genius: How Richard Dawkins Rewrote Darwin’s Legacy by Fern Elsdon-Baker. From Edge, Richard Dawkins on growing up in ethology. Darwinian theory was the best idea of all time, but why did it take so long to evolve, and what if we had 16 fingers? Herbert Gintis on Darwin and modern science. Quietly tending the plants in his greenhouse, Darwin cast us out of Eden for the second time. A review of Of Apes and Ancestors: Evolution, Christianity, and the Oxford Debate by Ian Hesketh. The argument between science and theology is as old as ancient Greece, where scientific rationalism first flourished, but it was revived with the advent of Darwinism (and more).
