archive

Academia, psychology, animals and evolution

From The Chronicle, echoes of McCarthyism: Will the Roberts Supreme Court protect academic freedom? Mark C. Rahdert says recent rulings aren't encouraging; after Virginia Tech: Disagreements over policies on guns and mental health complicate legislative efforts to protect students on college campuses; and ready for our close-up: When campuses become film sets, Hollywood deals put college ideals in compromising. Stalin good, Putin better? An article on politics, education, and indoctrination. Laurence Musgrove wants professors to feel the emotions that drew them to teaching and learning — and emotions generally.

A review of Rediscovering Empathy: Agency, Folk Psychology, and the Human Sciences by Karsten R. Stueber. My bad! A look at why we feel guilt in the first place. Obituary: Albert Ellis. Mastering Your Own Mind: Distracted? Angry? Envious? There's growing evidence that attention, emotion regulation—even love—are skills that can be trained through the practice of meditation. Perhaps it's time for you to become a high-performance user of your own brain. A review of A System Architecture Approach to the Brain: From Neurons to Consciousness by L. Andrew Coward. A look at how culture influences brain cells: Brain's mirror neurons swayed by ethnicity and culture. A review of Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious by Gerd Gigerenzer.

A review of Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved by Frans de Waal, Robert Wright, Christine M. Korsgaard, Philip Kitcher, and Peter Singer. A review of Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership by Martha C. Nussbaum. Bringing Moos and Oinks into the Food Debate: Animal rights activists move from the margin to the mainstream.

Some genitals fit, but what of the duck? Biologists who study genitalia, however, say even evolution doesn't always point to the most obvious explanation behind behavior or physiology. Bonobos are celebrated as peace-loving, matriarchal, and sexually liberated. Are they? Freeman Dyson on how the era of Darwinian evolution is over. What Finnish grandmothers reveal about human evolution: Biologist Virpi Lummaa's work reveals that humans may be the best subject to study for evolutionary effects across generations. Will DNA turn Madoc myth into reality? The search is on for evidence supporting the idea a Welsh prince settled in the Americas around 1170.