Book Review: The Humans Who Went Extinct

Dan Agin, 11.15.2009

Author/Neuroscientist

Our unique American intellectual tragedy is that of all Western countries we have the largest percentage of people who propose that modern humans essentially descended intact from the clouds.

A Memory of Claude Lévi-Strauss

Scott Atran, 11.07.2009

Professor and author

In 1974, when I was a graduate student in anthropology at Columbia University, I wanted to organize a discussion of universals. At the time, I was working for Margaret Mead as one of her assistants.

The Amazing Story Of Charles Darwin And His Homeopathic Doctor

Dana Ullman, 11.06.2009

Expert in homeopathic medicine

Virtually every biography of Charles Darwin refers to his health problems and acknowledges that the one physician who provided an effective treatment for him was Dr. James Manby Gully.

The Evolution of Technology

Dr. Jim Taylor, 10.30.2009

Ph.D. in Psychology, consultant, speaker, author, and teacher at the University of San Francisco

Have you ever thought about how far we've come in our ability to connect with others and how far we'll go? I've been thinking a lot about connectivity recently and have always found that looking back to where we came from can help us better understand where we are today and, more importantly, where we may be going in the future.

Daring To Bear Witness

Andrew Z. Cohen, 11.05.2009

Founder, Editor in Chief, EnlightenNext magazine

We must be ruthless in our rationality in order to authentically transmit the light of the trans-rational God in the twenty-first century. This is an enormous task, but our willingness to take it on will slowly but surely make a profound difference.

Evolve or Die: Why Reinvent Independent Bookstores?

Praveen Madan, 10.29.2009

Partner, Booksmith, Berkeley Arts

We believe that independent bookstores can have a great future and we are betting our careers on it.

Can You Change the Past?

Deepak Chopra, 10.26.2009

Author, Sirius/XM radio host

The sum of the matter is this: physical reality begins and ends with the observer. We cannot go beyond the observer with our concepts of space and time.

In Praise of Slow Thinking

Carl Honore, 10.23.2009

Author, In Praise of Slowness

Slow Thinking is intuitive, woolly and creative. It is what we do when the pressure is off, and there is time to let ideas simmer on the back burner. It yields rich, nuanced insights and sometimes surprising breakthroughs.

Practicing Science -- With or Without Religion?

Dan Agin, 10.23.2009

Author/Neuroscientist

The problem for the working scientist is that the essence of science is a self-conscious and mandatory objectivity -- which means dogma and doctrine are essentially antithetical.

Darwin and Development

Dennis Whittle, 10.22.2009

CEO of GlobalGiving

"Growth is in...

Just Listen (I Doubt It) Evolution Interrupted

Mark Goulston, M.D., 10.20.2009

I am not an evolution doubter. I believe it is real. I believe it has happened to bring us to where we are now. However, I also believe that it is on hiatus.

CDs and Ardi and Vooks, Oh My!

Michael Sigman, 10.19.2009

Writer/ Editor, Media Consultant, Music Publisher

It can be exhilarating to contemplate the digital and evolutionary future. But I don't know if I could bear a world of "vookcases," "vook reports," and God forbid, a New York Review of Vooks.

Was "Ardi" a Liberal?

Frans de Waal, 10.18.2009

What if we descend, not from a blustering chimp-like ancestor, but from a gentle, bonobo-like ape? What if we share characteristics with both of these relatives instead of the one favored by our political ideology?

Thank You Darwin: Phallus Evolution

Suzie Heumann, 10.16.2009

Founder of www.tantra.com.

My own evolution wanderings have caused me to wonder for a long time about why the human penis is structured the way it is.

The Scientists' Bark

G.A. Bradshaw, 10.15.2009

The author of Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us About Humanity examines new findings from primatology and neurobiology.

Of Darwin, Disney, God,and William Burroughs

Jan Herman, 10.15.2009

Arts and culture writer.

Darwin simply redefined God as a kind of super Walt Disney who changes one thing into another on a whim. Life has been viewed as an animated cartoon ever since.

It's Time to Teach Children About Money

Don McNay, 10.12.2009

Award-winning financial columnist, author, commentator and personal finance guru.

I'm convinced that most of the mistakes made handling money result from lack of information and bad habits formed in childhood.

Nicholas Wade, Wadeian Evolution, and Twisted Knickers

Dan Agin, 10.13.2009

Author/Neuroscientist

The intellectual difficulty is that human social behavior is like an opera. Evolution provides the floorboards, but the arias, the drama, the story are most directly understood in terms of culture and history.

Morals Without God

Frans de Waal, 10.12.2009

After listening to the debate between Bill O'Reilly and Richard Dawkins, it struck me again that the resistance to evolutionary theory largely stems from the illusion that without God there can be no morality.

How Richard Dawkins Communicates Evolution (Surprise, It's Not the Same Thing as Atheism)

Chris Mooney, 10.07.2009

Chris Mooney is the author of Unscientific America (www.unscientificamerica.com).

After writing a bestselling atheist "consciousness-raiser," is it at all surprising that Dawkins now finds his evolution book being prominently linked to atheism in the media mind?

Evolution Reigns, But Darwin Outmoded

Deepak Chopra, 10.05.2009

Author, Sirius/XM radio host

Darwin's theory of evolution is an enormous over-simplification. It's simple enough to teach to children between recess and lunch. But it fails to capture the driving force and what's really going on.