NEWS & VIEWS

Interview (8 Feb) - Philip Kitcher is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and one of the most influential philosophers of science of the past two decades. His writings have been distinguished by the depth clarity of his analysis and the broad range of the questions on which he has written. [more]

Cheating (8 Feb) - We'd never lie or cheat, would we? A growing body of research suggests that in fact, we would, and do, on a regular basis. Doctors prescribe drugs that patients don't need. Students lie about that advanced tutorial in ancient Greek on a college application. Ever padded an expense report? You get the idea. All deceptions big and small, some say, are evidence that the land of the free, and home of the brave, is more like the land of greed, home of the depraved. [more]

War (7 Feb) - Why did Colin Powell say of Saddam on February 24, 2001: "He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours."? [more]

Interview (6 Feb) - 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. [more]

Evolution (6 Feb) - According to the Georgia Department of Education, the word evolution is a "controversial buzzword" that should be removed from the state's biology curriculum. In this hour, we'll take a look at science education in schools. Should evolution be out? And what should science class teach us about the age and origins of the universe? Join NPR's Ira Flatow for a look at new challenges to teaching evolution in public schools. [more]

Pain (5 Feb) - Pain hurts less when it is inflicted by a woman, researchers have found. Students were asked to put their fingers in a clamp which was tightened until the pain was unbearable. Researchers from the University of Westminster found that people allowed women to turn the clamp much further than men. [more]

Sex - mass media (5 Feb) - Janet Jackson's two seconds of bare flesh at the Super Bowl have launched a new rocket in the culture wars. The heads of CBS and MTV say they were shocked, shocked to find nudity had made its way into the Superbowl. The media moguls are repenting, making amends, kicking Janet out of the Grammies and even editing out a scene from ER that reveals the breast of an 80 year old woman. [more]

Antidepressants (5 Feb) - The British government, looking at suicide in its drug trials has told its doctors not to medicate children with most antidepressants on the market. The FDA is now doing its own investigation. Anti-depressants. Are they a chance at a better life, or do they raise the risk of losing it? [more]

Science (5 Feb) - A lot of scientific papers are inherently incomprehensible and dull. But cancer researcher Chris McCabe has plans to change all that. [more]

Neanderthals (5 Feb) - NPR's Madeleine Brand talks with Ira Flatow, host of NPR's Talk of the Nation Science Friday, about the fate of the Neanderthals. The species vanished about 30,000 years ago -- and now scientists think they have finally figured out why. [more]

RESEARCH & COMMENTARY

Sperm competition (8 Feb) - We examine some of the implications of the possibility that the human penis may have evolved to compete with sperm from other males by displacing rival semen from the cervical end of the vagina prior to ejaculation. The semen displacement hypothesis integrates considerable information about genital morphology and human reproductive behavior, and can be used to generate a number of interesting predictions. [more]

Language (7 Feb) - For more than 60 years, scientists have known that a strip of neural tissue that runs ear-to-ear along the brain's surface orchestrates most voluntary movement, from raising a fork to kicking a ball. A new brain-imaging study has revealed that parts of this so-called motor cortex also respond vigorously as people do nothing more than silently read words. [more] and [more]

Babytalk (4 Feb) - Some parents may think it is undignified or detrimental, but babytalk is essential to the full development of a baby's brain, says a researcher at the University of Alberta. [more]

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Cognitive performance - genetics (4 Feb) - As the US population ages, there is an increasing effort to understand the underlying mechanisms that contribute to learning and memory. This effort could be of critical importance to scientists trying to decipher how the molecular genetic mechanisms of learning and memory are disrupted or impaired. The results of a new study provide evidence that individual differences in some cognitive functions may have a genetic basis. [more]

Depression (3 Feb) - Twenty-five per cent of females between the ages of 16 to 19 will experience an episode of major depression and smokers are more likely to become depressed, according to a unique study led by a University of Alberta researcher. [more]

Adolescence (2 Feb) - Nine experts at a November symposium spoke on what's driving some young people to abuse substances, court legal trouble, bully peers and attempt suicide. [more]

Mental Illness (2 Feb) - Under the leadership of Tom Insel, the National Institute of Mental Health will direct its dollars toward research relevant to the treatment of mental illness. [more]

Violence - Melvin Konner reviews Evolutionary Psychology and Violence edited by Richard W. Bloom and Nancy Dess. [review]

Thinking - human evolution - Andreas Wilke and Rui Mata review How Homo Became Sapiens: On the Evolution of Thinking by Peter Gärdenfors. [review]

Social theory - Marlene Zuk reviews Natural Selection and Social Theory: Selected Papers of Robert Trivers. [review]

Science - David Barash reviews A Devil's Chaplain by Richard Dawkins. [review] A review by H. Allen Orr. [review]

Consciousness - Bernard Baars reviews The Quest for Consciousness: A neurobiological approach by Christof Koch. [review]

Sex - Be Reid reviews The Trouble with Nature: Sex in Science and Popular Culture by Roger Lancaster. [review]