Are the fittest always the ones who survive? I'm thinking of "fitness" in its everyday meaning, not its technical meaning. We might expect that the …
E-Textbooks and the Blind
If you are blind and studying any of the sciences, there are a lot of obstacles in your way. One of them is the textbook. Somehow, you must get the …
Language, Lying, and Evolution
I recently received an email from a cognitive psychologist asking whether it is plausible that human use of language for deception is an adaptation. …
Is a picture worth 1,000 words?
We all know that making someone a drawing is a great way to explain scientific ideas. Reviews of textbooks will talk about the quality of the …
Genomic Analysis of Identical Twins Finds Few Differences
There's an intriguing paper in today's issue of Nature. Sergio E. Baranzini and colleagues looked at three pairs of identical twins, two female pairs …
Genomic Analysis of Identical Twins Finds Few DifferencesRead More
Better Gene Discovery Through Evolutionary Reasoning
When I introduce evolution in class, I tell my students that the strongest evidence that Darwin was right is the success of modern biology. Evolution …
Better Gene Discovery Through Evolutionary ReasoningRead More
SimUText Ecology
Replace your ecology textbook If you've been following our blog, you've seen me make several posts about e-textbooks. One reason I've been following …
The Talented Dr. Fox, Part 2
The Role of Charisma in Teaching In an earlier post, I wrote about a classic paper from the education literature called The Dr. Fox Lecture: A …
Majors vs. Non-majors
Most universities have separate biology classes for non-majors, which are often taken by students who need to fulfill a "science" requirement to …
