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A Scar Nobly Got
By Michael Willrich | July 1, 2011
The story of the US government’s efforts to stamp out smallpox in the early 20th century offers insights into the science and practice of mass vaccination.
Book excerpt from Pox: An American History
By Michael Willrich | July 1, 2011
In Chapter 5, “The Stable and the Laboratory,” author Michael Willrich explores the burgeoning vaccine manufacture industry that ramped up to combat smallpox epidemics in turn-of-the-twentieth-century American cities.
Book excerpt from The Wild Life of Our Bodies
By Rob Dunn | June 4, 2011
In Chapter 9, “We Were Hunted, Which is Why All of Us are Afraid Some of the Time and Some of Us are Afraid All of the Time,” author Rob Dunn explains how predators shaped our evolution as we cowered and ran from their ravenous maws.
The Gravity of Life
By Rob Dunn | June 1, 2011
Whose well-being is threatened by our changing relationship with the myriad organisms that shaped the evolution of our species?
Book excerpt from The Philosophical Breakfast Club
By Laura J. Snyder | May 31, 2011
In Chapter 8, “A Divine Programmer,” author Laura J. Snyder explains how Darwin’s own ideas on evolution may have been influenced at lavish parties hosted by one of the club’s members, Charles Babbage.
Wanted: Another Scientific Revolution
By Laura J. Snyder | May 26, 2011
In the 19th century, four friends changed the way scientists viewed themselves. It’s time for another shake-up.
The Birds and the Bees
By Tim Birkhead | March 1, 2011
A recent book exposes what Darwin got wrong about sexual behavior in birds, and what his error tells us about the evolution of scientific knowledge.
Book excerpt from The Wisdom of Birds
By Tim Birkhead | March 1, 2011
In Chapter 9, “Darwin in Denial,” author Tim Birkhead explains how Darwin’s failure to recognize avian female promiscuity resulted in a century of misconceptions about sexual selection
Book excerpt from Everyday Practice of Science
By Frederick Grinnell | February 1, 2011
In Chapter 3, “Credibility: Validating Discovery Claims,” author Frederick Grinnell details the difficulty in making discoveries that buck current scientific paradigms.
The Evolution of Credibility
By Frederick Grinnell | February 1, 2011
The winding path that an interesting result takes to become a bona fide discovery is just one of the topics covered in this new book on the practice of science.
