raghblog

Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction by Samir Okasha   Samir Okasha is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bristol, UK. His specialty is the philosophy of biology, especially evolutionary biology. His best-known book is Evolution and the Levels of Selection (1) , which was awarded the 2009 Lakatos Prize, named after the famous Hungarian philosopher of mathematics Imre Lakatos.   Okasha is only the second professional philosopher immersed in biology that I know of, Michael Ruse being the other (2, 3) who often wrote perceptively about the Evolution-Creation controversies.   The philosophical writings in biology I am most familiar with are those of biologists with a profound interest in philosophy, such as Peter Medawar and Ernst Mayr.   I have devoured Medawar’s many highly readable books such as Pluto’s Republic: Incorporating The Art of the Soluble and Induction and Intuition in Scientific Thought ( 4) , The...

  Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test by Marlene Zuk   Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test by Marlene Zuk A scientist's duty is incomplete until she writes about her work, first for the specialists in her field, then for the larger scientific community, and finally for the larger public. And the final step will inevitably include research beyond her own laboratory. Few scientists complete all three tasks; worse, many feel they are unnecessary. In recent times, I am delighted to see some outstanding exceptions. Recently, I had the great pleasure of reading two remarkable books (in the form of pre-publication manuscripts): The Social Lives of Birds by Joan Strassmann, a wasp and slime mold researcher and The Origin of Language: How We Learned to Speak and Why by the Honey Bee researcher Madeleine Beekman. And now I just read Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test: How Behavior Evolves and Why It Matters by Marlene Zuk, an ...

  The Social Genome: The New Science of Nature and Nurture by Dalton Conley     The Social Genome: The New Science of Nature and Nurture by Dalton Conley Dalton Conley is a Professor of Sociology at Princeton University. With a BA in the Humanities from the University of California, Berkeley, an MPA in Public Policy, and a PhD in Sociology, both from Columbia University, Dalton spent many years investigating the causes of variation in health and socioeconomic status among humans, resulting in several books. Apparently, he was not entirely satisfied as he felt something was missing in his analysis. That something he realized was the role of genes. So, he returned to school to study genetics and got an MS and PhD in Genomics from New York University. Now, he seems a little more satisfied with his new analyses. These are brilliantly summarized in his latest book, The Social Genome . Humans have always been interested in the role of genes in shaping hu...

  How to Write a Thesis by Umberto Eco     A German-Italian friend told me, to my great surprise, that the Italian polymath and author of the novel “The Name of the Rose”, Umberto Eco had written a book entitled “How to Write a Thesis”. I just read it (41 years after I defended my PhD thesis and a year after my last student defended her thesis—it’s never too late) and what a marvellous book it is! I learned even more about doing research in the Humanities than about how to write a thesis, not that the latter was any less instructive. We might be tempted to argue that it is not relevant to the natural sciences but then we will do so at our own peril and squander an opportunity to learn from so much good advice.   There are many gems in the book but I will quote just one, from the author’s Introduction to the 1985 (Italian) edition, in the confidence that it will entice you to read the book, even if you are a natural scientist.   “Here I...

  SMELL – A Very Short Introduction by Matthew Cobb   A Very Short Introduction by Oxford University Press is “a thoroughly good idea” as the TIMES describes it. Since 1995, OUP has published over 650 little volumes in this series, each about 100 pages long, on everything from Abolitionism to Zionism . I have read several and must confess to coming away with the feeling that some of them are bit dry and crammed. But SMELL by Matthew Cobb is delightful—scholarly, informative, witty, anecdotal, and has a personal touch. With chapters on How We Smell; Smelling with Genes; Smell Signals; Smell, Location, and Memory; The Ecology of Smell; Smell in Culture; and Smell of the Future; it is a concise introduction to everything we would want to know about smell, complete with an enticing set of Further Reading and References . I have been toying with the idea of writing one on “The Insect Societies” but have been put off reading some of the other volumes. Now, I ...