Best Story Wins

Morgan Housel, on the art and power of storytelling: C. R. Hallpike is a respected anthropologist who once wrote a review of a young author’s recent book on the history of humans. It states: “It would be fair to say that whenever his facts are broadly correct they are not new, and whenever he tries to strike out on his own…

Evolution: Why it seems to have a direction, and what to expect next

Does evolution always and inevitably generates greater diversity and complexity, having a predictable direction? Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/evolution-direction-what-to-expect-next…

Urban Foxes May Be Self-Domesticating In Our Midst

sciencehabit quotes Science magazine: In a famous Siberian experiment carried out the 1950s, scientists turned foxes into tame, doglike canines by breeding only the least aggressive ones generation after generation. The creatures developed stubby snouts, floppy ears, and even began to bark. Now, it appears that some rural red foxes in the United Kingdom are doing this on their own. When…

Why do scientists give some species such unusual names?

The strange ways we name new species and the politics involved is explained in Stephen Heard’s book Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632831-000-why-do-scientists-give-some-species-such-unusual-names/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…