Is it possible something awful lives at the bottom of Lake Tahoe? [more inside]
posted on Jul 21, 2008 - 18 answers

Literary Darwinism: A relatively new field of evolutionary psychology / literary theory. What has recently been written in argument against it? [more inside]
posted on Jun 3, 2008 - 7 answers

Help me find maps of the world's larger cities! [more inside]
posted on May 17, 2008 - 7 answers

What is the closest thing that other animals have to cooking? [more inside]
posted on Mar 22, 2008 - 27 answers

Help me find a book about evolution by Kirchner. [more inside]
posted on Mar 19, 2008 - 4 answers

ScienceFilter: Creationists, crystals, and thermodynamics. [more inside]
posted on Feb 6, 2008 - 19 answers

I am interested in the mimetic and narrative capacities of artefacts, how cultural remnants transmit information through time and how meaning is translated once an artefact is re-appropriated or examined from a new perspective. I have several avenues of study at the moment (a list in extended explanation), but would like some more ideas. Areas of critical theory, linguistics, evolutionary psychology and poetics are all relevant. [more inside]
posted on Jan 27, 2008 - 12 answers

At a cocktail party last weekend, an Anthropologist was telling me about an experiment/study where people were shown videos of various animals preying on one another, and then measured their reactions. The findings, he contends, were that humans were largely more sympathetic to the deaths of animals more similar to themselves (i.e. sharing a more recent common ancestor). What is this study, what is this area of research called, and where can I read more about it? [more inside]
posted on Jan 18, 2008 - 8 answers

Looking for unique schools or programs for the study of History. In the US or abroad. [more inside]
posted on Jan 3, 2008 - 13 answers

Is there an existing philosophical or cosmological model that regards the universe as a living thing with the observed patterns and "laws" of the universe being a reflection of an inherent model analogous to the genetic models of living things as we know them? My own uneducated philosophical meanderings have led me to this idea and I am wondering about developed theories or philosophies that follow similar lines. [more inside]
posted on Dec 7, 2007 - 12 answers

I am searching for examples of The Infinite, or the immeasurably large, in our mythologies and archetypes. I am also interested in the categories of Truth which came out of the emergence of Western, ontological thought. Does the trust in a rationally conceivable reality deny us the infinity of the mythological realm? By rooting ourselves in the present, and denying atemporal mythologies, do we also deny the infinite origins from where we came? [more inside]
posted on Nov 28, 2007 - 22 answers

Bernard Williams had a pretty low opinion of evolutionary biology. Are there any essays where he directly or indirectly criticizes the field? What about 'Shame and Necessity'? [more inside]
posted on Nov 27, 2007 - 12 answers

What is a good book about modern evolutionary theories? [more inside]
posted on Nov 14, 2007 - 15 answers

I need teaching resources about race: the biology of human "races"; why "race" is not biological but social; how racial categories have shifted over time and place; and related questions on teaching about race? This is as a supplement to reading The Mismeasure of Man in a university "Critical Thinking" class. I need more science and verifiable cross-cultural examples to back up my "there are no biological races" claim. [more inside]
posted on Nov 5, 2007 - 38 answers

OK, Sunday morning stream of consciousness ended up with me wondering about skin or more specifically, loose skin. [more inside]
posted on Oct 28, 2007 - 6 answers

New York Creative Writing/Critical Theory PHD: I am currently undertaking an MA in Creative Writing and Critical Theory in London, and plan to go on to PHD after I finish. I would ideally like to go to an East coast USA/New York university to do this (for several reasons). I'd like some help with finding a good list of possible institutions... [more inside]
posted on Oct 16, 2007 - 26 answers

My husband has become increasing interested in the study of evolution. Help us choose what college level courses he should take! [more inside]
posted on Sep 28, 2007 - 8 answers

How can it be that there exists not a single example of a working wheel in nature, which after all gave us (among other things) the eyeball?
posted on Sep 23, 2007 - 41 answers

What are the biological and/or evolutionary purposes behind a runny nose brought on by spicy foods? [more inside]
posted on Jul 23, 2007 - 9 answers

What are the factors that control/limit human strength? [more inside]
posted on Jul 2, 2007 - 12 answers

What is the evolutionary relevance of PMS?
posted on Jul 2, 2007 - 49 answers

I saw someone on the street recently wearing a black baseball cap that had "evolutionist" written on it. I've searched online since then to see where I could buy one, but haven't had any luck. Does anyone know where I can get one?
posted on May 19, 2007 - 11 answers

What are the best sources for a layman to learn more about evolutionary psychology? [more inside]
posted on May 18, 2007 - 33 answers

If we can't use all of our brain's potential, why does that potential exist? [more inside]
posted on Mar 10, 2007 - 22 answers

Why are there no freshwater squid?
posted on Mar 1, 2007 - 9 answers

"A human is halfway in size between an atom and the known universe"... This is a paraphrased quote I have come across several times. I like it. Who said it first? How true is it in the most literal sense? And, finally, what errors arrive in postulating a universe, or an atom, which can be measured AT ALL from our singular, relativistic, perspective? [more inside]
posted on Feb 18, 2007 - 14 answers

Help me find an old clip on genetic programming AI. [more inside]
posted on Feb 13, 2007 - 4 answers

Evolutionary Mechanisms Filter: Help me argue evolution with a friend, there's [more inside]
posted on Feb 12, 2007 - 24 answers

What percentage of biologists accept [unguided, non-theistic] evolution? Citation needed. [more inside]
posted on Dec 12, 2006 - 29 answers

Is there a good reference for the standard evolution vs. creationism arguments? [more inside]
posted on Nov 21, 2006 - 18 answers

Why can't vaccination encourage the evolution of viral potency?
posted on Oct 5, 2006 - 16 answers

Why do gnats fly into my eyes? [more inside]
posted on Aug 29, 2006 - 7 answers

I-believe-in-evolutionism-but... Filter: I am wondering what evidence exists that man descended from apes. [more inside]
posted on Aug 22, 2006 - 52 answers

Calling all audiophiles and music know-it-alls: Help a biologist explain evolution to college kids, using music as an analogy. [more inside]
posted on Aug 15, 2006 - 28 answers

Why do humans and animals(?) urinate from their sex organs? Are these two bodily functions in some way related? Are their examples of animals that pee & have sex with parts of their bodies that are spaced far apart? [more inside]
posted on Jul 22, 2006 - 32 answers

I'm on the hunt for sites and/or blogs about big ideas... Who wants to join me? [more inside]
posted on Jul 9, 2006 - 17 answers

What tv shows would you recommend for learning about history and evolution of human society and connections across times and places and disciplines ? [more inside]
posted on Jun 29, 2006 - 10 answers

Are Humans Evolving? [more inside]
posted on Jun 21, 2006 - 33 answers

Suppose it was possible to move between 2006 and thousands/millions of years ago. And suppose I snatched a baby from a 2006 maternity ward and swapped it with a baby born in the year 0006 as they lay in their maternity ward. [more inside]
posted on Jun 17, 2006 - 16 answers

Is there any evidence that physical laws have changed, or could possibly change over time? For example, has the speed of light - since the beginning of the universe - been the same, and will it always remain the same into the future? [more inside]
posted on May 31, 2006 - 23 answers

How does evolutionary theory explain the caterpillar-butterfly metamorphosis? [more inside]
posted on May 31, 2006 - 34 answers

Ive read that cancer can be pretty clever - securing nutrition by releasing hormones which cause the creation of blood vessels, employing various methods of fooling our immune system etc. All these seem (at least to my layman's mind) to be pretty specialized eh... 'behaviors' i guess is the word. My question is, how would they evolve? [more inside]
posted on May 18, 2006 - 22 answers

linguists: i vaguely remember a story that i can't verify. the gist is this: two groups of people who spoke the same language became separated by some minor geographical obstacles, like hills, and remained so for a period of years (decades, i think). upon analysis some years later, their common tongue had forked noticeably into fairly different languages. is this true? [more inside]
posted on May 13, 2006 - 17 answers

What experiments have been carried out where animals perform better than us at particular cognitive tasks? [more inside]
posted on May 9, 2006 - 13 answers

Any thoughts on why we (humans) roll our eyes back while thinking. We also sometimes crunch our brows. I notice people, including myself, do this when no one is looking at them as well as a signifier during conversation. But it is the action acted out alone that interests me? Could this action actually improve the brains ability to think? What, if any, evolutionary advantage could this offer?
posted on May 5, 2006 - 15 answers

I've been reading about evolutionary computing and artificial life and suchlike. As an exercise, I would like to make a multi-player online game where players can design creatures, which would then compete for survival. [more inside]
posted on May 4, 2006 - 18 answers

please help me find this wristwatch... [more inside]
posted on May 4, 2006 - 12 answers

Say that interethnic breeding has created a homogenous-looking mixed-race human species in the far-flung future. What kind of effect would this have on biodiversity? [more inside]
posted on Apr 14, 2006 - 22 answers

ToothEvolutionFilter: Why are human teeth so poorly "designed"? [more inside]
posted on Mar 21, 2006 - 29 answers

Using concepts from economics as a way to understand/explain evolution -- Does anyone know any good online or print resources that develop or discuss this? [more inside]
posted on Feb 23, 2006 - 6 answers