Category Archives: Evolution

Evolution and the Teenaged Brain

Posted on Monday 28 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

From The New Yorker, August 31st, a review/essay by Elizabeth Kolbert on two books about the teenaged brain, The Terrible Teens. Many interesting points. Every adult has gone through adolescence, and studies have shown that if you ask people to … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Evolution | Comments Off on Evolution and the Teenaged Brain

About Ben Carson

Posted on Thursday 24 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Ben Carson is the Republican presidential candidate, a non-politician (like Trump and Fiorina), who has a calm demeanor and is reportedly a brilliant neurosurgeon. And is also a creationist, who dismisses evolution and the Big Bang as “fairy tales”. How … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Evolution, Provisional Conclusions | Comments Off on About Ben Carson

Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction

Posted on Tuesday 30 June 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

This book won the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction (and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award). I finally got around to it on my plane flight back east a month ago. The title refers to five prominent … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, Science | Comments Off on Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction

Revisiting Carl Sagan’s The Cosmic Connection

Posted on Friday 26 June 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

The Cosmic Connection, published in 1973, was the first popular book by Carl Sagan, after some academic tomes and an anthology of essays about UFOs, who later gained much fame as the author and host of the 1980 book and … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, Personal history, Quote at Length, Science, Space | Comments Off on Revisiting Carl Sagan’s The Cosmic Connection

Links and Comments: Lucky Numbers; Paleo diet; Narratives about Charleston; Pinker on violence, and the news media

Posted on Wednesday 24 June 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

First, keying off my earlier post today about the Alan Lightman book, here’s an essay by George Johnson in the New York Times about Humankind’s Existentially Lucky Numbers. Four fundamental forces rule reality, but why is the number not three … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Culture, Evolution, Narrative | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Lucky Numbers; Paleo diet; Narratives about Charleston; Pinker on violence, and the news media

James Morrow: We’re not tourists on this planet, we’re citizens

Posted on Wednesday 24 June 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Many thoughts resonate with me in the James Morrow interview in the June issue of Locus, which I excerpted here. E.g., That’s the great gift of the 18th-century Enlightenment, that insistence on a conversation that must never stop, a conversation … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Culture, Evolution, Personal history, Quote at Length | Comments Off on James Morrow: We’re not tourists on this planet, we’re citizens

The Human Impact on Earth; About Book Culling

Posted on Monday 22 June 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

A nice Slate photo gallery, a couple days ago, which is not unrelated to the issue of the Sixth Extinction: Gorgeous, Stunning Satellite Images of the Human Impact on Earth. I especially recommend watching the video linked at the end, … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution | Comments Off on The Human Impact on Earth; About Book Culling

The Sixth Extinction and the Pope’s Encyclical

Posted on Monday 22 June 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Weekend Facebook post, amended: The Sixth Extinction: Curious this topic is in the news suddenly, all over the past couple days, since the idea has been recognized for years and the latest Pulitzer Prize winning nonfiction book, by Elizabeth Kolbert, … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Evolution, Religion | Comments Off on The Sixth Extinction and the Pope’s Encyclical

Narrativium and Lies-to-children

Posted on Thursday 18 June 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I was looking at the third volume in this series, published in the US last week (the publisher, Penguin Random House/Anchor, has kindly been sending me copies), and realized the book wasn’t at all what I’d thought at first glance … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Children, Evolution, Narrative | Comments Off on Narrativium and Lies-to-children

Links and Comments: Modern Physics; Evolution and Strangers; Coming out in totalitarian societies; Elizabeth Kolbert on Mars

Posted on Monday 8 June 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Sunday’s New York Times has a “Gray Matter” essay on A Crisis at the Edge of Physics by Adam Frank and Marcelo Gleiser* is about whether the empirical method — validating theories via predictions and evidence — does not work … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, Physics, Science, The Gays | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Modern Physics; Evolution and Strangers; Coming out in totalitarian societies; Elizabeth Kolbert on Mars