There is a hyper-intelligent mammal in the oceans with whom we might communicate if only we were a more empathetic and patient species. This is the unspoken assumption behind most coverage I see of dolphins. But since 2013, when I read the book reviewed below, I view those ideas in a completely different light. One […]
This post first appeared more than four years ago, and I wish I could tell you the state of Alzheimer’s treatment had progressed significantly since then. Mostly the change has been for the worse–baby boomers are falling victim to the disease en masse. But Alzheimer’s or no, the words of Sister Mary (see below) are […]
Back in the day, we used to run an intermittent series called Penis Friday, also known as TGIPF. It involved things like banana slug sex and deep sea squid sex. Then #metoo happened, and we kind of lost our taste for it. But bed bugs are on the rise around the world, and you, Dear […]
There’s a kind of unassailable, depressing logic to this that drives me to despair of the entire human project. So I thought I would share it broadly! Perhaps someone can point me to a counterargument (preferably in cartoon format). —- https://abstrusegoose.com/276
Jessa Gamble is embedded in an experimental evolution lab at the University of Ottawa. Hope Jahren writes that you can hear corn growing in the Midwest. It sounds like the collective rustle of husks adjusting to accommodate the day’s inch of growth. I am tempted to put a microphone in the incubator. Would my bacteria […]
Jessa Gamble is embedded in an experimental evolution lab at the University of Ottawa. What I cannot simulate, stepping into the daily life of a lab and its early career researchers, is the stress they feel. I do not, except vicariously, buzz with the manic tension of finalizing a five-year NSERC grant. I am not […]
Evolution, we are often reminded, conducts itself at a glacial pace. It throws its dice and picks its favorites over thousands of generations—plenty of time, we wearily explain, for a functional eye to develop. By the same slow token, this process, life’s old standby for adapting to new environments, will not be fast enough […]
I spent this Labour Day weekend at a hunting and fishing club of which my father is a member. The Dumoine River Rod and Gun Club was celebrating its 100th anniversary, and forty-or-so members and relatives careened their way up the hills and dales of the old road to the club lodge for the gathering. […]