Science

National Magazine Samples:

• Darwin in Love. Charles Darwin, who of all people should have known better, married his first cousin. Did his love for Emma color his later works?

• The Brain Science Behind Conspiracy Theories. It might not be a lack of intelligence that leads many to believe wild—and wildly inaccurate—information, but instead our mind’s way of protecting us from feelings of isolation and despair.
  
  
• ‘Dear Enemies’ Are Made when a Song Sparrow Learns to Sing. For for males of the species, the teaching and the learning can make the wheel spin a little longer.
  
  
• Facial Recognition Development in Wasps Hints at a Mystery of Human Evolution. Scientists have long wondered how prehistoric humans quickly unstuck themselves from the Stone Age and rapidly became as intellectually and socially capable as modern humans. Recent discoveries about wasps may hold a clue.

• Bison versus Mammoths: New Culprit in the Disappearance of North America’s Giants. A scientist turns up new clues to the disappearance of North America’s giant beavers, saber-toothed cats and other large mammals.

• Outsmarting Dengue Fever. Why one scientist is vaccinating mosquitoes, not patients.

• Corals in Lust. Why they spawn only at twilight, and only a few times a year.

• Beauty and the Beasts. The sight of a pretty woman brings out the war monger in men.

• Hiking Las Vegas. Just a few miles from the perfectly enclosed, artificial worlds of the Strip’s casinos, there lie some beautiful and accessible spectacles of nature.

• Winemaking: Science, Nature, and Fancy Footwork. Each glass tells you something about the wine’s milieu as well as the vintner’s approach.

• A host of articles including many “20 Things You Didn’t Know about…” ones, for Discover Magazine. (Page upon page. Just keep clicking.)

Op-Eds and Think Pieces:

• Why People Believe Genuinely Fake News. (DAME Magazine)

• Trump Can’t Control Himself (NY Daily News)

• All the President’s White Women (NY Daily News)

• Actually, Truth Isn’t Truth (NY Daily News)

• What Would Sigmund Freud Say about Gay Conversion Therapy? (Seattle Times)

• The Supreme Court Meets Sigmund Freud (Chicago Tribune)

Column Samples:

• The Human Animal. Our animal nature is undeniable. Is beastly behavior inevitable?

• Intimacy Across Cultures—and Species. Do rats and pigmy chimps dream of electric kisses?

• The Naked Truth about The Wives of Tall Men. Are they really happier?

• Mean vs. Kind Humor. Louis C. K., the Dobie Gillis show, and borderline personality.

• Tough Love for Dog Lovers. New research shows he (or she) is just not that into you.

• Why Don’t Women Leave Batterers?. Knocks to the head may diminish them so much that they can’t.

• Is America Safer When Good Guys Have Guns?. Homicide data + Crime Victimization Survey Results = Surprise

Video:

• For Beck and Branch, Rebecca produces the Science Bits series.