Volume 100 | Number 2 | March-April 2012
John T. Jost
A review of The Fair Society: The Science of Human Nature and the Pursuit of Social Justice, by Peter Corning. “At this moment in history,” Jost writes, “when our problems are so much clearer than their solutions, it is a genuine contribution to offer clearheaded analysis and moral encouragement to take much-needed steps in the direction of social and economic justice.”
Jan Sapp
A review of Race?: Debunking a Scientific Myth, by Ian Tattersall and Rob DeSalle, and Race and The Genetic Revolution: Science, Myth, and Culture, edited by Sheldon Krimsky and Kathleen Sloan. The notion of race as a biological construct has long been out of scientific favor, but the idea persists in medicine and law enforcement, among other areas, leading to inaccurate assessments and inequitable treatment. These two books discuss this problem with critical acuity, says Sapp
Hugh Gusterson
A review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. This story of medicine, genetics, ethics and race has received much acclaim, and appropriately so, says Gusterson; readers who have not picked it up yet should add it to their reading list
Colin Allen
A review of Mindreading Animals: The Debate over What Animals Know about Other Minds, by Robert W. Lurz. The question of whether animals have a “theory of mind,” the ability to attribute mental states to themselves and to other animals, is a contentious one. Lurz suggests an array of experiments designed to show whether an animal is relying on a theory of mind or simply making judgments based on the behavioral cues given by another animal. The experiments are intriguing, says Allen, but they do not fully answer the question of whether animals can “mind read”
Terrence Sejnowski
A review of Networks of the Brain, by Olaf Sporns. The vast amount of data that neuroscientists are collecting about the brain requires equally complex systems to analyze it. Sporns relates neuroscience to network science, detailing significant advances in brain imaging, especially for the human brain, and describing what remains to be done in order to understand how our minds work
Anna Lena Phillips
A review of Giant Silkmoths: Colour, Mimicry and Camouflage, text by Philip Howse, photographs by Kirby Wolfe. The family Saturniidae includes the giant silk moths, which are found in locations around the world and are known for their bold markings. Howse and Wolfe offer descriptions and photographs of many species, grouped according to their mimetic and camouflage strategies
About once a month at Sigma Xi headquarters, we liven up the lunch hour with an American Scientist Pizza Lunch talk. In these informal lectures, scientists describe new research to nonscientists. The series is light on jargon but heavy on solid science. Each Pizza Lunch offers an in-depth look at its subject, whether it's bedbugs or the smart grid. Click below to read about and download these talks -- and to subscribe!
