David P. Barash

Nov 12, 2024 | wsj.com | David P. Barash

Worrying about death is a troublesome consequence of our big brains and active imaginations, a burden that other animals are supposedly spared. But are they? Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death Princeton University Press 264 pages We may earn a commission when you buy products through the links on our site.

Sep 13, 2024 | wsj.com | David P. Barash

What came first, the chicken or the egg? For Jules Howard, a London-based biology writer and the author of “Wonderdog,” there’s no debate. In “Infinite Life: The Revolutionary Story of Eggs, Evolution, and Life on Earth,” Mr. Howard makes a case for eggs so over easy that I can’t resist serving it back to you:Each egg on Earth has its own charisma, allure and evolutionary backstory, easily (I have learned) as diverse and interesting as the animals that hatch out of them.

Jun 27, 2024 | wsj.com | David P. Barash

In “The Network of Life,” David Mindell attempts to lay out what his subtitle calls “a new view of evolution.” There’s a lot going on in evolutionary biology, and our understanding of evolution continues to, well, evolve. Mr. Mindell’s book is a valuable contribution for anyone who wants to keep abreast of current developments, though it doesn’t quite deliver the “new view” it promises.

May 3, 2024 | hnn.us | David P. Barash |Rick Shenkman |Jerome Groopman |Christopher Chabris

Credit: Wiki Commons/HNN staff. Click HERE for our most recent articles. HNN Blogs(R)evolutionary Biology By David P. BarashStone Age Brain By Rick Shenkman MemoryStudy of Memory in PsychologyQuirks of Memory Everyone Should KnowHow Memory Speaks  By Jerome GroopmanHow Not to be the Next Brian Williams By Christopher Chabris and Daniel SimonsHow Memory Works: Interview with Psychologist Daniel L.

Apr 9, 2024 | commondreams.org | David P. Barash

After seeing the movie Oppenheimer, a friend glumly commented, “I certainly don’t like them [nuclear weapons], but what can we do? We can’t put that genie back in its bottle.”Those of us eager to get rid of nukes hear this a lot and at first glance it seems true; common sense suggests that we’re stuck with J. Robert Oppenheimer’s genie because after all, it can’t be disinvented. But this “common sense” is uncommonly wrong.