Archive for December 2012

How Barbies, Hollywood, and fruit flies push gender stereotypes ‘Tis the season for gender enforcement. This is a time of year when we venture forth to buy gifts for kids and are surrounded by action heroes and Barbies, pink toy ovens and blue toy trucks, fully clothed Santas and scantily clad female helpers. What we buy for children…

A forthcoming article by two economists says it is. These economists tell us that relative genetic diversity is a major factor impacting societies’ development and economic success. But their association between human genetic diversity, history, and economic development and success is superficial and built on a framework of poor assumptions and mistaken interpretations of what…

Humans have a distinctive, messy, and elaborately cognitive way of having sex. Sex can lead to fun, fights, babies, break-ups, make-ups and sometimes even disease. Why is a basic biological behavior like sex so complicated for humans? Is that just part of our nature? Well, yes and no. Sex is complicated for nearly all organisms that engage…