Why do humans tend to live such a long time? Our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, can last into their mid forties in the wild. Yet somewhere in the last six million years, human lifespans have lengthened dramatically, so that living…
Watching the US Presidential election from afar feels a bit like watching reality television. It seems interminable and very little of what the characters say seems to make sense. On that front, at least, Tuesday night’s second debate between Barack…
I couldn’t help but be captivated by Prime Minister Gillard’s speech against the motion to remove Peter Slipper as Speaker of the Federal Parliament yesterday. Like the majority of people I tend to follow on social media, I…
I should admit straight up that I’m no fan of cats. Like any zoologist I treasure the rare glimpses I have had of lions, leopards, serval and even ocelot. But I have never understood the devotion of so many seemingly-rational…
I just received these pictures from Claire Booth, one of the amazing organisers behind the 2012 Queenlsland Literary Awards, from the evening of the awards ceremony on 4 September. I realised I haven’t yet posted the news that Sex, Genes & Rock…
Public health advocates, when asked what single intervention would most dramatically prolong human life, tend to be unanimous: “Stop Smoking” While some anti-smoking campaigs suggest a 30 year old could live as much as 25 additional years by not smoking,…
So many of the products that surround us defy common sense. I’m not talking about the “What do vegans eat at Christmas?” craziness of the Tofurky. Or even the unrealistic-fear-of-germs obsessiveness of the antibacterial chopping board. Rather, I’m talking about the…
Humans are pretty odd animals. Any list of our odd features would be a long one, but menopause would have to come in right near the top. Where men’s capacity to reproduce diminishes steadily at about the same rate…
Like almost everybody else I spoke to today, I was staggered, this morning, to hear Todd Akin’s comments about “legitimate rape” and pregnancy. The Missouri Republican, who is running for Senate, was justifying his opposition to abortion even in cases…
Former SEX LAB PhD student Megan Head (now at Exeter) and her colleague Amber Teacher (Helsinki) took out second place at NESCENT‘s Evolution Film Festival which ran recently at the first Joint World Congress on Evolutionary Biology. Their winning video “Dating…