issue: genetics
Friday 17 June 2011
Animals don’t have morality, people do
In his attempt to prove that beasts have morals, Dale Peterson airbrushes away all the things that make humans unique in the animal kingdom.
Friday 28 January 2011
The chasm that separates great apes from humans
Jon Cohen’s new book reminds us that, for all the claims that apes and human beings are ‘98.5 per cent the same’ in terms of genetics, there is still an unfathomable gap between us.
Wednesday 3 November 2010
Animals are useless, unless humans make use of them
We have built cities, cured diseases and created art, yet some people think humans are worth no more than apes.
Wednesday 5 May 2010
Chimps don't mourn like humans
‘Chimps “feel death like humans”‘, the BBC reported last week. And according to Scientific American: ‘Like tool use and self-awareness, distinct grief and mourning might be just one more thing we share with our closest living relatives.‘ No it’s not, says Helene Guldberg.
Thursday 29 April 2010
Monkeys mourning? Don’t make me laugh
A handful of chimp mothers carrying around their dead babies is not evidence of ‘human-like’ qualities.
Friday 26 June 2009
Restating the case for human uniqueness
A brilliant new book cuts through all the media-oriented research about ‘clever chimps’ using tools, doing maths and feeling human emotions, and reminds us that, in truth, there is nothing remotely human about primates.
Thursday 19 March 2009
Chimps are like humans? Stop monkeying around
This week it was revealed that chimps use sticks to smash open beehives. But there’s nothing remotely ‘human-like’ in such behaviour.
Thursday 28 December 2006
A hard cell
Eve Herold on why we should take sides in the Stem Cell Wars, and cheer those scientists pushing the boundaries.
Monday 16 January 2006
'This is like a badly written Greek tragedy'
Stephen Minger of King’s Stem Cell Biology Laboratory on the fall from grace of South Korean scientist Woo Suk Hwang.
Monday 9 May 2005
How can we halt the 'march of unreason'?
Dick Taverne on why we need to defend the Enlightenment against dodgy science and ‘dogmatic environmentalists’.
Friday 8 April 2005
All in the hormones?
Vivienne Parry, author of The Truth About Hormones, questions whether chemicals control our destinies.
Wednesday 22 May 2002
'I have not jumped off the modernity boat'
Francis Fukuyama talks about History after 11 September, human exceptionalism, Ritalin and Islam.