Excellent review of the latest findings on sex influences and brain anatomy/functioning by Larry Cahill over at Nature Reviews – Neuroscience [open access]. One comment from Cahill: A third, also related, misconception holds that the differences within a sex are much more substantial than those between the sexes, the implication being that sex influences can […]

The Roman Catholic Church’s official policy on the ‘regulation of birth’ is, of course, that artificial birth control should not be used since the practice transgresses God’s ‘natural moral law’ to go forth and multiply (and, of course, with congregation numbers already being as low as they are, well…). Therefore, “direct interruption of the generative […]

Lordi wins Eurovision song contest… Update from Razib: Finland vs. Sweden re: educational performance. Take home message: Finns are nerds!I know Razib was rooting for them.

Well, 2005 certainly proved to be a compelling year here at GNXP. From the Larry Summers “scandal” to Ashkenazi intelligence “overclocking” and on to Bruce Lahn’s research — the year was definitely not a dull one! Below the fold are some highlights from ‘GNXP 2005′ — this collection is by no means comprehensive — and, […]

Sandra Witelson (who examined Albert Einstein’s brain), et al., have a paper in Brain which reports on their study on intelligence and brain size in 100 postmortem brains. They conclude that bigger is indeed better; however, they found differences between men and women. From EurekaAlert: In women, verbal intelligence was clearly correlated with brain size, […]

Aftenposten, one of the leading newspapers in Norway, ran a story on Saturday about a study on birth weight and IQ conducted by Martha Gunn Eide, a researcher at the University of Bergen. (Eide is a medical doctor and this research represents her work toward a Doctorate of Medicine degree. Her thesis is entitled “Associations […]

I feel terribly remiss at not having posted on this earlier (!) — but last month People magazine named Matthew McConaughey ‘2005′s Sexiest Man Alive.’ Can’t say that I see it myself — although the Southern charm is quite — charming. (Of course, if you can pull Penelope Cruz, you probably got a lot more […]

Short but interesting interview with Carel van Schaik (orangutan researcher) in the NYT: Q. So your discovery that the orangutans learned tool use from one another explains “the rise of human culture” part of your book’s subtitle? A. Well, yes. Orangutans split off from the African lineage some 14 million years ago. If both chimps […]

Giant ape lived alongside humans A gigantic ape, measuring about 10 feet tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds, co-existed alongside humans, a geochronologist at McMaster University has discovered. Using a high-precision absolute-dating method (techniques involving electron spin resonance and uranium series), Jack Rink, associate professor of geography and earth sciences at McMaster, has determined […]

Dr. Manuel Casanova has done some interesting research on neuronal minicolumns and autism. From the summary of Abnormalities of Brain Circuitry (Minicolumns) in Autism: [The] neocortex is formed early on during gestation by the supernumerary aggregation of modules. The smallest module capable of processing information is called minicolumns. These modules or minicolumns are composed of […]

Apparently Genghis, et. al., had a few stowaways: A report in the October issue of Genome Research suggests that Genghis Khan’s invasions spanning the continent of Asia during the 13th century may have been a primary vehicle for the dissemination of one of the world’s most deadly diseases: tuberculosis…. Mokrousov’s team hypothesized that, given the […]

For those of you in the UK, check out BBC’s Horizon tonight for more on the Flores “microcephaly or not” question. (More here: Hobbit hhhmm….) Professor Bob Martin, one of the team that is set to publish new evidence challenging the discovery team’s original interpretation, says the Hobbit’s brain is “worryingly” small and contradicts a […]

A short article in the Guardian asks Are women as funny as men? (Purposefully funny, that is….) Well, judging by Robert Provine’s (Laughter: A Scientific Investigation) research, women certainly seem to laugh more at men’s jokes than vice versa — in 1200 cases, “females laughed 126% more than their male counterparts, meaning that women tend […]

I read with interest (and, admittedly, a hell of a lot of ignorance) both the Teasdale & Owen and Sundet, Barlaug & Torjussen articles which purport to show an end to the Flynn Effect in Denmark and Norway respectively (see A. Beaujean’s previous post for more on the topic). Now, I am far from an […]

Regarding an article, Law and Behavioral Biology, in the March issue of the Columbia Law Review >> Laws and public policy will often miss their mark until they incorporate an understanding of why, biologically, humans behave as they do, scholars from Vanderbilt and Yale universities argue in the March issue of Columbia Law Review. “The […]

Someone’s managed to damage the Homo floresiensis remains. Recall that there was a dispute over the bones when Indonesian paleoanthropologist, Teuku Jacob, ‘borrowed’ them apparently without the permission of the Australian discoverers. Well, Dr. Jacob returned the bones and now the Autralian team have claimed that he damaged them whilst making casts of the bones. […]

I had intended to post this amusing take on the origins of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, but unfortunately I didn’t get the chance. So now, for those of you with an historical turn of mind, here is (a day late) a short essay “clarifying” the background to the […]

From an article in press in the Journal of Human Evolution >> Increasing skeletal evidence from the U.S.A., Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil strongly suggests that the first settlers in the Americas had a cranial morphology distinct from that displayed by most late and modern Native Americans…. The Paleoamerican morphological pattern is more generalized and can […]

Der Spiegel reports >> In the past four months, six Muslim women living in Berlin have been brutally murdered by family members. Their crime? Trying to break free and live Western lifestyles. Within their communities, the killers are revered as heroes for preserving their family dignity. How can such a horrific and shockingly archaic practice […]

Brain activity of men and women can differ greatly during hostile or impulsive acts, but less so on nicotine… UC Irvine researchers…found during behavioral and brain-imaging tests on hostility and impulsive reaction that brain-metabolism activity – which indicates when neurons are working – was much higher in many brain areas of women than men. But […]