Summer Reading from the Archive
CHILDREN DON'T DO THINGS HALF WAY
A Conversation with Judith Rich Harris
[June 1999]
I'm prone to making statements like this one: how the parents rear the child has no long-term effects on the child's personality, intelligence, or mental health. I guess you could call that an extreme statement. But I prefer to think of myself as a defender of the null hypothesis.
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SHOW ME THE SCIENCE
By Daniel C. Dennett
[August 2005]
Since there is no content, there is no "controversy'' to teach about in biology class. But here is a good topic for a high school course on current events and politics: Is intelligent design a hoax? And if so, how was it perpetrated?
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COMPLEXITY AND CATASTROPHE
A Conversation with Sir John Maddox
[March 1997]
My guess is that if the question of human extinction is ever posed clearly, people will say that it's all very well to say we've been a part of nature up to now, but at that turning point in the human race's history, it is surely essential that we do something about it; that we fix the genome, to get rid of the disease that's causing the instability, if necessary we clone people known to be free from the risk, because that's the only way in which we can keep the human race alive. A still, small voice may at that stage ask, "But what right does the human race have to claim precedence for itself?" To which my guess the full-throated answer would be, "Sorry, the human race has taken a decision, and that decision is to survive. And, if you like, the hell with the rest of the ecosystem."
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