Big and Small Questions; New Media

I like to reward serious non-fiction authors who attempt to further edify the generally educated public, along with anyone else who sufficiently cares about their neighbors, societies, and planet and wants to make the effort to understand them.  Here, I bring news of those authors’ books, articles, and studies that, in some way, both highlight and wrestle with important contemporary issues.  Occasionally, I’ll expose unfortunate problems within the popular media as well.  Finally, I reveal my own concerns and thoughts about urgent social questions Americans and others truly need to deal with if we’re ever going to make real progress or perhaps even save our species from itself.

The Trouble With Transgender. Let everyone dress and act as they please.  But it’s time to reconsider the institutionalization of dangerous sex stereotypes.

The Evolutionary Foundations of Dog Behavior: Raymond Coppinger and Mark Feinstein, How Dogs Work (University of Chicago Press 2015). 243 pp.

The Laws of Immunity: William Paul, Immunity (Johns Hopkins University Press 2015). 260 pp.

The Serengeti Rules: Sean B. Carroll, The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters (Princeton University Press 2016). 263 pp.

Out of Southern East Asia: The Origin and Evolution of the Domestic Dog:  Miklosi, Adam. 2015. Dog behavior, evolution, and cognition (second edition). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; and Wang, G., W. Zhai, H. Yang, et al. 2015. Out of southern East Asia: the natural history of domestic dogs across the world. Cell Research 15 December 2015; doi:10.1038/cr.2015.147.

The Underappreciated Role of Physical Activity in the Battle Against Obesity–Part 3: Adults and the Relationship Between Physical Activity and Adiposity: Institute of Medicine. 2015. Physical activity: moving toward obesity solutions: workshop summary. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.

The Underappreciated Role of Physical Activity in the Battle Against Obesity–Part 2: Children and the (Bidirectional?) Relationship Between Physical Activity and Adiposity: Institute of Medicine. 2015. Physical activity: moving toward obesity solutions: workshop summary. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.

The Underappreciated Role of Physical Activity in the Battle Against Obesity: Institute of Medicine. 2015. Physical activity: moving toward obesity solutions: workshop summary. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.

Nature, Nurture, and the Folly of “Holistic Interactionism“:  Steven Pinker, Language, Cognition, and Human Nature: Selected Articles (Oxford University Press 2015). 378 pp.

“Race” in 2015: Myth or Reality? (part 2): Daniel J. Fairbanks, Everyone is African: How Science Explodes the Myth of Race. (Prometheus Books 2015) 191 pp.

Mom, Dad, and the Epigenetics of Childhood Obesity: Institute of Medicine. 2015. Examining a developmental approach to childhood obesity: The fetal and early childhood years: Workshop summary.  Washingon, D.C.: The National Academies Press. 159 pp.

Undeniable Nye: Bill Nye, Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation. (St. Martin’s 2014) 309 pp.

Fitness Folly: IDEA Fitness Journal, September 2015, p. 79.

Time to Rethink Omega-3s?: Fumagalli, M., et al. Greenlandic Inuit show genetic signatures of diet and climate adaptation.  Science (no. 6254): 1343-47.

“Race” in 2015: Myth or Reality?  Nicholas Wade, A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History. (Penguin 2014) 278 pp.