At the Grocery The process is magical. Perfect red-cheeked apples line up in stylish rows beneath transparent domes.. Next to them lie delightfully bright yellow mangos. Each perfect form is unique, demonstrating their shy markings of orange, brick red and lavender whose beauty declares their nutritious freshness. You inspect each through the transparent plastic, looking […]
Lust In the Dust (10/21/13)
Must Sex Lead to Death? Never heard of the dasykaluta? The phascogale? Don’t be surprised. Small marsupials rarely get favorable media attention. Look at how we treat mice. But these otherwise insubstantial, arthropod ingesting (that includes roaches) rodents deserve our interest and perhaps our piteous respect. For they show the lengths evolution can go to […]
Multiple You (10/7/13)
One Person – Several Genomes You probably think you possess a single genome – one set of genes. Mom meets Dad, sperm penetrates egg, nine months later you appear. And your life is marked by a single set of genetic instructions that let you enjoy cartoons and ten food commercials every day, master calculus and […]
Psychotherapy While You Sleep (9/30/13)
Thinking While You Sleep Can’t we get people to learn stuff while they sleep? It’s been a dream (pardon the pun) of physicians, psychologists, industrialists and teachers for many many years. Why should eight hours – one third of life – be spent in such a “wasteful” manner? Now, media hype-hopes are rekindled anew with […]
Secrets of Jet Lag (9/23/13)
Aging in Flight You fly business class from LA to Beijing, sacrificing a college tuition payment for sixteen inches of leg room. Whisked to your hotel room you fall into bed and repeat attempted slumber. When you wake you feel thirty years older. Then you open the blinds, look out on the smog, and drop […]