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Reflections on an Oyster
Olivia Judson ends her year long stint as New York Times columnist with a work reminiscing about the inherent limitations of the fossil record, and how our own activities will inevitably skew future records as well. - Why we are, as we are
The Economist looks to Darwinism for answers to some of the most intriguing social questions, and luckily for us their answers aren’t as ideologically hewn as the social Darwinism of yore. - Gorillas In Their Midst
The Congo’s gorillas encapsulate the debate regarding the efficacy of eco-tourism, highlighting that what may be good for tourism may not always be good for the local people, or even the local flora and fauna. (via a&l daily) - Fossil Cities
It seems only appropriate that given Judson’s reminscence of the fossil record that Kevin Kelly would try to imagine the fossil records of our future. Using science as a guide he reveals that styrofoam, like sea creatures before, coul leave strange cups and tubes in the fossil record, while plastics might lose their forms instead becoming strange masses of minerals. - The Real Price of Gold
If there are any certainties regarding the human race it is our fascination with bright, shiny things, and this obsession best manifests itself in the peculiar element of gold that has, over the course of history, caused us to commit some horrific acts in order to feed our addiction.
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