I like Michael Stoddart’s books in general–he has some great contributions to make and is one of a few popular scientists promoting olfaction. While reading his most recent book, I have been a bit frustrated by the simplistic view of human evolution and behavior. A recent Guardian piece by him “Smell evolution and the sexContinue reading “Sex and Evolution?”
Category Archives: sex
The Scent of a Man
A new study (published here) suggest that scientists unable to replicate behavioral studies in rats and mice may be due to the presence of male researchers. The presence of male experimenters produced a stress response in mice and rats equivalent to that caused by restraining the rodents for 15 minutes in a tube or forcing themContinue reading “The Scent of a Man”
Clandestine trysts and human evolution
Recent advances in the field of paleogenomics (the study of ancient genomes) have uncovered the story of inter-species mating in those early days out of Africa before dispersal into Eurasia. Prior to these studies we’ve had little evidence supporting either cultural interaction with archaic humans or inter-breeding. Clandestine trysts or common practice? The draft sequence ofContinue reading “Clandestine trysts and human evolution”
The Smell of Evolution 