Fish, syphilis, and love

Before I left for Rome earlier this month, I finished up a bunch of projects. They started trickling into public view while I was away. I was going to post them all in my article archive, but I just realized I need to update the format of my site to include stories from 2008. So, in the meantime, I’ll have to point you to other sites, some of which require subscriptions…

[Update: I’ve posted the articles on my site. You can find them all here.]

1. Your Inner Fish. Last year I wrote about the discovery of the fish with proto-hands, Tiktaalik. One of its discoverers, Neil Shubin, has written a fascinating book about Tiktaalik–and much more about how our anatomy preserves our evolutionary history. I reviewed the book for Nature and interviewed Neil for bloggingheads.tv. Neil brings along fossils to show off.

2. The Origin of Syphilis. Everybody was all over this item–a paper on the evolution of syphilis that puts its origins in the New World. My article appeared in Science.

3. Romance: The Commitment Device. The January 28 issue of Time includes a series of articles on the science of romance. In my first piece for the magazine, I look at the evolution of romance, exploring the work of scientists ranging from Darwin to today’s psychologists like Martie Haselton at UCLA. I guess that means I’m the guy on the right on the cover.

What’s particularly intriguing about this area of research is how it brings together the basic and the applied sides of science. On the one hand, psychologists are testing hypotheses about the selective forces that gave rise to humanity’s unique form of bonding. But many of the same researchers, Haselton included, are consulting for major online dating companies. One of Haselton’s main coworkers, Gian Gonzaga, is senior research scientist at E-harmony. To make love work, understand where it comes from.