Braindrops on noses

Updated July 1, 2016

These are a few of my favorite posts (as well as some other happenings on the web). Thanks to Anne and Ken for bringing me on to the MT! Thanks to everybody for all the good times and here's to many more,
Holly

Most Popular

• Why is the human vagina so big? (my most popular post)
• Evolution is the only natural explanation. And it's all we need.
• Forget bipedalism. What about babyism?  (Winner of the 3QD charm quark!)
• The 'obstetric dilemma' hypothesis unraveled
• A prehistory of throwing things (linked here: http://what-if.xkcd.com/44/)
• Deep Time: The Movie (original article here)
• We are not the boss of natural selection. It is unpwnable. (picked up by io9)
• This year's (2015) textbook-free Introduction to Biological Anthropology course

Elsewhere...

• I write for the blog "Origins" at SAPIENS 
• Sometimes my posts get edited and re-posted at the Evolution Institute
• Do animals know where babies come from? (Scientific American)
• I am evolution (NPR)
• Thank your intelligent mother for your big brain (PNAS)
• Why is no one interested in vagina size? (New York Magazine)
• Metabolic hypothesis for human altriciality (PNAS)
• The evolution of difficult childbirth and helpless hominin infants (Annual Review of Anthropology)
• The End of the Beginning (McSweeney's) 
• Take Your Pick (New Scientist's book)
• How to apply an evolutionary... (Scientific American guest blog)
• Talking Trash!  (826 National's Don't Forget to Write for Elementary Grades)
• Book review: Children of Time by Anne Weaver (Reports of the NCSE)
• Fossil Focus: Encephalized, Bipedal Apes (Palaeontology[Online])
• The Human Fossil Record Room (Nature Ed's Scitable)
• We are not the boss of natural selection. It is unpwnable. (io9)
• Walk this way, talk this way, roll in the hay: Bringing life and humanity to extinct Neanderthals (The Winnower)

Back to the Mermaid's Tale...
Anthropology: Reproduction, Procreation, Knowledge, Belief, Science, and the Culture of Science 

• When evolutionary-minded medicine gets it (possibly) wrong about childbirth interventions
• Just-So Babies
• lolhumans
• Oh Koko!
• Marshawn Lynch's extra placenta feeds the curiosity
• That [obstetrical dilemma] really tied the [human evolution] together. Part 1
• That [obstetrical dilemma] really tied the [human evolution] together. Part 2
• How to apply an evolutionary hypothesis about gestation to your pregnancy
• Taking our (lovely lady) lumps
• 'Obstetric dilemma' skeptic has c-section and remains skeptical ... & ... Why my c-section was natural childbirth
• Evolution reduces the meaning of life to survival and reproduction... Is that bad?
• A case for replacing "having it all" with "having all the choices, within reason and means"
• A leash of hemp: Does our slow, overbearing consciousness mislead us about human nature? 
• Let's use evidence (not intuition, semantics, politics or dogma) to navigate 'belief,' 'knowledge' and 'science' 
• The amazing story of Holly Dunsworth and her osteopathic doctor
• Evolution's got a P.R. problem
• The f-words of evolution 
• Another f-word of evolution 
• Kissing the lipless 
• If scientists were to make the arbitrary decision that biological race is real, can you think of a positive outcome?

Paleoanthropology and Human Evolution

• The Ape in the Trees
• Walk this way, talk this way, roll in the hay
• Hurling words and turds, an evolutionary link
• Can you throw with half a brain?
• A prehistory of throwing things
• Ten scratches on two bone fragments distinguish vegetarians from carnivores 
• The many tales of “Ardi” 
• Researchers call b.s. on Ardi’s habitat 
• Researchers call b.s. on Ardi’s hominin-ness   
• We need another explanation for our big brains like we need a hole in the head 

Dogs

• The Mismeasure of Dog
• Whooza good gurrrrrl? Whoozmai bayyyy-bee boy?
• My dogs' evolutionary history. Part 1: Predictions
• My dogs' evolutionary history. Part 2: Results
• My dogs' evolutionary history. Part 3: Inside scoop and why
• For Dogkind: Didactic, allegorical, digusting, and adorable children's book (hunting for a publisher)
• Dog eats book: A domestic application of the scientific method 
• Such a good boy, Elroy

Classroom Lessons, Resources, Teaching Aids, Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Personal Genomics

• The Primate Family Tree: A classroom activity in evolution, adaptable for all ages
• A first run at a textbook-free 'Introduction to Biological Anthropology'
• Dog eats book: A domestic application of the scientific method 
• Now a teacher resource "with a chuckle" on Berkeley's Understanding Science site
• A new curriculum for Introduction to Biological Anthropology  
• Open access, peer-reviewed human evolution resources
• Deep Time: The Movie; Instructions for downloading and viewing
• Luck of the draw: Evolving flipbooks mimic non-selective processes (a classroom activity)
• Are we removing the wisdom along with the teeth?
• A modest proposal: Please make us teach creationism
• Should we cut Darwin out of parts of the human skin color story?  
• Be afraid of fear, not personal genomics

Videos

• How do we know when our ancestors lost their tails? (PBS)
• Your genome is showing (California Academy of Sciences, 2012; explanation and acknowledgments are here.)
• Expedition Rusinga: Uncovering our adaptive origins (AMNH)

In Others'...

• How did humans figure out that sex makes babies? (Slate)
• Why the GOP should love duck penises (Mother Jones)
• Why does pregnancy last nine months? (NPR)
• Why pregnancy really lasts nine months (LiveScience)
• Why must childbirth be such hard labor? (The Guardian)
• The disturbing, shameful history of childbirth deaths (Slate)
• Why is human childbirth so painful? (American Scientist)
• Bill Nye's creationism debate not a total disaster, scientists say (LiveScience)
• Why Babies Cry At Night (NPR)
• Are Wide-Hipped Women Promiscuous? Study Births a Controversy (LiveScience; later reposted at HuffPo)
• Finally paying attention to vagina size (New York Mag's Sex Lives)
• Can animals think abstractly? (NPR)
• Anthropomorphism: how much humans and animals share is still contested (The Guardian)