January 5, 2012

Editor s Selections: Myths, Shoulders, Risks, Resolutions, And Math

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Part of my online life includes editorial duties at ResearchBlogging.org, where I serve as the Social Sciences Editor. Each Thursday, I pick notable posts on research in anthropology, philosophy, social science, and research to share on the ResearchBlogging.org News site. To help highlight this writing, I also share my selections here on AiP.

Happy New Year! Bloggers have started with a bang—there was much to choose from:

At Genealogy of Religion, Cris Campbell probes how myths might help condition the collective, which is a question with no easy answer in sight. But Campbell treats readers to a neat mythology map showing thematic and geographic similarities.
If you’ve ever injured your shoulder, then you have a sense for how important the joint really is. At Lawn Chair Anthropology, Zachary Cofran traces the evolution of the shoulder from A. africanus to present day.
Over at Inkfish, Elizabeth Preston questions why we are a risk-averse species by pointing out that some of our closest genetic relatives will take the bigger reward even in the face of a bigger risk.
Did you make a New Year’s resolution? Did you break it already? Dr. Stu discusses whether these types of commitments are designed to fail.
And finally, at A Hippo on Campus, Andrew Watt attacks an old stereotype with neuroscience, and the hope that it will help girls face math with more confidence.

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I’ll be back next week with more from anthropology, philosophy, and research.

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