“Dr. SkySkull” selects several notable posts each week from a miscellany of ResearchBlogging.org categories. He blogs at Skulls in the Stars.
- Reflections on the WEIRD Evolution of Human Psychology. There are lots of psychology studies out there with interesting conclusions, but how universal are the results? Eric Michael Johnson of The Primate Diaries in Exile looks at recent research that shows that many of these supposedly universal results are really, well, WEIRD!
- The Pelican’s Beak: Success and Evolutionary Stasis. We tend to look at species (such as the coelacanth and the horseshoe crab) that have remained unchanged over great stretches of time as “primitive” compared to us; in reality, though, the opposite is in a real sense the case. Using the pelican as an example, Brian Switek of Laelaps investigates concepts of “evolutionary progress” and “evolutionary stasis”.
- The Amazon Rainforest Reactor – A Rain Factory. Over at A Scientific Nature, Michael Gutbrod describes research showing that the Amazon rainforest acts as a biogeochemical reactor to sustain itself!
Check back next week for more “miscellaneous” suggestions!