Racial Realities
When I tell my students that there is no such thing as “race” (meaning biological race), I wait for the blowback. I know it is coming. “Well if…
Author: Daniel Salas
Raw Deal
At Estela restaurant in New York City, chef Ignacio Mattos makes what may be the city’s best steak tartare. His version features fish sauce, lemon zest, and sunchokes,…
Confronting Rape Culture
The November 19, 2014, publication of “A Rape on Campus” in Rolling Stone magazine threw the University of Virginia into a frenzy of institutional responses. The article reported…
Unmanning Space Language
Language matters, as demonstrated by the recent discussion following the discovery of example sentences using sexist stereotypes in the Oxford Dictionary of English. Language about who goes into…
Remember Your Loved One—Build a Birdhouse
Not far from where I live in central Florida, dozens of remarkable birdhouses grace a short canal along the meandering St. Johns River. Some of the birdhouses are…
Surprise! Semen Is Required
Reproduction seems so obvious to us now. Even if we don’t know the details, we know about the birds and the bees. For humans and an overwhelming number…
Meat Culture
You might have heard: The Obama administration released its new Dietary Guidelines for Americans in January to an outcry. While the new rules tell us to limit our…
Cold Enough for Ya?
Every winter, on either the first or second cold snap, I hear the question “Cold enough for ya?” as I get on the bus, exit the Metro, or…
Talking Hands
Talking with our hands is one of the most human things we do. While commonly used to add emotional emphasis to spoken language, hands have the unique ability…
The World’s Most Sustainable Technology
To my mind, a well-made Acheulean hand ax is one of the most beautiful and remarkable archaeological objects ever found, anywhere on the planet. I love its clean,…
Beyond the Vaccination Rift
“Man is by nature a social animal … for [whom] the whole must necessarily come before the part.” —Aristotle Parents who do not vaccinate their children have faced…
When Sperm Compete, Nature’s Call Leads to Bigger … Testicles
[In humans, the testes] are from an inch and a half to two inches long, about an inch and a quarter from the anterior to the posterior border,…
The First Butchers
Living humans, all 7.3 billion of us, are classified as Homo sapiens. That means we are all part of the same species; our genus is Homo, meaning “man,”…
There’s No Shame in Shame
Everyone feels shame somewhat differently. However, new research suggests that the underlying triggers of our shame have much in common. A study published today in Proceedings of the…
Parting Words
I was fascinated to learn from an October 2015 article in the Independent newspaper the little-known fact that British “prime ministers leave secret instructions for nuclear missile submarine…
Seafood Fight
On the wild west coast of Vancouver Island, the tiny hamlet of Kyuquot lies nestled in the folds of British Columbia’s rumpled shoreline. It’s a wilderness paradise with…
Why We Must Talk About Race
I grew up a black woman in urban Los Angeles during the age of the civil rights movement. “Race” was all around me, woven into the fabric of…
A View From the Train Tracks
In September 2015, the disturbing image of a drowned Syrian toddler named Aylan Kurdi, whose body had washed ashore on a beach in Turkey, triggered an international outcry…
Making Love—and Nations
Staunchly opposed to marriages outside his nation, John Ross, the principal chief of the Cherokee from the late 1820s until his death in 1866, helped introduce restrictive laws…
Health in a Rwandan Hospital Garden
Hospitals have many tools at their disposal. A garden is not typically one of them (not in the healthcare system I am accustomed to in the United States,…
I’ve Got the Neanderthal Blues
I have pale skin, red hair, and freckles; my skin shows signs of permanent sun damage even though I’m not yet 40; I’ve had bouts of depression; I…
The Half of the World That Doesn’t Make Out
When the South African Thonga peoples first saw Europeans kissing in 1890, their reaction was disgust at such gross behavior. The same thing happened 100 years later for…
“Throw Me Something, Mister!”
The parade crowds were already forming as I held on to my oversized cowboy hat and made my way to the krewe’s meeting spot. I could see our…
Anthropologists in Outer Space
Anthropologists studying outer space might sound like fringe science, like something from “The X-Files” or some “ancient aliens” TV show, but we have been studying outer space as…