What Is an Animal?
What is an animal? Take a moment to think about it. Without doubt your dog and cat are animals, as are the birds singing out your window. What…
Author: Daniel Salas
The Darkest Truths
In 2007, Caroline Sturdy Colls—then a 21-year-old University of Birmingham graduate student—made her first visit to the Nazi death camp at Treblinka, Poland. As a prospective forensic-archaeology scho…
Homo erectus: The Winnie-the-Pooh of Fossil Hominins?
A baby displays his eating prowess with only a few teeth. Holly Dunsworth Did you hear about the Homo erectus who lost all but one of his teeth?…
Confessions of a Blackhawks Fan
On June 15, 2015, the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team won their third Stanley Cup championship in six years, putting them in contention for the status of a sports…
Survival of the Socially Fittest
Humans (Homo sapiens) may have caused the extinction of Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) because of our greater talent for social innovation and tool creation. This new conclusion makes a…
Past Imperfect
Let’s start with some old dirt. Who were the first people to arrive in North America more than 12,000 years ago? Did these intrepid explorers originate in Siberia…
Monkeys All the Way Down
Everyone’s likely heard it or seen it written on a protest sign: “I didn’t evolve from a monkey.” It’s a well-worn refrain of those who resist the evolutionary…
Food Is Health
Food is health. I’ve known it since I was a kid growing up in Wisconsin. My dad was diagnosed with diabetes when I was a baby. His disease…
Wandering Among the Stars
We dedicate this post to the crew of the space shuttle Challenger, whose intrepid wanderings were tragically cut short 30 years ago today. Growing up in rural…
Conflict on the Plains
The images in this series represent my interpretation of the struggle of Native Americans throughout the Plains Indian Wars between 1855 and 1890. During this period, the U.S.…
The Water-Cooler Problem
George Macartney had a bad day at work. The deal he was sent to close was rejected, despite months of advance negotiation. He followed the agreed-upon protocols, though…