Akufu

Read this first and maybe reconsider (via Grrlscientist). It is written by Philip Greenspun who has an interesting section on his site on careers in engineering and computer science.

From this week it is mandatory for immigrants to the Netherlands to pass a test before they can be admitted to NL. Part of the course material preparing prospective immigrants for this test, is a film on the Netherlands. Seeing some traffic from the USA to my blog on this subject gave me an inkling that it was on the news there.

To learn more about the evolution of complicated behaviour like collaboration and altruism, many studies look to our closest relatives, who, according to which DNA study you look at may even be included in our own genus, the chimpanzee. Previous studies were unable to demonstrate true altruism - helping non-kin, without direct benefits - in populations of chimpanzees

I am, as usual, fashionably late to this party. But Dr Tatiana's sex advice to all creation by Olivia Judson (2002) will easily be the funniest book you'll ever read on evolutionary biology of sex.

One of the most defining periods in human history is the sudden transition from hunting and gathering, to settling down and cultivating plants and breeding animals. This revolution leaves many questions still unanswered. For example, there is the question of how agriculture was 'invented'. It originated in a defined area in the Near-East: the fertile crescent. But how did it subsequently spread from there into North-Western Europe?

Take this interactive test at the Guardian on line to see whether you have a male, female or balanced brain (this is not a quicky, in total more than 100 questions!).

This test is based on the work of Simon Baron-Cohen (who is the director of the Autism Research Centre, Cambridge University)

Why is there no equal ratio of men and women in science, especially in the top levels?


It is strange because student percentages show near equal female/male ratios in science. But after graduation apparently something goes wrong. A paper in PLoS January discusses possible causes for this inequality.