Only human

Jason Kelly interviews Russell Tuttle, author of Apes and Human Evolution, in the latest issue of the University of Chicago Magazine.

"In his book, as he has throughout his career, Tuttle extracts data from fragmentary remnants in the fossil record and competing scientific interpretations to address a big question: 'What makes us human?' ...

"Figure 13.4, titled 'In Conclusion,' shows a bonobo on the left and a human on the right. A bubble above the bonobo reads, 'We feel, fear, and think.' Above the person: 'We feel, fear, think, and believe.'

"'That’s the whole conclusion of the book,' says Tuttle, who rejects a commonly held notion in evolutionary biology that equates humans and apes. The symbolic language unique to Homo sapiens, he writes, makes it possible 'to convey information and to share ideas and beliefs'—the basis of human culture. Morality and ideology emerge from that cultural framework, shaping political, spiritual, moral, and social notions, which make up the belief systems that define human life. By contrast, Tuttle adds, 'no one has shown that chimpanzees in nature have pervasive shared symbolically mediated ideas, beliefs, and values.'"

Seven out of eight college grads in the U.S. read a book last year

The above is among the statistics in A Snapshot of Reading in America in 2013, from a report by Pew Research Center.

The Scale of the Universe

An interactive demonstration, by Cary Huang, at Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Common sense and the precautionary principle

Adam Korbitz argues,

"[Cass] Sunstein has pointed out that 'better safe than sorry' is more or less common sense.

"The problem comes when we have no reliable data or evidence to support our choices (as in the Active SETI controversy), or when we act contrary to the data we do have because of fallacies or ingrained psychological prejudices. For instance, scientists years ago developed a form of GMO rice called Golden Rice that could effectively wipe out Vitamin A deficiency in much of the developing world, potentially saving millions of lives every year and saving millions more people from childhood blindness.

"Yet today, Golden Rice – like many GMO foods – is effectively banned because of the political lobbying of anti-GMO organizations. It has nothing to do with the safety of the food. There’s no evidence it is not safe. In this way, the anti-GMO movement is very similar to the anti-vaccine movement, and similarly anti-science."

Augustine's World

Robert D. Kaplan at Foreign Policy on What Late Antiquity says about the 21st century and the Syrian crisis.