Natural Selection

Once upon a time, there was something called the Modern Age . It had three founding fathers, patriarchal-looking men with mighty beards and serious, searching expressions. They were the magi of modernity, like something out of a fairy tale almost -- except that fairy tales were at the furthest possible remove from the powerfully orderly systems each constructed. The two most exciting and controversial were Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud . The other one, frankly, lacked the intellectual dash and cachet of the others.

IN 1936, a Russian biologist put two simple organisms into a test tube to see what would happen. He discovered that one always drove the other into extinction. The one with the slightest advantage took over more and more of the food. The other one died out. The experiments gave birth to a seminal theory in biology: that rivals competing over a finite resource cannot coexist. I have been thinking a lot about those simple organisms as I watch the Republicans and wonder: How can so many candidates stay in the race?

“What Darwin Got Wrong’’ is an intensely irritating book. Jerry Fodor, a well-known philosopher, with coauthor Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, a cognitive scientist, has written a whole book trashing Darwinian evolutionary theory - the theory that makes natural selection the main force of change in organisms through the ages. You would think that somewhere in the pages there would be one - just one - discussion of the work that evolutionists are doing today to give a sense of how the field itself has evolved.

WHAT LANGUAGE IS: (And What It Isn't And What It Could Be) By John McWhorter Gotham, 228 pp. $26 THE SECRET LIFE OF PRONOUNS: What Our Words Say about Us By James W. Pennebaker Bloomsbury, 352 pp. $28 John McWhorter, a former fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is fond of making analogies from the natural sciences to clinch his arguments. "What Language Is"- his new "tour for all language lovers" - is an odd book that promises a broad, gregarious overview of the field of linguistics but feels more like a tour of one person's grudges.

Tonight’s two-hour episode of “Nova’’ is a departure for the PBS science series. “Darwin’s Darkest Hour’’ is a hybrid of costume drama, biopic, and highly art-directed natural history lesson. Viewers who tune in late might well think they’re watching an episode of “Masterpiece Classic.’’ This year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of what was probably the most momentous book of the 19th century, Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.’’ In it, the great naturalist set out his theory of natural selection, from which we derive our...

WHAT LANGUAGE IS: (And What It Isn't And What It Could Be) By John McWhorter Gotham, 228 pp. $26 THE SECRET LIFE OF PRONOUNS: What Our Words Say about Us By James W. Pennebaker Bloomsbury, 352 pp. $28 John McWhorter, a former fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is fond of making analogies from the natural sciences to clinch his arguments. "What Language Is"- his new "tour for all language lovers" - is an odd book that promises a broad, gregarious overview of the field of linguistics but feels more like a tour of one person's grudges.

IN 1936, a Russian biologist put two simple organisms into a test tube to see what would happen. He discovered that one always drove the other into extinction. The one with the slightest advantage took over more and more of the food. The other one died out. The experiments gave birth to a seminal theory in biology: that rivals competing over a finite resource cannot coexist. I have been thinking a lot about those simple organisms as I watch the Republicans and wonder: How can so many candidates stay in the race?

E.O. Wilson is, by any available yardstick, one of the grand scientific figures of the second half of the 20th century. By the time he published his first book in 1967, Wilson, just 38 years old then, had already helped revolutionize the fields of physiology (with his discovery of pheromones) and ecology (with his research on island biogeography). Not bad for a myrmecologist — that's the technical term for someone who studies ants — from Alabama. As it turned out, he was just getting started.

Remember last year when it seemed as though "Bridesmaids" would herald some exciting new era in which women would have a bigger stake in the summer? Oh well. It's back to the usual assortment of capes, cars, and codpieces — back, in other words, to action. At least, though, the vision has expanded enough to let more women in on it. "The Dark Knight" has Catwoman. Ridley Scott's return to scary outer space ("Prometheus") has Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron. "Battleship" has, um, Rihanna.

Remember last year when it seemed as though "Bridesmaids" would herald some exciting new era in which women would have a bigger stake in the summer? Oh well. It's back to the usual assortment of capes, cars, and codpieces — back, in other words, to action. At least, though, the vision has expanded enough to let more women in on it. "The Dark Knight" has Catwoman. Ridley Scott's return to scary outer space ("Prometheus") has Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron. "Battleship" has, um, Rihanna.

“What Darwin Got Wrong’’ is an intensely irritating book. Jerry Fodor, a well-known philosopher, with coauthor Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, a cognitive scientist, has written a whole book trashing Darwinian evolutionary theory - the theory that makes natural selection the main force of change in organisms through the ages. You would think that somewhere in the pages there would be one - just one - discussion of the work that evolutionists are doing today to give a sense of how the field itself has evolved.

Tonight’s two-hour episode of “Nova’’ is a departure for the PBS science series. “Darwin’s Darkest Hour’’ is a hybrid of costume drama, biopic, and highly art-directed natural history lesson. Viewers who tune in late might well think they’re watching an episode of “Masterpiece Classic.’’ This year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of what was probably the most momentous book of the 19th century, Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.’’ In it, the great naturalist set out his theory of natural selection,...

Once upon a time, there was something called the Modern Age . It had three founding fathers, patriarchal-looking men with mighty beards and serious, searching expressions. They were the magi of modernity, like something out of a fairy tale almost -- except that fairy tales were at the furthest possible remove from the powerfully orderly systems each constructed. The two most exciting and controversial were Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud . The other one, frankly, lacked the intellectual dash and cachet of the others.

WASHINGTON -- Spinach was absent from grocery store shelves, restaurant menus, and family iceboxes yesterday after an outbreak of E. coli led a California company to recall packages of the leafy green from across North America. Federal health officials linked prepackaged spinach distributed by Natural Selection Foods LLC throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico to the outbreak, which has killed one person and sickened nearly 100 in 19 states. No foreign cases are known.

NEW YORK -- Howard Ernest Gruber, a scholar of cognitive psychology who was also noted for his writings on the development of Darwin's theories on evolution, died of pneumonia in Manhattan Jan. 25 at age 82. Mr. Gruber dedicated his life to the study of cognition, a process of knowing that includes both awareness and judgment. He became known for his study of Darwin's thinking as he used observations of natural selection to create the theory of evolution. With a PhD in psychology from Cornell, he taught at the University of Colorado and the New School for Social Research.