Earlier this Spring I went to our department seminar which was given by the entomologist May Berenbaum. Berenbaum studies chemical interactions between plants and insects. I have known her work since my graduate school days, because my Ph.D. thesis was also about insect herbivo

Norbert Elias discusses an interesting case of cultural evolution in his opus magnum, The Civilizing Process. As we know, during the Middle Ages Europeans did not use forks. During meals they simply grabbed greasy pieces of meat from the serving dish with their fingers (or, at best, s