Blog

Posts appear in reverse chronological order.

  • HOTTE #5: Let them eat cake!

    Reflections on hunger and food; their importance in explaining behaviour; their insufficient visibility in the contemporary human sciences; what peer reviewers don’t like; and the strange things we choose to focus on in our research. This is the last installment of Hanging On To The Edges until autumn 2017 Let them eat cake 1.0. (PDF)…

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  • HOTTE #4: How My Theory Explains Everything: And Can Make You Healthier, Wealthier and Happier

    The fourth essay in Hanging On To The Edges. A reflection on why scientists behave like red jungle fowl, and a hesitant encomium to doubt and uncertainty. How my theory explains everything 1.0 (PDF) Discover more from Daniel Nettle Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email. Type your email… Subscribe

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  • Update on the 2017 starling breeding season

    The 2017 breeding season is nearly over in our colony. Here’s Starling Times 2017, a newsletter on how the birds have been doing, and what we have been up to–including our exciting TA-65 experiment…… Discover more from Daniel Nettle Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email. Type your email… Subscribe

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  • HOTTE #3: What we talk about when we talk about biology

    A reflection on humans, animals, and disciplinary distinctions, in homage to Ted Benton. What we talk about when we talk about biology 2.0   Go back to the Hanging On To The Edges homepage. Discover more from Daniel Nettle Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email. Type your email… Subscribe

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  • HOTTE #2: Why inequality is bad

    The second essay in the Hanging On To The Edges series. A meditation on Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s The Spirit Level, the ecological fallacy, and the complexities of being an academic. Download: Why inequality is bad 1.0 (PDF) Go back to the Hanging On To The Edges homepage. Discover more from Daniel Nettle Subscribe to…

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  • HOTTE #1: The mill that grinds young people old

    This is the first essay in the Hanging On To The Edges series.  A meditation in an English urban graveyard, with a slight nod of the head to Thomas Gray, another to Tony Harrison, and a guest appearance by Charles Dickens. Download: The mill that grinds young people old 1.0 (PDF) Go back to the…

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  • Blue/Orange to play Durham

    We are delighted to announce that Blue/Orange will play in Durham on Tuesday March 21st 2017, at 19:30pm, at the Empty Shop HQ in Framwellgate Bridge, DH1 4SJ. Tickets are available from here. This simple space is going to be wonderful for the piece. I like productions where I can carry the set down with me on the…

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  • And this little birdie got none……

    We’ve just published a new paper on the effects of early-life adversity in starlings. We are particularly interested in how early adversity affects the shortening of telomeres. Telomeres are the protective DNA caps on the ends of our (and their) chromosomes, whose length is often used as a marker of biological age. We have found…

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  • The behavioural constellation of deprivation

    We are used to the idea that the poor behave in a certain way- living for the day, devil may care, fatalistic, impulsive, enjoying life while they can- whilst the rich are more future-oriented, self-controlled and cautious. Just read the novels of Zola, for example, for vivid descriptions the appeal of present consumption over savings…

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  • Hitting the Wall & Blue/Orange

      I am very excited about our imminent production of Matthew Warburton’s Hitting the Wall at Northern Stage on November 30th. In 2012, Wayne Soutter, a middle-aged father of two, attempted to swim the as-yet unconquered sea-channel between the Mull of Kintyre and Ireland. Hitting The Wall is a theatrical recreation of that extraordinary endeavour. Cold…

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  • When methods meet

    The Scottish Graduate School of Social Science has made some interesting short films about the different methods available to social scientists, and in particular, whether they can fruitfully be brought together. In one of the films, the ethnographer Sam Hillyard and I discussed classic ethnography and experiments; can they be brought together, how are they…

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