Popular articles and book reviews
Science is a public activity, so scientists have a special obligation to tell the public about what they do. Following are a few modest attempts to do my part.
| Title | Description | Author(s) | Year | Reference | pdf? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dirt lungs | A backpiece article for the newly revived Natural History magazine, which describes how Rupert Soar and I finally figured out how the termite mound worked. | J S Turner | 2010 | Natural History | N/A |
| Signs of design | This was the article printed the year before in The Christian Century, selected to be included in this compendium | J S Turner | 2008 | The Best American Spiritual Writing of 2008. Jimmy Carter and Philip Zaleski (ed). Houghton-Mifflin, New York |  |
| Termites. Friend or Foe? | Should termites be regarded as a pest? In southern African savannas, Macrotermes may actually play a beneficial role in suppressing a real range pest, the harvester termite Hodotermes. | J S Turner | 2008 | Pamphlet for the series Spotlight on Agriculture. Ministry of Agriculture. Republic of Namibia | N/A |
| Nature’s awful beauty. Book review of Built by Animals. The Natural History of Animal Architecture by Mike Hansell. | A review of Mike Hansell's beautiful semi-popular book on animal-built structures. An amusing side-story: this article elicited some panicked letters to the editor of American Scientistthat they were publishing intelligent design propaganda. | J S Turner | 2008 | American Scientist. 96(2): 158-159 | N/A |
| Signs of design | What should we think about intelligent design theory? There's more to it than we might think. This article explores the problem of design. | J S Turner | 2007 | The Christian Century. June 12, 2007. Vol 124 No 12. 18-22. | |
| Science by committee? | The editors of the newsletter of the American Society for Microbiology solicited this comment following the resolution to condemn intelligent design theory. | J S Turner | 2007 | Don't really have a reference here. | |
| Who won the intelligent design debate? | Is the debate about intelligent design over, and did the evolutionists win? Just because a court case was one means there was a victory for evolutionism. Rather, it was likely a defeat . | J S Turner | 2007 | Off the Page. Harvard University Press Author Forum. 4 April 2007. |  |
Why can't we talk about intelligent design? |
Chronicle of Higher Education asked for something short, punchy and provocative about the intelligent design debate. After which I am savaged by many, proving my point. | J S Turner | 2007 | Chronicle of Higher Education Volume LIII: Number 20. 19 January 2007. The Chronicle Review, Section B: B20 | |
| Book review. Animal Architecture by Mike Hansell. | I review Mike Hansell's beautiful book Animal Architecture. | J S Turner | 2006 | Quarterly Review of Biology 81:183-184. | N/A |
| What are the termite mounds pointing at? | Macrotermes mounds have a prominent northward tilt. Why do they do it, and why? | J S Turner | 2006 | Roan News. 2005(1): 25-27. | |
| A superorganism’s fuzzy boundary. | Natural History solicited this article shortly after the publication of The Extended Organism. I outline the basic message of that book, using the Macrotermesmound to illustrate it. | J S Turner | 2002 | Natural History 111 (6). July-August 2002: 62-67. | |
| Saving Darwinism from itself. | I argue here that the genetic form of Darwinism not only abandons the core concept of adaptation, it also is impossible to craft a coherent theory of evolution from it. | J S Turner | 2002 | The World 17 (7) July 2002: 136-145. | |
| Book review. Wild Solutions. How Biodiversity is Money in the Bank. by A Beattie and P R Ehrlich. | I review Beattie and Ehrich's book, which argues, sensibly, that there's a lot of wealth in the natural world. | J S Turner | 2002 | Quarterly Review of Biology 77: 85-86. | N/A |
| The termites’ dilemma. | This short essay looks at the evolutionary dilemma facing all social insects: enter a compact with others, or go it alone. The answer leads to deep questions on the nature of the organism. | J S Turner | 2002 | Earthwatch Journal October 2002: 3. | |
| My publishing adventure. | A short publicity piece, telling how I got the news that my first book would be published--through a public phone in the tiny town of Outjo, in northern Namibia | J S Turner | 2001 | ESF Today. Summer 2001: 3. | |
| Termites and other natural teachers. | This essay was commissioned by CHE after my first book came out. It depicts the wild scene of a mass release of termite alates, and the feeding frenzy that ensues. | J S Turner | 2000 | Chronicle of Higher Education 3 November 2000: B24 | |
| Does the white ant have a soul? | EarthWatch (who was the first organization to provide serious funding for my sideways shift into termite research) asked for an essay about the nature of the organism, and the role that purposeful behavior of the superorganism plays in evolution. | J S Turner | 1996 | EarthWatch. March-April 1996: 34-41. | |