The mating habits of pandas, rhinoceroses and wombats, the relative sizes of hominid baby heads versus birth canals and why women rack up an additional US$15 billion (S$20 billion) in healthcare spending were just some of the topics covered in Cat Bohannon's wide-ranging keynote lecture at the Singapore Writers Festival on Nov 16.
Pacing back and forth across the Victoria Theatre stage, the author of Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years Of Human Evolution (2023) held a packed audience rapt as she spoke about the male norm and how badly made models lead to bad medicine.
Biological studies have traditionally been based on the male body, which is a way of avoiding the complications of oestrus in female mammalian bodies.
But, as Bohannon points out in her lecture and in greater detail in her best-selling book, this neglect leads to all sorts of unintended consequences in the real world.
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British singer Imogen Heap embraces AI
Unlike the bulk of her peers, Grammy-winning British singer Imogen Heap (right) is embracing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in her music as well as to set up a music collaboration platform.
Wife Yoko Ono is rightful owner of John Lennon's stolen watch: Swiss court
A rare watch given to English singer-songwriter John Lennon by his wife Yoko Ono and which was stolen after his death does not belong to an Italian man who bought it from an auction house years later, a Swiss court ruled on Nov 14, paving the way for its return to Ono.
Accolade for Singapore films Wonderland, A Year Of No Significance
Golden Rooster Awards
US fans celebrate K-pop group Seventeen amid company tussle
South Korean boy band Seventeen had fans chanting their names in Oakland, California, last week as part of their Right Here world tour to promote the group's 2024 album, 17 Is Right Here.
Can writers on world literature's margins be recognised?
Writer Li Zi Shu, touted by her readers as a potential Nobel laureate for literature after South Korean writer Han Kang's win, does not think the prize would be awarded to a Malaysian writer working in the Chinese language like herself.
Strong sessions on Korean literature and adaptations
Better communication was needed on the morning of Nov 16 for a full house of attendees for the session, Discover A Thousand Wonders With Geronimo And Thea Stilton, at Victoria Theatre.
Humour and hard science in Cat Bohannon's lecture
The author held a packed Victoria Theatre audience rapt with her wide-ranging talk
Race, nature and discrimination in three panels
Canadian novelist Esi Edugyan used to be a veritable night owl. At 10pm, she and fellow writer husband Steven Price would brew a pot of coffee and hunker down for a grueling night of writing that usually ended only close to 4am.
Star dancers and nuanced collaboration in Akram Khan's Gigenis
DANCE GIGENIS - THE GENERATION OF THE EARTH Akram Khan and guests Esplanade Theatre
Singapore is Emerald City in The Wizard Of Oz
Wild Rice's annual pantomime includes crimes of Yishun and Singlish of the exaggerated kind, set against a wondrous, trippy set
