Category Archives: Politics and sociology

I retain a nodding interest in the peppered moth, because it was one of the main examples of evolution I was taught in A-level zoology in the late ’60s. Since then it has suffered ups and downs both in real life and in its academic reputation.

Maybe you picked up on the recent story about the ancient origin of folk tales: a typical headline was this from CNN: Some fairy tales go back thousands of years, study says. Now, most of us aren’t that familiar with the science of folklorology, so we’d perhaps be inclined (as most of the press were) to assume that if the experts in a field come up with a conclusion, the rest of us should just take the results at face value – especially since this particular study was published by the Royal Society.