Emperor penguin fathers nest on an egg for two months while the mothers journey to the sea to feed. The mimic poison frog nurtures its tadpole young through adolescence. Are human fathers this important? Paul Raeburn, MIT class of 1972, examines that question in his new book Do Fathers Matter? What Science Is Telling Us About the Parent We’ve Overlooked.

Raeburn is a regular contributor to the New York Times, Science, Discover, and The Huffington Post, and he is chief media critic for the Knight Science Journalism Tracker at MIT. Like his first three books, which explored genetic engineering, the secrets on the planet mars, and depression in children, Raeburn’s non-fiction emerges from his own basic questions about science and his yearning to fact-check closely-held beliefs and presumptions about science in everyday living.