Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

Evolution 2010 (Overall Impressions)

Posted 30 Jun 2010 / 0

The verdant base of the Multnomah Falls I really enjoyed Evolution 2010. It was a very well-organized conference that came off without any hitches. Having been involved in the execution of Evolution 2006 at Stony Brook University, I understand how much work goes into making these meetings happen. Portland State University deserves much credit for Read More

A Major Post, Conferences, Evolution, Society for the Study of Evolution

Evolution 2010 Day 5 (June 29th)

Posted 29 Jun 2010 / 0

Things always tend to thin out towards the end of a conference, but a bunch of us were up bright and early to kick off a special symposium “Moving towards a science of evolutionary prediction”. After some opening words by session organizer Allen Rodrigo, Hamish Spencer led off with a talk entitled “Evolutionary prediction and Read More

Conferences, Evolution, Society for the Study of Evolution

Evolution 2010 Day 4 (June 28th)

Posted 28 Jun 2010 / 0

Early in the morning there were no whole sessions that consistently peaked my interest, so I spent my morning bouncing between a variety of talks. Tomas Brodin gave an interesting talk entitled “Can environmental filtering of animal personalities promote speciation?”. Working with frogs that disperse from the mainland to nearby islands outside Umea, Sweden, Brodin Read More

Conferences, Evolution, Society for the Study of Evolution

Evolution 2010 Day 3 (June 27th)

Posted 27 Jun 2010 / 0

I began the second full day of talks at Evolution 2010 presiding over the only education session in the entire meeting, a session which also included my talk for the meeting. It is a bit surprising that our session, which was forced to start at 8 am on a Sunday, was the only one dedicated Read More

A Major Post, Conferences, Evolution, Society for the Study of Evolution

Evolution 2010 Day 2 (June 26th)

Posted 26 Jun 2010 / 0

I spent the morning of the first full day of Evolution 2010 in a variety of talks, most of which were themed on sociality. Surprisingly, a great number of these talks tackled the difficult and controversial topic of group selection. I think that it is becoming increasingly clear that it is not as easy to Read More

Conferences, Evolution, Society for the Study of Evolution

Evolution 2010 Day 1 (June 25th)

Posted 25 Jun 2010 / 0

Sean Carroll got the Evolution 2010 meeting going with the Stephen J. Gould Award lecture on Friday night. His talk was called “Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species”, and basically outlined sections of his new book of the same title. A large and enthusiastic crowd was on hand to Read More

Conferences, Evolution, Society for the Study of Evolution

Darwin’s Cathedral versus The God Delusion

Posted 10 Jun 2010 / 0

Awhile back I read Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and more recently I finished David Sloan Wilson’s Darwin’s Cathedral. Both books provide a view on religion from the perspective of a prominent evolutionary biologist, and the contrast between these views tells us a lot about the culture of evolutionary biology as well as the nature Read More

Evolution, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Multilevel Selection, Religion, Reviews

The Quest for the Perfect Hive

Posted 07 Jun 2010 / 0

Gene Kritsky is a renowned bee biologist, so when I learned that he had written The Quest for the Perfect Hive: A History of Innovation in Bee Culture, I rushed to get ahold of it. I am very interested in species that form superorganisms (bees, wasps, ants, naked mole-rats, humans), and I have been slowly Read More

Animal Domestication, Books, Coevolution, Cultural Evolution, Reviews, Superorganisms

Consilience

Posted 03 Jun 2010 / 0

I just read E.O. Wilson’s Consilience for the first time. Published in 1998, Consilience represents Wilson’s attempt to bridge the gap between the natural and social sciences. Given my interests, it is pretty ridiculous that I had not read this book earlier. Although I do research that sits firmly within the realm of natural science, Read More

A Major Post, Books, Consciousness, Human Evolution, Human Nature, Interdisciplinarity, Reviews, Social Science