Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

High-throughput screening accelerates the rate at which evolved plant chemicals can be turned into medicine

Posted 29 Jun 2012 / 0

Science “Mining the Biodiversity of Plants: A Revolution in the Making” What’s fascinating to me about this is what happens when we have screened every plant we can find… will we then stop caring about the medicinal value of biodiversity?

A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss, Genetics

Changing rice from C3 to C4 in order to feed our growing population

Posted 29 Jun 2012 / 0

Science “The Development of C4 Rice: Current Progress and Future Challenges” I will be amazed if this works. The C3/C4 pathway split is a major evolutionary event in plants, and apparently we are poised to horizontally transfer this adaptation across lineages using genetic engineering. If this works, it will be an unprecedented feat of cultural Read More

A Minor Post, Food, Genetic Engineering, Sustainability, Sustainable Agriculture

Fences exclude invasive predators, give aid to threatened Hawaiian birds

Posted 29 Jun 2012 / 0

Science “Fences Make Good Nest Sites“

A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss, Conservation Biology, Invasive Species

North American federal governments seek to defund environmental and ecological science

Posted 29 Jun 2012 / 0

Science “House Panel Set to Slash Climate, Environmental Research” Science “Environmental Science Feels Pinch in Canada’s Budget“

A Minor Post, Political Science, Public Policy

Macroecologists weigh in on how well sustainability science considers ecological limits

Posted 29 Jun 2012 / 0

PLoS Biology “The Limits to Sustainability Science: Ecological Constraints or Endless Innovation?” PLoS Biology “The Shifting Boundaries of Sustainability Science: Are We Doomed Yet?” PLoS Biology “The Macroecology of Sustainability“

A Minor Post, Macroecology, Sustainability

If your loners are truly loners they won’t punish, and cooperation thrives even in the presence of antisocial punishment

Posted 28 Jun 2012 / 1

Last summer I discussed a paper by Rand and Nowak that explored the dynamics of antisocial punishment in groups composed of cooperators, defectors, and loners playing a public goods game. In a conventional public goods game, at least some players must make a contribution in order to reap group reward. Cooperators make that contribution and Read More

A Major Post, Altruism, Articles, Cooperation, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Punishment

Yes, you can now believe that fairy circles live…

Posted 28 Jun 2012 / 0

Science Now “Mysterious Fairy Circles Are ‘Alive’“

A Minor Post

Larry Arnhart on Singer, Bowles, and Gintis and Darwinian libertarianism

Posted 28 Jun 2012 / 0

Darwinian Conservatism “Does Strong Reciprocity Support a Darwinian Left?” This is a really interesting comparison of the “utopian” and “realist” versions of leftist politics, and of the struggle of thinkers like Singer. What I think needs to be kept in mind is that all these folks are doing more than just trying to produce science Read More

A Minor Post, Cooperation, Evolutionary Modeling, Punishment, Reciprocity, Social Norms

David Sloan Wilson on narratives of regulation

Posted 28 Jun 2012 / 0

Huffington Post David Sloan Wilson blog “The Nature of Regulation I: Breaking Out of Our Narrative Prisons“

A Minor Post

A victory for collective action and national cooperation

Posted 28 Jun 2012 / 0

New York Times “Supreme Court Health Care Decision” U.S. Supreme Court “NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS ET AL. v. SEBELIUS, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, ET AL.“

A Minor Post, Cooperation, Law, Political Science