Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

Slate article explores the big brain, big society connection

Posted 31 Oct 2012 / 0

Slate “Tool use and exploration may be just side effects of social skills” Great examples in this short piece of how scientists quantify the benefits of social connection in terms of survival and reproduction. It will be interesting to see how the “Social Brain Hypothesis” stacks up against the “Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis” in future research, Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Brain size, Evolution, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, Hypothesis Testing, Neuroscience, Quantifying Costs and Benefits, Web

Lee Alan Dugatkin blesses Slate with a piece on Kropotkin

Posted 31 Oct 2012 / 0

Slate “The Russian Anarchist Prince Who Challenged Evolution” I really appreciate the fact that Dugatkin uses Kropotkin to bring to light that Darwinian evolution has been — even in the time and work of Darwin — a process that was imagined to involve both competition and cooperation. Only in recent times has evolution become synonymous Read More

A Minor Post, Altruism, Articles, Behavior, Biography, Coevolution, Competition, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Ethics, Evolution, Mutualism, Political Science, Predation, Religion, Taiga (Boreal Forest), Tundra, Web

Megan Frederickson shares the wonder of ant cooperation with Toronto Library patrons

Posted 31 Oct 2012 / 0

Toronto Public Library/University of Toronto Exploring Evolution series “The Evolution of Cooperation: Ant-Plant Associations in Peru” We need more scientists out there explaining the wonders of evolutionary biology!

A Minor Post, Adaptation, Behavior, Coevolution, Competition, Cooperation, Evolution, Interactions, Keystone Species, Mutualism, Parasitism, Predation, Public Outreach, Social Networks, Tropical Forest

Chronicle of Higher Education feature explores the question of why more women do not succeed in science

Posted 29 Oct 2012 / 0

The Chronicle of Higher Education “More Gender Diversity Will Mean Better Science” The Chronicle of Higher Education “Why STEM Fields Still Don’t Draw More Women” The Chronicle of Higher Education “Is Biology Just Another Pink-Collar Profession?” The Chronicle of Higher Education “Does This Lab Coat Make Me Look Fat?” One of the most fascinating threads that runs through Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Biology (general), Ethics, Neuroscience, Public Policy, Science (General), Science as a career, Sociology

Want to know where the Presidential candidates stand on science? There’s a site for that!

Posted 25 Oct 2012 / 0

Science Debate dot org “The Top American Science Questions: 2012“

A Minor Post, Astronomy, Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Food, Grants & Funding, Health & Medicine, Marine Ecosystems, Political Science, Public Policy, Resource Consumption, Science (General), Space Travel, Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Energy, Web

Michael Ruse on James Lovelock’s Gaia of 2012

Posted 24 Oct 2012 / 0

The Chronicle of Higher Education “Saving Gaia From the Greens“

A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Biography, Climate Change, Ecological Modeling, Ecosystem Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Religion, Survival, Sustainability

Ready for eugenics 2.0?

Posted 24 Oct 2012 / 0

The Chronicle of Higher Education “Reinventing Ourselves” This article is — in a word — scary. After dangling a couple of vague promises to engineer our susceptibility to viruses out of our collective genome (7 billion visits to the DNA doctor later), these authors plow enthusiastically into a variety of wild territories: resurrecting Neanderthals and Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Development, Epigenetics, Ethics, Evolution, Gene by Environment Interactions, Genetic Engineering, Genetics, Homo species, Human Evolution

International Symposium honors the work of Lynn Margulis

Posted 24 Oct 2012 / 0

Fundación Ramón Areces “International Symposium: Evolution by cooperation. The work of Lynn Margulis (1938–2011)” From this website: Since Darwin’s times, evolution has been considered to be a race in which species competed to keep their places, what now is known as the Red Queen Effect (from the Red Queen’s race in Lewis Carroll’s book). According to Read More

A Minor Post, Cooperation, Talks & Seminars, Web

On becoming a psychopath

Posted 24 Oct 2012 / 0

The Chronicle of Higher Education “Psychopathy’s Double Edge” There are so many fascinating elements to this article and what it says about human behavior. First, there is the fact that most people walk around with a very potent regulatory of behavior, one that suppresses both impulses that would put oneself at risk and drives that Read More

A Minor Post, Altruism, Articles, Behavior, Emotion, Ethics, Evolutionary Psychology, Gene by Environment Interactions, Human Evolution, Neuroscience, Psychology

Rogue iron fertilization? Things have gotten weird!

Posted 24 Oct 2012 / 0

The New York Times “A Rogue Climate Experiment Outrages Scientists“

A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Community Ecology, Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Ethics, Food, Marine Ecosystems, Polar Marine, Public Policy, Sustainability