Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

Eco 101: Exponential Growth & Decay

Posted 27 Jan 2017 / 0

Different rates of positive and negative growth create different population trajectories over time In biology, a population is a group of organisms that belong to the same species and occupy a defined land area (or volume of air or water). These populations have the tendency to grow and shrink over time. This is because the rate at which members of Read More

A Major Post, Eco 101, Ecology, Intrinsic Growth Rate, Population Growth

Urban Wildlife Podcast on Hedgehogs, Raccoons, and Urbanite Biophilia

Posted 16 Jan 2017 / 0

My Spring semester is almost upon me, and that means a lot of mindless computer work getting my classes configured. I love these moments, because they give me the chance to catch up on my favorite podcasts. I hadn’t checked out the Urban Wildlife Podcast in too long, and was excited to find that Tony and Read More

A Minor Post, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Cognitive Ability, Commensalism, Conservation Biology, Radio & Podcasts, Urban Ecology

NPR features Christopher Boehm on the love-hate relationship we have people in power

Posted 16 Jan 2017 / 0

This morning NPR dropped a truly eerie and not-so-subtly cautionary piece on how an understanding of chimpanzee behavior towards dominant individuals can shed light on how we regard both celebrities and our political leaders. Using some nice audio from anthropologist Christopher Boehm, the piece establishes that we humans are not alone in our love-hate relationship with Read More

A Minor Post, Behavior, Evolutionary Psychology, Human Evolution, Primatology, Psychology, Radio & Podcasts, Social Norms

What in Darwin’s name was I thinking? (#001)

Posted 13 Jan 2017 / 0

I am not afraid to play around when it comes to my teaching. I have been teaching for what seems to me a long time — eight years as a middle school teacher, several instructor gigs in graduate school, and now nearly ten years as a professor at Pratt — and I never feel as Read More

A Major Post, Course Evaluations, Higher Education, MSCI-260, Evolution, MSCI-270, Ecology, MSCI-271, Ecology for Architects, Teaching

Another great Skeptoid episode, this one on race

Posted 09 Jan 2017 / 0

With a lot of mindless computer work to do, I just had time to check out another Skeptoid episode, this one on race (“There’s No Such Thing as Race… Or Is There?“). You can listen to it here: http://skeptoid.com/audio/skeptoid-4546.mp3 Wow, I am really impressed! So frequently when I hear people try to tackle the subject Read More

A Minor Post, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Evolution, Genetics, Human Evolution, Population Genetics, Radio & Podcasts

Skeptoid podcast on Colony Collapse Disorder

Posted 05 Jan 2017 / 0

CCD infographic courtesy of Giulia De Rossi, DensityDesign Research Lab via Wikimedia Commons Interesting to consider how the information in this image jives with the information in the podcast below! For the various papers and projects that I have assigned over the years in my Ecology course, no topic has been as popular as colony collapse disorder (CCD). The idea Read More

A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, Conservation Biology, Habitat Destruction, Invasive Species, Pollination, Pollution, Public Outreach, Radio & Podcasts, Risk & Uncertainty, Science in Art & Design