The Chronicle of Higher Education “The story of Jewish origins, once the province of historians and religion scholars, is now being told by DNA” There are fascinating implications of the research described in this piece for Isreal’s “right of return” policy.
A Minor Post, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Genetics, Human EvolutionThe Chronicle of Higher Education “The Unabomber’s Pen Pal” What I think is really interesting about Kaczynski’s critique is that he is fearlessly pointing out the problems with technology, challenging others to provide a counter-narrative. For the most part, there is no counter-narrative. You are either “with us or against us” when it comes to Read More
A Minor Post, Activism, Articles, Belief, Cultural Evolution, EthicsBack in March, David Barash used his regular column in the Chronicle of Higher Education to unveil “The Truth about the Temple of Templeton“. Reacting to an increasingly-large funding stream coming out of the Templeton Foundation, Barash questions whether receiving money from this religiously-affiliated, pro-business group will lead to tainted science. Barash begins his critique by Read More
A Major Post, Articles, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Economics, Evolution, Grants & Funding, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Human Nature, ReligionThe New York Times “With Teamwork, Humans Best Other Primates“
A Minor Post, Articles, Cooperation, Human Uniqueness, Primates, Primatologyio9 “Could Humans Evolve into a Giant Hive Mind?” What I find fascinating about this nice journalistic piece is the biases in particular scientists that it exposes once it asks for uninformed speculation. Most prominently, Joan Strassman betrays her biases about relatedness (we have to be highly related to be a superorganism, period) and the Read More
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Cooperation, Human Uniqueness, Prediction, Superorganisms, WebScience “Endophytic Insect-Parasitic Fungi Translocate Nitrogen Directly from Insects to Plants” What I find fascinating about this story is how a fungus that parasitizes one species can use that ability to form a mutualism with a plant host. I wonder whether there is a value-added feature of this parasitism: are the parasitized insects potential parasites Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Coevolution, Host-Pathogen Evolution, Mutualism, ParasitismAlso check out Gerry’s PetriDish site seeking funding for his project.
A Minor Post, Altruism, Cooperation, Film, Television, & Video, Public OutreachBiology Letters “Long-term familiarity promotes joining in neighbour nest defence“
A Minor Post, Articles, Birds, Cooperation, Reciprocity, Social NetworksEvolving Economics “Group selection and the social sciences” Rationally Speaking “Report from the Consilience conference, part I“, “Report from the Consilience conference, part II“, and “Report from the Consilience conference, part III“
A Minor Post, Conferences, Group Selection, Web
