Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

The most fundamental way in which culture pushes against biology

Posted 26 Aug 2015 / 0

National Public Radio “For Prospective Moms, Biology and Culture Clash” Seven years later, I need to check and see how these American demographic trends have developed. Are even more women having babies later in life? Interesting thing here is how big a tension there is between our cultural choices and our biological realities. If fertility peaks Read More

A Minor Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Cultural Evolution, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Memetic Fitness, Radio & Podcasts, Reproductive Fitness, Senescence, Sex and Reproduction, Social Norms

WmD Episode #00002 has been released

Posted 07 Aug 2015 / 0

It took me a lot longer than I would have wished, but I have released the second episode of WmD’s video blog: You can see this episode in its ‘native habitat’ here. The first season of WmD is dedicated to the “big questions in ecology and evolution“. This episode, “Keep on keeping on… until you Read More

A Major Post, Belief, Competition, My publications, Population Growth, Predation, Religion, Senescence, Survival, The WmD Project, Urban Ecology

ESA 2012 Thursday afternoon talks

Posted 10 Aug 2012 / 0

I spent Thursday afternoon once again hustling from one talk to another, with Organized Oral Session #47 (Universal Senescence? New Theories and Experimental Approaches Across the Tree of Life) being my primary focus. The writings of George C. Williams and his ingenious antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis explaining aging have always fascinated me. Like a lot of Read More

A Major Post, Behavior, Conferences, Ecological Modeling, Ecological Society of America, Ecosystem Services, Freshwater Ecosystems, Individual-based Models, Parasitism, Phenotypic Plasticity, Ponds & Lakes, Predation, Senescence, Spatially Explicit Modeling, Sustainable Agriculture, Talks & Seminars, Tropical Forest

Longer telomeres imparted by older fathers may forestall senescence

Posted 20 Jun 2012 / 0

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences “Delayed paternal age of reproduction in humans is associated with longer telomeres across two generations of descendants” Science Daily “Offspring of Older Fathers May Live Longer” What I find fascinating here is the hypothesized adaptive value of this genetic discovery: telomeres may be a molecular mechanism by which Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Genetics, Human Evolution, Senescence

Is Alzheimer’s disease caused by prion proliferation?

Posted 20 Jun 2012 / 0

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences “Purified and synthetic Alzheimer’s amyloid beta (Aβ) prions“

A Minor Post, Articles, Senescence

Now if you could only keep your cytosine methylated you might live forever

Posted 18 Jun 2012 / 0

ScienceNow “Aging Is Recorded in Our Genes“

A Minor Post, Articles, Genetics, Senescence

Do you still think God is good?

Posted 15 Sep 2010 / 0

George C. Williams, eminent scholar of evolutionary biology, died on September 8th at the age of 84. During the second half of the twentieth century, Williams emerged as one of the most influential thinkers in evolutionary biology, and helped to clarify a number of key issues in the field. His defining style was to tackle Read More

Adaptation, Biography, Evolution, Group Selection, Obituary, Senescence

ESA 2009 Meeting Day #2 (Monday)

Posted 04 Aug 2009 / 1

Sunny Power started off the first full day of ESA’s meeting with a great overview of where the society has been and where it is headed. My impression has been that ESA has been slowly asserting its rightful place as not only a source of scientific information relevant to policy but also an active commentator Read More

A Major Post, Conferences, Ecological Society of America, Ecology Education, Public Policy, Senescence, Sustainability, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Urban Ecology