Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

I will speak about the tension between biological and cultural evolution at St. Francis College (December 11th, 2015 @ 3pm)

Posted 08 Oct 2015 / 0

I am excited to announce that I am scheduled to speak about the tension between biological and cultural evolution at Saint Francis College in Brooklyn Heights. The title of my talk is “Highly-creative baby-breeding idea propagators: what human (re)productive choices mean for the future of our species“, and it will provide a partial overview of Read More

A Major Post, Anthropogenic Change, Behavior, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Carrying Capacity, Cultural Evolution, Economics, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, Parenting, Population Growth, Population Pressure, Psychology, Public Outreach, Reproductive Fitness, Resource Consumption, Sex and Reproduction, Sustainability

Formation of the Society for the Study of Cultural Evolution has the potential to catalyze research into how culture evolves

Posted 29 Sep 2015 / 0

I was excited to recently discover that The Evolution Institute, a “think-tank that doesn’t just think” about how to apply evolutionary understanding to human problems, is working to foster a new professional society dedicated to the study of cultural evolution. Dubbed the Society for the Study of Cultural Evolution (SSCE), this emerging society endeavors to Read More

A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Archaeology, Behavior, Cooperation, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Evolution, Environmental Justice, Evolutionary Modeling, Political Science, Professional Societies, Psychology, Public Outreach, Public Policy, Religion, Social Science, Society for the Study of Cultural Evolution, Sociology

Evolution 2016 meeting will feature evolution-themed art exhibit

Posted 14 Sep 2015 / 0

I just got an announcement that there will be an evolution-themed art exhibit at next year’s Evolution meeting in Austin, Texas. It is exciting to see this meeting make so many cultural connections (including the Evolution film festival), as we really need to bring our science to the general public in new ways if we Read More

A Minor Post, Art & Design, Evolution, Public Outreach, Science in Art & Design, Society for the Study of Evolution

Returning (somewhat reluctantly) to Twitter

Posted 26 Aug 2015 / 0

I used to have a Twitter account, but a few years back I decided to get rid of it… or — put more precisely — to neglect it. My reasons for avoiding Twitter and most definitely Facebook are pretty simple: I love the free internet. I hate that the approach of companies like Twitter and Read More

A Major Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Public Outreach, Publication

Resources for writing a popular science book (and particularly a proposal)

Posted 24 Aug 2015 / 0

Today is the first official day of my first-ever sabbatical. Although I have been trying to get some over-the-summer momentum going into this one-semester break from teaching and service duties, now is the time that I really need to get (and stay) focused on my sabbatical project. I want to write a popular science book Read More

A Minor Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Public Outreach, Publication

Urban Wildlife Podcast on big animals in big cities

Posted 27 Jul 2015 / 0

Urban Wildlife Podcast “Bangkok Pythons and Gotham Whales” This is a really interesting podcast that focuses on the wildlife of cities. This episode is about huge animals that manage to live in close proximity to cities, specifically in their waterways. The section on reticulated pythons — which can grow up to 23-25 feet long — Read More

A Minor Post, Cetaceans, Coevolution, Commensalism, Conservation Biology, Public Outreach, Radio & Podcasts, Reptiles, Urban Ecology

Evolution 2014: Overall Impressions

Posted 02 Jul 2014 / 0

Great organization of a great conference I had a great Evolution 2014 conference, and that has a lot to do with how it was organized. Raleigh was a nice location for the conference: it has an intimate conference center, with enough food opportunities near that conference center. Although the transportation options getting to Raleigh are somewhat Read More

A Major Post, Conferences, Evolution Education, Professional Societies, Public Outreach, Science as a career, Society for the Study of Evolution

Evolution 2014: Synthesis centers can serve as incubators if they buffer researchers from the risk of failure

Posted 24 Jun 2014 / 0

NESCent director Allen Rodrigo suggested that if synthesis centers want to serve as research incubators, they need to allow researchers to pursue risky research questions without having to pay the risk of failure. In some sense he is arguing for society — rather than scientists themselves — to bear the risk of potentially-innovative research.

A Minor Post, Conferences, Grants & Funding, Public Outreach, Science as a career, Society for the Study of Evolution

Evolution 2014: The Evolution Film Festival was on fire!

Posted 21 Jun 2014 / 0

The Evolution Film Festival was amazing! So many great films and such a wonderful, fun social atmosphere in which to enjoy them. The Evolution 2014 meeting would not be the same without these kinds of events.  

A Minor Post, Art & Design, Conferences, Evolution Education, Film & Video, Public Outreach, Society for the Study of Evolution, Teaching Tools

John Oliver holds first “balanced” climate debate on television

Posted 30 May 2014 / 0

Very nicely done! The monologue is great, but then the “performance” of the balanced climate change debate is really what drives home the point here. Don’t watch networks that present false “debates”.

A Minor Post, Belief, Climate Change, Film, Television, & Video, Political Science, Public Outreach, Public Policy, Risk & Uncertainty, Science (General), Sustainability