Category:
Biology
Jun 19, 2017
Deconstructing Niche Construction: A Conversation between Gordon Burghardt and Kevin Laland
The concept of niche construction stresses a dialectical relationship between organisms and their environments, rather than one being passively shaped by the other. It has deep roots in evolutionary thought but only now is resulting in a systematic research program. Join Gordon Burghardt and Kevin Laland as they take a deep dive into the subject.
May 24, 2017
The Evolution of Language and its Speakers
What separates us from the apes is a sequence of social and technological revolutions, one major change after the other in the life experiences of human communities. The emergence of language was one such revolution, not the last and definitely not the first.
May 22, 2017
Challenging Chomsky and his Challengers: Brian Boyd Interviews Daniel Dor
If you want to think about language and evolution, about language and experience, about language and almost anything, or about almost anything in language, then start, or start all over again, with Daniel Dor’s The Instruction of Imagination.
May 8, 2017
How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog)
In 1959, Dmitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut began what would come to be one of the longest-running experiments in biology. For the last 58 years they have been domesticating silver foxes and studying evolution in real time. But in 1952, seven years before this experiment began, Belyaev initiated a pilot study to determine whether or not his audacious ideas about domestication merited a full-fledged experiment. Here we tell that story.
Feb 21, 2017
Why Humanist Values Will Prevail: A Cultural Evolutionary View
Our geopolitical world seems increasingly unstable, and some see this instability as a threat to Humanist values. But do not fear.
Feb 1, 2017
Xenophobia in the Light of Evolution: On the Origins of Anti-Immigration Sentiment
Besides racial prejudice, what else are there behind xenophobia? Among the evolved human instincts, we can find at least two for the anti-immigration sentiment: territoriality and the endowment effect.
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Nov 1, 2016
When Evolutionists Acquire Superhuman Powers: A Conversation with Peter and Rosemary Grant
Two developments helped Peter and Rosemary Grant to peer into the genomes of finches. The first was the invention of tools to measure microsatellite DNA. With more than a dozen genetic loci they were able to characterize each finch with a unique DNA signature.
Oct 12, 2016
Memo To Amazon's Jeff Bezos: The Most Productive Workers Are Team Players, Not Selfish Individualists
‘Ruthless’ and ‘demanding’ are two descriptors of Amazon's working environment, sink or swim. But Amazon is not alone. Can evolutionary biology shed some light on why competition in the workplace does not alway produce the best outcomes?
Jul 19, 2016
Revolutionary biology: Evolutionary biology and ecology of cancer summer school supports a growing field
The opportunities for applying formal tools from evolutionary biology and ecology to cancer are vast, a fact that was recognized by pioneers in the field of evolution and cancer, many of whom came together in at the Wellcome Genome Campus to teach at the EBEC summer school. And if this summer school is any indication, this initially very quiet evolution revolution in cancer biology is starting to get rowdy.
Jul 11, 2016
When the Strong Outbreed the Weak: An Interview with William Muir
Muir’s experiments reveal a tremendous naiveté in the idea that creating a good society is merely a matter of selecting the “best” individuals. A good society requires members working together to create what cannot be produced alone, or at least to refrain from exploiting each other.
May 30, 2016
Evolutionary Biology’s Master Craftsman: An Interview with Richard Lenski
An interview with Richard Lenski, who has become world renowned for presiding over the longest running evolutionary experiment of all time, on the bacterium E. coli, which has now exceeded 65,000 generations.
Mar 2, 2016
When Democracy Meets the Ghost of Evolution: Why Short Presidents Have Vanished
Size matters in politics: America hasn’t seen a president shorter than 5’7” since William McKinley. A main culprit, unbeknownst to many, comes from voters’ cognitive biases—the work of evolution. And the conundrum took a theatrical turn early this year when Marco Rubio, a Republican presidential hopeful, was spotted wearing a pair of new boots. #bootgate
