Christopher X J. Jensen
Professor, Pratt Institute

Is selective rejection of science really a problem?

Posted 18 Jan 2013 / 1

In a recent short opinion piece (Scientific American “Creation, Evolution and Indisputable Facts“), Jacob Tanenbaum argues that selectively rejecting evolutionary biology is dangerous to the scientific culture of America. He rightly points out that our populace does not reject science as a whole, but instead picks and chooses what science to doubt and what science Read More

A Major Post, Adaptation, Altruism, Articles, Belief, Cooperation, Evolution, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, Religion, System Stability

Production on marginal lands can meet only 25% of our biofuel mandates

Posted 17 Jan 2013 / 0

Nature “Bioenergy: Biofuel production on the margins” & “Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest” This is fascinating, and provides further evidence that even the smartest biofuel production methods are not going to be enough to mitigate our energy demands. In order to really get off of fossil fuels, we need to find Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Climate Change, Grasslands, Public Policy, Quantitative Analysis, Sustainability, Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Energy

Roberts Publishing releases an iPad version of their majors Evolution textbook

Posted 12 Jan 2013 / 0

iTunes “Evolution: Making Sense of Life” I don’t own an iPad so I won’t be playing with this anytime soon, but I am very curious about the impact of this first-of-its-kind majors Evolution textbook for tablet. I am not sure if this is the new big thing or the last dying try of the old-model Read More

A Minor Post, Educational Software and Apps, Evolution, Evolution Education, Teaching Tools

Montreal art installation rewards cooperative play with musical novelty

Posted 12 Jan 2013 / 1

I really appreciate the combination of social play and music that went into this very simple but very rich piece of public art.

A Minor Post, Art & Design, Cooperation, Installation Art, Play, Public Art, Web

If your “free will” is questionable, feel free to exercise your “free won’t”

Posted 04 Jan 2013 / 1

Scientific American “Free Won’t“

A Minor Post, Articles, Behavior, Consciousness, Emotion, Neuroscience

Do our brains require endurance activity in order to function?

Posted 03 Jan 2013 / 0

The New York Times “Exercise and the Ever-Smarter Human Brain” While I think that the finding that brain size and capacity for endurance are linked is interesting and important, I am a bit baffled by this article’s take on the evolutionary process that might have driven this connection. Does exercise make our brains larger and Read More

A Minor Post, Adaptation, Articles, Brain size, Development, Evolution, Gene by Environment Interactions, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, Mismatch theory, Neuroscience, Phenotypic Plasticity

Barash not so enlightening on the paradox of human homosexuality

Posted 02 Jan 2013 / 1

The Chronicle of Higher Education “The Evolutionary Mystery of Homosexuality” It is interesting that Barash focuses so heavily in this article on traditional population genetic explanations for the “paradox” of homosexuality, especially when it is becoming so clear that single-gene approaches to human evolution make very little sense. Barash also makes a really weak argument Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Evolution, Gene by Environment Interactions, Genetics, Group Selection, Kin Selection, Natural Selection, Population Genetics, Reproductive Fitness, Sex and Reproduction