Posted 22 Dec 2015 / 0
Last month, I published a rather long review of William Provine’s last book, The “Random Genetic Drift” Fallacy. The book is pretty obscure and I knew that a lot of other evolutionary biologists had dismissed the book as being a bit on the crazy side, so in the back of my mind I was wondering whether Read More
A Major Post, Belief, Creationism, Data Limitation, Evolution, Fluidity of Knowledge, Hypothesis Testing, Natural Selection, Population Genetics, Web, WordPress
Posted 17 Dec 2015 / 0
“Lev Ginzburg has retired”. For anyone who knows Lev, this combination of words does not make a whole lot of sense. Is it possible that such a lively and active scientist would hang up his yellow pad and pencil in order to put his feet up in some retirement community far away from the world Read More
A Major Post, Allometries, Biography, Carrying Capacity, Conferences, Conservation Biology, Ecological Modeling, Ecology, Evolutionary Modeling, Population Genetics, Population Growth, Science as a career, System Stability, Talks & Seminars
Posted 14 Dec 2015 / 1
Last Friday (December 11th, 2015) I had the pleasure of speaking to students and faculty at Saint Francis College. I delivered a talk entitled “Highly-creative baby-breeding idea propagators: what human (re)productive choices mean for the future of our species” to an engaged and insightful audience; as this was the final week of classes, I really Read More
A Major Post, Adaptation, Behavior, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Cultural Evolution, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, Natural Selection, Population Growth, Public Outreach, Sex and Reproduction, Social Diversity
Posted 04 Dec 2015 / 0
Next Friday, December 11th, at 3 pm I will be delivering a talk at St. Francis College entitled “Highly-creative baby-breeding idea propagators: what human (re)productive choices mean for the future of our species“. The talk is a synopsis of a large section of my book-in-progress Breeders, Propagators, & Creators: Culture, Biology, and the Future of Human Evolution. Read More
A Major Post, Behavior, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Carrying Capacity, Cultural Evolution, Evolution Education, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, Intrinsic Growth Rate, Memetic Fitness, Natural Selection, Parenting, Population Growth, Public Outreach, Reproductive Fitness, Sex and Reproduction, Social Diversity
Posted 03 Dec 2015 / 0
Only Human “Your Brain on Sound” This is a great feature that uses the experience of a particular person (“Rose”) to explain how important the brain’s filtering of sound stimuli is to our perception of sound. Rose suffers from auditory neuropathy, which prevents her brain from responding to sound with neural synchrony. This makes it really Read More
A Minor Post, Minor in Sound & Music Studies, MSCI-363, Biological Origins of Sound & Music, Radio & Podcasts, Sound Perception
Posted 03 Dec 2015 / 0
National Public Radio “In Worst Attacks, Terrorists Often Have Fraternal Bonds” This is an interesting — albeit brief — piece on a recent “pattern” that has emerged in terror attacks: teams of attackers are often composed of blood relatives. As a good scientist I have to point out that there’s a danger here of over-generalizing Read More
A Major Post, Activism, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Belief, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Evolution, Data Limitation, Gene by Environment Interactions, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Genetics, Host-Pathogen Evolution, Human Evolution, Memetic Fitness, Mismatch theory, Phenotypic Plasticity, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts, Resistance Evolution in Parasites, Social Diversity
Posted 02 Dec 2015 / 0
A few years ago, I worked with graphic designer Greg Riestenberg to come up with a series of infographic images designed to make several foundational game theory constructs easier to understand. Our approach was to take all the numbers out of the representations, using information design to highlight how the games work and how they differ from each Read More
A Major Post, Evolution Education, Evolutionary Games Infographics, Game Theory, Information Design, Teaching Tools
Posted 30 Nov 2015 / 0
At Paris, two equally-nihilistic cultures clash, but where do the people get a seat at the table? Today crucial climate talks are under way in Paris, France amid massive police presence and an atmosphere of social repression. The message is to “stay off the streets” as the leaders of world (and a few monarchs and businesspeople) meet Read More
A Major Post, Activism, Anthropogenic Change, Belief, Climate Change, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Environmental Justice, History, Memetic Fitness, Political Science, Psychology, Public Policy, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy
Posted 23 Nov 2015 / 0
The Chronicle of Higher Education “An Unevolved View of Gender Evolution” Although I am sympathetic to a number of the critiques of traditional sexual selection theory, I have to agree with the overall thrust of this book review: if you are going to shine a critical light on scientific understandings of sex differences in humans, Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Ethics, MSCI-362, The Evolution of Sex, Sex and Reproduction, Sexual Conflict, Sexual Selection
Posted 23 Nov 2015 / 0
The Chronicle of Higher Education “Why Two Kids Are Too Many” This article has a provocative title that makes you believe that it is going to make a persuasive argument for public policy that encourages smaller families, but it is more like a meandering survey of the very confused landscape of the “baby culture wars”. Read More
A Minor Post, Activism, Belief, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Environmental Justice, Ethics, Population Pressure, Public Policy
