Science Now “Is Acid Rain a Thing of the Past?” It is wonderful that this policy is yielding results, but a bit scary how slowly recovery takes. Obviously climate change is a very different problem, but seeing how this “success story” has come with such time lags really makes me scared of how long we Read More
A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, PollutionLive Science “Cavemen Bones Yield Oldest Modern Human DNA“
A Minor Post, Genetics, Homo species, Human Evolution, PaleonotologyLive Science “Tiny Tracks of First Complex Animal Life Discovered“
A Minor Post, Macroevolution, PaleonotologySocial Evolution Forum “Matthew Zimmerman: Groups as the Most Natural and Useful Level of Analysis (a comment on Pinker)” I am not sure which frustrates me more: The contention that genes are the only “target” of selection; or The contention that selection on organisms is the only level at which selection occurs; or The contention Read More
A Minor Post, Altruism, Cooperation, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Multilevel Selection, Political Science, SociologyScience “Mining the Biodiversity of Plants: A Revolution in the Making” What’s fascinating to me about this is what happens when we have screened every plant we can find… will we then stop caring about the medicinal value of biodiversity?
A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss, GeneticsScience “The Development of C4 Rice: Current Progress and Future Challenges” I will be amazed if this works. The C3/C4 pathway split is a major evolutionary event in plants, and apparently we are poised to horizontally transfer this adaptation across lineages using genetic engineering. If this works, it will be an unprecedented feat of cultural Read More
A Minor Post, Food, Genetic Engineering, Sustainability, Sustainable AgricultureScience “Fences Make Good Nest Sites“
A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss, Conservation Biology, Invasive SpeciesScience “House Panel Set to Slash Climate, Environmental Research” Science “Environmental Science Feels Pinch in Canada’s Budget“
A Minor Post, Political Science, Public PolicyPLoS Biology “The Limits to Sustainability Science: Ecological Constraints or Endless Innovation?” PLoS Biology “The Shifting Boundaries of Sustainability Science: Are We Doomed Yet?” PLoS Biology “The Macroecology of Sustainability“
A Minor Post, Macroecology, SustainabilityLast summer I discussed a paper by Rand and Nowak that explored the dynamics of antisocial punishment in groups composed of cooperators, defectors, and loners playing a public goods game. In a conventional public goods game, at least some players must make a contribution in order to reap group reward. Cooperators make that contribution and Read More
A Major Post, Altruism, Articles, Cooperation, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Punishment