Could differential symbiosis be a mechanism by which genetically-variable hosts speciate?
Posted 25 Jun 2012 / 0PLoS One “Symbiotic Associations in the Phenotypically-Diverse Brown Alga Saccharina japonica“
A Minor Post, Mutualism, SpeciationWould you like a few red-listed species with that shrimp cocktail sir?
Posted 25 Jun 2012 / 0PLoS ONE “Management Implications of the Biodiversity and Socio-Economic Impacts of Shrimp Trawler By-Catch in Bahía de Kino, Sonora, México” Anyone who cares about marine conservation and believes that they can ethically eat seafood is somewhat delusional. Further evidence that there is no such thing as industrial-scale “safe catch”.
A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss, Marine Ecosystems, Resource Consumption, Sustainable HarvestingNew assessment of scientific reasoning skills suggests that students need better inquiry-based education
Posted 24 Jun 2012 / 0Science Insider “U.S. Students Know What, But Not Why“
A Minor Post, Ecology Education, Evolution Education, Higher Education, TeachingApparently you need to know something about rare granite erosion to understand the evolution of multicellularity
Posted 24 Jun 2012 / 0Science Now “You Owe Your Life to Rock“
A Minor Post, Fossil Data, GeologyShould conservation scientists also be advocates for particular policies?
Posted 24 Jun 2012 / 0Science Insider “Society for Conservation Biology in Turmoil Over Editor’s Ouster“
A Minor Post, Conservation Biology, Ethics, Law, Political Science, Professional Societies, Public Outreach, Public Policy, Science as a careerMusic evolves (culturally!) from noise to song under the influence of human selection
Posted 24 Jun 2012 / 0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences “Evolution of music by public choice” Science Now “Computer Program ‘Evolves’ Music From Noise” DarwinTunes site I am excited to read this article in full. What’s clear is that this is a pretty “canned” version of cultural evolution, but it is exciting to see this cultural evolution being Read More
A Minor Post, Cultural Evolution, Multilevel Selection, MusicNice summary piece on the state of research into human nature and morality by Agustín Fuentes
Posted 24 Jun 2012 / 0Psychology Today “Busting Myths About Human Nature“
A Minor Post, Human Nature, Social NormsTurtles caught in the act provide new paleontological insights
Posted 24 Jun 2012 / 0Science Now “Turtle Sex—Preserved for the Ages“
A Minor Post, Fossil Data, Sex and ReproductionTim Birkenhead on anthropomorphism and animal emotion
Posted 23 Jun 2012 / 0The Chronicle of Higher Education “Do Birds Have Emotions?” Very interesting animal stories here, so grisly and some inspiring. I never knew about the cooperation between guillemots, but the emotional signs that Birkenhead describes make sense in the context of cooperation: the real purpose of emotions, it seems, is to balance out the costs and Read More
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Articles, Cooperation, EmotionDavid Barash illuminates the “EvoPolitics” of Darwin’s time
Posted 23 Jun 2012 / 0The Chronicle of Higher Education “EvoPolitics” I really appreciate Barash’s reinforcement of the “is-ought” distinction: it is amazing to me how many people still commit the naturalistic fallacy. This is a really enlightening historical review, but I think that it gets the present-day implications wrong. The defining question about the political implications of evolutionary theory Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Multilevel Selection, Philosophy