Christopher X J. Jensen
Professor, Pratt Institute

CNN tackles climate change by explaining public goods games!

Posted 15 Jan 2014 / 0

I almost fell out of my seat when I found this video while searching for a concise source explaining why we don’t have an international climate change agreement. This short television piece is basically trying to explain the dynamics of climate change agreement as depicted by Milinski and colleagues (2008) in their PNAS paper “The collective-risk Read More

A Minor Post, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Film, Television, & Video, Game Theory, Sustainability, Web

Now legal, Northern California’s pot farms join the rest of agriculture in impacting water supply

Posted 14 Jan 2014 / 0

NPR The Salt “California’s Pot Farms Could Leave Salmon Runs Truly Smoked” It is funny because as marijuana becomes legalized it joins tobacco and coffee as a potentially high-impact, low-necessity agricultural product. And I know there are a lot of cigarette smokers, coffee fiends, and potheads taking exception to that last sentence.

A Minor Post, Freshwater Ecosystems, Habitat Destruction, Law, Radio & Podcasts, Rivers & Streams, Sustainability, Water Supply

Nice infographic on global and domestic food waste

Posted 07 Jan 2014 / 0

KQED The Lowdown “Rot and Rubbish: The Rancid Truth About How Much Food We Waste“

A Minor Post, Composting, Ethics, Food, Information Design, Political Science, Pollution, Public Outreach, Public Policy, Resource Consumption, Science in Art & Design, Sustainability, Web

Scientific American “Tiny Plants” article provides a primer on the inter-relationship between ecological and evolutionary change

Posted 07 Jan 2014 / 0

I am always on the lookout for great popular science articles to assign to my students. What makes a popular science article great? Well, to start with it should address concepts that are core to my classes (admittedly, this definition of “greatness” is highly relative to what I decide is important to teach). Concept density Read More

A Major Post, Adaptation, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, Coevolution, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Experiments (General), Extinction, Habitat Destruction, Interactions, Macroevolution, Marine Ecosystems, MSCI-271, Ecology for Architects, Pollution, Resilience, Sustainability, Terrestrial

Would a different term make us better appreciate ecosystem services?

Posted 04 Jan 2014 / 0

The Chronicle of Higher Education “Who Is Conservation For?” This article takes an interesting turn when it suggests that our inability to appreciate and value ecosystem services stems from… well, the term “ecosystem services”. It is common to blame scientists for failing to make their fields appropriately accessible to the general public, and sometimes this Read More

A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, Conservation Biology, Ecosystem Services, Habitat Destruction

Caterpillars weaponize nicotine

Posted 02 Jan 2014 / 0

The Economist “Caterpillars that blow nicotine at their enemy” I love the combination of genetic manipulation and “arena of death” wolf-spider gauntlet that led to these findings.

A Minor Post, Adaptation, Articles, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Host-Pathogen Evolution, Interactions, Parasitism, Predation, Resistance Evolution in Parasites

Microbes may surf their way to successful cooperation

Posted 10 Oct 2013 / 0

Wired “On the Microbial Frontier, Cheaters Rarely Prosper” This is fascinating, particularly because it attempts to connect the ability of bacteria to sustain cooperation through range expansion with the unique range expansion undertaken by humans in the last 30,000 years. I am not sure this will be a fruitful comparison, but you have to give it Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Cooperation, Evolutionary Modeling, Microbial Ecology, Web

An amazing indictment of the academic publishing industry (in which most of us participate)

Posted 04 Oct 2013 / 0

Dynamic Ecology “Follow the money – what really matters when choosing a journal” There are so many great ideas to be found in this post. Here are some of my favorites: There is no “innovation” or “risk” being taken by investors in academic publishing: those with money are simply extracting value from both the producers Read More

A Major Post, Ecology, Economics, Ethics, Evolution, Grants & Funding, Periodicals, Professional Societies, Public Policy, Publication, Web

Should we emulate the cooperative and conservative habits of the sloth?

Posted 19 Sep 2013 / 0

Inhabitat “The Biomimicry Manual: What Can Sloths Teach Us About Energy Efficiency?“

A Minor Post, Adaptation, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Coevolution, Green Design, Mutualism, Tropical Forest, Web

Additional evidence that obesity may be due to environment, not just habits

Posted 09 Sep 2013 / 0

NPR Shots “Gut Bacteria We Pick Up As Kids Stick With Us For Decades” NPR Shots “Staying Healthy May Mean Learning To Love Our Microbiomes” NPR Shots “Diverse Gut Microbes, A Trim Waistline And Health Go Together” NPR Shots “How A Change In Gut Microbes Can Affect Weight” What I find interesting here is the Read More

A Minor Post, Coevolution, Cultural Evolution, Health & Medicine, Human Evolution, Mismatch theory, Mutualism, Radio & Podcasts