Nice 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 NormsAre there genetic markers for ethnicity?
Posted 23 Jun 2012 / 0The Chronicle of Higher Education “The story of Jewish origins, once the province of historians and religion scholars, is now being told by DNA” There are fascinating implications of the research described in this piece for Isreal’s “right of return” policy.
A Minor Post, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Genetics, Human EvolutionUnderstanding the role of the Templeton Foundation in funding evolutionary biology research
Posted 22 Jun 2012 / 0Back in March, David Barash used his regular column in the Chronicle of Higher Education to unveil “The Truth about the Temple of Templeton“. Reacting to an increasingly-large funding stream coming out of the Templeton Foundation, Barash questions whether receiving money from this religiously-affiliated, pro-business group will lead to tainted science. Barash begins his critique by Read More
A Major Post, Articles, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Economics, Evolution, Grants & Funding, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Human Nature, ReligionPreschoolers cooperatively rock chimps in puzzle tournament
Posted 22 Jun 2012 / 0The New York Times “With Teamwork, Humans Best Other Primates“
A Minor Post, Articles, Cooperation, Human Uniqueness, Primates, PrimatologyProminent evolutionary biologists weigh in on whether humans can evolve into a ‘superorganism’
Posted 22 Jun 2012 / 0io9 “Could Humans Evolve into a Giant Hive Mind?” What I find fascinating about this nice journalistic piece is the biases in particular scientists that it exposes once it asks for uninformed speculation. Most prominently, Joan Strassman betrays her biases about relatedness (we have to be highly related to be a superorganism, period) and the Read More
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Cooperation, Human Uniqueness, Prediction, Superorganisms, WebScientific American “Why We Help”
Posted 21 Jun 2012 / 1The July issue of Scientific American features a cover story written by Martin A. Nowak called “Why We Help“. This very short article contains a brief review of Nowak’s “five rules” for cooperation, a little bit of connection to experimental work in real organisms, and some hazy conjecture concerning what makes humans cooperate. It seems as Read More
A Major Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Behavior, Climate Change, Cooperation, Evolution, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Human Nature, Kin Selection, Punishment, Reciprocity, Social NetworksLonger telomeres imparted by older fathers may forestall senescence
Posted 20 Jun 2012 / 0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences “Delayed paternal age of reproduction in humans is associated with longer telomeres across two generations of descendants” Science Daily “Offspring of Older Fathers May Live Longer” What I find fascinating here is the hypothesized adaptive value of this genetic discovery: telomeres may be a molecular mechanism by which Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Genetics, Human Evolution, SenescenceOur brains are too smart to be tricked: diet sodas just make your body crave more calories
Posted 19 Jun 2012 / 0Science News “Diet Sodas May Confuse Brain’s ‘Calorie Counter’“
A Minor Post, Health & Medicine, Mismatch theory, Neuroscience, WebA comparison of behaviorally-based animal diseases reminds us of the kingdom in which we belong
Posted 18 Jun 2012 / 0The New York Times “Our Animal Natures” I find it particularly interesting how domesticated animals find themselves in some of the same behavioral traps (addiction, self-harm, obsessive-compulsiveness) as domesticated humans. This certainly suggests that mismatch theory has some validity.
A Minor Post, Articles, Behavior, Mismatch theoryBonobo sequence establishes that humans are equally but dissimilarly related to our chimpanzee relatives
Posted 18 Jun 2012 / 0Nature “The bonobo genome compared with the chimpanzee and human genomes” Nature News “‘Hippie chimp’ genome sequenced” ScienceNow “Bonobos Join Chimps as Closest Human Relatives“
A Minor Post, Articles, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, Phylogenetics, Primates, Primatology, Web