Posted 27 Sep 2012 / 0
Science Now “Bearing Sons Can Alter Your Mind” Once again, epigenetic effects complicate our understanding of biological evolution! Two interesting omissions in this article: The fail to point out that female fetuses might also be donating DNA to mom: it is just easier to detect the male DNA unequivocally; and The real implication here is Read More
A Minor Post, Epigenetics, Evolution, Gene by Environment Interactions, Genetics, Health & Medicine, Human Evolution, Phenotypic Plasticity, Sex and Reproduction, Web
Posted 27 Sep 2012 / 1
One of the very talented students I work with in the Envirolutions club, Rhett Bradbury, pointed me towards the work of Jane McGonigal, a game designer and evangelist for the idea that games can save the world. For Rhett, her work is important to his Master’s thesis in graphic design, as he is considering how to move Read More
A Major Post, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Development, Emotion, Evolutionary Psychology, Happiness, Health & Medicine, Human Evolution, Mismatch theory, Phenotypic Plasticity, Play, Psychological Adaptation, Psychology, Radio & Podcasts, Social Networks, Subsistence, Web
Posted 20 Sep 2012 / 0
The Society Pages “Progressing from game theory to agent based modelling to simulate social emergence” This is a nice albeit pretty choppy explanation for why we should not listen to orthodox/traditional game theorists. The only argument I see missing here is that game theory relies on the assumption of a well-mixed population: even the Prisoner’s Read More
A Minor Post, Cooperation, Emergence, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Individual-based Models, Spatially Explicit Modeling, Web
Posted 19 Sep 2012 / 0
Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants This is another example of how considering air pollution from the perspective of both climate change and human health might begin to inspire global action.
A Minor Post, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Health & Medicine, Pollution, Public Policy, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy, Web
Posted 19 Sep 2012 / 0
The Chronicle of Higher Education “To the Trickster Go the Spoils” I really appreciate that Freeman Dyson acknowledges so clearly in this article that the fact that he has found a deceitful solution to the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma does not warrant radically shifting our understanding of human cooperation. The IPD and other game theory constructs Read More
A Minor Post, Altruism, Cooperation, Evolutionary Modeling, Fluidity of Knowledge, Game Theory, Reciprocity, Web
Posted 17 Sep 2012 / 0
Slate “Rachel Carson Didn’t Kill Millions of Africans: How the 50-year-old campaign against Silent Spring still distorts environmental debates” There is a lot of interesting stuff here, including a fascinating view into how scientific findings get processed by the public (both left and right leaning). The ad hominem attacks on Carson are interesting because they seem Read More
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Biography, Chemistry, Coevolution, Ecology, Environmental Justice, Evolution, Health & Medicine, Pollution, Public Outreach, Public Policy, Resistance Evolution in Parasites, Web
Posted 10 Sep 2012 / 1
All Things Considered “When Heat Kills: Global Warming As Public Health Threat“
A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Health & Medicine, Human limits, Radio & Podcasts, Survival
Posted 08 Sep 2012 / 0
BMC Biology “What is wrong with this picture?“
A Minor Post, Fluidity of Knowledge, Periodicals, Phylogenetics
Posted 23 Aug 2012 / 0
The Chronicle of Higher Education “Despite Occasional Scandals, Science Can Police Itself“
A Minor Post, Articles, Periodicals, Scientific Fraud
Posted 15 Aug 2012 / 0
ecology & stats “Why math is sooo great!“
A Minor Post, Mathematics
