Posted 15 Apr 2012 / 3
My most senior colleague in the Department of Mathematics and Science at Pratt Institute, Marvin Charton, died on Thursday, April 12th. He was nearly 81 years old and had been a professor at Pratt Institute for over 56 years. Marvin was a renowned computational chemist who used correlation analysis to study chemical structure-property relationships, and Read More
Chemistry, Department of Mathematics & Science, Obituary, Pratt Institute
Posted 25 Mar 2012 / 1
For the second year in a row I participated in Pratt Institute’s Crash Course in sustainability, sponsored by the Center for Sustainable Design Studies. I once again gave my talk entitled “Ecosystems: Where they came from, how they work, and why they stick around“. Beyond speaking, I also got to attend a variety of interesting Read More
Art & Design, Biomes, Center for Sustainable Design Studies, Conferences, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Green Design, Greenwashing, Life Cycle Analysis, Population Growth, Pratt Institute, Public Policy, Quantitative Analysis, Sustainability, Sustainable Pratt
Posted 27 Jan 2012 / 0
Princeton University Press “Agent-Based and Individual-Based Modeling: A Practical Introduction” by Steven Railsback and Volker Grimm
A Minor Post, Ecological Modeling, Individual-based Models, Spatially Explicit Modeling
Posted 23 Sep 2011 / 0
This month’s issue of PLoS Computational Biology contained an interesting article entitled “Signalling and the Evolution of Cooperative Foraging in Dynamic Environments“. Authored by Colin J. Torney, Andrew Berdahl, Iain D. Couzin (all of Princeton University), the article seeks to understand the ecological conditions under which costly signaling can evolve. Many animals emit signals to Read More
Altruism, Articles, Cooperation, Game Theory, Group Selection, Individual-based Models, Modeling (General), Reciprocity, Spatially Explicit Modeling
Posted 09 Sep 2011 / 0
Mussel beds off of Polzeath, United Kingdom (photo by Andy F) Natural selection is often oversimplified as the effect of the outside environment on the survival and reproduction probability of individual organisms. In the end this perspective has some value: individual organisms either survive and reproduce or they do not. But along the way, an Read More
Behavioral Ecology, Competition, Cooperation, Emergence, Individual-based Models, Intertidal Zones, Population Growth, Spatially Explicit Modeling
Posted 29 Aug 2011 / 0
A downed tree in East River Park in Manhattan’s East Village after Hurricane Irene. Photo and caption text by David Shankbone. The east coast of the United States woke up this Monday morning to begin cleanup following the passing of Hurricane Irene. In preparation for the hurricane, over half a million New York and New Read More
Belief, Climate Change, Ethics, Political Science, Prediction, Sociology, Stochasticity
Posted 03 Aug 2011 / 0
I just checked out a lecture given by Martin Nowak at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that was recently posted on the MIT videos site. The video was recently posted on the MIT site, but it is not entirely clear when it actually happened. I suspect it is the same lecture listed here. Nowak recently Read More
Altruism, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Kin Selection, Mathematics, Multilevel Selection, Psychological Adaptation, Radio & Podcasts, Reciprocity, Talks & Seminars, Web
Posted 24 Jul 2011 / 1
Today’s New York Times Magazine featured an article entitled “Where Do Dwarf-Eating Carp Come From?”. The article describes the quirky aspirations of Tarn Adams, the programmer behind the underground computer game called Dwarf Fortress. Like other simulation-based games, Dwarf Fortress allows players to engineer a society (in this case made of dwarves) that faces adversity Read More
Computing, Ecological Modeling, Evolutionary Modeling, Individual-based Models, Modeling (General), Spatially Explicit Modeling, System Stability
Posted 12 Feb 2011 / 0
Today is the day widely celebrated as Darwin Day. Two hundred and two years ago, Charles Darwin was born, and many evolution enthusiasts hold rallies and teach-ins to celebrate this anniversary every year. And while my role as a college professor teaching a great variety of evolution courses ought to put me in a celebratory Read More
Belief, Evolution, Evolution Education, Public Outreach, Religion, Teaching
Posted 20 Jan 2011 / 7
In a recent posting I discussed the book The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod [1, 2]. The book chronicles Axelrod’s work in the 1980’s to understand the dynamics of the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma (IPD), which is perhaps the most well-known of game theory constructs. Axelrod’s work is important because it points out how rich Read More
Cooperation, Easy Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, Educational Software and Apps, Evolution Education, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Individual-based Models, Lesson Ideas, Reciprocity, Spatially Explicit Modeling, System Stability, Teaching, Teaching Tools
