Christopher X J. Jensen
Professor, Pratt Institute

Should conservation scientists also be advocates for particular policies?

Posted 24 Jun 2012 / 0

Science 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 career

Music evolves (culturally!) from noise to song under the influence of human selection

Posted 24 Jun 2012 / 0

Proceedings 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, Music

David Barash illuminates the “EvoPolitics” of Darwin’s time

Posted 23 Jun 2012 / 0

The 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

A pharma-agricultural tragedy of the commons?

Posted 23 Jun 2012 / 0

The Chronicle of Higher Education “As Beef Cattle Become Behemoths, Who Are Animal Scientists Serving?” This is a scary story of corporate tainting of science.

A Minor Post, Ethics, Grants & Funding, Scientific Fraud

Great Michael Ruse piece on the politics of resisting religious encroachment on evolutionary biology

Posted 23 Jun 2012 / 0

The Chronicle of Higher Education “Evolution in the Classroom: Here We Go Again!” Classic and entire appropriate commentary on Richard Dawkins here!!

A Minor Post, Articles, Creationism, Evolution Education, Religion

Ted Kaczynski as a scholar of resistance to technology

Posted 23 Jun 2012 / 0

The Chronicle of Higher Education “The Unabomber’s Pen Pal” What I think is really interesting about Kaczynski’s critique is that he is fearlessly pointing out the problems with technology, challenging others to provide a counter-narrative. For the most part, there is no counter-narrative. You are either “with us or against us” when it comes to Read More

A Minor Post, Activism, Articles, Belief, Cultural Evolution, Ethics

Understanding the role of the Templeton Foundation in funding evolutionary biology research

Posted 22 Jun 2012 / 0

Back 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, Religion

Is this what free-market conservation looks like?

Posted 22 Jun 2012 / 0

Nature News “Lizard’s future hinges on voluntary measures” What is so annoying about this policy is that it ignores the fact that landowners could have been “volunteering” to not destroy habitat well before this species became endangered. Allowing “voluntary measures” to trump the mandates of the Endangered Species Act takes the teeth out of the Read More

A Minor Post, Conservation Biology, Law, Public Policy, Web

North Carolina legislators enact strict law limiting the rate of natural change

Posted 22 Jun 2012 / 0

Science “Legislating Sea Level Rise” Well, I guess if North Carolina says that nature only changes in a linear manner, it must be true! Thank goodness for brave legislators who are not going to let nature get non-linear on us! We evolutionary biologists have seen this play out before, but this must come as a Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Climate Change, Political Science, Public Policy, Sustainability

Jason Collins questions the utility-to-fitness conversion

Posted 21 Jun 2012 / 0

Evolving Economics “Gandolfi, Gandolfi and Barash’s Economics as an Evolutionary Science” Great commentary on the fitness-maximizing behavior (or lack thereof) by the ultra-rich. Clearly humans are maximizing something other than their genetic fitness when they seek utility.

A Minor Post, Cultural Evolution, Economics, Memetic Fitness