Studying the evolution of altruistic behaviors reveals how knee-jerk good intentions can backfire.
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Book Excerpt from Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love, and Language from the Insect World
| January 3, 2012
In Chapter 8, "Pirates at the Picnic," author Marlene Zuk considers the wisdom of describing the behavior of ants in human terms
Should we rethink the parallel drawn between “slave-making” ants and human slavery, and other such oversimplifications of animal behavior?
Poet Katherine Larson explores the intersection of art and science through the lyrical works "Metamorphosis" and "Crypsis and Mimicry."
A poet finds artistic inspiration in her work as a scientist and new perceptions in the lines and linkages of her art.
In an essay entitled "Molecular Cut and Paste: The New Generation of Biological Tools," virologist William McEwan envisions a future where viruses are reprogrammed to become the workhorses of science and medicine.
The promise of viruses as biotech tools will help molecular biology fulfill its true potential.
Researchers studying differences in how individuals respond to stress are finding that genes are malleable and environments can be deterministic.
In an essay entitled "Nurture, Nature, and the Stress That is Life," neurobiologists Darlene Francis and Daniela Kaufer envision a future where science moves past the nature vs. nurture debate in considering differences in human behavioral responses to stress.
Book Excerpt from The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness
| September 1, 2011
In Chapter 13, "Altruism," author Oren Harman discusses how George Price's and John Maynard Smith's 1973 formulation of evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) meshes with examples of altruism in nature.
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