President Obama has been lauded for his willingness to cooperate with even the shadiest leaders at home and abroad. That quality helped earn him the Nobel Peace Prize, which he accepts today (December 10) in Oslo, Norway, despite criticism that the award was premature, given that his efforts towards cooperation have been more promises than actions. Indeed, three of the five Nobel committee members had early reservations, and a recent poll suggests 61 percent of Americans think the president did not deserve it.
From an evolutionary perspective, Obama's win is indeed fishy -- not because he didn't deserve it, but because research into cooperation began with an experiment using fish.Rewind to 1985, when ecologist Manfred Milinski, with whom I am currently designing a new cooperation experiment, noticed something curious. His three-spined fish called sticklebacks avoid eating -- during which their guard is down, making them more...
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NatureJennifer Jacquet is an American postdoctoral researcher at the UBC Fisheries Centre in Vancouver and volunteered for the Obama campaign. She blogs at linkurl:Guilty Planet.;http://www.scienceblogs.com/guiltyplanet
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[30th September 2009]*linkurl:Normal Borlaug dies;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55979/
[30th September 2009]*linkurl:Follow the fish leader;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55386/
[29th January 2009]
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:Nobels ripe for overhaul?;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/56029/
[30th September 2009]*linkurl:Normal Borlaug dies;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55979/
[30th September 2009]*linkurl:Follow the fish leader;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55386/
[29th January 2009]
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