Evolving Thoughs, The evolution of morality: “Morality is an “acquired dialect”, which is a very useful metaphor. Like a dialect, it is conventional, and varies by geography. It is not inborn (although the capacity to acquire it, like that of language, is), and it doesn’t correlate with biology (a Sicilian raised in Japan would speak [...]
Entries Tagged as 'biology'
Edge @ DLD: Life: A gene-centric View
February 6th, 2008
Link: sevenload.com Edge 235, Life a Gene-Centric View. Craig Venter & Richard Dawkins: A Conversation in Munich: “It’s not everyday you have Richard Dawkins and Craig Venter on a stage talking for an hour about “Life: A Gene-Centric View”. That it occured in Germany, where the culture has been resistant to open discussion of genetics, [...]
Tags: biology · craig venter · dna · edge · evolution · richard dawkins
Watching David Attenborough
January 21st, 2008
Eurozine, Watching David Attenborough: “We are looking at something that probably not one of us has ever seen before. We are staring in perfect colour close-up at the slow, rhythmic uncoiling of a slimy proboscis. But what are we to make of the strange and oddly beautiful sight before our eyes? The camera pulls back [...]
Tags: biology · david attenborough · evolution · tv
What Cooking Did For Human Evolution
January 2nd, 2008
TIR, What Cooking Did For Human Evolution: “Could primates have evolved into humans without knowing how to cook? For 10 years, Harvard University primatologist Richard Wrangham has gathered data that he says show that the discovery of cooking allowed humans to evolve. The only snag, according to Scientific American: He has yet to prove that [...]
Tags: anthropology · biology · cooking · evolution
Culture Speeds Up Human Evolution
December 11th, 2007
Scientific American, Culture Speeds Up Human Evolution: “Homo sapiens sapiens has spread across the globe and increased vastly in numbers over the past 50,000 years or so—from an estimated five million in 9000 B.C. to roughly 6.5 billion today. More people means more opportunity for mutations to creep into the basic human genome and new [...]
Dolphins woo females with bunches of weeds
December 8th, 2007
Telegraph, Dolphins woo females with bunches of weeds: “A new study shows that male dolphins carry pieces of plants and twigs to impress females, rather than simply playful behaviour as previously believed. Object-carrying as part of sexual display is rare in the animal kingdom, with only humans and chimpanzees doing anything similar.”
Polar Bears for the South Pole?
November 25th, 2007
Photo: jet propulsion, by ucumari (Set) Der Spiegel: Polar Bears for the South Pole? “Schwartz and a number of his colleagues have published a study that asks a radical question: If certain animals and plants are unable to flee rising temperatures, should we help them? “One obvious solution,” Schwartz says, “is to help species at [...]
Tags: biology · global warming
Chew On This
November 23rd, 2007
Chew on This. Take a deep breath, swallow hard, and follow the food you eat on its day-long journey through the digestive system.