So much for the big-brained city bird theory?
BMC Ecology “Commonness and ecology, but not bigger brains, predict urban living in birds” What makes this study smart is that it compares the birds that live successfully in urban areas with the birds...
View ArticleMusic, the cortisone balm?
The Chronicle of Higher Education “Can Music Save Your Life?” This article is kind of all over the place, but at its heart I think that it poses an interesting question: what role does music play for...
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WmD Episode #00003 has been released
The WmD Project is picking up steam! This week I have released the third episode of WmD’s video blog: You can see this episode in its ‘native habitat’ here. The first season of WmD is dedicated to...
View ArticleHave we outgrown the scale of cooperation supported by the Big Gods of Big...
Cliodynamica “From Big Gods to the Big Brother” There are a bunch of really interesting ideas in this post, particularly related to the challenges associated with scaling up cooperation. As Turchin...
View ArticleOur culture is special, but not especially uncommon
National Geographic News “Sperm Whales’ Language Reveals Hints of Culture” It is interesting how the number of animal species displaying culture keeps getting larger. There’s a lot of evolutionary...
View ArticleA chance to learn how an understanding of empathy can inform design
Pratt Brooklyn Evenings Timothy Gelling Talk I am always pitching to my students that their work needs to be “empathetic”, to be designed by anticipating the desires and needs of one’s user. This seems...
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Urban Wildlife Podcast on Cats and Coyotes
Urban Wildlife Podcast “Episode 4: Cats and Coyotes” What I really enjoyed about this particular episode of the Urban Wildlife Podcast was the interaction between topics covered. The effects of both...
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When it comes to sex, we are consumately proximate
The Guardian “Why the UK sperm bank is running short” Further evidence that while we are — on the one hand — one of the weirdest species in the world, at our core we remain not unlike the rest of our...
View ArticleFormation of the Society for the Study of Cultural Evolution has the...
I was excited to recently discover that The Evolution Institute, a “think-tank that doesn’t just think” about how to apply evolutionary understanding to human problems, is working to foster a new...
View ArticleDoes the ability to accumulate wealth make us value the future more?
PLoS ONE “Future Discounting in Congo Basin Hunter-Gatherers Declines with Socio-Economic Transitions” These findings are really fascinating, because they suggest that some degree of “building towards...
View ArticleDo creative people have “messy minds”?
Scientific American Beautiful Minds blog “Creative People Are…” This is an interesting little summary for someone like myself who teaches future creative professionals. Anecdotally, the “messy mind”...
View ArticleNew report on drug resistance highlights the tragedy of our antibiotics commons
National Geographic Germination blog “Antibiotic Resistance Getting Worse Globally, But Fixes Could Be Simple” Antibiotic resistance is an interesting problem because it highlights how individual...
View ArticleThe often-large difference between “breeding” and “parenting”
WNYC The Leonard Lopate Show “Options Grow For Starting a Non-Traditional Family” As I continue to work on my popular science book with the working title Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, I have...
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I will speak about the tension between biological and cultural evolution at...
I am excited to announce that I am scheduled to speak about the tension between biological and cultural evolution at Saint Francis College in Brooklyn Heights. The title of my talk is “Highly-creative...
View ArticleMalcolm Gladwell on the social contagion of mass shootings
National Public Radio Morning Edition “How Riots May Help Us Understand School Shooters” This is a great example of how understanding our cultural evolution, and how we have evolved to live...
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Does Bayesian bias aid us in making adaptive distorted self-assessments?
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences “Receipt of reward leads to altered estimation of effort” This is an interesting study because it suggests that we can make rational but distorted...
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David Sloan Wilson on how Jeff Bezos don’t know squat about chickens (or...
Evonomics “Jeff Bezos got Darwinism all Wrong!” This is an interesting analysis of the Bezos way of doing business, which represents an oft-lauded bastardization of Darwinian theory. What I like about...
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The prickly (and largely unknown) sex life of bats
BBC Earth “Why some male bats have spines on their penises” In my Evolution of Sex class we talk a lot about sperm competition, so spiky penises are nothing new to me. But I was not aware that bats had...
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Group phenotypic composition: implications for individuals and their groups
Trends in Ecology & Evolution “From Individuals to Groups and Back: The Evolutionary Implications of Group Phenotypic Composition” Man, I wish that this article was written in a more accessible...
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What’s the evolved function of curiosity?
Image courtesy of Jeffrey Pang via Wikimedia Commons Neuron “The Psychology and Neuroscience of Curiosity” (Kidd & Hayden 2015) This is a fantastic review of what is known about curiosity and what...
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