Evolution imprisoned in biology classrooms

David Sloan Wilson is an evolutionary biologist who teaches in the Department of Anthropology at Biology Binghamton University. He has long been a champion of multi-level selection theory, and he boldly applied his research and findings to human conduct, boldly going where many biologists hesitate to go, based upon a well-documented history of derision aimed at scientists who dare to study human beings as though they were animals subject to natural selection. This, despite the fact that humans clearly are animals that are subject to the forces of natural selection. Today, I spotted an excellent video of an October 30, 2009 talk that David Sloan Wilson gave following the publication of his book, "Evolution for Everyone." The video lasts almost one hour. I previously posted extensively on his book here. I've posted on other aspects of his work here and here . Wilson opens his clear, insightful, sometimes blunt and oftentimes humorous talk by announcing that higher education has an "evolution problem." The problem is that many in academia resist applying modern scientific biological findings to their own disciplines, even though these biological findings would be highly relevant. Wilson thus refers to the Ivory Tower as the "Ivory Archipelago." Darwin anticipated the broad scope of his theory, but many teachers in the humanities refuse to have anything to do with well-substantiated principles of biology, even modern findings would be highly informative to their fields of study. [More . . . ]

Continue ReadingEvolution imprisoned in biology classrooms

The human edge: our ideas have sex

In the Wall Street Journal, Matt Ridley argues that human beings haven't flourished because of anything we do individually. Rather, it is our ability to share and to building upon previous ideas of others--it is our "collective intelligence":

The notion that exchange stimulated innovation by bringing together different ideas has a close parallel in biological evolution. The Darwinian process by which creatures change depends crucially on sexual reproduction, which brings together mutations from different lineages. Without sex, the best mutations defeat the second best, which then get lost to posterity. With sex, they come together and join the same team. So sex makes evolution a collective and cumulative process in which any individual can draw on the gene pool of the whole species. And when it comes to gene pools, the species with gene lakes generally do better than the ones with gene ponds—hence the vulnerability of island species to competition with continental ones.

It is precisely the same in cultural evolution. Trade is to culture as sex is to biology. Exchange makes cultural change collective and cumulative. It becomes possible to draw upon inventions made throughout society, not just in your neighborhood. The rate of cultural and economic progress depends on the rate at which ideas are having sex. . . . So here is the answer to the puzzle of human takeoff. It was caused by the invention of a collective brain itself made possible by the invention of exchange. . . . Prosperity consists of getting more and more narrow in what you make and more and more diverse in what you buy. Self-sufficiency—subsistence—is poverty.

Ridley concludes that this inexorable building upon prior ideas by sharing them is ultimately a "cheery" one (he points to reduced child mortality and increased per capita income worldwide), despite the occasional setbacks.

Continue ReadingThe human edge: our ideas have sex

Dawkins’ Greatest Show on Earth

Richard Dawkins released The Greatest Show on Earth in November to really and truly assemble substantial amounts of understandable evidence in one place for those 40% of Americans who can't stand to follow the evidence where it leads and for those of us who want the hordes to quit making excuses and to follow that evidence. I haven't read Dawkins' new book yet (though I own it), but Jerry Coyne has read it, and he reviewed it at The Nation. Coyne begins his review by characterizing the absurdity of refusing to acknowledge evolution by natural selection. The situation is as bad as as this hypothetical:

Imagine for a moment that a large proportion of Americans--let's say half--rejected the "germ theory" of infectious disease. Maladies like swine flu, malaria and AIDS aren't caused by micro-organisms, they claim, but by the displeasure of gods, whom they propitiate by praying, consulting shamans and sacrificing goats. Now, you'd surely find this a national disgrace, for those people would be utterly, unequivocally wrong. Although it's called germ theory, the idea that infections are spread by small creatures is also a fact, supported by mountains of evidence.

Coyne also describes Dawkins' chapter setting forth powerful evidence illustrating that evolution is a tinkerer:

In a wonderful chapter called "History Written All Over Us," Dawkins shows that animal anatomy is like a medieval palimpsest, carrying traces of our evolutionary ancestry. Human goose bumps, for instance, serve no function: they're remnants of the muscles used by our mammalian ancestors--and our living relatives like cats--to erect their fur, making them warmer and giving enemies the illusion of greater size. Modern genome sequencing has also uncovered vestigial DNA: useless, broken genes that are functional in our relatives and presumably were too in our ancestors. Our own genome, for instance, harbors nonfunctional genes that, in our bird and reptile relatives, produce egg yolk. Embryology--the study of development--brings more proof to the table. The pharyngeal arches of the early, fishlike human embryo are derived directly from the gill arches of fish, though they go on to become, among other things, our larynx and eustachian tube.

Coyne has given us a well-written review. Now it's time for me to go read Dawkins' book itself, so I can speak first hand. BTW, Catch this excellent 3-minute video of Dawkins describing the purpose of writing The Greatest Show on Earth.

Continue ReadingDawkins’ Greatest Show on Earth

New Smithsonian human origins exhibit

A new $20 million 15,000 square foot exhibit has been built around a central question: "What does it mean to be human?" says paleoanthropologist Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program and curator of the project. It all makes good sense, which means that it is about to be attacked by a huge numbers of people who dread the idea that they are human animals. If only these anti-science types would learn to take deep breaths to follow the evidence wherever it leads. They would find that we humans are part of an immense and intricate tree of life. what possible concocted story could be more amazing than that?

Continue ReadingNew Smithsonian human origins exhibit

Fungi

I recently posted on Sir David Attenborough, touting ability to educate us regarding nature. You might have thought, "Well, anyone could give a lively talk on the blue whale, the largest creature to ever live on Earth." Maybe so. But how many people have ever produced a spellbinding video on fungi? Attenborough and his team are often at their best when presenting species that seem mundane.

Continue ReadingFungi