Evolution

Exploring the Concept of Intelligence

Having been inspired by a series of articles by Becky Jungbauer, I thought it might be useful to explore the basic concept of intelligence and its possible origins. Any creature which has sensory organs of any type is collecting information. The only reaso ...

Blog Post - Gerhard Adam - Jun 30 2009 - 10:22am

Concept of Intelligence- Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, we introduced some of the basic concepts and steps associated with the development of cognition and how more and more sophisticated responses to problems may have emerged in species.  In this part, we want to continue by exploring ...

Blog Post - Gerhard Adam - Jun 30 2009 - 10:23am

Information equals Designer?

Jeffery Dach, MD claims that this argument is persuasive: ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Jun 26 2009 - 10:04pm

Concept of Intelligence- Part 3

As we saw in the previous posts, Part 1 and Part 2,many animals have the ability to abstract concepts and to abstract solutions to various problems. So what’s left? I am going to postulate that what separates humans from all the other animals, is the abili ...

Blog Post - Gerhard Adam - Jun 30 2009 - 10:19am

Ganlea Megacanina- Move Over Ida, Asia Lays Claim To A Human Common Ancestor

Look out, Ida.   Hot on the heels of one overhyped mishmash of media hysteria, a new fossil primate from Myanmar/Burma called Ganlea megacanina is causing researchers to speculate that the common ancestor of humans, monkeys and apes evolved from primates i ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 30 2009 - 6:51pm

Altruism Is The Best Defense

This is a review of a recent article, cooperation in Defense against a predator,  in the Journal of Theoretical Biology by Jozsef Garay of the Research Group of Theoretical Biology and Ecology of Hungarian Academy of Sciences.  Here’s the abstract: The or ...

Article - Nicholas Horton - Jul 1 2009 - 12:11pm

US Ranks High in Anti-Evolution Beliefs

This is not much of a surprise: In six out of ten countries including Argentina (57%), China (72%), Great Britain (62%), India (77%), Mexico (65%) and Spain (61%), the majority of people who had heard of Charles Darwin and know something about his theory ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Jul 3 2009 - 12:06pm

Like Sex? Thank Parasites

Parasites don't get a lot of respect these days but we may have to reconsider that.  In spite of their nasty reputation, they may have given us the joy of sex. What's so great about sex? If you don't know, this article cannot help and even f ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 6 2009 - 6:24pm

Selfish Gene Confusion

In light of the popularity of this piece, here are some things to keep in mind about 'selfish' genes: 1. The basic issue is about the unit of selection- does natural selection choose allele, individuals, populations, or species? The answer, like ...

Article - Michael White - Sep 9 2012 - 2:42am

Selfish Gene Confusion And Its Interdisciplinary Roots

I’ve been prompted to write this because of the misconceptions about the concept of the “Selfish Gene” in Evolutionary theory – evident in both blog replies on this site and more widely. I get really irritated when I see writers in the social sciences char ...

Article - Claire El Mouden - Jul 11 2009 - 11:54pm