Punctuated Equilibria: The Improbability Drive
Somewhere between the New Synthesis and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, the theory of Punctuated Equilibria appeared, but it needs an Improbability Drive.
The Deadliest Animal vs the Best Predator
What is the deadliest animal in America? And is the best predator the deadliest animal, or the most beneficial?
Character Displacement, Language Replacement
Character displacement in biology is similar to language replacement in linguisitics: languages compete, evolve, and even go extinct.
Biological Evolution & Language Evolution
Language evolution can resemble biological evolution. This is an example of how biology can provide insights about innovation in non-biochemical systems.
The Struggle for Existence: The Lovely Deathscape
Nature is beautiful, but it’s really a lovely deathscape: the struggle for existence is everywhere, and only the trees die of old age.
The First Law of Biology: Malthusian Superfecundity
The first law of biology is Malthusian superfecundity: All species produce more offspring than can survive. Humanity is not exempt.
Biomimicry & The Ideal Free Distribution
Biomimicry is a complicated attempt to arrive at the simple, natural solutions that result from the Ideal Free Distribution.
Ecology, Economics, and Delayed Gratification
Economics fails to explain why Homo economicus struggles with delayed gratification, but ecology can offer some historical perspectives.
The Need for Biologists in Public Policy; The Bourgeois Strategy
The input of biologists in public policy can help us understand the disruptions of human progress; one example is ‘the bourgeois strategy’.
Infinite Monkeys Typing the Human Genome
Infinite monkeys aren’t needed to type Shakespeare nor to make the human genome. But both still seem impossible. So just how did Shakespeare write Shakespeare, and just how did life build humanity?