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Evolution Explains It All for You - The New York Times
Now Dennett is advancing on free will. In ''Freedom Evolves,'' he wants to show how evolution can get us ''all the way from senseless atoms to freely chosen actions.'' And he succeeds in his aim, given what he means by freedom. But he doesn't establish the kind of absolute free will and moral responsibility that most people want to believe in and do believe in. That can't be done, and he knows it.
'Hobbits' are a new human species, according to statistical analysis of fossils
Researchers from Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York have confirmed that Homo floresiensis is a genuine ancient human species and not a descendant of healthy humans dwarfed by disease. Using statistical analysis on skeletal remains of a well-preserved female specimen, researchers determined the "hobbit" to be a distinct species and not a genetically flawed version of modern humans.
Darwin's finches tracked to reveal evolution in action : Nature News
A husband and wife team has spotted what could be the beginning of a new species of finch on one of the Galapagos Islands, where Charles Darwin developed his ideas about evolution.
Right-handed chimpanzees provide clues to the origin of human language
"hemispheric lateralization" for language may have its evolutionary roots in the gestural communication of our common ancestors. A large majority of the chimpanzees in the study showed a significant bias towards right-handed gestures when communicating, which may reflect a similar dominance of the left hemisphere for communication in chimpanzees as that seen for language functions in humans.
Why Do We Have Emotions? | Psychology Today
The popular answer is the evolutionary one--that emotions have helped us survive. When we lived in the wild--with monkeys and mastodons and tigers--we needed emotions in order to react quickly to dangerous stimuli. If faced with a tiger, it's better to be rocked with a fear so strong it triggers a rush of blood than to sit around and theorize about the threat. We developed an emotional system because it could induce quick responses to danger (for theorists on emotion and evolution, see Antonio Damasio, Joseph LeDoux, and Robert Trivers).
Darwinian evolution for culture
Following on from my piece about songs and scientists, underverse (Chris Schoen) has taken me to task:
… it becomes easy to see one of the flaws in memetic thinking. Changes in “culture” differ from changes in biology in that they are not random; they are directed toward a specific challenge or concern.
Humans Still Evolving as Our Brains Shrink | LiveScience
Evolution in humans is commonly thought to have essentially stopped in recent times. But there are plenty of examples that the human race is still evolving, including our brains, and there are even signs that our evolution may be accelerating.
Human-Chimp Gene Comparison Hints at Roots of Language | Wired Science | Wired.com
By comparing how a gene critical for language works in humans and chimpanzees, researchers have identified an entire network of genes involved in the incredible linguistic powers of Homo sapiens.
Top 10 Mysteries of the First Humans | LiveScience
Humans are unique among life on this planet, and much remains a mystery as to how we evolved. What steps came first? Why did we evolve this way and not that direction? Why are we the only human species left? What other paths might we have gone down in our evolution? And what directions might we go from here?
Top 10 Things that Make Humans Special | LiveScience
Humans are unusual animals by any stretch of the imagination, ones that have changed the face of the world around us. What makes us so special when compared to the rest of the animal kingdom? Some things we take completely for granted might surprise you.
Human Evolution: Our Closest Living Relatives, the Chimps | LiveScience
As scientists try and solve and mystery of how we originated, an invaluable source of clues is the chimpanzee.
Sharpening the Focus On Human Evolution
The identification of "Ardi" is a major breakthrough because her species was an early step in the process of human evolution. Scientists do not claim to know whether that Ardi's species evolved directly into modern humans, but it is an important branch on the family tree.
Deric Bownds' MindBlog: Prosociality in large human groups more likely due to culture than to genetics.
Bell et al. think about whether human prosocial behaviors such as food sharing, taxation, and warfare - nearly completely absent in other vertebrates - are more plausibly explained as arising from to cultural or genetic selection during competition among large groups.
How Did Evolution Begin?
Life's ability to replicate itself is essential for evolution, yet even the simplest kind of replication requires a relatively complex system. So what kind of non-replicating system might have served as the predecessor of evolution, paving the way for life as we know it? The answer, according to a recent study, is a kind of "prelife" -- a chemical system that can lead to information and diversity, and that is capable of selection and mutation, but does not yet have the ability to self-replicate.
Richard Lewontin-Genetic Determination and Adaptation: Two Bad Metaphors : Pharyngula
He was there to talk about the importance and danger of metaphors, and addressed two of them. The New Testament metaphor of genes make organisms, and the Old Testament metaphor that organisms adapt to the environment.
Genetically Modifying Songbirds to Study Human Brain Growth | Wired Science | Wired.com
vocal learning, is believed to rely on a version of the same neurological systems that eventually allowed a clever branch of the primate tree to acquire language and become human. It makes the birds an important model of human learning, language and neural development.
Darwin's Robots | h+ Magazine
This experiment in swarm robotics shows both the coordination of multi-robot systems consisting of large numbers of simple physical robots and the evolution of collective communication behaviors. The study of artificial swarm intelligence as well as the biological studies of insects, ants, and other swarms in nature provides insight into the nature of intelligence in general, and offers an interesting perspective on the nature of Darwinian selection, competition, and cooperation.
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