https://youtu.be/AIyMr6mH11s This talk draws on the intellectual history of maternal effects science to pose the question: What forms of scientific practice and discourse result when life scientists encounter phenomena that persistently rebuff study, control, and optimization, and which demand a high tolerance for uncertainty? The science of maternal effects posits that in addition to transmitting … Continue reading Sarah Richardson – Exceptional and unconformable phenomena: Maternal effects and the epistemologies of the life sciences
Category: Biology
Interview with Agustin Fuentes about primate cooperation and human origins
"the future of the study of human evolution is gonna be big team based projects" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upRFk2b2vas
Turtles… dialectics all the way down
"Biology has traditionally defined individuals by the criteria of anatomy (organisms separated from the environment), physiology (organisms whose parts work toward a common end), development (organisms derived from a common precursor cell), genetics (autopoietic organisms whose cells contain the same genome), immunology (organisms that reject non-self), and evolution (that which is selected). Recent studies show … Continue reading Turtles… dialectics all the way down
Donna Haraway: “From Cyborgs to Companion Species”
Donna Haraway presented her lecture as the 2003-2004 Avenali Chair in the Humanities at the Townsend Center for the Humanities, UC Berkeley. Haraway is a prominent theorist of the relationships between people and machines, and her work has incited debate in fields as varied as primatology, philosophy, and developmental biology. Haraway's The Cyborg Manifesto, … Continue reading Donna Haraway: “From Cyborgs to Companion Species”
Mycogeddon
Paul Stamets' patent could destroy Monsanto's grip on the pesticide industry using mushrooms https://www.minds.com/blog/view/422130907919421440/paul-stamets039-patent-could-destroy-monsanto039s-grip-on-the-pesticide-industry-using-mushrooms Why poison your food if you don't have to? In this post-industrial culture of getting as much as you can out of as little space as possible, increasing profit, regardless of ecological impact; we have birthed a slew of new ideas … Continue reading Mycogeddon
Bats initiate vital agroecological interactions in corn
But make embarrassingly little money for agribusiness! http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/09/09/1505413112
GM comes of age?…we’re doomed!!
"Given the potential for gene drives to alter entire wild populations and therefore ecosystems, the development of this technology must include robust safeguards and methods of control (Oye et al., 2014). Whereas existing gene drive proposals focus on adding genes (Ito et al., 2002), disrupting existing genes (Burt, 2003), or suppressing populations, RNA-guided gene drives … Continue reading GM comes of age?…we’re doomed!!
The unique ecology of human predators
Humans are 'unique super-predator' "We can tackle adult prey at minimal cost, and so gain maximum, short-term reward, explained Prof Darimont from the University of Victoria (UoV), Canada. "Advanced killing technology mostly excuses humans from the formerly dangerous act of predation," he told reporters. "Hunters 'capture' mammals with bullets, and fishes with hooks and nets. They assume … Continue reading The unique ecology of human predators
Neutral Theory: The Null Hypothesis of Molecular Evolution
http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/community-ecology-13228209 In the decades since its introduction, the neutral theory of evolution has become central to the study of evolution at the molecular level, in part because it provides a way to make strong predictions that can be tested against actual data. The neutral theory holds that most variation at the molecular level does not … Continue reading Neutral Theory: The Null Hypothesis of Molecular Evolution
More Drawing Life at the Grant tomorrow
Too late to book onto this one, but look out for March's event on the Grant's listing... bookings taken on the 11th of Feb! http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/zoology/whats-on https://joeyogorman.com/drawing-life/
Joey O'Gorman 