Tall Tales
In science, even self-evident truths need to be put to the test. There was an interesting story in the Telegraph last week, which described how scientists have tried to show that the long necks of...
View ArticleAll very interesting, but so what?
I have to admit, I've never had much time for sociobiology or its close relative, evolutionary psychology. It's not that I think there's anything wrong with seeking evolutionary explanations for social...
View ArticleSexual arms race
The Natural History museum has a fascinating news story about sexual arms races in diving beetles. Apparently, every time male diving beetles evolve better suction cups on their feet to hold on to...
View ArticleHunch supported
The following brief news item seems to lend support to a hunch I have had for some years: New Scientist: Bird song goes out of fashion too … Behavioural ecologists have long known that some songbirds...
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Pulling the birds
This story from a couple of weeks back: BBC Nature: Related birds evolve different songs and colours Canadian Researchers have discovered a pattern in birds' songs and plumage that help explain some of...
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Book review: ‘The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex’ by...
Darwin finally sets out to enlighten us on our origins. Charles Darwin was never one to understate his case. The Descent of Man is a 900-page barrage of evidence and argument, making the case that our...
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Newsletter No. 6: Building on a theory
12TH FEBRUARY 2020 Dear Friend of Darwin, Today marks the 211th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Happy birthday, old chap! And Happy Darwin Day to one and all!...
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Book review: ‘Sexual Selection’ by Marlene Zuk & Leigh W. Simmons
A very short introduction. This is a very useful introduction to Charles Darwin’s ‘other’ great idea: sexual selection. Nowadays, we tend to think of sexual selection as a special sub-category of...
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Newsletter No. 12: ‘A comparatively free man’
12TH FEBRUARY 2022 Dear Friend of Darwin, Today marks the 213th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin (and Abraham Lincoln). Happy Darwin Day! On this day in 1859, his 50th birthday, a poorly...
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Book review: ‘The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 17 • 1869’
The seventeenth volume of Charles Darwin’s correspondence comprises all the surviving letters both from and to Darwin from the year 1869. During this year, Darwin continued his research into human...
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