I learned that Google has retooled its invitation system for Google+. Instead of manually adding names into a message field, I can just drop a link into this post and offer 150 invitations. So if you want to dabble in this new experiment in social media and enforced non-pseudonymity, please click here.
Originally published August 8, 2011. Copyright 2011 Carl Zimmer.
The New York Times, August 8, 2011
When it comes to the evolution of humans, a lot depended on the kindness of strangers.
Our species is especially cooperative. We routinely help other people — relatives and strangers alike — even when there’s no immediate reward for us. The concern that humans have for each other is part of the foundation of complex societies, from neighborhoods to nations.
Scientists have long wondered how long ago our so-called prosocial behavior evolved. In a new paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists at Emory University addresses that question with a study on chimpanzees, one of our closest living relatives.
Continue reading “Chimpanzees Clear Some Doubt After Generosity Is Questioned”
[If you can’t see this post here, you can see it on Storify here.]
View “Greenfieldism” on Storify
Originally published August 7, 2011. Copyright 2011 Carl Zimmer.
To understand how we evolved, we have to understand where we evolved. Natural selection exists because the environment is kinder to some individuals than others. Depending on the species, that environment may be a lake miles underneath Antarctic ice, an alpine meadow near the top of a mountain, or an oxygen-free swamp in the sweltering tropics. Each habitat creates its own set of conditions in which individuals thrive or die. We humans are no different. We are the product of where we have lived.
Continue reading “What Home Looked Like For Seven Million Years”
Rosie Redfield of the University of British Columbia has steadfastly raised doubts about the headline-grabbing news about arsenic-based life last November. (If neither arsenic life nor Rosie Redfield ring any bells for you, check out my two pieces for Slate, in December and June.) Redfield then did something exceptional: she set out to replicate the initial findings, getting the original bacteria and seeing whether they can build DNA from arsenic when deprived of phosphorus.
And then she did something quite unique: she started to chronicle her experiences on her blog. It’s a fascinating peek into the lab notebook of a practicing scientist. Today’s post is especially intriguing:
Continue reading “Did Rosie Redfield just refute #arseniclife on her blog?”