Darwin, Romanes and Bateson on speciation 1 May 2010 The ever-productive Donald Forsdyke, who I quoted in the previous post, has a new paper up on the origins of reproductive isolation, and theories of speciation. Proving that no good idea is ever entirely novel, it turns out some of my ideas in this paper are prefigured here. At least, I think they are good ideas… Evolution History Species and systematics EvolutionHistory
Biology Humans are the only animals that… 11 Jul 201311 Jul 2013 Psychologist Daniel Gilbert once wrote on the unwritten vow taken by psychologists: Few people realise that psychologists also take a vow, promising that at some point in their professional lives they will publish a book, a chapter or at least an article that contains the sentence: ‘The human being is… Read More
Evolution Animals and rights 5 Nov 2007 What with Hollywood archetypes of “animal rights activists” coming out of the woodwork lately, Ryan Gregory and Larry Moran pose the following question: And so I ask, on what basis do you draw the sharp moral line between “humans” and “animals”, “human rights” and “animal rights”, “us” versus “them”? What… Read More
History The first biological species concept 10 May 200918 Sep 2017 Before this text in 1686, the term species just meant some sort or kind of organism. It was a Latin word in ordinary use without much meaning in natural history, but then arguments began whether or not there were one or more species for this or that group, and so… Read More