Quorum sensing in bacteria and cooperation 26 Aug 2009 Byte Size Biology has a post up discussing a recent paper on quorum sensing in bacteria, a process whereby the chemical signals for a community of microbial organisms can modify the dynamics of the organisms themselves. It’s interesting in its own right, but also to show how cooperation can evolve in a realworld case. Biology Evolution
Evolution Can a Christian accept natural selection as true? 24 Mar 2008 I once sat across the table from Alex Rosenberg, a well known philosopher, who argued persuasively that one cannot be both a Christian and accept natural selection. I think Alex intended this as a reductio for Christianity, as natural selection is both true by definition and also observed in the… Read More
Biology Teleology as a mistress 9 Sep 2009 Okay, this is bugging me so I’m going to crowdsource it. Who first wrote this: Teleology is a mistress without whom no biologist can live, but with whom none wishes to be seen in public? There are many versions of this, ascribed variously to J. B. S. Haldane, Frits Went,… Read More
Evolution Nature makes no leaps… 26 Jan 2008 Reacting to Jerry Coyne’s guest blog on The Loom, Brian Switek at Laelaps discusses, among other things, the objection to Darwin’s theories that Huxley put forward, both in personal correspondence and in print: The only objections that have occurred to me are 1st that you have loaded yourself with an… Read More