Search Results for: homosexuality

Homosexuality, epigenetics, and zebras

Posted on January 12, 2013 by

The recent article in the Quarterly Review of Biology has some good points. It does not argue that homosexuality is adaptive, which would be silly. It does not argue for Lamarckian epigenetics, which would also be silly. I should also … Continue reading →

Posted in Homosexuality | 158 Comments

Group Selection (and homosexuality)

Posted on January 10, 2013 by

You can imagine situations in which natural selection would favor an increase in frequency for a trait that aided group survival while hurting individual reproductive success – but it’s not all that easy. Here’s the problem: imagine a situation in … Continue reading →

Posted in Homosexuality | 123 Comments

Paternal Age and Homosexuality

Posted on January 6, 2013 by

There’s something interesting about the paternal age effect in homosexuality – apparently there isn’t one. It certainly exists for autism, schizophrenia, manic-depression, and mental retardation, which suggests that de novo mutations play an important role in all of them. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Homosexuality | 117 Comments

Transsexuals

Posted on May 8, 2013 by

Transsexuals, people that believe their psychological gender conflicts with their physical gender, are not a particular evolutionary paradox, because they’re far rarer than homosexual men. One in tens of thousands of men seek sex reassignment surgery – that is, pay … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 162 Comments

Evolution of Virulence

Posted on April 24, 2013 by

Once upon a time, I thought a lot about evolution and pathogens.  I still do, on occasion. It used to be the case [and still is] that many biologists thought that natural selection would inevitably tend towards a situation in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 59 Comments

Biological Determinism

Posted on April 21, 2013 by

[“On a chilly Ohio Saturday morning in 1979, some time after divorcing his first wife Linda, Jim Lewis awoke in his modest, middle-class home next to his second wife, Betty. Jim – a romantic, affectionate type – was determined that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 94 Comments

Not Final!

Posted on April 18, 2013 by

In mathematics we often prove that some proposition is true by showing that  the alternative is false.  The principle can sometimes work in other disciplines, but it’s tricky.  You have to have a very good understanding  to know that some … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 67 Comments

Hamilton Rules OK!

Posted on April 16, 2013 by

Hamilton’s rule says that altruistic genes should increase in frequency when rB > C,  when r is the identity-by-descent relatedness of the  recipient to the actor, B is the fitness benefit to the recipient, and C is the fitness cost … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 129 Comments

Recantation

Posted on April 15, 2013 by

One of the funnier patterns in modern American life is some individual stating something true but unsayable, followed by the ritual public recantation.  There are generally unsayable things (a  constantly expanding list), and then there are others that are only … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 36 Comments

Math is Hard

Posted on April 9, 2013 by

Definitely the case for E. O. Wilson.  In a recent essay in the Wall Street Journal,  he says that many of the most successful scientists are no more than semiliterate in mathematics, and if anything he’s worse than that.  But, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 81 Comments