• About the blog
  • About Sedeer
  • Series
    • Words of Science
    • Discussions
    • Foraging
    • Natural Selection
    • QM Workshop
  • Contact me
  • Accumulating Glitches
  • Collective Marvelling

Inspiring Science

~ Casting light on great ideas

Inspiring Science

Tag Archives: selfish gene

Natural selection: selfish genes & emergent properties

09 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by sedeer in Evolution, Natural Selection

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

altruism, biology, emergence, emergent properties, Gene, Gene-centered view of evolution, Group selection, macroevolution, Popular science, Richard Dawkins, science, selfish gene, Stephen Jay Gould

I briefly mentioned “gene centred views of evolution” in the final paragraph of my previous post in this series about natural selection.  In this post, I’d like to expand a bit on the “selfish gene”, which has proven to be quite a powerful idea, and to present my thoughts on why it nevertheless provides an incomplete view of evolution. I know this can be a controversial subject, so feel free to chime in and start a discussion in the comments.

Earlier posts in this series: Modes of selection, Sexual selection, On fitness.

Continue reading →

Natural selection: On fitness

20 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by sedeer in Evolution, Natural Selection

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

biology, Darwinism, Education, evolution, fitness, natural selection, Popular science, replicator, science, selfish gene, tautology

For the third part in my series about natural selection I’d like to address the concept of fitness.  Thanks to the phrase “survival of the fittest”, fitness is quite a prominent idea in the popular perception of evolution.  It was originally coined by Herbert Spencer after he read On the Origin of Species; Darwin adopted the phrase in later editions and it’s been popular ever since.  Unfortunately, this glib phrase has often eclipsed a more accurate depiction of evolution, leading to some common misunderstandings.  This confusion arises because “fitness” has a different meaning in evolutionary biology than it does in general usage.  (Have a look at the earlier posts in this series if you haven’t already read them; the first was about the different modes of natural selection and the second discussed selection mechanisms, focusing on sexual selection in particular.)

Continue reading →

Search

Donate Button with Credit Cards
Follow @inspiringsci
Follow Inspiring Science on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,099 other followers

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

Ongoing discussions

  • jaymes90 on Do ants really count their steps?
  • “We Back, Baby”: Inside Day Trip, the First Post-Pandemic Music Festival in Southern California - Rhythm 86 on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • “We Back, Baby”: Inside Day Trip, the First Post-Pandemic Music Festival in Southern California – SHINKISAURUS on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • "We Again, Child": Inside Day Journey, the First Submit-Pandemic Music Competition in Southern California - EDM.com | Real Raw News today on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • “We Back, Baby”: Inside Day Trip, the First Post-Pandemic Music Festival in Southern California – Free Download Music on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • “We Back, Baby”: Inside Day Trip, the First Post-Pandemic Music Festival in Southern California – Binary Star Radio on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • “We Back, Baby”: Inside Day Trip, the First Post-Pandemic Music Festival in Southern California – EDM.com – iDea HUNTR on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • I want you to hear me loud and clear – IntentionallyMonika on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound

What’s popular now?

  • No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • The Ten-legged Spider
  • Telling left from right: which side gets the heart?
  • Do ants really count their steps?
  • Adam & Eve: Behind the Myth

Blogs to check out

  • Accumulating Glitches
  • alternative viewpoints
  • AntyScience
  • Baldscientist
  • Eyes on the Environment
  • Language Log
  • Letters of Note
  • naked capitalism
  • Raising My Rainbow
  • The Scorpion and the Frog
  • The Smaller Majority

Copyright

Creative Commons License
All text and original images by Sedeer El-Showk. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Thanks to

  • Arkadia International Bookshop
  • The Book Hive
  • The Television and Movie Store
  • Rönnels Antikvariat
Inspiring Science is part of:
  • Collective Marvelling
  • SciComm Network

I'm on ScienceSeeker-DNA

Nature
Blog Network

Categories

Archives

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Inspiring Science
    • Join 2,099 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Inspiring Science
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar