Seminar One
Biology, culture and psychology

An Emperor penguin chick begs for food from its father
An Emperor penguin chick, about seventy or eighty days old, stands on its own feet for the first time and begs for food from its father. Adult on left may be its mother or a friend of the father, or even an adult which has lost its own chick and is trying to “baby-snatch.”
Photography by Greg and Mary Beth Dimijian

An awesome gulf divides the pre-Darwinian world from ours. Awesome is not too strong a word to describe the achievements of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. The theory of natural selection revolutionised our understanding of living things, furnishing us with a comprehension of our existence where previously science had stood silent.

Helena Cronin

Two groundbreaking discoveries—natural selection and the structure of DNA—have propelled us into a deep understanding of life and how it has evolved. From these two pivotal advances, are we better equipped now to explain complex behavior, such as…

A panorama of a thriving Emperor Penguin colony
Large breeding colonies of Lesser Flamingoes
Above In the sub-freezing winds of the Weddell Sea of Antarctica, we were humbly privileged in October, 2007, to visit this thriving Emperor Penguin colony with some chicks still “on feet,” young enough not to walk about on their own. A panorama of three images stitched together shows the wide expanse of this awesome colony on Snow Hill Island, deep in the coldest sea of the Antarctic continent.
Below Large breeding colonies of Lesser Flamingoes, built atop crust colored reddish by alkali-loving microorganisms, find protection in the extreme heat of Lake Natron in Tanzania.
Photography by Greg and Mary Beth Dimijian

Can we also deepen our understanding of human behavior, especially the dark side, with the help of genetics and evolutionary theory? Is the genetic code analog or digital? Can we accept the importance of genes in human evolution, without fear of genetic determinism?

What is the nature-nurture controversy? What is the difference between natural selection and sexual selection, and are they sometimes hard to tease apart? Why is there a startling asymmetry in the way men and women have treated each other throughout human history and in most human cultures?

What is the host-pathogen arms race? Why are some pathogens highly virulent (deadly) and others mildly so? How could high virulence be useful, evolutionarily speaking, to a pathogen?

What exactly is the scientific method, and why has it taken a back seat in our understanding of biology and behavior, especially human behavior?

This last question is a good place to begin. So, let's consider the scientific method, what it is and why is it important.

NEXT PAGE: The scientific method
NOTES
Cronin, Helena. The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today. Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-521-45765-1.
© 2010 A Darwin Study Group