How genes for altruism can benefit strangers as well as kin

For decades it was conventional dogma that humans were the only species that used tools.  "Man the Toolmaker" was our celebrated designation.  The hominin fossil Homo habilis (or "handy" man) was even defined within our genera primarily because the skeleton was associated with stone implements.  However, when Jane Goodall discovered chimpanzees using modified sticks at Gombe to "fish" for termites, Louis Leakey famously cabled her that:

Now we must redefine man, redefine tool - or accept chimpanzees as human.

By now people should stop insisting on singling out specific human behaviors and declaring them to be unique in the natural world.  Invariably, whatever special attributes humans possess, other primates do in some form as well.  For many years it's been argued that humans are the only primates that will adopt unrelated individuals to care for as their own.  This has been conventional wisdom because it doesn't make intuitive sense according to the rigid definition of biological fitness.

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With huge profits reported this week from two bailed-out institutions, Sacramento-based real estate investor Reggie Lal is euphoric:

JPMorgan Chase & Co. posted a 36 percent jump in second-quarter profit Thursday, easily surpassing analysts' expectations, as strength in investment banking offset higher credit losses. JPMorgan, the second big bank to report stronger earnings this week after Goldman Sachs Group Inc., earned $2.72 billion, up from $2 billion a year earlier. Revenues soared 39 percent to $25.62 billion.

Results were driven by record investment banking fees and revenue in its bond business, much like Goldman Sachs. At JPMorgan's investment bank, revenue jumped 33 percent to $7.3 billion and profits more than tripled to $1.5 billion.

Amazing what a bail-out will do for you !! (emphasis in original)

Meanwhile, Janine, a laid off security guard living in a tent city along the Sacramento River (because funding was cut for shelters) offers her perspective just before authorities evict them (via Invisible People TV):

Janine from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

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On this day 76 years ago (July 14, 1933) a sterilization law was passed in Nazi Germany, known as Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses (Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring).  Any German was a target if they were found to be suffering from a range of perceived hereditary ailments, such as congenital mental deficiency, schizophrenia, manic-depressive insanity, epilepsy, Huntington's chorea, blindness, deafness, any severe hereditary deformity or even severe alcoholism.  Official pronouncements insisted that these individuals were a drain on the German people, both biologically and financially (see right).  The law passed on this day ultimately led to an estimated 400,000 people being involuntarily sterilized in pursuit of this national goal of "racial hygiene," to eliminate handicapped descendants. 

Creationists are fond of laying the blame for Nazi eugenics on Charles Darwin.  They insist that his materialist argument that humans evolved from animals and his conception of natural selection inspired the Nazis to implement a widespread policy of artificial selection within the Fatherland.  However, these claims are as baseless as was the so-called "science" that the Nazis employed. 

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Scientists, Activists and the Human Predicament from Kropotkin to Ehrlich






There have been few more passionate and prescient figures in the history of science than the Russian naturalist and political radical Peter Kropotkin.  Upon the confirmation of his geological research that demonstrated an ancient ice sheet had once extended across the Russian landscape, this evolutionary theorist and gentle anarchist reported in 1894 that "we must accustom ourselves to the idea that climate, like everything else on the earth, is a changeable element."  In his many books and articles he regularly identified sustainable methods for living in concert with nature, rather than in opposition, and connected the importance of political freedom with environmental stewardship.

In the midst of our current climate crisis, this one brought on by human behavior, the past few weeks have witnessed a veritable perfect storm as activists from the grassroots to the ivory tower have come together to demand a new direction on the politics of the environment. 

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In the second of my 226,000 part series (as yet unnamed) in which I help promote my favorite photographs and artwork bearing a Creative Commons attribution license, I would like to introduce my readers to the amazing work of Rob Sheridan.  Picnic is his latest piece, in honor of the Fourth of July, and I think everyone will agree it's as twisted as it is hilarious.  I encourage everyone to check out his entire collection of work at his Flickr account and at his Sketchblog: Rob-Sheridan.com.

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The "Revelation" as described by St. John, though likely inspired through the
use of hallucinogens (see The Mystery of Manna).



The title for this post comes from a terrific book by the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, but I think it's appropriate for a discussion on faith, feeling and reason.  Francis Collins' nomination as Director of the National Institutes of Health has effectively gotten people talking about religion, science and what, if anything, each should have to do with the other.  I recently brought up Sam Harris' critique of the editor's at Nature for their praise of Collins' book The Language of God.  Many in the scientific community are skeptical about this nomination based on Collins' embrace of superstition despite his solid background as a research scientist.  In what ways might these two points of view conflict in making policy judgments?

My own perspective is that, whether the topic is Collins' defense of Christianity, a scientific defense of Islam, or an argument from the Pope or former President Bush in defense of their religious views, it is all the same issue.  They have already come to their conclusions and are simply fitting the facts to their beliefs.  They feel the truth of their convictions and that, as they say, is that. 

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Science and religion bicker in the backseat. Collin Purrington / Creative Commons



With Francis Collins' nomination as head of the National Institutes of Health I felt it was appropriate to bring up Sam Harris' letter to the journal Nature objecting to what he called "high-minded squeamishness" on the part of the editors for their praise of his book The Language of God.  In the book Collins states:

As believers, you are right to hold fast to the concept of God as Creator; you are right to hold fast to the truths of the Bible; you are right to hold fast to the conclusion that science offers no answers to the most pressing questions of human existence; and you are right to hold fast to the certainty that the claims of atheistic materialism must be steadfastly resisted . . .

To this Harris responded by stating:

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On July 9, 1858 the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas was born.  To honor the man widely held as the "father of American anthropology" the American Anthropological Association offered a tribute for Boas today on their blog.  What conveniently went unmentioned was the fact that the AAA censured Boas in 1918 for revealing that American anthropologists were covertly working as spies for the US government.

As Boas wrote to the editor of The Nation:

The point against which I wish to enter a vigorous protest is that a number of men who follow science as their profession, men whom I refuse to designate any longer as scientists, have prostituted science by using it as a cover for their activities as spies.

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Offspring Abandonment in the Ancient and Natural World

    
In the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex the great kingdom of Thebes is condemned following a case of mistaken identity (and a little patricide).  The sordid tale begins when the infant prince is abandoned by his parents (see right) after learning of a prophecy that his son will one day murder his father, marry his mother and assume the throne.  His ankles pierced with a spike, young Oedipus is sent to be abandoned atop mount Cithaeron.  While this tale sets up a beautiful tragedy it also hints at a common reality in both the ancient and natural world.  Before the scientific breakthroughs of contraception and abortion, such abandonment was commonplace throughout human history.

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"It seems really very unfair that man should have chosen the gorilla to symbolize everything that is aggressive and violent, when that is one thing that gorillas are not, and that we are."

- Sir Richard Attenborough

This quote sets the tone for a new award winning short film (see below) from the non-profit organization Explore.  Primates, and great apes in particular, have long fascinated and repulsed us based on their uncanny resemblance.  In order to deflect this repulsion they have frequently been portrayed as monstrous, violent and expressing a host of bestial attributes.  A case in point is the WWI propaganda poster from 1917 depicting a violent gorilla storming towards American shores bearing a German pickelhaube helmet, a menacing club and an abducted young woman (representing liberty?).  The reality is that gorillas spend the vast majority of their time peacefully munching the local flora and minding their own business. 

The new film, Gorillas... 98.6% Human, presents a beautiful portrait of these gentle giants in the mountains of Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.

Watch the video at The Primate Diaries