Behavioral Ecology Blog

Protein key to parasite potency
Drink ‘cuts brain injury damage’
An especially interesting story about syphilis awareness from healthypenis.org as reported in PloS Medicine.
Cricket’s song draws sex — and parasites
Study: Honeybees make ruthless relatives

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I just caught wind of a semi-old post over at Pharyngula that resulted from a Seed interview with Joan Roughgarden. It just so happens that this is a topic I am very well acquainted with… And lets just say that I am not a huge fan…

A couple of general points 1st then some specific comments.
[...]

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A forewarning: This 1st post will be a work in progress. I’ll post a few iterations before having it completed… As usual, please feel free to make suggestions/call me out.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE REST OF THE BLOG
EDIT: Here is a wild story from a few years ago which shows that males produce better [...]

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Behavioral ecology is best described as the study of the ecological and evolutionary basis for animal behavior. Inherent in its study is the idea that behavior is shaped by natural selection, and thus most observed behaviors should convey enhanced fitness to the animals practicing the behavior of interest.
Behavioral ecology “evolved” form Ethology, and popularized [...]

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Please see this post over at Concurring Opinions for an innovative method.
I’m quite sure that I will be converting to this algorithm..

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i.e. the attempt to judge personality based on facial characteristics.
Ok- forget the home-genotype discussion here, and here. Maybe everybody should just choose mates that are unlikely to cheat in the 1st place…

Step 1. Find a mate with dissimilar MHC genes, detailed here, and here.

Step 2. Use facial characters as a independent line of [...]

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Temple University researchers find that pulmonary function increases with regular attendance to church… hmmmm.
Regular religious service attendance (at least weekly attendance) was associated with a slower pulmonary function decline among men and women, compared to those who never attend services. The findings could not be explained by differences in smoking or physical activity.
Now I fully [...]

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University of New Mexico researchers, in the October 2006 issue of Psychological Science published a truly fascinating study that looks at the rate of “sexual attractiveness” and extra pair matings as a function of MHC dissimilarity… See the abstract below, and PDF here.

ABSTRACT—Preferences for mates that possess genes dissimilar to one’s own at the major [...]

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Just received notice that I was awarded a grant (The Mathias Grant) for work on one of the University of California Natural reserves, Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center!
This coming summer I hope to continue to (amoung other things) complete the genetic definition of the mating system of P. eremicus, continue to look at sexually [...]

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Tripoli Six Found Guilty, and sentenced to death despite scientific evidence proving their innocence. See reactions here, here and here.
CNN Coverage
Technorati Cosmos: other blogs commenting on this post

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