biology
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Why are some worms such lazy lovers: a reprise
Even earthworms seem to experience feelings strong enough to overcome the natural tendency of living things to avoid wasting energy.
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Hell is real, and cyanobacteria were condemned to burn, but they might save us still.
Cyanobacteria turned our planet into a place of fire and ice, causing the first mass extinction. Then they too nearly went extinct. Their descendants were imprisoned in the cells of plants. We burn their old prison cells when we drive down the street. And yet, their lineage might save us still.
biology, buffering, carbon sinks, climate, climate change, cyanobacteria, early Earth, early life, early life on earth, energy, evolution, global warming, greenhouse gas, mass extinction, nonlinear response curves, oxygen, oxygen catastrophe, oxygen poisoning, oxygen sinks, photosynthesis, science, sustainability, the evolution of life, the first mass extinction, the invention of fire
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Sex was invented to queer populations.
The biological function of sex is to create diversity — which helps populations endure, even if this is bad for individuals — so we should expect diversity in the expression of sex.
audio, biological diversity, biological sex, biological sex in the Talmud, biology, biology of gender, biology of sex, categorization, cell division, chromosomes, climate change, cloning, copying DNA, cost of sexual reproduction, costs of sexual reproduction, creation of new species, culture, definition of male, developmental biology, diversity, DNA, DNA replication errors, evolution, gender diversity, gender expression, gender in the Talmud, genderqueer, how DNA works, how evolution works, invention of sex, LUCA, male, maleness, natural history, parthenogenesis, podcast, population dynamics, Queer, queer natural history, queer theory, reproduction, sex and gender, sex determination, sex determining region of the Y chromosome, sex ed in Indiana, sexual develoopment, sexual diversity, sexual expression, sexual reproduction, speciation, SRY, survival of the fittest, Talmud, the invention of sex, types of gender in the Talmud, types of sex in the Talmud, what does it mean to be male, why aren’t we clones, why is there sexual reproduction, Y chromosome
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In dispraise of efficiency.
Contemporary economic interests seek greater & greater efficiency, but the most meaningful moments in our lives are the inefficient tasks to which we devote our time.
assembly line, beautiful ones, behavioral sink, biology, Capital, capital gains, capitalism, cell biology, cell division, chores, communication, comparative advantage, economics, efficiency, factory model, function of earth, function of life, health, Henry Ford, immortality, in the belly of my brother, John Calhoun, last universal common ancestor, Mary Oliver, metabolism, mitochondria, mouse dystopia, mouse utopia, opportunity cost, philosophy, photon scattering, quotidian time, Robin Wall Kimmerer, science, slow fire, specialization, store my food in the belly of my brother, The Serviceberry, wild and precious life
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Why are some worms such lazy lovers, and why on Earth should we care?
For an experienced partner, worms pull out all the stops. Okay. Gross, maybe, but okay. And yet, knowing this helps lead us to a feminist reappraisal of other animals’ behaviors … including humans.
Alberto Velando, animal behavior, animal behaviors, animal desire, animal studies, biology, care, caretaking, caretaking and sexuality, cooperative equilibrium, coral, earthworm, earthworm erotica, earthworm sex, evolution, evolutionary biology, evolutionary game theory, fish, game theory, game theory in evolutionary biology, Grove & Cowley, male care of babies, male care of offspring, Marah J Hardt, mating habits of worms, nature, parenting, paternal care, red worm, science, semicooperative equilibrium, Sex in the Sea, sex life of earthworms, sex life of worms, sperm competition, stickleback predator inspection, sticklebacks, sticklebacks stealing eggs, Velando Eiroa & Dominguez, Velando et al, weird science, worm, worm mating, worm sex -
By learning to fight, we can make a more peaceful world.
By building confidence, we become better able to choose nonviolence, since we’ll be that much more likely to feel safe.
Abdelfattah Kilito, aggression in animals, ahimsa, baboons, Babylonian mythology, Bible, biology, black belt test, black best essay, broadcast song, caretaking, Daddy Wake Up, death gods, Determined, divine aggression, dominance, dominance hierarchy, Dr. Strangelove, elephant seals, game theory, Gilgamesh, God, history, incarceration, jail poetry, John von Neumann, Joshua Rathkamp, Karate, kihap, Kilito, Korean mythology, linguistics, martial arts, mythology, nonviolence, observational biology, Origin Myth of the House God, peace, Popol Vuh, psychology, Ramayana, religion, Robert Sapolsky, Single Father, soft song, sparrow territory, sparrows, Taekwondo, tamarins, teaching in jail, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Tongue of Adam, Tower of Babel, Travis Combs, Vishnu, Whorf hypothesis, Xibalban, Yahweh, YHWH
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On the toothy origins of our inner fire.
With one weird trick, morganucodon kept our kind from being killed by saprophytic fungi.
ancestor worship, ancient fossils, biology, blight, chewing, Chicago, climate change, cooking, decline of reptiles, dinosaur, dinosaurs, Emily Monosson, evolution, fall of dinosaurs, Fire, fire myths, first mammal, fossils, fungal epidemics, fungal infections, fungal pandemics, fungi, global warming, inner fire, mass extinction, mastication, metabolism, morganucodon, nature, proto-mammal, protomammal, rise of mammals, saprophytic fungi, science, Steve Brussate, teeth, The Field Museum, The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, tooth, warm blood, warm bloodedness, wildlife
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On scientific beliefs, Indigenous knowledge, and paternity.
Partible paternity — a child having 3+ genetic contributors — can be real both biologically and culturally.
American Biology Teacher, Bari, biological parent, biology, cell migration, cultural beliefs, culture, David Linden, dizygotic pregnancy, family, father, fatherhood, fertilization, First People, Gabriel Andrade, genetic, genetic contributor, genetic inheritance, genetics, heteropaternal superfecundication, How Indigenous Ways of Knowing Works in Venezuela, human, human evolution, human migration, human reproduction, Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, insemination, Jennifer Raff, Lisa Jean Moore, migration, multiple paternity, Origin, Our Transgenic Future, parenthood, parenting, partible paternity, paternity, peopleing of the Americas, pregnancy, reproduction, review, science, scientific knowledge, scientific understanding, semen, traditional belief, twin, twins, Unique, Venezuela
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On meditation and the birth of the universe.
How we compose ourselves is everything.
anti-matter, big bang, biology, birth of particles, birth of stars, birth of the cosmos, Buddha, Buddha meditating, chaos engines, chaos machines, chemistry, composition of matter, consciousness, cosmology, dark energy, drug chemistry, drugs, emergent physics, emergent properties, energetics of life, entropy, expanding universe, false vacuum, goal of meditation, hallucination, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, how to meditate, hydrogen fusion, hyperinflation, inflation, Jesus, Jesus meditating, LSD, mantra, mantra meditation, matter, meditate, meditation, meditation function, meditation guide, meditation practice, meditation retreat, metastable, more is different, nuclear fusion, Odin, Odin meditating, organization of matter, origin of consciousness, origin of intelligence, origin of life, origin of planets, origin of structure, origin of the cosmos, origin of the universe, particle physics, physics, practice, practice makes better, psychedelic, psychedelic meditation, psychedelics, quantum mechanics, RNA world, RNA world hypothesis, sat nam, Shiva, Shiva meditating, star formation, statistical mechanics, structure of matter, teaching in jail, THC, thermodynamics of life, transcendental meditation, tsar bomba, uncertainty, vacuum energy
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On the study of naked mole-rats.
Naked mole-rats: impervious to acid, cancer, asphyxiation, even time itself. But are they impervious to us?
acid, acid resistance, aging, animal research, animal welfare, biological research, biology, caloric restriction, cancer, cancer biology, cancer immunity, carbon dioxide, chemotherapy, climate change, Eliot Weinberger, eusocial, eusocial mammals, eusociality, gas chamber, global warming, hyaluronan, Jennifer Jarvis, laboratory animals, lifespan, lifespan after reproduction, lifespan elongation, naked apes, Naked Mole-Rats, naked molerats, oxygen, oxygen deprivation, pain response, Park et al., Richard Alexander, science, scientific research, starvation, The Biology of the Naked Mole-Rat, Thomas Park, Venus, violence against animals, Weinberger, Xiao Tian
Frank Brown Cloud 