The differential biology reader

by Mark James Adams
A student of quantitative genetics and primate psychology. I research the evolutionary dynamics of correlated suites of behavior in wild animals. I am trying to answer the question Why do our personalities differ?

September 2nd 2010

Another round

The drink-moderately-for-long-life prescript is making the rounds again with a new study showing the relationship is not explained by health status, social behaviors, or demographic variables:

even after adjusting for all covariates, abstainers and heavy drinkers continued to show increased mortality risks of 51 and 45%, respectively, compared to moderate drinkers.

This still doesn’t resolve weather moderate drinking is the cause or just a symptom of some other individual difference (intelligence, personality, covitality) that influences survival (Deary et al).

On this business, last night I had the most singular Imperial Double Extra Stout. The reviewers complaining about it probably didn’t drink it with a meal.

Posted at 10:13pm and tagged with: mortality, covitality, two column,.

August 30th 2010

Nigel Hawkes, via Vaguery

Posted at 8:26am and tagged with: publishing,.

“
Hiding behind peer review is a betrayal of all the principles of academic life
”

August 27th 2010

An integrative and functional framework for the study of animal emotion and mood Mendl, Burman, and Paul Proc R Soc B 2010 277

Posted at 2:28pm and tagged with: emotion,.

An integrative and functional framework for the study of animal emotion and mood Mendl, Burman, and Paul Proc R Soc B 2010 277

August 26th 2010

A long tailed macaque has adopted a kitten. Photograph by Anne Young via the Guardian

Posted at 9:57am.

A long tailed macaque has adopted a kitten. Photograph by Anne Young via the Guardian

August 25th 2010

“You see, when the mind houses two personalities, there’s always a conflict, a battle. In Norman’s case, the battle is over…”

It comes off as a bit of a trope but back in the day, this was cutting edge psychology.

Posted at 8:37pm and tagged with: full width,.

“You see, when the mind houses two personalities, there’s always a conflict, a battle. In Norman’s case, the battle is over…” It comes off as a bit of a trope but back in the day, this was cutting edge psychology. poster via little red wagons related: Dick Polman on The Murder that Changed the Movies, 50 years after Psycho.

August 25th 2010

The Smithsonian on Matsuzawa and thinking like a chimp

via the Prancing Papio

Posted at 7:06pm and tagged with: Pan troglodytes,.

August 25th 2010

Parent-offspring survival tradeoffs are worthy to keep In mind when considering extrasomatic over-intestment among some of is humans.

Posted at 12:53pm.

“
Bighorn ewes have a conservative reproductive tactic and always favor their own body condition over that of their lambs. When resources are limited, ewes appear to transfer reproductive costs to their lambs, as expected from the much greater relative fitness consequences of a reduction in maternal than in offspring survival.
”

August 25th 2010

  • t: age of the allele (in generations),
  • x(t): frequency of the allele in generation t,
  • y: frequency of the allele in the ancestral chromosome,
  • c: recombination rate between the two loci being used to define the allele.

This equation can be used to estimate the age of alleles and is robust against past demographic history.

Theory in population genetics and evolution provides some nice invariances that underly analysis. We usually are not so lucky to have such tools in personality psychology to guide our thinking.

  • Montgomery Slatkin, Bruce Rannala. Estimating allele age. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 2000 vol. 1 pp. 225-249

Posted at 10:49am and tagged with: population genetics, theory,.

t: age of the allele (in generations), x(t): frequency of the allele in generation t, y: frequency of the allele in the ancestral chromosome, c: recombination rate between the two loci being used to define the allele. This equation can be used to estimate the age of alleles and is robust against past demographic history. Theory in population genetics and evolution provides some nice invariances that underly analysis. We usually are not so lucky to have such tools in personality psychology to guide our thinking. Montgomery Slatkin, Bruce Rannala. Estimating allele age. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 2000 vol. 1 pp. 225-249

August 24th 2010

Japanese macaques are Twitter users, not Facebook users

Bonaventura Majolo, Raffaella Ventura, Gabriele Schino. Asymmetry and Dimensions of Relationship Quality in the Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata yakui). Int J Primatol 2010 DOI: 10.1007/s10764-010-9424-4

Posted at 8:55pm and tagged with: Macaca fuscata,.

August 21st 2010

Do high rejection-rates perversely make some journals more likely to be wrong?

John Hawks, Experts are usually wrong

(via Instapaper)

Posted at 4:14pm.

August 18th 2010

SC Stearns et al. Measuring selection in contemporary human populations. Nature Reviews Genetics 2010

This article nails it. Remember, we are ultimately interested in phenotypes.

Stearns et al feature the longitudinal biomedical studies that can be used for this type of evolutionary work.

Posted at 2:06pm.

“
Given the recent emphasis on the roles of genes in disease and evolution, we tend to forget that in the short run evolution is driven by differences in fitness among phenotypes, not genotypes. We can learn a lot about the speed and direction of evolution in humans by examining the transmission of phenotypes from one generation to the next. This focus on phenotypes contrasts with the attention recently paid to the signatures that selection has written in the human genome since our last common ancestor with chimpanzees…Less attention has been paid to the possibility that we are currently experiencing natural selection responses to contemporary natural selection.
”

August 17th 2010

Fig. 2
Justin T Mark, Brian B Marion, Donald D Hoffman. Natural selection and veridical perceptions. J Theor Biol 2010 vol. 266 pp. 504-515

Posted at 8:21am.

Fig. 2 Justin T Mark, Brian B Marion, Donald D Hoffman. Natural selection and veridical perceptions. J Theor Biol 2010 vol. 266 pp. 504-515

August 16th 2010

John Singer Sargent
Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (detail)
1892
National Galleries of Scotland

Posted at 10:51am and tagged with: full width,.

John Singer SargentLady Agnew of Lochnaw (detail) 1892 National Galleries of Scotland

August 15th 2010

Owen Shifflet, Consumption: How Inspiration Killed, Then Ate, Creativity

Science is no stranger to these aspects of design. We are content with the burden of literature and we forget the need to start—from time to time—with a blank sheet of paper.

(via mitten)

Posted at 8:26pm.

“
It’s easier to copy a style or idea that works than try something that might miss the mark or outright fail…When we over-saturate ourselves in other people’s work it short-changes our own creative development.
”

August 15th 2010

Susan Alberts in Current Biology

Posted at 4:19pm and tagged with: fieldwork,.

“
[I]n an era where the quantity of genomic and genotypic data is increasing at a rapid rate, good phenotypic data, essential for making the most of the genotypic information, will be seen as more and more valuable. Long-term field studies are an unparalleled source of detailed phenotypic data and should be cultivated for that reason, and because they represent the best opportunity for a deep understanding of behavior in the context of ecology and life history.
”