Demes are also transitory. According to Stephen Jay Gould in The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, demes have ‘‘porous borders,’’ they do not function as a ‘‘discrete [evolutionary] entities,’’ and are ‘‘defined only by the transient and clumpy nature of . . . habitats’’ (p. 647). Richard Dawkins, in The Selfish Gene, likened demes to ‘‘clouds in the sky or dust storms in the desert . . . tempo...

Nearly 50 years ago W. D. Hamilton published two papers, The genetical evolution of social behaviour I & The genetical evolution of social behaviour II, which helped revolutionize our conception of how social and genetic process might work in concert. It opened up a field of research which was highlighted in Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, and helped make inclusive fitness a general idea whi...

"Sublimely non-tendentious," that's the phrase I've always attributed to Alfred North Whitehead -a man who began his career as a Cambridge mathematician collaborating with Bertrand Russell and ended that career as a Harvard philosopher and metaphysician. Two things you can count on when reading Whitehead. First, he will look at the big picture. Second, he will generously give to all historical ...

The recurrent laryngeal nerve: Much ado has been made in recent years by evolutionsts like Richard Dawkins, Jerry Coyne, Neil Shubin, Matt Ridley and many others about the Nervus laryngeus recurrens as a "proof" or at least indisputable evidence of the giraffe's evolution from fish (in a gradualist scenario over millions of links, of course). Markus Rammerstorfer has written a (scientifically d...

Do you have a favourite book? There are two books which really inspired me, both semipopulist books that I first read in the summer before I started university, and both of which I have read many times since. The first was Richard Dawkins ‘The Selfish Gene’ for its engaging descriptions of a wide range of animal behaviours, and what progress can be made from an understanding of evolutionary pri...

Phenotype, whether conventional or extended, is defined as a reflection of an underlying genotype. Adaptation and the natural selection that follows from it depends upon a progressively harmonious fit between phenotype and environment. There is in Richard Dawkins’ notion of the extended phenotype a paradox that seems to undercut conventional views of adaptation, natural selection and adaptation...

Many consider that Evolution and Creation are alternatives and therefore that one must make a choice between these two explanations of the natural world. This difficulty has dogged the debate since Darwin presented his explanation of the multiplicity and development of species in the 19th C. and even before. The issue has therefore become polarised and often the subject of bitter controversy. H...

Cappadocian is an extremely endangered Greek dialect that was spoken in Central Turkey until the Greek-Turkish Population Exchange of 1923-1924. This involuntary emigration to Greece caused near-extinction this dialect. Nowadays number speakers and semi-speakers has decreased approximately 2,800. Fortunately very remarkable dialect, which thoroughly influenced by Turkish language, been captured...

Richard Dawkins coined the term universal Darwinism (1983). It suggests that the core Darwinian principles of variation, replication, and selection may apply not only to biological phenomena but also to other open and evolving systems, including human cultural or social evolution. Dawkins argued that if life existed elsewhere in the universe, it would follow the Darwinian rules of variation, in...