I haven't had the time yet to go through the underlying papers but E.O. Wilson founded the discipline of Sociobiology and has serious cred. One of the big things that Sociobiology brought about was the notion of kin selection, that is that closely related organisms may behave altruistically to benefit their relatives because their relatives are likely to carry a large portion of the same genes that the altruistic individual has. Wilson now seems to claim that kin selection is not necessary as a theory and that altruistic behavior can be explained with standard natural selection.
Big stuff if you're into evolutionary biology. http://ksjtracker.mit.edu/2010/08/26/e-o-wilson-says-a-key-theory-underlying-sociobiology-is-wrong-2/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:325950 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
