Altruism

FromEvolution Talk

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Altruism

FromEvolution Talk

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Length:

18 minutes

Released:

May 4, 2015

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

Where does altruism come from? How did it evolve in a world ruled by 'selfish genes'?

Released:

May 4, 2015

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Everything you wanted to know about evolution by natural selection in short, easy to digest, episodes. Hosted, and produced by writer Rick Coste.

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Alfred Russel Wallace: In 1858, Charles Darwin received a paper authored by a young naturalist named Alfred Russel Wallace. In it, Darwin found that the young man had reached the same conclusions about evolution that he had been working to prove for the previous two decades. by Evolution Talk
15 min listen
Introducing Evolution Talk!: If you've ever wondered what all of the fuss was about, or how evolution works, then you've come to the right place. Over the next few weeks, months, and years, we will look at Darwin's revolutionary theory and what it means to the life we see around us. by Evolution Talk
6 min listen
Darwin: The Calm Before the Storm: In the years following his return from his voyage on the Beagle, Charles settled into a life as a naturalist. On all fronts, both personal and professional, things were looking up for Charles. His days were spent pouring over his notes and the... by Evolution Talk
12 min listen
Darwin’s Doubts: Throughout his life Charles Darwin suffered bouts of anxiety and often went off alone by himself to think. His work afforded him the perfect escape and he dove into it at every opportunity. by Evolution Talk
13 min listen
Only A Theory: Charles Darwin had a hypothesis was that animals evolved due to a process he called natural selection. He strengthened his hypothesis with tests and observation. Evolution by natural selection has held up to every test. It is because of this that it... by Evolution Talk
15 min listen
The Beginning: Sexual Reproduction: One day, millions of years ago, something occurred between two unsuspecting eukaryotes. When they bumped into one another something magical happened. They both left that encounter slightly different than they had been before. What passed from one to... by Evolution Talk
16 min listen
The Beginning: Life: In the beginning the Earth wasn’t exactly a hospitable place. It was hot, volcanic, and oxygen was a rare commodity. So the question now is how did life emerge from these conditions? We are still asking this 4.6 billion years later. Darwin proposed... by Evolution Talk
12 min listen
The Beginning: Out of the Sea: The sea was full of life a half a billion years ago. Arthropods fought to survive and there were some interesting things happening on land as well. We have here our first plants - and they spread like wildfire. The quiet life on land enjoyed by the... by Evolution Talk
15 min listen
The Work of WC Wells: William Charles Wells, in no uncertain terms, pointed out that mankind is not immune to nature’s ability to modify an organism's features over time. by Evolution Talk
13 min listen
Darwin On The HMS Beagle: Charles Darwin, at 22, had never sailed before. With his notebooks, gear, rifles, and trunks loaded, he stood on the deck of the HMS Beagle to bid England farewell. The date was 12/27/1831. by Evolution Talk
14 min listen
The Beginning: Cyanobacteria: 3.5 billion years ago microbial organisms appeared on the earth. These organisms combined, split, and combined some more, until the formation of microbes and single-celled algae. One of these single-celled algae-like organisms were cyanobacteria. by Evolution Talk
13 min listen
Unlucky Lamarck: Jean Baptiste Lamarck's mechanism for evolution was wrong, as history shows, and that fact has haunted his memory ever since. But ideas and theories have ways of being resurrected and, in recent years, there are hints out there that Lamarck wasn’t... by Evolution Talk
19 min listen
The Beginning: An Arms Race: As predators evolved to better catch their prey, their prey evolved unique and efficient ways to avoid being eaten. It was because of this sudden arms race that we see the proliferation of body forms that mark the Cambrian Era. The real winners were... by Evolution Talk
11 min listen
Darwin Before the Beagle: Charles Darwin will be forever known as the man who came up with the brilliant, and magnificent, idea that life evolved on this planet from a common ancestor and that the driver, or the mechanism behind this, is natural selection. by Evolution Talk
16 min listen
Radiation and DNA: What does radiation do to us exactly and why do we care? The American geneticist Hermann Joseph Muller worried about it back in the 1920s. by Evolution Talk
13 min listen
Lucretius – Evolution’s Poet: In the first century BC the Roman poet Lucretius wrote On the Nature of Things. A poem with 7400 lines of verse that covered everything from the tiniest particles of matter and how they move, as well as the nature of time and space, consciousness,... by Evolution Talk
15 min listen
Hutton’s Hypothesis: James Hutton saw the power of natural selection, but he didn’t see how it could eventually, over vast spans of time, mold an animal into something completely different. That would have to wait until Charles Darwin entered the scene over 50 years later. by Evolution Talk
14 min listen
Why Darwin Matters: Over the last 150 plus years there is one subject which has caused its advocates and detractors to butt heads, often with incredulity at their opponents stance, and sometimes with animosity. That subject of course is evolution by natural selection.... by Evolution Talk
15 min listen
On the Origin of Species: On November 24, 1859, "On the Origin of Species" was published. To say that it made a splash would be an understatement. It changed the world. by Evolution Talk
18 min listen
Survival of the Fittest?: The term 'Survival of the Fittest' was unleashed on the world in 1864 by Herbert Spencer when he published his work Principles of Biology. It was later picked up by Charles Darwin who used it himself in the fifth edition of On the Origin of Species... by Evolution Talk
13 min listen
An Interview With Charles Darwin: To mark the occasion of Evolution Talk's 30th episode, Rick Coste steps into the past to interview Charles Darwin. by Evolution Talk
15 min listen
Robert Chambers: Robert Chambers' masterpiece was titled 'Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation'. In it he explained how everything evolved. Everything from simple, less complex forms, to more complex forms over time. by Evolution Talk
18 min listen
Erasmus Darwin: Erasmus was a country physician. He believed that women should have access to the same education that men did, and that slavery should be abolished. He also believed that life evolved from a single filament that wiggled out of the mud in the distant past. by Evolution Talk
17 min listen
Genetic Drift: Frog populations remained pretty much the same in Podville until the Great Fire of 2015. After the fire the population of blue frogs increased. Welcome to genetic drift, the subject of this week's episode of 'Evolution Talk'. by Evolution Talk
13 min listen
The Case of Patrick Matthew: Patrick Matthew published 'On Naval Timber and Arboriculture' in 1831. There were a few positive reviews but they were somewhat tepid in their praise. Only a couple reviewers happened to notice something else that Matthew had mentioned in his book. A... by Evolution Talk
18 min listen
Warm Blooded Dinosaurs: In 1986 Professor Robert Bakker, a paleontologist, published 'The Dinosaur Heresies'. According to Professor Bakker there have been waves of extinction, and these extinction events mainly attacked, or affected, one particular type of animal... warm... by Evolution Talk
11 min listen
Mistakes Were Made: In the X-Men movies the X-Men are mutants. Mistakes were made during DNA replications that brought out features and abilities which were not present in the population prior to their births. Defects which enhanced their chances of survival. by Evolution Talk
11 min listen
Darwin and God: Charles darwin questioned everything when it came to the origin of species and the evolution of life here on earth. That questioning led him into some pretty dark places. As he grew more and more certain that nature was fully capable of producing the... by Evolution Talk
14 min listen
Fossil Dating: How do we date fossils? There are a few ways and in this episode we will look at a couple. by Evolution Talk
12 min listen
The Beginning: Multicellularity Rules: The reason natural selection had such a grand old-time with multicellular organisms is because it gave it something to select for. These organisms increased in size, moved into new areas for food, and protected themselves against the environment. It... by Evolution Talk
12 min listen

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Altruism

Altruism

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Evolution Talk