#naturalselection — Public Fediverse posts

I've long been suspicious of claims of agency – and of psychology more generally. And I'm still unsurprised at how many misunderstand the notion of evolution and the problem of natural selection, not as a process but as a phrase.

👉 https://brywillis634737.substack.com/p/the-bacterium-does-not-want-to-live

Not being a biologist, I decided to look at this through the lens of language.

#philosophy #language #biology #science #evolution #grammar #bacteria #agency #life #purpose #survival #naturalselection #darwin #English

A summary--not really a review--of James T. Costa's book 'Radical by Nature' on Alfred Russel Wallace and how he came to co-discover evolution through natural selection:

https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2026/08/no-lucky-guess-james-costa-argues-alfred-russel-wallace-was-charles-darwins-intellectual-equal/

#Science #Evolution #NaturalSelection

The Peppered Moth (Biston betularia) showed a dark-coloured form in Bernard Kettlewell's classic study on industrial melanism as a response illustrating #NaturalSelection pressures.

A pale coloured form in #Brighton, seen and photographed by PKster

#Wildlife #Biodiversity #Nature #brightonwildlife

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:6hzglooptrt5bsqy2oziokoz/post/3mrrsntouqk2s

Humans Haven't Stopped Evolving

https://www.harvardmagazine.com/research/harvard-human-evolution-genes-selective-pressure

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49054307

#HackerNews #Humans #Evolving #Evolutionary #Biology #Genetics #NaturalSelection

A new study of 72,000 Han Taiwanese genomes caught natural selection acting in real time, including two opposite selection signals inside the cancer gene BRCA1 itself. Evolution isn’t finished with us. #HumanEvolution #Genomics #NaturalSelection https://www.anthropology.net/p/a-cancer-gene-that-is-still-fighting

💁🏻‍♀️ TIL: 🐭🧬 A #Rutgers University study found that 84% of house #mice and 35% of #Norway #rats in four northeastern cities carry mutations that may help them survive common poisons. The #research points to an evolutionary arms race driven by decades of #chemical pest control.

👉 https://scitechdaily.com/urban-rodents-are-evolving-to-survive-common-poisons/

#evolution #naturalselection #rodents #urban #wildlife #genetics #science #biology #adaptation #wildlife #chemistry

RE: https://toad.social/@tend2wobble/116814074678609906

#NaturalSelection at work -- just not fast enough. #science #medicine

💁🏻‍♀️ TIL: 💧☠️ In the Argentinian #Andes, San Antonio de los Cobres residents drink #water with #arsenic levels 20 times the safe limit.

#Uppsala University researchers found they carry a #gene variant that turns arsenic into a form their bodies can safely flush out.

👉 https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-in-the-andes-seem-to-have-evolved-a-strange-genetic-ability

#argentina #evolution #genetics #naturalselection #dna #biology #science #sanantoniodeloscobres #atacama #health #medicine

💁🏻‍♀️ TIL: 🦝🧬 A 2025 study found urban #raccoons have shorter snouts than rural ones – a possible #domestication syndrome signal.

But UC #Berkeley’s Lauren Stanton says #diet, not #genetics, might explain the change. Raccoons’ wild #intelligence is what makes them special, and trying to turn them into #pets would likely backfire.

👉 https://www.popsci.com/science/raccoon-pets/

#domestication #evolution #wildlife #science #biology #animals #dogs #cats #naturalselection #berkeley

Thanks to natural selection, Indigenous Andeans may digest #potatoes better than anyone else in the world, study finds
After domesticating potatoes 10,000 years ago, the ancient people of the #Andes evolved to have more copies of a key #gene involved in digesting starch.
#NaturalSelection drove the surge in #amylase genes following the local domestication of potatoes around 10,000 years ago, according to the study published May 5 in the journal Nature Communications.
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/americas/thanks-to-natural-selection-indigenous-andeans-may-digest-potatoes-better-than-anyone-else-in-the-world-study-finds

How Humans Changed Fruit Forever

Explore the truth about your favorite fruits! How human intervention has led to the unnatural evolution of fruits like bananas, making them sweeter and easier to eat.

Follow @biohackingpathway for more⁣

#FruitEvolution #BananaHistory #FoodScience #HumanIntervention #SupermarketScience #PodcastInterview #FoodFacts #NaturalSelection #wellnessblog #wellnesswins #wellnessmatters #holisticwellbeing #wellnessmama #wellnesscoaches #SweetFruits #UnexpectedScience

A quotation from Robert Ingersoll

There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments — there are consequences.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Essay (1881-08) “The Christian Religion,” “Is All of the Bible Inspired?” ch. 2, North American Review, Vol. 133, No. 297

More about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertingersoll #robertgreeningersoll #consequences #God #morality #natural #naturalselection #nature #outcomes #punishment #results #reward #causeandeffect

#Humans in #Andes Appear to Have Evolved Strange #Genetic Ability
For thousands of years, humans living high in the Argentinian Andes have relied on #drinkingwater that would make most people deathly ill, naturally occurring #arsenic in volcanic bedrock leaches into the groundwater, contaminating water with levels of toxic metalloid that would pose serious health risks.
But for one group in north #Argentina #naturalselection may have provided an unusual genetic advantage.
https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-in-the-andes-appear-to-have-evolved-a-strange-genetic-ability

#PSA: this is your periodic reminder that “survival of the fittest” is NOT about physical fitness* – it means “the best fit for the local environment, which allows an organism to survive, reproduce, and pass on its traits to its offspring”

e.g. people who have the genetically inherited disease sickle cell anaemia are generally “less fit” (in a physical fitness / life expectancy sense) than those who don’t have it, but in areas where malaria is endemic, having sickle cell anaemia provides a degree of immunity from the worst symptoms of malaria^ – so people with sickle cell anaemia are “the best fit” (or “the fittest”) for the local environment compared to those who don’t have it 💁‍♀️

#SurvivalOfTheFittest
#NaturalSelection
#biology101
 
 
 
^ this is simplified, for more nuance (esp. heterozygosity vs. homozygosity) start at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle_cell_disease?wprov=sfti1#Malaria

15-Apr-2026
Massive #ancientDNA study reveals #naturalSelection has accelerated in recent human evolution
Hundreds of genes selected in West Eurasia since farming began, many linked to health

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123959

#science #genome #humans #humanEvolution

Of course, you need to be sensible when you're first starting out. Don't mess with #dangerous things. You don't start repairing hydraulic systems or mains-voltage gear or machines that can take your arm off if you sneeze wrong.

Start with simple stuff, and basic safety precautions.

You can try #electrical stuff, as long as you unplug it and short any big capacitors (large cylindrical things) it has, in case they don't have a bleed resistor on them.

Even better is to start with something that plugs in with an external low-voltage plugpack - it's much harder to kill yourself with a tower fan that runs from 24 VDC than one that runs directly off the mains.

Maybe do a brief web search on the device if you're not sure about it, just to see if there are warnings about working on it.

Surprising (in some sense) things to avoid working on:

Microwave oven. This is the object in your house that is trying hardest to kill you. High frequency, high-voltage AC will kill you dead if you get it across your body.

Old-fashioned CRT (TV/monitor) tubes. Very high voltages, and frequently hold a charge for a long time.

Gas-powered equipment. You can't "unplug" them, and there's always a chance there's enough gas hidden in the carburetor or the removed spark plug wire bumps into the plug that it could puff to life if you turn the crankshaft. One revolution is enough to maim or kill you.

Have fun!

2/2

#danger #DangerWillRobinson #DIY #fixit #DarwinAward #NaturalSelection

 A sweeping new review of five decades of scientific literature finds robust evidence that natural selection operates simultaneously across multiple levels of life, from genes to groups to entire communities, and not just on individual organisms.
#evolution #naturalselection #biodiversity

https://www.newswise.com/articles/landmark-research-expands-understanding-of-how-evolution-and-natural-selection-work/?sc=c6313

My review of two books about the evolution of maladaptation and human imperfection is now out as Early Alert in the journal Evolution @sse_evolution

Enjoy!

https://academic.oup.com/evolut/advance-article/doi/10.1093/evolut/qpag033/8503492

#Evolution #adaptation #maladaptation #naturalselection

How/Why did giraffes evolve to have a big neck like they have? My simplistic mind only thinks about eating from high places. I've been thinking about unique animals.

#evolution #NaturalSelection #evolutionary_biology

Natural Selection Operates Across Diverse Scales, From Molecules to Ecosystems

Natural selection, the process that drives evolution, acts on many levels, from tiny molecules to large ecosystems, changing how we understand life's development.

#NaturalSelection, #Evolution, #Biology, #Science, #Life

https://newsletter.tf/natural-selection-works-molecules-ecosystems/

How eugenics gets Darwin wrong.
#Darwin #naturalselection

“Darwin’s theory of #evolution by #naturalselection plays the role of #semantic #darkmatter in relation to the second law of #thermodynamics, reconciling the local, and perhaps even transiently global, increase in functional order in the face of #entropy increase” open.substack.com/pub/sfiscien...

The Problem of Translation & S...

A quotation from Bill Watterson

   CALVIN: Isn’t it strange that evolution would give us a sense of humor? When you think about it, it’s weird that we have a physiological response to absurdity. We laugh at nonsense. We like it. We think it’s funny. Don’t you think it’s odd that we appreciate absurdity? Why would we develop that way? How does it benefit us?
   HOBBES: I suppose if we couldn’t laugh at things that don’t make sense, we couldn’t react to a lot of life.
   CALVIN: (after a pause) I can’t tell if that’s funny or really scary.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1991-03-03)

More about this quote: wist.info/watterson-bill/81815…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #billwatterson #calvinandhobbes #absurdity #evolution #existence #humancondition #humannature #humor #incomprehensibility #laughter #life #makesense #naturalselection #nonsense #reality #senseofhumor