Podcasts about Richard Prum

Bērnība, kādu šodien izdzīvo bērni rietumu pasaulē, ir krietni atšķirīga no tās, kuru piedzīvoja paaudzes pirms tam. Ne velti mēs nereti kavējamies nostaļģiskās atmiņās par savu bērnību, spriežot par to, cik pareizas vai nepareizas bērnības piedzīvo mūsdienu bērni. Kāda bija bērnu dzīve senāk? Kad radās izpratne par bērnu attīstību un kad sabiedrība sāka izjust nepieciešamību radīt jaunu sistēmu, pielāgotu bērnu vajadzībām? Raidījumā Zināmais nezināmajā diskutē Latvijas Universitāes (LU) Izglītības zinātņu un psiholoģijas fakultātes profesore, gramatas "Digitala berniba" autore Zanda Rubene, vēsturnieks, LU profesors Gvido Straube un Latvijas Bērnu labklājības tīkla politikas koordinatore Evisa Stankus.   Profesors: Veselīgai ģimenes videi ir būtiska nozīme bērna attīstībā Nesen Latvijā viesojās viens no zināmāmakjiem bērnu attīstības psihologiem pasaulē – Upsālas universitātes profesors Gustafs Gredebeks. Sarunā viņš stāsta par bērna sociālo, emocionālo un izziņas attīstību agrīnā vecumā un skaidro, kāpēc veselīgai ģimenes videi ir tik būtiska nozīme bērna attīstībā. Upsalas zīdaiņu un bērnu laboratoriju Zviedrijā ik gadu apmeklē aptuveni 3000 zīdaiņu vai bērnu kopā ar saviem vecākiem. Zinātnieki šo vizīšu laikā veic pētniecisko darbu, taču, lai to paveiktu, maziem bērniem, protams, nav iespējams dot nopietnas instrukcijas, tāpēc pētnieki vienkārši spēlējas ar bērniem un pēc tam top zinātniskās publikācijas. Tā stāsta šīs laboratorijas vadītājs, attīstības psiholoģijas profesors Upsalas Universitātē Gustafs Gredebeks (Gustaf Gredebäck), un viņš arī piebilst, ka nevarētu vēlēties sev labāku darbu.  Šī gada sākumā Rīgā norisinājās Latvijas Republikas Goda konsula ASV Ilinoisas štatā Roberta Blumberga atbalstītā un nu jau par tradīciju kļuvusī izcilības lekcija, un šoreiz izcilības lekcijas godā bija tieši profesora Gustafa Gredebeka priekšlasījums “Kā rokas veido prātu” (How Hands Shape the Mind). Profesora pētnieciskās intereses saistītas ar bērniem, jaundzimušajiem, īpaši viņu kognitīvo jeb izziņas, sociālo un emocionālo attīstību. Arī mums - “Zināmais nezināmajā” - bija iespēja uz brīdi ar profesoru satikties, un tikšanās iesākumā viņam minēju, ka daudzkārt dzirdēts apgalvojums - visām prasmēm un talantiem, kas mums piemīt, aizsākumi ir meklējami bērnībā. Pēc Gredebeka domām, zināmā mērā šādi apgalvojumi ir pareizi, sākuma punkts attīstībai un pamats tam, par ko mēs kļūsim, ir bērnībā, taču mums allaž ir iespējams mainīties, mācīties jaunas lietas, pielāgoties, tā ka nevar visu laiku tikai atsaukties uz bērnību. Bet vai ir kādas lietas, ko mēs vairs nevaram mainīt, kad esam 10, 20, 30 gadus veci?   Bet raidījuma ievadā par savu izvēlēto grāmatu stāsta ornitologs Viesturs Ķerus. Viņš izvēlējies Franka Gilla un Ričarda Prama (Frank Gill, Richard Prum) grāmatu "Ornitoloģija".  "Esmu pamatā ornitologs, mazliet rakstnieks, un reizēm, kad es stāstu bērniem par to, kas ir kopīgs grāmatu rakstīšanai un ornitoloģijai tad viena no tām lietām, kas ir kopīga, ir tas, ka daudz jālasa. Varbūt tas, ko lasa, atšķiras, vai tu esi rakstnieks vai ornitologs, bet daudz jālasa ir abiem," stāsta Viesturs Ķerus. "Tāpēc ka ornitologi cilvēkiem saistās ar speciālistiem, kas zina visu par putniem. No tā visa, ko mēs zinām un varam pastāstīt, mēs paši esam izpētījuši tikai ļoti, ļoti mazu daļiņu. Lielāko daļu mēs esam uzzinājuši, lasot citu cilvēku pētījumus. Citu ornitologu pētījumus. Un tā īstā lasāmviela zinātniekiem ir zinātniskie žurnāli. Bet zinātniskie raksti ir katrs par kādu ļoti šauru aspektu. Grāmatu "Ornitoloģija" ir tāds labs avots, kur ir apkopoti daudzu pētījumu rezultāti. Šajā grāmatā, kas kā pamatā ir domāta studentiem, bet ļoti noder arī man darbā, ir apkopots viss svarīgākais par putniem. Līdz ar to šī grāmata ir būtisks palīglīdzeklis man darbā tieši tajos brīžos, kad man ir jāstāsta par putniem citiem. Piemēram, ja Zināmais nezināmajā mani uzaicina pastāstīt par putnu maņām vai par putnu attiecībām, tad šī grāmata man ir pirmais atspēriens. Šie abi autori - Franks Gills jūsu Ričards Prams - ir izdarījuši ļoti lielu darbu manā vietā. Šajā gadījumā man nav jāiet cauri simtiem zinātnisku rakstu, lai sagatavotos vienai sarunai par kādu putnu dzīves aspektu. Bet es varu paskatīties, kas ir minēts šajā grāmatā, un tad varbūt dažus jaunākos rakstus vēl piemeklēt klāt, kas par šo tēmu ir izpētījis kopš grāmatas iznākšanas."    

Dr. Paul Eastwick is a psychologist, professor, and researcher. What do people really want in a romantic partner compared to what they say they want? Paul is the lead author on the largest study of its kind which was just released breaking down this question. Dr. Eastwick is a Professor at the University of California, Davis and he uses the tools of social and personality psychology to study romantic attraction and close relationship processes. Dr. Eastwick has published more than 70 scientific articles, and his work is featured regularly in the New York Times and The Atlantic, and in books ranging from Aziz Ansari's Modern Romance to Richard Prum's Pulitzer Prize Finalist The Evolution of Beauty. He also hosts the podcast Love Factually with his longtime colleague, Eli Finkel, where they analyze popular rom-coms and dramas from the perspective of relationship science. THIS EPISODE IS FOR YOU IF: You want to learn about the true nature of attraction You want to discover what men and women really want in a romantic partner You desire to strengthen your current relationship You are single and want to be in a healthy, long-term relationship You're getting FREE access to my Launch Your Dare 12-week Playbook - the perfect kickstart to your 2025 transformation! Here's what you need to do RIGHT NOW: Head over to www.idareyoupod.com and grab your copy of the Launch Your Dare 12-week Playbook. Don't wait - your future self will thank you! How to follow Dr. Paul Eastwick: Love Factually Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/love-factually/id1766543146 www.pauleastwick.com

The Evolution of Beauty is Part One in a VBB Four-Part series on our podcast middle name: Beauty. The Evolution of Beauty is also a specialty of Richard Prum.  He's not a beautician, far from it; he's an expert on birds, a Professor of Ornithology, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, as well as head curator of vertebrate zoology at the University's Peabody Museum of Natural History. Richard also authored the book The Evolution of Beauty, where he revisits Charles Darwin's long-neglected theory of sexual selection; basically, females choosing a mate purely for aesthetic reasons — the mere pleasure of beauty —and how those rarely acknowledged choices are as critical as natural selection in determining the evolution of our species. So, is Beauty in his genes or in how he wears his jeans?

Richard Prum says there's a lot that traditional evolutionary biology can't explain. He thinks a neglected hypothesis from Charles Darwin — and insights from contemporary queer theory — hold the answer. Plus: You won't believe what female ducks use for contraception.SOURCE:Richard Prum, professor of ornithology, ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University. RESOURCES:"Stop Your Populist Grandstanding Over Wendy's ‘Surge Pricing'," by Catherine Rampell (The Washington Post, 2024)."Dynamic Pricing Tech May Brighten Retail Bottom Lines and Put Consumers in the Dark," by Kristin Schwab and Sofia Terenzio (Marketplace, 2024).Performance All the Way Down: Genes, Development, and Sexual Difference, by Richard Prum (2023).The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World — and Us, by Richard Prum (2017)."Duck Sex and the Patriarchy," by Richard Prum (The New Yorker, 2017)."Dinosaur Feathers Came before Birds and Flight," by Richard Prum and Alan Brush (Scientific American, 2014)."How Chickens Lost Their Penises (And Ducks Kept Theirs)," by Ed Yong (National Geographic, 2013)."Media Attacks Duck Genitalia Research," by Emma Goldberg (Yale Daily News, 2013)."Mate Choice and Sexual Selection: What Have We Learned Since Darwin?" by Adam G. Jones and Nicholas L. Ratterman (PNAS, 2009)."Development and Evolutionary Origin of Feathers," by Richard O. Prum (Journal of Experimental Zoology, 2002).The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design, by Richard Dawkins (1986)."Display Behavior, Foraging Ecology, and Systematics of the Golden-Winged Manakin (Masius chrysopterus)," by Richard Prum and Ann Johnson (The Wilson Bulletin, 1987).The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins (1976).The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, by Charles Darwin (1871). EXTRAS:"Is Gynecology the Best Innovation Ever?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024)."The Price of Doing Business with John List," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Richard Prum about sex, gender, and biology. They talk about why sex and gender are sometimes controversial, defining sex, and sex as history. They discuss the materialist-feminist framework, gender as an extended phenotype, gender performativity, genes and chromosomes, Wolffian and Müllerian ducts, the role of hormones, the future of gender, and many more topics. Richard Prum is an Evolutionary Ornithologist at Yale University. His research interests are avian biology, behavioral evolution, sexual selection, and mate choice. He has been a main contributor to the theropod dinosaur origins of birds and the evolution of avian plumage coloration. He is the Curator of Ornithology and Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Previously, he was the Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale. He is the author of, The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us, and his latest book, Performance All the Way Down: Genes, Development, and Sexual Difference. You can find his scholarly publications here. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the Juras-Sick Park-Cast podcast, the Jurassic Park podcast about Michael Crichton's 1990 novel Jurassic Park, and also not about that, too.  Find the episode webpage at: Episode 38 - Tim. In this episode, my terrific guest Dr. Roger J. Lederer joins the show to chat with me about: turkeys, Thanksgiving, turkey vultures, disposing of carcasses, registering domain names, the fastest birds, ostriches, the bustard, the elephant bird, rictal bristles, flycatchers, studying birds, DNA, Watson and Crick, cloning extinct animals, Loy's procedure, reverse breeding aurochs, birds are dinosaurs!, archaeopteryx, the evolution of feathers, the feather-colour of microraptors, enantiornithines, Dr. Richard Prum and the evolution of feathers, theories on the evolution of feathered flight, herons hunting, Crichton using Lederer's name in the text!, the Hoatzin, A Reappraisal of Azhdarchid Pterosaur Functional Morphology and Paleoecology; Bristles before down: A new perspective on the functional origin of feathers; A review of the Taxonomy and Paleoecology of the Anuro-gnathidae, strange feather uses, ubirajara jubatus, "raptor" nomenclature, tyrannidae, birds being territorial and mean, cassowaries, The Gobbler!, and much more!   You can find way more neat bird data on Dr. Lederer's website, www.ornithology.com.    Plus dinosaur news about: A new ‘duck-billed' dinosaur(Ornithischia: Hadrosauridae) from the upper Campanian of Texas points to agreater diversity of early hadrosaurid offshoots The role of Avian Rictal Bristles  Featuring the music of Snale https://snalerock.bandcamp.com/releases  Intro: Grow Old Or Don't.  Outro: Centipede. The Text: This week's text is Tim, spanning from pages 204 – 210. Synopsis: A concussed Tim Murphy awakes from the tyrannosaur attack to find himself trapped in a car, atop a tree. He climbs out of the tree, as the Land Cruiser crashes down above him.  Discussions surround: Show Don't Tell, Storytelling, Tension, Movie Adaptations, Control is a Hoax, Timeline, People of Colour, Shape of the Data, Cloning Dinosaurs, and the Island Layout. Corrections:   Side effects:  May cause you to totally miss the point.    Find it on iTunes, on Spotify (click here!) or on Podbean (click here). Thank you! The Jura-Sick Park-cast is a part of the Spring Chickens banner of amateur intellectual properties including the Spring Chickens funny pages, Tomb of the Undead graphic novel, the Second Lapse graphic novelettes, The Infantry, and the worst of it all, the King St. Capers. You can find links to all that baggage in the show notes, or by visiting the schickens.blogpost.com or finding us on Facebook, at Facebook.com/SpringChickenCapers or me, I'm on twitter at @RogersRyan22 or email me at ryansrogers-at-gmail.com.  Thank you, dearly, for tuning in to the Juras-Sick Park-Cast, the Jurassic Park podcast where we talk about the novel Jurassic Park, and also not that, too. Until next time!  #JurassicPark #MichaelCrichton

What does evolutionary science have to do with the art world? A fascinating conversation with Richard Prum, a leading thinker in evolutionary ornithology who has developed a theory that impacts how we think about artistic genius, radicality, and the art world at large.

In this, our ninth season (and third year), we are aiming to look more deeply into the ways we might create a flourishing future that we would be proud to leave to the generations that follow us. With that in mind, our first guest of this new season is Richard Heinberg, author of the magesterial, 'Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival' which came out in September 2021.  Richard  is Senior Fellow-in-Residence of the Post Carbon Institute, and is regarded as one of the world's foremost advocates for a shift away from our current reliance on fossil fuels. He is the author of fourteen books in all, including some of the seminal works on society's current energy and environmental sustainability crisis:His books include:  Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival (September 2021) power.postcarbon.org Our Renewable Future: Laying the Path for One Hundred Percent Clean Energy, co-authored with David Fridley (Island Press, 2016) ourrenewablefuture.org Also mentioned in the podcast: Fermi Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradoxPeter Turchin: https://peterturchin.com/The Evolution of Beauty by Richard Prum:  https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Evolution-of-Beauty-by-Richard-O-Prum/9780385537216

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Richard Prum about aesthetics, birds, and the evolution of beauty. They provide an overview of sexual selection and the aspects of sexual ornamentation and mate choice. They discuss Fisher's two-factor model of evolution and use the example of the great Argus pheasant to describe Richard's idea that beauty happens. They discuss the co-evolution of beauty and how sexual selection is not only about adaptation. They mention the subjective experience of animals and theory of mind. They also discuss aesthetic radiation, phylogeny of birds, and the sound production in the wings of Manakins. They briefly discuss the colorful feathers of dinosaurs, duck sex, and aesthetic remodeling. Richard provides some of his critiques of evolutionary psychology and makes the distinction between beauty happening and pleasure happening. Richard Prum is an Evolutionary Ornithologist at Yale University. His research interests are avian biology, behavioral evolution, sexual selection, and mate choice. He has been a main contributor to the theropod dinosaur origins of birds and the evolution of avian plumage coloration. He is the Curator of Ornithology and Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Previously, he was the Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale. He is the author of, The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us, which can be purchased here. You can find his scholarly publications here.

Richard Prum really cares about birds. Growing up in rural Vermont, he didn't know anyone else interested in birding his own age. The experience taught him to rely on his own sense of curiosity and importance when deciding what questions and interests are worth studying. As a result, he has pursued many different paths of research in avian biology — such as behavioral evolution, where feathers come from, sexual selection and mate choice — many of which have led to deep implications in the field. In 2017, Tyler agreed with several prominent outlets that Prum's book The Evolution of Beauty was one of the best books of the year, writing that it “offers an excellent and clearly written treatment of the particulars of avian evolution, signaling theory, and aesthetics, bringing together some disparate areas very effectively.” Richard joined Tyler to discuss the infidelity of Australian birds, the debate on the origins of avian flight, how the lack of a penis explains why birds are so beautiful, why albatrosses can afford to take so many years to develop before mating, the game theory of ornithology, how flowers advertise themselves like a can of Coke, how modern technology is revolutionizing bird watching, why he's pro-bird feeders yet anti- outdoor cats, how scarcity predicts territoriality in birds, his favorite bird artist, how Oilbirds got their name, how falcons and cormorants hunt and fish with humans, whether birds exhibit a G factor, why birds have regional accents, whether puffins will perish, why he's not excited about the idea of trying to bring back passenger pigeons, the “dumb question” that marks a talented perspective ornithologist, and more. Visit our website: https://conversationswithtyler.com Email: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cowenconvos Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/cowenconvos/ Follow Tyler on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tylercowen Like us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/cowenconvos Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://go.mercatus.org/l/278272/2017-09-19/g4ms Thumbnail photo credit: Russell Kaye

Vackra teorier har haft stor framgång inom fysikvetenskapen. Men kanske har det kommit till en punkt när vi måste ge upp skönheten? Helena Granström reflekterar över det sköna och sanna. ESSÄ: Detta är en text där skribenten reflekterar över ett ämne eller ett verk. Åsikter som uttrycks är skribentens egna. Beauty is truth, truth beauty, skaldade en gång den brittiske romantiske poeten John Keats skönhet är sanning, sanning skönhet men trots skönheten i denna poetiska formulering, är åtminstone jag benägen att ifrågasätta dess sanningshalt. Faktum är att Keats påstående borde betvivlas av alla som någon gång har låtit sig förföras av en vacker men otillförlitlig yta och då har vi inte ens kommit in på skönhetens förgänglighet, som väl i sig måste anses sätta den i motsatsposition till den eviga sanningen. Men det är värt att lägga märke till hur dikten fortsätter, nämligen that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know att det sköna och det sanna sammanfaller är hos Keats inte bara allt vi människor vet, utan också allt vi behöver veta. Att skönheten utgör en kungsväg till sanningen är emellertid inte enbart en poetisk devis, utan sedan länge även en naturvetenskaplig. I synnerhet bland fysiker är det lätt att finna ståndpunkter som att en vacker teori inom den fundamentala fysiken har en större chans att vara korrekt, och att naturen bäst beskrivs i ekvationer som är så enkla, vackra, kompakta och allmängiltiga som möjligt.  Den tyske 1900-talsfysikern Hermann Weyl beskriver hur han i sitt arbete alltid har försökt förena det vackra med det sanna, men när han någon gång blivit tvungen att välja, vanligtvis valt det vackra ett val som i Weyls fall mer än en gång visade sig vara det riktiga. De ekvationer som deras upphovsman ansåg för vackra för att överge beskrev visserligen inte det de ursprungligen avsåg att beskriva, men i slutändan visade de sig ändå vara giltiga för någon aspekt av naturen. Historiskt har skönheten med andra ord erbjudit en värdefull vägledning i sökandet efter sanningen om verkligheten. Alla kända naturlagar svarar mot någon form av matematisk symmetri; en egenskap som är av central betydelse för att någonting ska anses vackert inom fysiken. Frågan är om detsamma gäller för den fysik vi ännu inte upptäckt om Keats, det vill säga, faktiskt hade rätt. En som anmäler stark skepsis i frågan är den tyska fysikern Sabine Hossenfelder i boken Lost in math. Att skönhetsidealen spelade en roll för tillkomsten av exempelvis den allmänna relativitetsteorin, innebär inte att de gagnar fysiken idag. I synnerhet inte som grundforskningens förutsättningar förändrats under det senaste seklet: Om den teoretiska fysikens uppgift tidigare var att förklara redan gjorda observationer, är det numera snarare teorierna som avgör vilka observationer som görs, i ofta både kostsamma och tidskrävande experiment. Om vi enbart är villiga att pröva de eleganta hypoteserna, är risken att vi inte hittar något alls. Dessutom har förkärleken för det vackra, menar Hossenfelder, alltmer kommit att byggas in i matematiken, så att det inte längre är tydligt vad den faktiskt är, nämligen en estetisk preferens. Vi förväntar inte bara av våra teorier att de ska ge korrekta förutsägelser, utan också att de ska ha en hög grad av symmetri, inte innehålla någonting till synes godtyckligt, och dessutom gärna kunna ge en gemensam förklaring till flera skilda fenomen i slutändan inte av något mer stringent skäl än att vi tycker att sådant är fint. Effekten av allt detta är att det som fungerar kritiseras för att det inte är vackert nog: På samma sätt som vissa fysiker inledningsvis sade sig ha varit beredda att tro på den numera etablerade kvantelektrodynamiken om den inte hade varit så ful, anklagas partikelfysikens standardmodell idag allmänt för att vara, med Stephen Hawkings ord, ful och ad hoc. Samtidigt som samma fysiker vägrar avfärda det som inte fungerar, och istället justerar sina eleganta teorier för att slippa ta konsekvenserna av uteblivna resultat. De är ju helt enkelt så vackra att de borde vara sanna: Gud är subtil men inte ondsint, som Einstein en gång uttryckte det, med vilket han alltså ville säga att Gud är subtil men han har inte dålig smak. Fysikvetenskapens belägenhet påminner en hel del om biologins, som den beskrivs av ornitologen Richard Prum i boken Skönhetens evolution. På 1990-talet rådde i princip konsensus i forskarvärlden om sambandet mellan ett symmetriskt utseende och god genetisk kvalitet en uppfattning som så småningom visade sig sakna vetenskapligt stöd. Vilket inte innebär att idén övergetts tvärtom. Inte minst lever den vidare i form av det så kallade kostsamhetsargument som gör gällande att estetiska uttryck i djurvärlden allt ifrån ståtliga fjäderdräkter till invecklade parningsritualer är en manifestation av fitnessöverskottet hos den som uppvisar dem: Jag kan inte bara överleva, jag kan dessutom göra det medan jag bär runt på en jättestor stjärt. Men, betonar Prum, Darwin själv insåg att det inte är så enkelt: Skönheten är inte bara en indikation på någonting annat, utan en evolutionär kraft i egen rätt. Istället för att vittna om förmågan till anpassning och överlevnad, tycks ett attraktivt yttre tvärtom kunna stå i direkt konflikt med den, särskilt som den som dras till den vackra ytan ofta nog är beredd att bortse från det som finns under. Begäret efter skönhet, skriver Prum, kommer att hävda sig och underminera törsten efter sanning. Det finns emellertid en uppenbar skillnad mellan fysik och biologi i detta avseende: Om vi tror att det existerar en djup koppling mellan skönhet och sanning här i bemärkelsen funktion är det i fallet med sexuellt urval lätt att föreställa sig att känslan för den skulle ha inpräntats i oss av evolutionen. Att vi skulle vara i besittning av samma genetiskt betingade intuition när det gäller den abstrakta matematiska beskrivningen av fenomen som vi aldrig haft och aldrig kommer att få någon sinnlig erfarenhet av tycks onekligen mer långsökt. Vad är egentligen den evolutionära fördelen med kvantgravitation? Men icke desto mindre tycks många forskare finna analogin oproblematisk: Nobelpristagaren Steven Weinberg liknar fysikerns förkärlek för skönhet vid den hos en hästuppfödare som känner igen en vacker häst. Uppfödarens erfarenhet säger honom, menar Weinberg, att den vackra hästen också är den sortens häst som vinner lopp. Hans kollega Frank Wilczek ser samma samband, men i omvänd riktning: Det har alltid funnits ett evolutionärt värde i att tro på det som är sant, och upplevelsen av skönhet är i grunden ingenting annat än de biologiska belöningssystemens reaktion när de ställs inför det sanna. Hossenfelder, å sin sida, förblir kallsinnig. Att fysiker och matematiker tycker att ekvationer är vackra är knappast mer betydelsefullt än att bilmekaniker gillar att betrakta en väloljad motor. Att dessa specialisters skönhetssinne skulle ha något att säga oss om universums beskaffenhet finns det helt enkelt mycket få skäl att tro. Kanske kommer den slutliga sanningen om universum, när vi väl finner den, visa sig vara precis så otymplig, stökig och bristfällig som verkligheten i stort. Eller kanske kommer vi inte att finna den alls och bor det i så fall inte en sorts skönhet också i det? Helena Granström, författare med bakgrund inom fysik och matematik Litteratur Sabine Hossenfelder: Lost in math. How beauty leads physics astray. Basic Civitas Books, 2019. Richard O Prum: Skönhetens evolution. Hur Darwins bortglömda teori om det sexuella urvalet formar djurriket och oss. Natur & kultur, 2019.

Richard's book is a major reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, revealing how mating preferences—what Darwin termed “the taste for the beautiful”—create an extraordinary range of ornament in the animal world. Prum introduces agency and perception as essential components for evolutionary processes and challenges the dogma that holds that natural selection explains every branch on the tree of life: which species thrive, which wither away to extinction, and what features each evolves. We ask Richard about his unpublished work on pollination and bees to understand the influences of beauty and way the selection process is shaped by the memory of things beautiful ... or sometimes dangerous. The Arboreal Apiculture Salon - A podcast exploring the science, beauty and spiritual expression of Abroreal Apiculture with Jonathan Powell from the Natural Beekeeping Trust and Michael Joshin Thiele from Apis Arborea and Cheyanna Bone.    

“Beauty can function somewhat like an irrationally exuberant market bubble” - Richard Prum(click to tweet)The evolutionary view of beauty has traditionally been that humans evolved a sense of what was beautiful based on practically. We’re often taught that things like the waist to hip ratio are a long-ingrained sign of fertility to men, which is why we find them attractive.My guest today, Richard Prum, has a different view. He says that beauty can be viewed more as an “irrationally exuberant financial market bubble.” In other words, it’s not so cut and dry, and natural selection has led each of us, within our own cultures, to develop a sense of what we consider attractive, not dependent on the practicality of evolutionary considerations.What do you think? Let me know! Leave a rating and review in iTunes, and tell me your thoughts in the review!Don’t forget, you can listen to The Tai Lopez Show on Spotify! Click “Follow” and let me know what you think!“Beauty is a social contrivance. It’s invented by us” - Richard Prum(click to tweet)Points to Keep In MindCertain aspects of science seem to be completely unexplainableBeauty can function somewhat like an irrationally exuberant market bubbleBeauty is a social contrivance. It’s invented by usHumans are evolved to be satisfied, and to find satisfying relationshipsThe evolutionary idea of beauty being practical neglects some of the concepts of natural selection in the human animalIn society, it could be argued that it is actually women who are defining the idea of beauty more than menThe idea of machismo and dominance as the core of attraction is deeply flawed and a cause of unhappinessGet in touch with the idea of what it means to be really caring for your partnerHuman diversity is a result of the diversity of mate-choice, therefore standards of beauty can be far different across culturesThe men who are most attractive tend to be socially attentive

2010’lu yılların başlarında, ABD’nin Connecticut eyaletindeki New Haven kentinde bir akşam yemeği daveti. Dört nezih çift, mum ışıkları, bembeyaz masa örtüleri, kristal kadehler ve mükemmel bir menü ile tam anlamıyla bir ziyafet. Davetliler arasında Yale Üniversitesi’nden kuşbilimci Richard Prum ve… Seslendiren: Ekin Baran Sunar

In the third installment of Yale Journal of Biology & Medicine’s series on ecology and evolution, YJBM podcast hosts Neal Ravindra and Kartiga Selvaganesan interview Richard Prum. Professor Prum is the William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology, a faculty member in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and affiliated with Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. He … Continue reading Ecology & Evolution: Episode III →

The wings of a bird, the colors of a butterfly, and the patterns on a seashell defy the theory of Darwinian evolution. Many of us intuit, simply by looking at the splendor that permeates the natural world, that there must be some agent involved other than blind mutations or mere survival-of-the-fittest mechanisms. And now, it seems, some scientists are beginning to accept that intuition, finally admitting that beauty cannot be explained by the theory of evolution, at least as we know it. In a surprising article in The New York Times, Ferris Jabr writes about a small but growing band of scientists who argue that natural selection alone can't account for the eye-popping artistry we see in nature. He cites Yale ornithologist Richard Prum, who argues in his book, “The Evolution of Beauty,” that the elaborate plumage and outrageous mating displays of many birds confer no obvious survival advantage. Instead, they often put these birds at a disadvantage, wasting precious energy and making them stand out to predators. By all the conventional rules of evolution, such costly adaptations should have disappeared long ago. Instead, says Prum, we find them all over nature, not only in birds, which play their wings like violins, but in beetles with high-fidelity, crystalline scales, fish with flags for tails, and a whole assortment of mammals sporting over-the-top headgear. Our world is bursting with unnecessary beauty that Jabr describes as “an affront to the rules of natural selection.” Now, the traditional explanation for aesthetically awe-inspiring traits is that they show off an animal's fitness to potential mates. The parrot with the brightest plumage might have the healthiest immune system. The lion with the bushiest mane must be the most successful hunter. But more and more scientists are challenging this so-called “good genes” theory. Many natural ornaments, like the flamboyant tail of the peacock, put their owner in serious danger without necessarily signaling genetic fitness. Yet peahens (or the females) keep picking the fellahs with the biggest, brightest tails to sire their offspring. While many scientists insist that somehow a cumbersome caboose confers a survival benefit, Prum thinks that's ridiculous. Animals are beautiful not because beauty is useful, he insists, but because…they like it! Through a process called “sexual selection,” Prum and other experts now believe animals shape their own evolution, choosing features in mates that strike their fancy, and exaggerating these over countless generations to produce colors, shapes, and behaviors that dazzle human observers. Now, maybe animals do like being beautiful, but that seems as much a forced theory as the one it replaced. I'm glad some Darwinists are recognizing that survival alone can't account for the art gallery we call the natural world, but is it really a better option to look at that same art gallery and conclude that the paintings produced themselves? Well, here's another option... Recently, Evolution News reported on a peer-reviewed study by scientists in Spain that suggests that just seeing natural designs improves human engineers' creativity. The researchers created a program that “help[s] industrial designers find natural shapes that [are] both functional and aesthetically pleasing” by showing them the features of plants and animals. This is just the latest in an emerging field called “biomimetics,” which literally means “copying life.” The paper uses the term “design” no less than 130 times and “agency” over 140 times. Considering this, plus Jabr's outstanding piece in the Times, it's fair to wonder if we are “approaching the threshold of design acceptance in science.” I hope so. Faced with a natural world brimming with beauty and engineering, scientists should reconsider the dogma that all of this created itself. Instead, they should consider that the mind-boggling beauty we see around us was always intended for our eyes—designed by a master Engineer and Artist, to display His genius and glory through the language of beauty—in a language best understood not by peahens, but by people. As Andrew Peterson sings, could the beauty before us…be for us? I look forward to the day when science joins Christianity in saying “yes.”  

A bold and brilliant refutation of the common wisdom about sexual attraction, aesthetics, and more. Rick Prum is an evolutionary heretic. And the wellspring of his unorthodox ideas is ... Charles Darwin himself.

Laurel Braitman is a historian of science and the author of Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves. She’s particularly interested in animals held in captivity. “If their minds aren’t stimulated and challenged they can end up with all sorts of disturbing behaviors,” she explains. Braitman wondered if music could help counter animal anxiety and depression? This question led Braitman to arrange a series of concerts for all-animal audiences. Plus, we hear from Richard Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University, who discusses his latest work — the philosophy of aesthetics. It stems from his earliest research studying small South American birds called Manakins. Manakins are known for outlandish mating displays in which males perform an elaborate dance and to Prum’s eye, the diversity and complexity of these dances could only be explained as an appeal to the birds’ aesthetic preferences. In other words, it’s art. “My hypothesis,” he explains to Kurt Andersen, “is that ornament in manakins evolves merely because it’s popular, or merely beautiful.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laurel Braitman is a historian of science and the author of Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves. She’s particularly interested in animals held in captivity. “If their minds aren’t stimulated and challenged they can end up with all sorts of disturbing behaviors,” she explains. Braitman wondered if music could help counter animal anxiety and depression? This question led Braitman to arrange a series of concerts for all-animal audiences. Plus, we hear from Richard Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University, who discusses his latest work — the philosophy of aesthetics. It stems from his earliest research studying small South American birds called Manakins. Manakins are known for outlandish mating displays in which males perform an elaborate dance and to Prum’s eye, the diversity and complexity of these dances could only be explained as an appeal to the birds’ aesthetic preferences. In other words, it’s art. “My hypothesis,” he explains to Kurt Andersen, “is that ornament in manakins evolves merely because it’s popular, or merely beautiful.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deep in tropical jungles around the world are birds with a dizzying array of appearances and mating displays: Club-winged Manakins who sing with their wings, Great Argus Pheasants who dazzle prospective mates with a four-foot-wide cone of feathers covered in golden 3D spheres, Red-capped Manakins who moonwalk. In his thirty years of fieldwork, Yale University ornithologist Richard Prum has witnessed numerous such display traits that seem to contradict a classically upheld scientific dogma—that Darwin’s theory of natural selection explains every branch on the tree of life and accounts for the evolution of every trait we see in nature. Prum joined us to share findings from his book The Evolution of Beauty and dusted off Darwin’s long-neglected theory of sexual selection, in which the act of choosing a mate purely for aesthetic and pleasurable reasons is an independent engine of evolutionary change. He explored how, according to Darwin, mate choice can drive the formation of traits that are ornamental rather than purely adapted for survival, and how the sexual autonomy of the female evolves in response to male sexual control. Prum showed us how this framework grants us insight even into the evolution of human sexuality—how female preferences have changed male bodies, and even maleness itself, through evolutionary time. Join Prum for a unique scientific vision of nature’s splendor that has the potential to contribute to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves. Richard O. Prum is William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology at Yale University, and Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. He has conducted field work throughout the world, and has studied fossil theropod dinosaurs in China. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2010. Recorded live at PATH by Town Hall Seattle on Monday, June 11, 2018. 

Angela Garbes shares her experience about being pregnant and talks with Lindy West about the myths and science surrounding pregnancy (5:31); Leni Zumas, Tiffany Hankins, and Megan Burbank ruminate on the ways which personal stories can humanize discussions of women's reproductive rights (11:16); Richard Prum invigorates Charles Darwin's theory of sexual selection, exploring how aesthetics can drive evolution (16:11); and Steve Scher interviews Shaun Scott about his community discussion series at Town Hall inspired Forward Thrust—emphasizing the 'Forward' aspect to collaborate on our city's future (22:01). Hosts Jini Palmer and Steve Scher select standout moments from the previous two weeks of events and look forward to the next.

The evolutionary view of beauty has traditionally been that humans evolved a sense of what was beautiful based on practically. We’re often taught that things like the waist to hip ratio are a long-ingrained sign of fertility to men, which is why we find them attractive.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cara is joined in studio by Dr. Richard Prum, Yale ornithologist and author of the new book, "The Evolution of Beauty." They discuss the idea that sexual selection, as well as natural selection, drives evolution, and how this feminist choice gives autonomy back to the female of the species. 

Cara is joined in studio by Dr. Richard Prum, Yale ornithologist and author of the new book, "The Evolution of Beauty." They discuss the idea that sexual selection, as well as natural selection, drives evolution, and how this feminist choice gives autonomy back to the female of the species.

Deep in tropical jungles around the world are birds with a dizzying array of appearances and mating displays—from pheasants with 3D feathers to moonwalking manakins—traits that seem disconnected from selection for individual survival. Culminating 30 years of fieldwork, Richard Prum, the Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History and a world-renowned ornithologist, revives Darwin’s long-neglected theory of sexual selection in which the act of choosing a mate for purely aesthetic reasons—for the mere pleasure of it—is an independent engine of evolutionary change. Sharing from his latest work, The Evolution of Beauty, Prum presents a unique scientific vision for how nature’s splendor contributes to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves in a conversation with evolutionary biologist Amy Parish.For photos from the program, click here. 

Tim talks to Richard Prum, William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology at Yale, about dinosaur-to-bird evolution, the origins of beauty, sexual violence in ducks and how to avoid scientific stagnation.

RICHARD PRUM (https://www.edge.org/memberbio/richard_prum) is an evolutionary ornithologist at Yale University, where he is the Curator of Ornithology and Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology in the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. The Conversation: https://www.edge.org/conversation/richard_prum-duck-sex-aesthetic-evolution-and-the-origin-of-beauty

Interview with Richard Prum; News Items: Ancient Lakes on Mars, Smoke Ring UFO, FDA Zicam Warning, Missing Sun Spots; Science or Fiction; Whos That Noisy

Interview with Richard Prum; News Items: Ancient Lakes on Mars, Smoke Ring UFO, FDA Zicam Warning, Missing Sun Spots; Science or Fiction; Whos That Noisy