By: Book review – The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves | The Inquisitive Biologist

Sun, 23 Mar 2025 11:35:50 +0000

[…] Cooperation similarly seems likely. There is a range of benefits to individuals cooperating, not in the least the threat of predation. “Predation is universal, because no ecosystem can exist for long without someone trying to take a bite out of somebody else; the selective pressure on acquiring as much energy as possible is just too strong” (p. 171). When and whether it is evolutionarily advantageous to evolve cooperation is something we can answer mathematically using game theory, “a simple technique, applicable on any planet” (p. 192). We should not be surprised to find aliens with complex social structures, dominance hierarchies, and reciprocal behaviour. […]

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By: Book review – The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer | The Inquisitive Biologist

Sun, 23 Mar 2025 11:26:49 +0000

[…] animals, you need to think at a more fundamental level. What cancer cells are ultimately doing is cheating on the pact that cells form when cooperating to form a multicellular organism. They divide out of control, they refuse to self-destruct via […]

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Comments on: Book review – Selfish Genes to Social Beings: A Cooperative History of Life

By: Book review – The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves | The Inquisitive Biologist

By: Book review – The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer | The Inquisitive Biologist