By far, the most recurring theme in this blog is an exploration of the lopsided nature of evolutionary success – what I have called Haldane’s Rule. Is this a function of the process of speciation or is it something more mundane – something that we would expect in any branching process? I have come to… (read more)
When I started this blog, I referred to the similarities between ecosystems and economies. Here, I will make an ecologist’s observations on the patterns of world trade. Foodwebs are an important tool in understandng ecosystems. They are a list of species from which each species draws energy. That is to say, who eats whom. Economists… (read more)
The floral emblem of Canada – you know, the little garland at the bottom of the coat of arms – has four species. Each species represents an ancestral homeland of the first settlers of Canada: England (rose), Scotland (thistle) , Ireland (shamrock), and France (lily). Of course, the coat of arms also has maple leaves… (read more)
The imagery of nature is woven into our language and culture. The moral significance of “going green” or the fear expressed by the term “running wild” are two examples. It is ironic when we turn our nature-derived concepts to the task of describing nature. I have been talking about branching rates in many of my… (read more)
I have been working on this post since 2013. ” I’ll just go to Encyclopedia of Life and count the genera in each of the beetle families”, I said to myself. If my previous post on the perching birds represented one neighbourhood in a tidy little town of 10,000 occupants, the order of beetles is… (read more)
Something remarkable happened 160 million years ago. Three of the most diverse groups on the planet exploded in a simultaneous speciation event. Two of the groups were new at the beginning of the Cretaceous period, the last chapter in the age of dinosaurs. Flowering plants had just evolved from conifers and birds had just come… (read more)
My last blog post was about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. The scientists shared that award with an individual who won an Oscar in the same year. That has to be some kind of record, inspiring peace and artistic acclaim in one effort. This same individual,… (read more)
The 40 page summary published this month by the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change makes some startling statements. The summary is the capstone of three major reports, 6 years of work and 30 years of experience in getting governments and scientists to clarify the likely outcomes of the increasing load of greenhouse gasses in our shared… (read more)
Robert Baldwin and Louis Lafontaine led the Reform Party to power in 1848, bringing an end to the influence of appointed chambers of representatives in Canada. The principle of elected, representative government has held sway ever since. And yet, there is one group of appointed individuals whose power, though slight, remains to be dealt with:… (read more)
Back in May, I said that there was nothing extaordinary about the maximum rate of branching that occurred early in the evolution of perching birds and that I would show my calculations in my next post. I want to go to the trouble of backing up my statistics on this so that I can use the… (read more)
