KLI Fellow Anne Le Maître was interviewed by Lauren Leffer for the online magazine Popular Science, along with two other scientists, viz., Mark Coleman (Associate professor of anatomy at Western Atlantic University School of Medicine, the Bahamas) and Bridget Alex (paleoanthropologist, Harvard University). In the recent article posted on 6 September 2024, titled, “Why do we have earlobes? They make no evolutionary sense”, Anne explains the complexity of the inner and middle ear in mammals, including humans, and the evolutionary transition from ancestral forms still seen in birds and crocodiles to their present mammalian form. (Click on title to continue...)
KLI Fellow Anne Le Maître was interviewed by Lauren Leffer for the online magazine Popular Science, along with two other scientists, viz., Mark Coleman (Associate professor of anatomy at Western Atlantic University School of Medicine, the Bahamas) and Bridget Alex (paleoanthropologist, Harvard University). In the recent article posted on 6 September 2024, titled, “Why do we have earlobes? They make no evolutionary sense”, Anne explains the complexity of the inner and middle ear in mammals, including humans, and the evolutionary transition from ancestral forms still seen in birds and crocodiles to their present mammalian form. (Click on title to continue...)
Read the editors’ summary of the latest issue, with free reading links for all the articles in 19(3). The issue includes articles analyzing the concept of goal-directedness across scientific disciplines, the use of lived experiences in sleep studies, how agency fits with the mutuality of animals and their environments, and a study of snake–human interactions for what it indicates about knowledge transmission and population evolution. The issue also includes an essay about the relationship of Richard Lewontin’s research program to the one he inherited from Theodosius Dobzhansky and two articles delving into the debate on measuring reproductive fitness.
Read the editors’ summary of the latest issue, with free reading links for all the articles in 19(3). The issue includes articles analyzing the concept of goal-directedness across scientific disciplines, the use of lived experiences in sleep studies, how agency fits with the mutuality of animals and their environments, and a study of snake–human interactions for what it indicates about knowledge transmission and population evolution. The issue also includes an essay about the relationship of Richard Lewontin’s research program to the one he inherited from Theodosius Dobzhansky and two articles delving into the debate on measuring reproductive fitness.
The KLI team engaged in the Horizon Europe project PLUS Change – Marina Knickel, Guido Caniglia and Nora Hein – have developed an Ethics Handbook that provides guidance on dealing with ethical issues of equity and justice in land use research and practice. The main goal of the Handbook is to support actors in land use decision-making to prevent the exacerbation of social and environmental injustices that arise from uneven access to resources and decision-making power.
The KLI team engaged in the Horizon Europe project PLUS Change – Marina Knickel, Guido Caniglia and Nora Hein – have developed an Ethics Handbook that provides guidance on dealing with ethical issues of equity and justice in land use research and practice. The main goal of the Handbook is to support actors in land use decision-making to prevent the exacerbation of social and environmental injustices that arise from uneven access to resources and decision-making power.
We are very happy to welcome our new Fellow Visitor Martin Andreas Schmid to the KLI. Martin is an environmental historian trained in history and archaeology. He studies the biophysical and symbolic relationships of society with nature since c. 1500 with focus on Austria and Europe. He currently holds the position of Associate Professor for Environmental History at the Department of Economics and Social Sciences (WiSo), University of Natural Resources & Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). Martin’s KLI project is titled, “What Is Socio-Ecological Industrialization in Co-Evolutionary Terms?”
We are very happy to welcome our new Fellow Visitor Martin Andreas Schmid to the KLI. Martin is an environmental historian trained in history and archaeology. He studies the biophysical and symbolic relationships of society with nature since c. 1500 with focus on Austria and Europe. He currently holds the position of Associate Professor for Environmental History at the Department of Economics and Social Sciences (WiSo), University of Natural Resources & Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). Martin’s KLI project is titled, “What Is Socio-Ecological Industrialization in Co-Evolutionary Terms?”
We are very happy to welcome our new Fellow Visitor Sean Pears to the KLI.
Sean is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Philosophy in Biology and Medicine at the University of Bordeaux, with a focus on the philosophy of biology, particularly evolutionary theory and the expanded evolutionary synthesis. He will be at the KLI for two months, from September 1 to October 31, 2024. During his time at the KLI, Sean will be working on his project titled, ‘Eco-Evo-Devo and Restoration: Cultivating Evolvable Socio-Ecosystems’.
We are very happy to welcome our new Fellow Visitor Sean Pears to the KLI.
Sean is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Philosophy in Biology and Medicine at the University of Bordeaux, with a focus on the philosophy of biology, particularly evolutionary theory and the expanded evolutionary synthesis. He will be at the KLI for two months, from September 1 to October 31, 2024. During his time at the KLI, Sean will be working on his project titled, ‘Eco-Evo-Devo and Restoration: Cultivating Evolvable Socio-Ecosystems’.
We are very happy to welcome our new Writing-up Fellow Onerva Kiianlinna to the KLI.
Onerva Kiianlinna is in the final phase of her PhD at the Doctoral Programme in Philosophy, Arts and Society, University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research interests lie in evolutionary aesthetics, especially in the relationship between philosophical and empirical aesthetics. Her PhD research project is titled “Aesthetic Judging in Contemporary Evolutionary Aesthetics”. Onerva aims to ‘provide perspectives on how the act of aesthetic judging could and should be understood in contemporary evolutionary aesthetics’.
We are very happy to welcome our new Writing-up Fellow Onerva Kiianlinna to the KLI.
Onerva Kiianlinna is in the final phase of her PhD at the Doctoral Programme in Philosophy, Arts and Society, University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research interests lie in evolutionary aesthetics, especially in the relationship between philosophical and empirical aesthetics. Her PhD research project is titled “Aesthetic Judging in Contemporary Evolutionary Aesthetics”. Onerva aims to ‘provide perspectives on how the act of aesthetic judging could and should be understood in contemporary evolutionary aesthetics’.
The 4th World Congress of Environmental History was held at the University of Oulu, Finland, from 19-23 August 2024. This mega event was the largest WCEH so far, with 973 delegates participating (753 in person, 220 online). A team of KLI Fellows, comprising Laura Menatti, Corey Bunce, Hari Sridhar, and KLI alumnus Jonatan Palmblad (Rachel Carson Center, LMU Munich), actively participated in the Fourth World Congress of Environmental History, presenting their research in a panel titled "The Environment Around Us: Relational Approaches as Common Ground." The panel was organized and convened by Laura Menatti and Jonatan Palmblad, and featured 12 talks across three sessions.
The 4th World Congress of Environmental History was held at the University of Oulu, Finland, from 19-23 August 2024. This mega event was the largest WCEH so far, with 973 delegates participating (753 in person, 220 online). A team of KLI Fellows, comprising Laura Menatti, Corey Bunce, Hari Sridhar, and KLI alumnus Jonatan Palmblad (Rachel Carson Center, LMU Munich), actively participated in the Fourth World Congress of Environmental History, presenting their research in a panel titled "The Environment Around Us: Relational Approaches as Common Ground." The panel was organized and convened by Laura Menatti and Jonatan Palmblad, and featured 12 talks across three sessions.
Hurrah!
It is with great pleasure that we share this happy news!
KLI’s journal Biological Theory has now an Impact Factor!
Its current Impact Factor of 1.9 puts the journal in the top quartile of journals in its category.
We are happy to share this amazing news with you, and look forward to your submissions in the future!
Congratulations to the entire team at Biological Theory whose dedication and hard work over the years have played a huge part in the journal reaching this important milestone!
Hurrah!
It is with great pleasure that we share this happy news!
KLI’s journal Biological Theory has now an Impact Factor!
Its current Impact Factor of 1.9 puts the journal in the top quartile of journals in its category.
We are happy to share this amazing news with you, and look forward to your submissions in the future!
Congratulations to the entire team at Biological Theory whose dedication and hard work over the years have played a huge part in the journal reaching this important milestone!
In their recent published in Philosophical Transactions B, KLI Fellow Hari Sridhar, along with Judith L. Bronstein (University of Arizona) delve into the connexion between two different levels of cooperation, viz., within species cooperation and between-species cooperation. We are also happy to share that Hari's study system (mixed-species bird flocks) made it to the cover of this issue!
In their recent published in Philosophical Transactions B, KLI Fellow Hari Sridhar, along with Judith L. Bronstein (University of Arizona) delve into the connexion between two different levels of cooperation, viz., within species cooperation and between-species cooperation. We are also happy to share that Hari's study system (mixed-species bird flocks) made it to the cover of this issue!
In their most recent paper published in Systematic Biology, Philipp Mitteroecker, Michael L. Collyer and Dean C. Adams introduce a new system to measure phylogenetic signal in multivariate phenotypes. Phylogenetic signal is the tendency of closely related species to resemble each other more than distant ones. The authors approach a long-standing challenge in the statistical estimation of phylogenetic signal in mutivariate phenotypes, as phylogenetic signal until now have been mostly designed for univariate traits. However, biological traits are often multivariate, and univariate measures are therefore inadequate, and not meaningful on their own. The authors propose a novel method where the multivariate data is decomposed into linear combinations with the most or least phylogenetic signal, which is measured by Blomberg’s K. These components, called K-components, can be interpreted biologically, and scatterplots can show the data in a way that preserves phylogenetic signal. (Click on title to continue.)
In their most recent paper published in Systematic Biology, Philipp Mitteroecker, Michael L. Collyer and Dean C. Adams introduce a new system to measure phylogenetic signal in multivariate phenotypes. Phylogenetic signal is the tendency of closely related species to resemble each other more than distant ones. The authors approach a long-standing challenge in the statistical estimation of phylogenetic signal in mutivariate phenotypes, as phylogenetic signal until now have been mostly designed for univariate traits. However, biological traits are often multivariate, and univariate measures are therefore inadequate, and not meaningful on their own. The authors propose a novel method where the multivariate data is decomposed into linear combinations with the most or least phylogenetic signal, which is measured by Blomberg’s K. These components, called K-components, can be interpreted biologically, and scatterplots can show the data in a way that preserves phylogenetic signal. (Click on title to continue.)
