IBB, Multilevel Selection and Evolution

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

I have been meaning to write this, and have resisted because it is (locally) political, and it may be a declaration of the end of the University of Vermont.   Our university, like many others, has started a b […]

On Space Travel

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

So, one of the things I have been doing with my spare time is thinking about how evolution and the history of life can be used to inform issues that I (and we) think about. One issue that has been around longer […]

Back from sick leave

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

Well, I guess I am back blogging. I missed it, but I had a stroke a year ago thanksgiving, and well, unnecessary writing was sort of out of the question. . . As you can imagine it has been something of a struggle […]

Of cultural inheritance and cultural evolution

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

As you may know, I am writing a book on evolution.  Below is modified from a very rough first draft of part of my chapter on cultural inheritance.  My thinking about culture has change in that I now think more […]

On Kinship

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

On Facebook one of my friends posted that they were attending a conference on reconceptualizing kinship, and of course, I responded that it was tempting to put in my two cents worth on the subject. To my shock […]

Population structure and recombination

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

One of the joys of a genic view is the apparent constancy of things. One of the big ones is that a gene has an effect that can in some sense be considered a constant that can be written down and stored on a piece […]

A quick review of the phenotypic perspective, pt 2

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

Continuing on with my brief reprise of the tenets of this blog: Individuals are the level at which we assign fitness. First a parable. If we go back to Mayr, he thought that the species was the only natural […]

A quick review of the phenotypic perspective, pt 1

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

Some of the recent comments I have received have made me realize that maybe I should re-emphasize some of the very early points I made on this blog. The point of this blog is to blatantly promote a phenotypic view […]

Down the rabbit hole: More on multispecies organisms

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

I just tripped and fell down another rabbit hole. I was going to skip this week, but I would love input on this issue, so here it is. Earlier I argued that the organism was a multispecies entity. This makes […]

Some thoughts on aging and the phenotype

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

I have been gone a while. Something of a creative meltdown after the Evolution meetings. Perhaps one to many Caparinha, at what might have been the best party ever at an Evolution meeting. Leave it to the […]

Why there is no Genic Selection

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

This is the week before the Evolution meetings, so the big question of the day is what can I post that I believe to be true, and will rile enough people up to get a good discussion going. I decided Sam Scheiner […]

Why reductionism DOES work: Individuals to genes

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

In the last couple of posts I have suggested that reductionism is for chumps. Two weeks ago I argued that gene interactions made average effects wonder around all over the place, and last week I argued that […]

Why reductionism doesn’t work, Part 2: Groups to individuals

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

Williams (1966) famously wrote “In explaining adaptation, one should assume the adequacy of the simplest form of natural selection, that of alternative alleles in Mendelian populations, unless the evidence clearly […]

Why reductionism doesn't work; Part 1, Individuals to genes

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

One thing that often used to happen, perhaps not so much any more, is that people will say that we don’t need to worry about levels of selection because all selection can be reduced to selection acting directly on […]

Epistasis in Monkey Flowers, and some general thoughts on epistasis

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

So, at least my twitterverse has been on fire suddenly with the appearance of a new article in PLoS by Patrick Monnahan and John Kelly “Epistasis Is a Major Determinant of the Additive Genetic Variance in Mimulus […]

Matrix comparisons: Random skewers and selection skewers

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

A week late and a dollar short, but lets continue comparing matrices. Continuing on with my blatant endorsement of statistical methods attached to my name. . .  Last time I talked about the “Rank”/“Signed […]

Statistical tests for comparing matrices

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

I have been remiss. Quite a few years ago I found myself in the position of wanting to compare two genetic covariance matrices. At the time it was before the Flury hierarchy had been suggested by Pat Phillips […]

Individuality, Microbiomes, and organisms

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

So many things to write about, and so much writing to do. Sorry about missing last week. Somehow writing this week has been more of a chore than a joy. One of the things it has been suggested I write about is the […]

What is "additive variance" in genetically uniform populations?

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

I recently got a comment from Michael Bentley at Oxford pointing out that he had a different interpretation of heritability among cells within higher organisms. His comment was: “Please could I just clarify […]

More on fitness assignments and individuality

Charles Goodnight on Evolution in Structured Populations

In my last post I briefly mentioned that the level at which fitness is assigned is an interesting problem, but not a conundrum, or a serious conceptual issue. I think it would actually be quite useful to expand on […]