Le plaisir sexuel, un moteur de l'évolution ? La recherche du plaisir et la cognition semblent être deux des principaux facteurs de l’évolution culturelle.
Émancipée du contrôle biologique de la reproduction, la sexualité humaine a évolué vers l’hédonisme et la culture. Il est difficile de connaître exactement l’organisation biologique des mammifères à l’époque préhistorique. Mais en réalisant une synthèse des connaissances actuelles, on peut identifier les principaux facteurs neurobiologiques qui contrôlent le comportement de reproduction chez la plupart des espèces animales. La reproduction et la copulation Chez les mammifères non primates (rongeurs, canidés, félidés, etc.), il existe un véritable instinct de la reproduction.
Avec toutes ces modifications, la dynamique du comportement sexuel est modifiée : les facteurs neurobiologiques altérés ou modifiés n’orientent plus les activités sexuelles vers la copulation hétérosexuelle, mais vers la stimulation des régions corporelles les plus érogènes. La sexualité culturelle des humains. A Ghost of Evolution: The Curious Case of the Avocado, Which Should Be Extinct But Still Exists.
By Maria Popova “Even after thirteen thousand years, avocado is clueless that the great mammals are gone.”
In any market economy, it’s common sense that as soon as the consumer for a certain product ceases to exist, the product itself becomes moot and soon vanishes from stores. In nature, however — or market ecology, if you will — that need not necessarily be the case. Vestigial structures. The Surprising Source of Our Sexual Morals. New Finch Species Evolves Before Our Eyes. Galapagos Finches, the subfamily that more than any other inspired Darwin to discover natural selection, are evolving so fast biologists may have seen a new species appear in the time they have been studying them.
Unusually, the claim isn't being made by the scientists responsible. Princeton Professors Peter and Rosemary Grant have said in their new book 40 Years of Evolution “It is highly unlikely that we have witnessed the origin of a long-lasting species, but not impossible.” Other scientists, however, are more confident the Grants have documented the real thing. Scientists Change Butterfly Wings From Brown To Violet In Just 6 Generations. Nature presents us with a tantalizing array of dazzling colors to feast our eyes on; from fiery red birds to emerald green butterflies, canary yellow flowers to electric blue jellyfish.
These spectacular colors have three main sources: pigments, structural colors and bioluminescence. Why Evolutionary Psychology Pisses You Off. If you want to irritate a lot of people at once, write an article about evolutionary psychology.
Publishing such an article will invariably provoke a firestorm of denunciations and criticisms. Given the vehemence of these attacks, you couldn’t be blamed for thinking that the scientific basis for evolutionary psychology (or “evpsy” as it is sometimes abbreviated) was akin to tarot cards or bloodletting. Yet the basic premise of evpsy—that some aspects of the human brain and behavior were subject to evolutionary pressures—seems to be scientifically sound. So what is it about this subject that makes it a napalm bomb for the inciting of flame wars? Below, I offer five things about evolutionary psychology that piss off scientists, feminists, policy wonks, and the rest of us, and explain why maybe they shouldn't.
On the Origin of an Evolutionary Psychologist. Are you thinking about pursuing evolutionary psychology as a career?
Here are ten important things to know to become an evolutionary psychologist. I. What Do Evolutionary Psychologists Study? Evolutionary psychology is the scientific study of human nature dedicated to discovering and understanding the psychological adaptations that evolved to solve ancestral survival and reproductive problems. Evolutionary psychology is not a specific topic of psychological study. Eternal Curves. Sculptors immortalize them.
Poets regularly regale them. Even ordinary men pay tribute. American males, it has been calculated, spend some $3 billion a year to gaze at women with hourglass figures, those whose small waists blossom into sinuously curvy hips. Men rate women as most attractive when they have a waist size that is 60 to 70 percent of their hip size, the late psychologist Devendra Singh found in a series of pioneering studies begun 20 years ago. And in more than a hundred other studies, men all over the world—including isolated groups unexposed to modern media—prefer a similar shape. Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions - life - 16 April 2008. If you think you understand it, you don't know nearly enough about it It will soon be 200 years since the birth of Charles Darwin and 150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species, arguably the most important book ever written.
In it, Darwin outlined an idea that many still find shocking - that all life on Earth, including human life, evolved through natural selection. Darwin presented compelling evidence for evolution in On the Origin and, since his time, the case has become overwhelming. Countless fossil discoveries allow us to trace the evolution of today's organisms from earlier forms. DNA sequencing has confirmed beyond any doubt that all living creatures share a common origin. Robin Dunbar on Evolution.
Robin Dunbar on Evolution 30 Apr 2014 What makes us human?
In the first of an exciting series of events celebrating the return of the popular and accessible Pelican books, evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar will discuss the evolution of the human species. Listen to the podcast of the full event including audience Q&A Download the video (mp4) How Evolution Works, Animated in Minimalist Motion Graphics. The Evolutionary Mystery of Left-Handedness and What It Reveals About How the Brain Works.
By Maria Popova From Medieval sword-fighters to Broca’s brains, or why the hand may hold the key to the link between creativity and mental illness.
