Bøger af Lee Alan Dugatkin

A bizarre and compelling biography of a scientist and his work, using rodent cities to question the potential catastrophes of human overpopulation. It was the strangest of experiments. What began as a utopian environment, where mice had sumptuous accommodations, all the food and water they could want, and were free from disease and predators, turned into a mouse hell. Science writer and animal behaviorist Lee Alan Dugatkin introduces readers to the peculiar work of rodent researcher John Bumpass Calhoun. In this enthralling tale, Dugatkin shows how an ecologist-turned-psychologist-turned-futurist became a science rock star embedded in the culture of the 1960s and 1970s. As interest grew in his rodent cities, Calhoun was courted by city planners and reflected in everything from Tom Wolfe's hard-hitting novels to the children's book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. He was invited to meetings with the Royal Society and the Pope, and taken seriously when he proposed a worldwide cybernetic brain--a decade before others made the Internet a reality. Readers see how Calhoun's experiments--rodent apartment complexes like "Mouse Universe 25"--led to his concept of "behavioral sinks" with real effects on public policy discussions. Overpopulation in Calhoun's mouse complexes led to the loss of sex drive, the absence of maternal care, and a class of automatons including "the beautiful ones," who spent their time grooming themselves while shunning socialization. Calhoun--and the others who followed his work--saw the collapse of this mouse population as a harbinger of the ill effects of an overpopulated human world. Drawing on previously unpublished archival research and interviews with Calhoun's family and former colleagues, Dugatkin offers a riveting account of an intriguing scientific figure. Considering Dr. Calhoun's experiments, he explores the changing nature of scientific research and delves into what the study of animal behavior can teach us about ourselves.

An engaging exploration of the wondrous social webs that permeate life in animal societies around the world. It's all about who you know. Whether vampire bats sharing blood meals for survival, field crickets remembering champion fighters, macaque monkeys forming grooming pacts after a deadly hurricane, or great tit birds learning the best way to steal milk--it pays to be well connected. In this tour of the animal kingdom, evolutionary biologist Lee Alan Dugatkin reveals a new field of study, uncovering social networks that existed long before the dawn of human social media. He accessibly describes the latest findings from animal behavior, evolution, computer science, psychology, anthropology, genetics, and neurobiology, and incorporates interviews and insights from researchers that he finds swimming with manta rays, avoiding pigeon poop, and stopping monkeys from stealing iPads. With Dugatkin as our guide, we investigate social networks in giraffes, elephants, kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, whales, bats, and more. From animal networks in Australia and Asia to Africa, Europe, and the Americas, The Well-Connected Animal is an eye-opening expose of wild friends, enemies, and everything in between.

In The Prince of Evolution, Lee Alan Dugatkin introduces the reader to Russian Prince Peter Kropotkin -- one of the world's first international celebrities. In England Kropotkin was known as a brilliant scientist, famous for his work on animal and human cooperation, but Kropotkin's fame in continental Europe centered more on his role as a founder of anarchism. In the United States, he pursued both passions. Tens of thousands of people followed Prince Peter during two speaking tours that took him around America. Kropotkin's path to fame was labyrinthine, with asides in prisons, breathtaking 50,000-mile journeys through Siberia, and banishment from most respectable Western countries of the day. In Russia, he went from being Czar Alexander II's favored teenage page, to a young man enamored with the theory of evolution, to a convicted felon and jail-breaker, eventually being chased halfway around the world by the Russian secret police. While in jail, and while on the run when he was enlightening and entertaining huge crowds, Kropotkin found the energy to write books on a dazzling array of topics: evolution and cooperation, ethics, anarchism, socialism and communism, penal systems, and the coming industrial revolution in the East to name a few. Though seemingly disparate topics, a common thread--Kropotkin's scientific law of mutual aid, which guided the evolution of all life on earth--tied these works together. Kropotkin was not only the first person to clearly demonstrate that cooperation was important among animals, he was the first to forcefully argue that understanding cooperation in animals would shed light on human cooperation, and, indeed might permit science to help save our species from destroying itself. His overarching goal was to understand cooperation in nature, so that he could promote cooperation in humans. Just like in the animals he watched for five years in Siberia, Kropotkin saw human cooperation as ultimately being driven not by government, but by groups of individuals spontaneously uniting to do good, even when they have to pay a cost to help. In The Prince of Evolution, Lee Alan Dugatkin will make the reader stop and take pause to consider what this one remarkable man did to try and make the world a more cooperative place.

"Hermit crabs might not be the first example that comes to mind when thinking about power in animal relationships, but they are representative of the costs, benefits, assessment, and struggles that animal behaviorist Lee Dugatkin explains in Power in the Wild. Besides learning that researchers can evict all crabs from their shells by tickling their abdomens with paintbrushes, readers discover that attacker crabs can assess both the quality of shells and the ability of competitors to hold onto them- and both attacker and attacked make decisions about how much energy to expend holding onto a good shell. If the attacker looks tough, a target might just give up and flee. That the models for these behaviors mirror game theory for nuclear deterrence is all the more interesting. Dugatkin makes clear that this is not a book about what non-human animal power dynamics can teach us about ourselves, but it is an overview of power in the animal world generally- from the costs of pursuing power, to the role of gender (including a description of a species of fish that changes gender depending on its rank), to new findings on observer animals that watch and assess greater community power relationships without participating in power struggles themselves"--

An einem Ort im abgelegenen Sibirien findet man vierbeinige Fellwesen, die mit dem Schwanz wedeln, Schlappohren haben und so gelehrig und freundlich sind wie Schohunde. Doch es sind keine Hunde - es sind Fuchse. Sie sind das Ergebnis eines der erstaunlichsten Zuchtungsexperimente, die je unternommen wurden - stellen Sie sich einmal vor, die Evolution mehrerer Jahrtausende sei auf einen Zeitraum weniger Jahrzehnte beschleunigt. Im Jahre 1959 nahmen sich die Biologen Dmitri Beljajew und Ludmila Trut genau dies vor, indem sie mit ein paar Dutzend Silberfuchsen von Pelzfarmen in der damaligen UdSSR begannen und mit ihnen die Entwicklung vom Wolf zum Hund in Echtzeit nachzuvollziehen versuchten, um so den Prozess der Domestikation direkt zu beobachten. Das vorliegende Buch erzahlt die bisher weitgehend unbekannte Geschichte dieses bemerkenswerten Unterfangens. Die meisten Berichte uber die naturliche Evolution des Wolfes legen dem Domestikationsprozess eine Zeitspanne von 15.000 Jahren zugrunde, aber aus Beljajews und Truts Zuchtungsexperimenten gingen schon innerhalb eines Jahrzehnts welpenahnliche Fuchse mit Schlappohren, gesprenkelten Fellen und gebogenen Schwanze hervor. Begleitet wurden diese physischen Veranderungen von genetischen und Verhaltens-Modifikationen. Fur die Zuchtung der Fuchse war Zahmheit das entscheidende Selektionskriterium, und mit jeder Generation zeigten die Tiere ein zunehmend groeres Interesse an der Gemeinschaft mit Menschen. Trut ist seit Anfang an bei diesen Experimenten dabei, und nach Beljajews Tod im Jahre 1985 ubernahm sie die Leitung. Zusammen mit dem Biologen und Wissenschaftsautor Lee Dugatkin erzahlt sie hier nun die Geschichte dieses Abenteuers und der Wissenschaft, Politik und Liebe dahinter. In Fuchse zahmen nehmen uns Dugatkin und Trut mit auf die Innenseite dieses bahnbrechenden Experiments inmitten der brutalen sibirischen Winter und legen offen, wie Wissenschaftsgeschichte gemacht wird - bis heute. Inzwischen sind 58 Generationen von Fuchsen domestiziert, und immer noch lernen wir von ihnen bedeutsame Dinge uber die genetische und verhaltensbiologische Evolution domestizierter Tiere. Fuchse zahmen bietet eine oft unglaubliche Geschichte von Wissenschaftlern bei der Arbeit und ist zugleich eine Hommage an die tiefen Bande, die Tiere und Menschen uber alle Zeiten hinweg entwickelt haben. Stimmen zur amerikanischen Originalausgabe Vor uber 60 Jahren entschlossen sich die russischen Forscher [Ludmila] Trut und Dmitri Beljajew, wilde Fuchse zu domestizieren, um im Detail herauszufinden, wie die Reise vom Wildtier zum Haustier ablauft. Sie setzten ihr Experiment in einer Pelzfarm in Sibirien auf und wahlten uber die folgenden Jahrzehnte stets die zahmsten Tiere jeder Generation fur die weitere Fortpflanzung aus. In diesem Buch zeichnen der Biologe und Wissenschaftsautor Dugatkin und Trut die Geschichte dieses groartigen Experiments nach. Das Ergebnis sind eine Schar gelehriger Fuchse und die Entschlusselung der genetischen Grundlagen ihrer Domestikation.  Scientific American Schillernd ... Eine Geschichte, die teils Wissenschaft, teils russisches Marchen, teils Spionagethriller ist ... Die Ergebnisse sind selbst unter Wissenschaftlern, geschweige denn in der Offentlichkeit, viel weniger bekannt, als sie es verdient haben. New York Times Dugatkin ist ein sehr erfahrener Wissenschaftsautor mit der besonderen Gabe, vielfach verzweigte Themen in kompakte, unterhaltsame Geschichten zu verwandeln. Frau Trut, inzwischen in ihren Achtzigern, ist gleichermaen Coautorin und Gegenstand des Buches ... ihre intensive Mitwirkung verleiht diesem Wissenschaftsbericht eine seltene Form der Intimitat. Wall Street Journal Ein zauberhafter Bericht ... Nach etwa 20 Generationen wurden die gezahmten Fuchse immer mehr wie Hunde: loyal und unschlagbar niedlich. New Scientist Voller Zuneigung erzahlen uns Trut und Dugatkin von den Meilensteinen des Experiments, von dem ersten neugeborenen Fuchs, der mit dem Schwanz wedelte, und von dem ersten mit Schlappohren ... Bei jedem Schritt verweben die Autoren in geschickter Weise die Wissenschaft der Domestikation mit den Erzahlungen von den immer hundeahnlicher werdenden Fuchsen. Science News Im Lauf einiger Jahrzehnte haben russische Forscher wilde Fuchse in freundliche Haustiere verwandelt. Sie nutzten dafur nicht etwa modernste gentechnische Methoden. Sie steuerten einfach die Evolution. Dieses bahnbrechende Experiment lehrt uns einige fundamentale Dinge uber Domestikation, Verhalten und uns selbst. Jetzt hat endlich jemand den Bericht von diesem Experiment in ein Buch gepackt - und ein faszinierendes Buch zumal. Carl Zimmer, Autor von Woher kommen wir? Ein hervorragendes Buch. Es ist verstandlich geschrieben und ein faszinierendes Stuck Popularwissenschaft. Dieses Buch wird ein breites Publikum anziehen, und ich kenne kein anderes mit einer solch dramatischen Kombination von guter Wissenschaft und Gesellschaftsgeschichte. Aubrey Manning, Autor von An Introduction to Animal Behaviour Weitere Stimmen: The science is profound, but the authors write accessibly and engagingly-and their vulpine subjects are awfully cute, too. Of compelling interest to any animal lover and especially to devotees of canids of all kinds. Kirkus Reviews A cheerful, easy-to-read account that expounds upon the wonders of scientific achievement. . . . The authors weave other charming histories of other scientific studies and events throughout the book, including the discovery of hormones, pedigree analysis, animal communication, human evolution, and Belyaev's travels in international scientific circles. Writing a simple, straightforward narrative suitable for lay readers, Dugatkin and Trut spin complex genetic science into a fascinating story about adorable foxes. Publishers Weekly This intriguing, well-written account of an ongoing experiment in canid domestication should delight readers interested in the origins of the human-animal bond. Library Journal It's a story of science. . . .But it's also very much a human story. . . . It's a story of persistence against all odds. The Hoopoe, NHBS In the first book on the famous 'Siberian fox study,' this extraordinary chronicle recounts one of the world's most important animal studies. It has not only provided stunning insights into how domestication works and how fast it can happen. It also helps us understand the origins of our deepest non-human bonds-our friendships with our dogs-and where and how they came into being. Carl Safina, Autor von Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel  Dugatkin and Trut have collaborated to produce a well-written and engaging account of one the most influential biological studies ever: the fox farm experiment. Over sixty years ago, a Russian geneticist dared to start an experiment to see if foxes could be domesticated and what variables contributed to the changes domestication brought. The courage involved in starting such an experiment in the USSR of the 1950s was remarkable; the dedication and curiosity that have kept it going ever since have led to stunning new insights on the mechanisms of domestication. Every biologist should read this book! Pat Shipman, Autor von The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction 

Since the last edition of this definitive textbook was published in 2013, much has happened in the field of animal behavior. In this fourth edition, Lee Alan Dugatkin draws on cutting-edge new work not only to update and expand on the studies presented, but also to reinforce the previous editions' focus on ultimate and proximate causation, as well as the book's unique emphasis on natural selection, learning, and cultural transmission. The result is a state-of-the-art textbook on animal behavior that explains underlying concepts in a way that is both scientifically rigorous and accessible to students. Each chapter in the book provides a sound theoretical and conceptual basis upon which the empirical studies rest. A completely new feature in this edition are the Cognitive Connection boxes in Chapters 2-17, designed to dig deep into the importance of the cognitive underpinnings to many types of behaviors. Each box focuses on a specific issue related to cognition and the particular topic covered in that chapter. As Principles of Animal Behavior makes clear, the tapestry of animal behavior is created from weaving all of these components into a beautiful whole. With Dugatkin's exquisitely illustrated, comprehensive, and up-to-date fourth edition, we are able to admire that beauty anew.

In the years after the Revolutionary War, the fledging republic of America was viewed by many Europeans as a degenerate backwater, populated by subspecies weak and feeble. This book recreates the origin and evolution of the debates about natural history in America.

In a world supposedly governed by ruthless survival of the fittest, why do we see acts of goodness in both animals and humans? This problem plagued Charles Darwin in the 1850s as he developed his theory of evolution through natural selection. Indeed, Darwin worried that the goodness he observed in nature could be the Achilles heel of his theory. Ever since then, scientists and other thinkers have engaged in a fierce debate about the origins of goodness that has dragged politics, philosophy, and religion into what remains a major question for evolutionary biology. The Altruism Equation traces the history of this debate from Darwin to the present through an extraordinary cast of characters-from the Russian prince Petr Kropotkin, who wanted to base society on altruism, to the brilliant biologist George Price, who fell into poverty and succumbed to suicide as he obsessed over the problem. In a final surprising turn, William Hamilton, the scientist who came up with the equation that reduced altruism to the cold language of natural selection, desperately hoped that his theory did not apply to humans. Hamilton's Rule, which states that relatives are worth helping in direct proportion to their blood relatedness, is as fundamental to evolutionary biology as Newton's laws of motion are to physics. But even today, decades after its formulation, Hamilton's Rule is still hotly debated among those who cannot accept that goodness can be explained by a simple mathematical formula. For the first time, Lee Alan Dugatkin brings to life the people, the issues, and the passions that have surrounded the altruism debate. Readers will be swept along by this fast-paced tale of history, biography, and scientific discovery.