17 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Dawkins's concept distinguishing cumulative selection (each step builds on the last, the output of one generation is the input to the next) from single-step selection — the key insight explaining how natural selection produces apparent design.
Donald Prothero's account of the fossil record as evidence for evolution — a paleontologist's detailed rebuttal of creationist claims about the fossil record.
American evolutionary biologist whose Adaptation and Natural Selection purged teleological and group-selectionist thinking from evolutionary biology — one of the most important theoretical works in the history of the discipline.
Jared Diamond's geographic-deterministic explanation for the global distribution of power — answering 'Yali's question': why do some peoples have so much cargo and others so little?
The mechanism of evolution proposed by Darwin and Wallace: heritable variations in traits that affect survival and reproduction will increase in frequency over generations — explaining adaptation without design.
British statistician and geneticist who single-handedly invented or developed much of modern statistics — analysis of variance, maximum likelihood, experimental design — while also contributing to the synthesis of Mendelian genetics with Darwinian evolution.
American evolutionary biologist at Rice University and author of Future Humans — which explores how human evolution continues in the modern era — making evolutionary genetics accessible to general audiences.
American geneticist who developed the concept of genetic drift and the adaptive landscape — key contributions to the mathematical foundations of evolutionary biology.
Richard Dawkins's systematic presentation of the evidence for evolution — his explicit confrontation with creationism and Intelligent Design, presenting evolution as fact.
Robert Wright's 2017 argument — that core Buddhist claims about the self and suffering are validated by evolutionary psychology and cognitive science, specifically that the self is an illusion constructed by competing modules, and that mindfulness meditation provides access to this truth.
Jerry Coyne's 2009 book presenting the evidence for evolution by natural selection across multiple domains — fossil record, genetics, biogeography, vestigial structures — as the most comprehensive popular science case for evolution.
British evolutionary biologist who derived the mathematical theory of kin selection — Hamilton's rule — solving the problem of altruism that had troubled Darwin, and who was arguably the greatest evolutionary biologist since Darwin.
Neil Shubin's account of finding Tiktaalik — the transitional fish-tetrapod fossil — and what the human body reveals about its evolutionary ancestry.
Heather Heying is an American evolutionary biologist and former professor at Evergreen State College who, along with her husband Bret Weinstein, became a prominent figure in the Intellectual Dark Web after leaving Evergreen during the 2017 campus protests. She co-hosts the DarkHorse Podcast and co-authored A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century.
A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century (2021) by Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying applies evolutionary biology and the concept of the 'Omega principle' (how ancient wisdom coexists with modern innovation) to contemporary challenges in diet, sleep, sex, family, and culture, arguing that humans are often mismatched to modern environments.
The DarkHorse Podcast is hosted by evolutionary biologists Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, covering evolutionary biology, cultural criticism, COVID-19 controversies, and heterodox perspectives on science and society. It became prominent after the Evergreen State controversy and grew significantly during COVID for challenging mainstream pandemic narratives.
Daniel Dennett's naturalistic investigation of religion, arguing that religious belief and practice can and should be studied scientifically as evolved phenomena rather than treated as exempt from rational inquiry.