OK the social Darwinists have had their day I think. The bloody struggle to the top of the social pile was based on some assumptions about human nature. These assumptions are proving to be only a small part of the story of human progress. In an essay entitled ‘The Nueroeconomics of Trust’ Paul Zak demonstrates [...]

continue reading.....

‘Several researchers testing bacterial adaptivity have tormented colonies with problems so overwhelming that they dwarf any individual bacterium’s solo computational powers. For example, experimenters have taken a community of the intestine-dwelling bacteria Escherichia coli away from the cuisine it normally eats and offered it only salicin – a pain-reliever squeezed from the bark of willow [...]

continue reading.....