PDA

View Full Version : Natural Defenses & Washington Thinkers


James Brody
February 23rd, 2009, 12:38 PM
I wonder if Rafe knows about Adam Smith...

JimB

"Almost everything organisms do is, in some way, about security." So sez Rafe Sagarin of Duke University.

"In nature, a threat is dealt with in several ways. There's collectivism, where one meerkat sounds the alarm about an approaching hawk, or camouflage, where the ptarmigan hides in plain sight. There's redundancy, like our wisdom teeth, or unpredictable behavior, like the puffer fish's sudden, spiky pop.
"Under the unyielding pressure of 3.5 billion years of evolution, the variety of defenses is beyond counting. But they all have a few features in common. A top-down, build-a-wall, broadcast-your-status approach "is exactly the opposite of what organisms do," Sagarin says."

More at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090213114158.htm