Arvid Ågren
@arvidagren.bsky.social
Evolutionary biologist. Assistant Professor CCLCM/CWRU. The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution(OUP 2021) and The Paradox of the Organism (HUP 2025). www.arvidagren.com
Whither maladaptation? @imprintedgene.bsky.social reviews Philip Madgwick's 'Maladaptation: Natural Selection in the Wrong Direction?' for BioScience. academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
Adaptation: the good, the bad, and the ugly
Organisms appear remarkably well designed to live their lives. A seal, which seems all waddle and blubber on land, is transformed when it enters the water.
academic.oup.com
Whither maladaptation? @imprintedgene.bsky.social reviews Philip Madgwick's 'Maladaptation: Natural Selection in the Wrong Direction?' for BioScience. academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
Adaptation: the good, the bad, and the ugly
Organisms appear remarkably well designed to live their lives. A seal, which seems all waddle and blubber on land, is transformed when it enters the water.
academic.oup.com
Does anyone know of a good updated figure likes this showing the correlation between transposons and genome size? No taxa preference. @transposableman.bsky.social?
Another example: Ernst Mayr not being happy with sharing the Crafoord Prize with George Williams. Remembered by David Haig.
Arvid Ågren@arvidagren.bsky.social · 2w agoCan the stature of a prize be diminished by its recipients? Sewall Wright thought less of the Balzac Prize after learning that Ernst Mayr had also received it.
OUP's Michael Rodgers (who published The Selfish Gene) once tried to get John Maynard Smith to write Haldane's biography. JMS decline, but instead offered him The Major Transitions in Evolution.
Gabby Dover proposing a 'symbolic glass of champagne' to Sydney Brenner for the decline of 'replicator selection'.
Amartya Sen, Garry Runciman, Ian Hacking... and Richard Dawkins. Quite the line up for 1979-1980 lecture programme for the British Society for the Philosophy of Science.
Under what conditions can the evolutionary interests of a gene differ from those of their host organism? Very cool conceptual/mathematical synthesis here!
Gaurav Athreya@gauravathreya.bsky.social · last wk.wanna read the latest overview of “internal evolutionary conflicts” — scenarios where genes spread despite being organism-deleterious? and wanna learn how to model them? look at our new preprint! we introduce unifying ideas, and try hard to write accessibly. small 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Michael Singer tries to get a job back in England after doing his PhD at Stanford.
Can the stature of a prize be diminished by its recipients? Sewall Wright thought less of the Balzac Prize after learning that Ernst Mayr had also received it.
New preprint: 'Internal evolutionary conflicts: a conceptual synthesis and mathematical primer' Really fun collaboration with @gauravathreya.bsky.social, @shikharabhat.bsky.social, @yagmurerten.bsky.social, and @tom-is-kean.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Internal evolutionary conflicts: a conceptual synthesis and mathematical primer
Internal evolutionary conflicts arise when elements within an organism have diverging fitness interests. Examples range from meiotic drive and cytoplasmic male sterility to transposable elements and s...
biorxiv.org
E. Yağmur Erten@yagmurerten.bsky.social · 2w agoMiraculously, all three of us managed to get our visas on time, and I’m now celebrating by reading the revised version of our MS (soon-to-be a preprint + @gauravathreya.bsky.social will be talking about it in our mini-symposium), accompanied by some Irish beer at a local pub 🤩
Today is the 5th anniversary of The Gene's-Eye View of Evolution. Writing it was one of the most fun and intellectual rewarding experiences of my career so far. Very thankful to everyone who has read, discussed, taught, reviewed, and recommended it over the past five years.
Keep an eye out for this fun paper!
E. Yağmur Erten@yagmurerten.bsky.social · 2w agoMiraculously, all three of us managed to get our visas on time, and I’m now celebrating by reading the revised version of our MS (soon-to-be a preprint + @gauravathreya.bsky.social will be talking about it in our mini-symposium), accompanied by some Irish beer at a local pub 🤩
In 1982, the final year exam in zoology at Oxford contained the following question: ”Assess the contribution of E.B. Ford to genetics.” Afterwards, Ford was asked for his own view on the question. This was his answer:
Many good guesses (including @timcoulson.bsky.social!). The answer is Arthur Cain.
Arvid Ågren@arvidagren.bsky.social · 3w agoTUESDAY TRIVIA What Fellow of the Royal Society wrote a biography of Erasmus Darwin, had it rejected by two publishers for containing too many quotations, and, in a huff, decided not to publish it but instead deposited the manuscript in the University of Liverpool library where it still is?
Hint: It was said of him that "On his good days he could charm anybody and on his bad days he could offend anybody".
Arvid Ågren@arvidagren.bsky.social · 3w agoTUESDAY TRIVIA What Fellow of the Royal Society wrote a biography of Erasmus Darwin, had it rejected by two publishers for containing too many quotations, and, in a huff, decided not to publish it but instead deposited the manuscript in the University of Liverpool library where it still is?
TUESDAY TRIVIA What Fellow of the Royal Society wrote a biography of Erasmus Darwin, had it rejected by two publishers for containing too many quotations, and, in a huff, decided not to publish it but instead deposited the manuscript in the University of Liverpool library where it still is?
And here is @andygardner.bsky.social's nice contribution to the same @jevbio.bsky.social special issue on internal conflicts: academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
Inclusive fitness for the conflicted individual
Abstract. The theory of inclusive fitness explains the process and purpose of social adaptation. However, the canonical derivation of inclusive fitness ass
academic.oup.com
Arvid Ågren@arvidagren.bsky.social · 4w agoDo interactions between different selfish genetic elements matter? Great paper by Jonathan Wilson and Nina Wedell for our forthcoming special issue on internal conflicts for @jevbio.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
Do interactions between different selfish genetic elements matter? Great paper by Jonathan Wilson and Nina Wedell for our forthcoming special issue on internal conflicts for @jevbio.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
academic.oup.com
Ford is often described as a misogynist, and there are plenty of stories to back that up. Perhaps ironically, then, he owed his All Souls fellowship to MR putting his name forward. That is why, for the the first few years in college, he was known as ‘Mrs Lane’s fellow’.
Arvid Ågren@arvidagren.bsky.social · 4w agoMiriam Rothschild meets E.B. Ford for the first time.
Janet Browne’s majestic two-part biography of Darwin is now available in a slim (608 pages) single volume.
New book review in BioScience: @gerlame.bsky.social takes on Jeremy Fox's interesting “The Ecology of Ecologists: Harnessing Diverse Approaches for a Stronger Science". academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
Review of the Ecology of Ecologists: Harnessing Diverse Approaches for a Stronger Science
Fox begins his book, “The Ecology of Ecologists: Harnessing Diverse Approaches for a Stronger Science,” with the following statement: “Ecology has long bee
academic.oup.com
TUESDAY TRIVIA Karl Marx's funeral was a small affair, but one biologist attended. Who?
