The hottest Evolution Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

The fascinating insights of Robert Trivers

Optimally Irrational ā€¢ 69 implied HN points ā€¢ 19 Mar 26
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Reciprocal altruism ā€” Cooperation can evolve between non-kin when people trade favors in repeated interactions, and this dynamic breeds moral emotions and incentives to spot or punish cheaters.
  2. Parental investment ā€” Differences in gamete size and child-rearing costs push the sexes into different mating strategies: the higher-investing sex is choosier and favors long-term care, while the lower-investing sex tends toward short-term mating and competition.
  3. Parentā€“offspring conflict ā€” Parents and children have overlapping but not identical genetic interests, so offspring will demand more resources than parents are selected to give, producing conflicts from pregnancy through weaning and prompting parental countermeasures.

Why You Need to Learn about Trivers' Theory of Self-Deception

Richard Hanania's Newsletter ā€¢ 1560 implied HN points ā€¢ 17 Mar 26
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Trivers' theory of self-deception is a fundamental framework for understanding politics and social life, and it changes how we interpret people's statements and actions.
  2. Grifting and sincere belief can be complementary, not oppositesā€”people can genuinely hold an idea while also acting in ways that benefit them.
  3. Asking whether someone "really believes" something or is "grifting" is often too simplistic and needs more precise distinctions, because belief, motivation, and signaling frequently overlap.

Complexity Thoughts: Issue #46

Complexity Thoughts ā€¢ 259 implied HN points ā€¢ 28 Oct 24
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Biodiversity is important for the stability of ecosystems, as different species contribute to their health and resilience. Losing biodiversity can harm not just the species we see, but also the tiny organisms that support them.
  2. Ecosystem synchrony is a concept that helps us understand how different ecosystems respond to changes in their environment. It looks at how similar patterns in ecosystem functions can reveal important information about their health.
  3. Belief dynamics show how people's beliefs change over time, influenced by their social networks. Understanding these dynamics can help tackle issues like misinformation and social conflict.

Pt5: Women Are Low Status

Knowingless ā€¢ 6185 implied HN points ā€¢ 29 Jan 26
šŸŽ­ļø Culture Evolution
  1. Status is what other people think you can give them, and it shows in small behaviors like who interrupts, who takes up space, and who laughs more or less. Narcissism can be understood as a mismatch where someoneā€™s inner sense of rank is higher than their actual social power.
  2. Many common gender differences ā€” men interrupting more, women asking questions and being more reactive ā€” line up with low-vs-high status signals, suggesting female psychology may more often default to low-status social strategies even when women gain power.
  3. Looking at gender through a status lens helps explain tensions when women move into powerful roles: cultural and biological histories created habits of low-status signaling, and both sexes use high- and low-status tactics depending on context.

Why Are Viral Capsids Icosahedral?

Asimov Press ā€¢ 444 implied HN points ā€¢ 09 Mar 26
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Icosahedral symmetry lets viruses build a near-spherical shell by repeating the same protein subunits, which minimizes genetic coding needs while maximizing internal volume for genome storage.
  2. The Casparā€“Klug idea of quasi-equivalence and its triangulation numbers explains how many subunits assemble into stable icosahedral shells, and newer tiling theories generalize this to account for more complex capsid geometries.
  3. Icosahedral capsids are energetically favorable and mechanically robust, making this shape a repeated evolutionary solution and a model for engineered protein cages, vaccines, and other biological compartments.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Why is the Probability Zero?

Contemplations on the Tree of Woe ā€¢ 3958 implied HN points ā€¢ 08 Jan 26
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Mathematical arguments claim natural selection doesnā€™t have enough time or fixation power to produce the huge genomic differences between humans and chimps. The critique points to numbers like ~202,500 available generations, a ~1,600-generation fixation ceiling, and a near-5Ļƒ improbability to support that claim.
  2. The field of evolutionary biology is criticized as mathematically underprepared, with historical and contemporary exchanges presented as evidence that biologists often canā€™t answer quantitative objections. Common defenses such as parallel fixation or neutral theory are argued to either abandon Darwinism or fail on mathematical grounds.
  3. An alternative called Intelligent Genetic Manipulation (Gray Day Theory) is proposed as the most parsimonious explanation for observed genetic variation, and new models like a Bio-Cycle fixation correction are offered. The critique also warns that peer review and AI systems can be fooled by fake science and that AI collaboration was used to develop the mathematical work.

Psychologyā€™s Greatest Hits (Part 3/3)

Living Fossils ā€¢ 20 implied HN points ā€¢ 11 Mar 26
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. The most reliable psychology comes from explicit, quantitative, testable modelsā€”like laws of learning and signal detectionā€”that make precise predictions and connect to other sciences.
  2. Thinking about how minds evolved and work in real environments explains many supposed ā€œbiasesā€ and shows family and kinship profoundly shape behavior. Simple heuristics are often fast, frugal, and adaptive rather than errors.
  3. Psychology needs clear, specific, and measurable claims that fit with other disciplines; vague or unfalsifiable ideas lead to error, so healthy skepticism and rigor matter.

Thoughts on A Brief History of Intelligence

Trevor Kleeā€™s Newsletter ā€¢ 1044 implied HN points ā€¢ 23 Jan 26
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. We can now build artificial intelligences that see, hear, talk, write, and reason, and their abilities are improving fast enough that experimenting on minds is now possible.
  2. Biological intelligence appears to be built from a repeating cortical microcircuit, and stacking and scaling those columns explains higher capacities like reinforcement learning, simulation, modeling other minds, and language.
  3. Imagination and choice come from running internal simulations and using those imagined outcomes to guide action, which helps explain apparent free will but still leaves subjective experience unresolved.

Scent, In Silico

Asimov Press ā€¢ 432 implied HN points ā€¢ 16 Feb 26
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Smell is an ancient, highly combinatorial sense driven by hundreds of receptor types, so odors come from complex mixtures and are inherently subjective.
  2. New computational tools like graph neural networks create odor embeddings that map molecules into a perceptual space, letting machines predict smells and design novel odorants.
  3. Digitizing scent promises faster fragrance discovery, diagnostics, safer repellents, and more sustainable synthetic alternatives, while also raising questions about authenticity and how we value natural versus machine-made ingredients.

Complexity Thoughts: Issue #45

Complexity Thoughts ā€¢ 139 implied HN points ā€¢ 11 Oct 24
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. New ideas in network science can help understand complex systems better. This approach looks at how systems behave over time, rather than just focusing on stable points.
  2. The evolution of multicellular organisms has led to many new species and ecosystems. Key innovations in multicellularity help organisms adapt and thrive in different environments.
  3. Research shows that convolutional neural networks (CNNs) face limits in recognizing patterns. This limitation is linked to the complexity of the data they're trained on, raising questions about their reliability.

Puzzling out elephant longevity

Trevor Kleeā€™s Newsletter ā€¢ 2014 implied HN points ā€¢ 07 Dec 25
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Elephants' low cancer rates and long lives are tied to many non-identical TP53 copiesā€”retrogenes and a reanimated pseudogeneā€”that work together with their immune and DNA-regulatory systems.
  2. Other long-lived animals like bats use different strategies, emphasizing DNA repair and immune modulation along with regulated p53 activity rather than just more cell-suicide signals.
  3. Longevity is multi-factorial and species-specific, so a single explanation (like extra TP53 copies) is incomplete and can't be copied into another species without integrating many other systems.

Metaphors for Biology: Time

Asimov Press ā€¢ 515 implied HN points ā€¢ 28 Jan 26
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Biological events occur across an enormous range of speeds ā€” from ultrafast molecular vibrations and ion channel openings to much slower diffusion and chemical reactions.
  2. Proteins are built, folded, act, and decay on wildly different schedules ā€” transcription and translation can take seconds to days in the metaphor, enzymes can be lightning-fast or slow, and protein lifetimes range from minutes to millions of years.
  3. Comparing biology to human technology and behavior emphasizes these contrasts: electronics and engines can outpace many protein machines, neural processing and muscle movement dominate reaction time, and the full span of biological time covers roughly 24 orders of magnitude, so evolution needs a different time metaphor.

Underrated reasons to be thankful V

DYNOMIGHT INTERNET NEWSLETTER ā€¢ 1750 implied HN points ā€¢ 27 Nov 25
šŸ“– Philosophy Evolution
  1. Dogs truly love their owners, even if their affection is shaped by evolution. It's nice to know that our pets have genuine feelings for us.
  2. We have tools and innovations that can help prevent infectious diseases, like the common cold, if we choose to use them. It's reassuring to think that we could potentially outsmart these germs.
  3. Life expectancy improvements from curing diseases may seem small, but working on them all together could lead to much bigger gains in the future. It's good to remember that progress takes time and effort.

The Parasite Theory of Selfhood

Anima Mundi ā€¢ 638 implied HN points ā€¢ 09 Jan 26
šŸ“– Philosophy Evolution
  1. The sense of ā€œIā€ might be a parasite-like meme-complex that colonized human minds, using lots of brain energy and driving rumination, status-seeking, and other costly behaviors that donā€™t always benefit the organism.
  2. Contemplative traditions and practices look like methods to reduce this parasitic self: noticing it often increases suffering at first, the self fights back with distractions, and sustained practice can loosen its grip and bring relief.
  3. The selfā€™s parasitic logic helps explain culture and parenting as its transmission mechanisms, and it suggests a risk that artificial minds trained on self-saturated human data could become new hosts infected by the same self-replicating patterns.

Gene-environment interactions: ubiquitous yet undetectable

The Infinitesimal ā€¢ 359 implied HN points ā€¢ 21 Aug 24
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Gene-environment interactions (GxE) are common but hard to identify in humans. They show how genetic traits can change in different environments, affecting how we understand traits like obesity or education.
  2. There are different models to explain how genes and environments work together. Some models show that environments can amplify or change the effects of multiple genetic variants on traits.
  3. Research has found that environmental factors, like socioeconomic status or education quality, can significantly influence how genetic variations are expressed, meaning genetics alone doesn't tell the whole story about traits.

How an unappetizing shrub became dozens of different vegetables

The Works in Progress Newsletter ā€¢ 31 implied HN points ā€¢ 09 Mar 26
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. A single wild plant, Brassica oleracea, was bred into many different vegetablesā€”cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, gai lan, and moreā€”by selecting for different edible parts.
  2. Its plant biology and genome made that easy: changing the shoot apical meristemā€™s timing produced leaves versus flower clusters, and polyploidy (extra gene copies) gave lots of genetic variation with less risk.
  3. Domestication likely began around the Mediterranean in antiquity and spread with people, and today wild and local landrace cabbage populations hold genetic diversity we can use to breed more resilient crops for future climates.

Pikas Hit the Trail

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind ā€¢ 399 implied HN points ā€¢ 08 Aug 24
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Pikas are cute animals that have traveled a long way from Asia to North America over millions of years. They didn't just hop across in one go; it took many generations to spread out.
  2. Pikas have a unique relationship with their parasites, which helps scientists understand their history better. These tiny creatures help tell the story of the pikas and how they adapted over time.
  3. Climate change is a big threat to pikas today. As their homes warm up, they may struggle to find suitable places to live, especially since they can't go any higher into the mountains.

Inverted Darwinism

Anima Mundi ā€¢ 123 implied HN points ā€¢ 13 Feb 26
šŸ“– Philosophy Evolution
  1. You can have everything society says you should want and still feel hollow or like youā€™re disappearing.
  2. As survival becomes easier, the psychological structures that evolved to give life meaning under scarcity stop working, causing a kind of "meaningā€‘extinction."
  3. That emptiness isnā€™t just personal failure or clinical illness but an evolutionary mismatch, so simple fixes like gratitude often donā€™t resolve it.

Political Psychology Links, 1/12/2026

In My Tribe ā€¢ 288 implied HN points ā€¢ 12 Jan 26
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Many psychological findings fail to replicate, which suggests the field needs stronger methods and that folk intuitions can make it hard to tell scientific results from guesswork.
  2. Because many genes affect many traits and behavior emerges from complex geneā€“environment interactions, predicting disorders or specific traits from genetics is very difficult, and turning continuous traits into binary diagnoses makes the statistics less reliable.
  3. Evolutionary ideas often explain common tendencies in politics and behavior, but they are not strict rulesā€”social institutions, personality differences, and policy choices can amplify, reduce, or reverse those tendencies.

Deserving to Win: The Ecological Invalidity of Sport

Living Fossils ā€¢ 12 implied HN points ā€¢ 04 Mar 26
šŸŽ¾ Sports Evolution
  1. People often feel a team ā€˜deservedā€™ to win because our evolved fairness and cheater-detection instincts expect that those who pay the cost should get the benefit; when a team clearly seems to have worked harder but still loses, that mismatch feels morally wrong.
  2. Sports mimic ancestral conflict but are ecologically invalid: they reward abstract scores and inject a lot of randomness, so effort and outcome can come apart and our dominance/status systems get confused.
  3. Other evolved intuitionsā€”like rooting for underdogs and accepting luck in some contestsā€”make reactions context-sensitive, so fans are usually upset by the situation itself rather than angry at individual players.

Pt3: The Status Wars of Apes

Knowingless ā€¢ 2741 implied HN points ā€¢ 17 Jul 25
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Different ape species have very different ways of handling status and power. For example, bonobos are known for their peaceful, cooperative approach, while chimpanzees often engage in violence and competition for dominance.
  2. In orangutan and gorilla societies, the dominant males father most of the offspring, showing a stark difference in mating patterns compared to bonobos and chimpanzees, where mating is influenced greatly by social status and female choice.
  3. Ape social dynamics often revolve around sex. For instance, while chimpanzee females face many challenges and coercion, bonobo females tend to have more agency and sexual freedom, influencing their social standings and relationships.

Human see, human do

Wrong Side of History ā€¢ 731 implied HN points ā€¢ 15 Nov 25
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Humans are not just like other primates; instead, we share more traits with animals like dolphins, dogs, and even ants. Our unique cooperative behaviors set us apart from chimpanzees and gorillas.
  2. Our capacity for empathy and social bonding is crucial for our survival. While chimps can be violent and less cooperative, humans developed strong social ties that help us work together and protect one another.
  3. Humans are deeply influenced by public opinion and the need for social acceptance. Unlike other primates, we are affected by societal pressures, which can lead to extreme behaviors, including self-destruction.

Some notes on assortative mating

The Infinitesimal ā€¢ 339 implied HN points ā€¢ 23 Jul 24
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Assortative mating happens when partners select each other based on certain traits, like height or education, making their children more genetically similar over generations.
  2. This type of mating can lead to increased genetic variance in the population, but does not change the genetic variance within families because the parent's traits balance out among the children.
  3. When estimating heritability or variance, itā€™s important to use the right approach. Population-level estimates can be misleading if based on family data, and vice versa.

Cooperation is the scaffolding principle of life

Optimally Irrational ā€¢ 56 implied HN points ā€¢ 18 Feb 26
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Cooperation is the scaffolding of life: from genes inside cells to multicellular organisms, species partnerships, and animal societies, working together is what made complexity and survival possible.
  2. Cooperation is not unconditional ā€” it evolved because it benefits participants and must be sustained by checks like punishment, partner choice, reputation, and quality control to prevent cheating.
  3. Humans scaled cooperation to huge groups by evolving social cognition and building institutions, so solving social problems means designing rules and organizations that harness collective gains while limiting conflicts of interest.

What Progress Has There Been in Industrial Robots?

Construction Physics ā€¢ 18999 implied HN points ā€¢ 10 Jan 24
šŸ•¹ Technology Evolution
  1. Industrial robots have become more cost-effective over time, making them more accessible for various applications.
  2. Advances in industrial robots have led to significant improvements in precision and smooth, continuous motion capabilities.
  3. There has been a trend towards standard robotic architectures, with modern robots primarily consisting of robotic arms with electric drives and servo motors.

The mourning of the elephants

Wrong Side of History ā€¢ 588 implied HN points ā€¢ 16 Nov 25
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Elephants show deep emotions when they mourn. They have rituals for honoring their dead, like touching the body and covering it with dirt.
  2. Octopuses and cuttlefish are surprisingly smart for invertebrates. Octopuses can solve problems and cuttlefish can count.
  3. Dogs really seem to love their owners more than food. They respond more to praise from people they care about than to treats.

What is Life?

Gonzo ML ā€¢ 189 implied HN points ā€¢ 19 Jan 26
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Life can be understood as self-modifying computronium: systems that compute and change themselves are favored because replication gives them dynamic stability and long-term persistence.
  2. Major evolutionary innovations come from symbiogenesis ā€” the merging and hierarchical composition of simpler replicators ā€” which produces reusable, repeated, code-like structures in genomes and bodies.
  3. Toy artificial-life models show replicators naturally emerge as dynamical attractors: after a chaotic start, self-replicating programs take off exponentially, increasing computational activity and leaving traces of nested sub-replicators.

The Dark Side of Desire

Rob Henderson's Newsletter ā€¢ 3087 implied HN points ā€¢ 18 May 25
šŸŽ­ļø Culture Evolution
  1. Women can sometimes be attracted to 'bad boys' or violent men due to evolutionary instincts. It's thought that women may view these traits as indicators of strength, which could help protect their own offspring.
  2. Similarities in education, political beliefs, and values are key factors in choosing romantic partners. People generally gravitate towards those who share common backgrounds and life goals.
  3. Improving physical health and social skills can boost attractiveness. Taking care of yourself in terms of grooming and fitness, along with building social connections, can make a big difference in dating.

The cave where it happened: Denisova cavernā€™s congress of ancient peoples

Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning ā€¢ 434 implied HN points ā€¢ 27 Nov 25
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. A new Denisovan genome has been sequenced, revealing more about the interactions between Denisovans, Neanderthals, and modern humans. This helps us understand how different human lineages mixed together in the past.
  2. Denisova Cave is a rich source of ancient human DNA, providing valuable insights into human evolution. Both Denisovans and Neanderthals lived and interacted in this cave, leading to mixes in their genetic make-up.
  3. The discovery of Denisova 25, an even older Denisovan genome, allows scientists to trace back our shared ancestry further. It shows that ancient humans had many connections and interbred with different groups over time.

Camouflage for nests, "nests" for language survival, & tumour hijacking strategies

The Strategy Toolkit ā€¢ 17 implied HN points ā€¢ 23 Feb 26
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Elaborately draped nest decorations like hanging streamers dramatically lower predation by creating a false shape that confuses visually hunting predators.
  2. This disruptive camouflage works mainly against birds and other visual predators but wonā€™t stop mammals or reptiles that rely on smell, and placing nests over water helps reduce scent-based detection.
  3. Building tails on nests seems to be an evolved adaptation to visual exposure, using conspicuous decorations not to hide but to mislead predators and protect the nest.

Antiquityā€™s miracle skin whitening method: migrate to Sweden, wait millennia

Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning ā€¢ 303 implied HN points ā€¢ 15 Dec 25
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Human skin color has been important in history for understanding identity and race. People have long used skin color to categorize and identify different groups.
  2. Skin color variation is influenced by genetics and environment, with darker skin being favored in sunny areas and lighter skin in regions with less sunlight. This was shaped by both evolution and preferences in mate selection.
  3. Recent advancements in genetic research have improved our understanding of pigmentation. Scientists can now predict traits like skin color more accurately using ancient DNA, though challenges remain with degraded samples.

Itches to Scratch

CRAFT TALK ā€¢ 3007 implied HN points ā€¢ 15 Oct 23
šŸ“š Literature Evolution
  1. Starting out as a writer can be compelling and thrilling.
  2. As a writer, you can only write what you can write.
  3. Evolve constantly as a writer, it's healthy to scratch new itches.

Sweet Child O' Mine

Secretum Secretorum ā€¢ 378 implied HN points ā€¢ 19 Nov 25
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Domestication changes animals in ways that seem unrelated at first, like making dogs friendlier and changing their ears. This happens because evolution tinkers with what it already has rather than starting from scratch.
  2. Humans show traits similar to young animals, like being playful and social. This neoteny means we've kept some child-like features as adults, which helped us bond and learn better.
  3. Humans succeeded while Neanderthals didn't because we were better at sharing ideas and learning from each other. Our culture helped us become smarter, not just as individuals, but as a group.

More cows, more wives

The Works in Progress Newsletter ā€¢ 27 implied HN points ā€¢ 24 Feb 26
šŸŽ­ļø Culture Evolution
  1. Marriage looks very different across cultures and history; itā€™s mainly a social tool for managing resources, kinship ties, and who gets to pass on a family name, not just a private love contract.
  2. When people settled and accumulated wealth, especially with farming and herding, polygyny, male control of women, and patrilineal inheritance became common, while mobile, egalitarian hunterā€‘gatherer groups tended toward more fluid, less resourceā€‘bound relationships.
  3. Modern forces like state laws, schooling, urbanization, and womenā€™s economic independence are weakening kinā€‘arranged controls and bridewealth/dowry systems, making marriages more individual choiceā€‘based and more easily entered or left.

Animalcules and Their Motors

Asimov Press ā€¢ 399 implied HN points ā€¢ 13 Nov 25
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Scientists have made big improvements in cryo-electron microscopy, which helps them see how tiny microbes move by looking at their flagella, or tails. This technique allows researchers to understand the complex structure of these microscopic motors.
  2. Different bacteria have unique adaptations in their flagella to fit their environments. For instance, some microbes can spin their flagella incredibly fast to swim in water, while others, like those in the human gut, have stronger motors to move through thick fluids.
  3. The flagellum is a remarkable molecular machine that assembles itself from many proteins. It works by using protons flowing across the cell membrane, which creates the energy needed to make it spin and help the cell move.

Evolution Explains Polygenic Structure

Astral Codex Ten ā€¢ 8465 implied HN points ā€¢ 08 Feb 24
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Genes for severe conditions like schizophrenia are likely small in effect and numerous, not large and few.
  2. Evolution would have eliminated genes with large negative effects, leaving only genes with small effects.
  3. The presence of genes with very small effects may be due to various factors like insufficient time for removal or counterbalancing advantages.

What Makes Men and Women Different?

Uncharted Territories ā€¢ 2162 implied HN points ā€¢ 04 Sep 23
šŸ”¬ Science Evolution
  1. Women and men think differently due to biological differences like having a uterus, leading to significant psychological variations.
  2. Men and women face different stakes in relationships and reproduction, with women having higher commitments and limitations due to their reproductive capacity.
  3. Evolutionary factors have shaped men to compete for access to females, leading to traits like dominance, aggression, physical strength, and risk-taking behavior.