Wandering Wim's Blog

The theory of evolution has helped biologists and ecologists to understand more about the natural world in general, and psychologists and social scientists to understand more about ourselves in particular. However, it has also taught a thing or two to[…]

Some problems are fundamentally hard, not only for humans, but even for computers. We may know how to solve these hard problems in theory, but in practice it might take billions of years to actually do so, even[…]

Around 1620 the Flemish chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, often considered the father of pneumatic chemistry (the chemistry of gases), wrote the following: “If you press a piece of underwear soiled with sweat together with some wheat in an[…]

Earlier this year, the inaugural workshop of the EES Project was held at the Konrad Lorenz Institute (KLI) in Austria. The KLI is a private and independent research institute with a focus on the development and evolution of biological and[…]

Our ability to learn, use, and process language is something that sets us apart from other animals. Language is used for effective communication, but also allows us to express our creativity through literature, poetry, and song. However, our[…]

“Most scientific explanations are causal. This is also the case in evolutionary biology, where the primary goals are to explain the diversity of life and the adaptive fit between organisms and their surroundings. Yet, the nature of causation[…]

In this day and age of the internet, where anyone can post anything, it is often difficult to know what is true and what is not. One person claims one thing, while another states the exact opposite. Who[…]