Kevin Lala

How and for whom can genetics education reduce beliefs in genetic essentialism? pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41267401/
"We also find that the 3 intervention curricula are highly effective across sociodemographic group characteristics [...] we offer evidence-based strategies for curriculum development"

Picture of front cover of Theme Issue entitled "Transforming cultural evolution research and its application to global futures." The image on the front cover is of a Yao honey hunter in Mozambique holding retrieved honeycomb.

Today sees the publication of the Theme Issue featuring the CES Transformation Fund grant scheme. Enjoy! royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...
@durhamdcerc.bsky.social @durhamanthropology.bsky.social @cultevolfunding.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social

Text from article advocating for transparent recognition of racist past in our disciplines to encourage, not discourage, more diverse engagement.

And this. My experience also supports that being *more* open about racist, sexist, and ableist histories of our fields is more engaging, not less, for students (and faculty) from minoritized backgrounds. Transparency can only enhance rigor.

Stuart Newman

From Jan 1 2026, I take over as Editor-in-Chief of Biological Theory. I would like to thank my predecessor, Stuart Newman, who has done a terrific job for 10 years. That is truly extraordinary service to the community, and the journal is in a great place thanks to his efforts.
Kevin Lala

The Organism-Environment Pairing In this first systematic book-length examination of the organism-environment relationship in the life sciences, Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda addresses a crucia...

With great joy—and a touch of nervousness—I’m thrilled to share that my first academic monograph will be published by @mitpress.bsky.social in May 2026! It examines the organism–environment relationship in biology from an integrated #HPS perspective: mitpress.mit.edu/978026205282... #evosky #philsky

Biological Theory is now on Bluesky!

We have a new team of editors and a new editorial board.

We will soon be posting about all our articles.

Find out more about the journal at link.springer.com/journal/13752

I am pleased to announce that from Jan 1 2026 I take over as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biological Theory. My first act, with the support of the editorial team, is to bring the journal to BlueSky from X.

Please follow us @biologicaltheory.bsky.social. We will be posting about all our articles.

The pitfalls of an impoverished approach to culture: Commentary on Baumard and André

📢 Here is my commentary about the pitfalls of taking an impoverished evolutionary approach to culture, which include 'the limitations of a unidirectional model of evolution' and 'the neglect of niche construction theory'. #ehbea #evolution #psychscisky 🧪

🧵 1/2

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

De novo rates of a Trypanosoma-resistant mutation in two human populations | PNAS Mutation rates have long been measured as averages across many genomic positions. Recently, a method to measure the rates of individual mutations w...

Really interesting paper in PNAS showing that a mutation that protects against African sleeping sickness originates de novo significantly more frequently in Africans than in Europeans, replicating similar findings for sickle-cell. I interpret as developmental bias.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A great review of my book "Evolution Evolving" by Simon Okholm in Metascience

"Evolving Evolution is no ordinary textbook, and that is part of its appeal, giving the reader a sense of cutting-edge discovery and intellectual adventure"

"Does development matter in evolution?" see shorturl.at/DxuK

Relationship between Height Preferences and Endorsement of Gender Norms - Human Nature Height preferences when choosing a partner might reflect adaptive mating strategies, whereby tall men are deemed attractive to potential partners due to links with health and resource acquisition. How...

📢 Our new article on relationship between height preferences and endorsement of gender norms.📢

We investigated whether adherence to the 'male taller norm' varied according to gender norm attitudes (heterosexual UK-based participants).

🧵1/5

🧪 #ehbea #psychscisky

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

EHBEACommitteeNominationForm_Pres_Sec.doc EHBEA Committee 2026-2029: Nomination Form The EHBEA Steering Committee is calling for nominations for the following open committee positions for 2026-2029. You are invited to nominate one or more c...

EHBEA is looking for new PRESIDENT and SECRETARY for 2026-2029! 👀

If you know of anybody who could represent EHBEA, nominate them as president!

If you know with good organisational skills, nominate them as secretary!

DEADLINE: 16/12/2026

HERE IS THE FORM 👇

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Finding Ivy exhibition talk: Disability, Dehumanisation and Extermination, with Prof Marius Turda - The Wiener Holocaust Library Held as part of the Finding Ivy: a life worthy of life exhibition events series. In this talk Marius Turda will discuss the eugenically-driven and state-sponsored determination to eugenically ‘purify’...

Upcoming talk by the historian of eugenics Marius Turda!
👉 wienerholocaustlibrary.org/event/findin...
🗓 Tuesday 4th November, 6.30pm, London

Loved this video by @shaunvids.bsky.social about The War on Science book. Its full of fascinating, yet disturbing, snippets about some of the world's most famous scientists. Gold.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyU5...

I was pleased and proud yesterday that the University of St Andrews invited esteemed journalist Gary Younge to give its 2025 Race Equality Lecture. Gary gave a fantastic talk, entitled "Equal Opportunities and Photo Opportunities", which was much appreciated by the large audience.

#race, #racism

"A network of privately funded political think tanks has popularized the falsehood that lawful desegregation and diversity measures are politically radical and socially destructive...In doing so, those think tanks represent the hyper-partisan political aims of wealthy donors, not the public".

We’re excited to launch the official BlueSky profile of ISHPSSB! Founded in 1998, we connect researchers in philosophy, history, and social studies of biology and medicine worldwide. Follow us for updates and events! #PhilosophyOfBiology, #HistoryOfScience, #STS, #Biology, #Medicine

Balanced and considered account of scientific racism in the evolutionary sciences and what academics can do to counter it:

The count down starts for #CESRabat! Follow @ces2026.bsky.social and join us May 11-13 next year for an exciting meeting in Rabat, Morocco.

Massive thanks to the #CESRabat organising committee:
Sarah Alami (co-chair)
Mathieu Charbonneau (co-chair)
Zachary Garfield
Edmond Seabright

Cultural inheritance is driving a transition in human evolution Abstract. Previous research on a transition in human evolution has been befuddled by the complexity of adaptive culture and made little effort toward empir

📃 Check out the paper in BioScience:

"Cultural inheritance is driving a transition in human evolution" academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...

But, wait, is this bullshit?

Animals don’t just live in their environments—they transform them. And in doing so, they may also shape their own evolutionary trajectories. Our new paper in Trends in Ecology & Evolution introduces a framework for zoogeochemical niche construction. A thread 👇

The Not-So-Great Replacement Theory Over the past few months, I’ve noticed a new round of references to the white supremacist “great replacement theory,” so I thought I’d offer a post to explain the dark corners from which this came and...

Lectured about the immigration restriction and Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s today, so I'm going to repost this piece on the Great Replacement Theory that drove white supremacists back then and that still drives them today.

Race Isn’t Biological — So Why Do So Many Still Think It Is? « Life Sciences# « Cambridge Core Blog Even though findings from genetics and other sciences unequivocally refute biological conceptions of race, this erroneous viewpoint remains widespread among the general public. Why can’t scientists co...

Here is the link to a short blog that @kztwyman.bsky.social and I wrote about our article (with @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social and Marc Feldman) entitled "Impediments to countering racist pseudoscience":

www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...

Our article "Impediments to countering racist pseudoscience" (with @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social, @kztwyman.bsky.social & Marc Feldman) is now published online.

We describe five factors that contribute to the spread of racism and suggest strategies for countering them.

doi.org/10.1017/ehs....

For those interested in my latest book, Trusting Science, here is a 30% discount code:

Balanced piece, including the opinion that EO Wilson made significant contributions to biological research and the acknowledgement that "Sociobiology lent evolutionary storytelling about human behavior and cognition an air of scientific legitimacy. That legacy is manifest today"

I'm pleased to share this new article by @svenkasser.bsky.social, Laura Fortunato @anthrolog.bsky.social, Marc Feldman and myself.

The article extends gene-culture coevolution to recognize evolutionary effects of culture arising through drift and migration.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Revisiting the human sociobiology debate What have we learned 50 years on?

New commentary in Science, with Gillian Brown and Kevin Lala, on the human sociobiology debate 50 years on: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Very happy to share this article, coauthored with @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social and Clark Barrett, on the contemporary relevance of the human sociobiology debate, 50 years after publication of Wilson's landmark book.

Development developing - Biology & Philosophy Lala et al.’s (2024) Evolution Evolving is an excellent book. It offers a compelling case for the relevance of development to the study of evolution. It takes a pluralistic stance on the forms of unde...

Thanks to Tim Lewens for a wonderful review of our 'Evolution Evolving' book.

"In this exceptionally ambitious and impressive book, Lala and collaborators... show how an understanding of development is essential to an understanding of evolution"

Read it here: shorturl.at/mgGEm

#evolution #evodevo