From Seed, insects that survive on plant sap alone offer insights into the likely origin and evolution of all multicellular life; and the deep symbiosis between bacteria and their human hosts is forcing scientists to ask: Are we organisms or living ecosystems? From HUP, Victor Fet and Lynn Margulis tell the story of Symbiogenesis: A New Principle of Evolution by Boris Kozo-Polyansky. Paleoanthropologist Pat Shipman proposes that the interdependency of ancestral humans with other animal species — "the animal connection" — played a crucial and beneficial role in human evolution over the last 2.6 million years. Evolutionary archaeologist Timothy Taylor on the outrageous fortune that made us the dominant ape. A new study finds men are like apes when competing for status. Adventures in very recent evolution: In the last few years, biologists peering into the human genome have found evidence of recent natural selection — in fact, we've evolved in response to agriculture. A four-part series of essays for Scientific American by primatologist Frans de Waal on human nature. David Brooks on the moral naturalists: Scientific research is showing that we are born with an innate moral sense. Are better brains better? Martha Farah and Anjan Chatterjee believe the answer is more complicated than you think. From Killing the Buddha, Robert Jensen on the struggle for the (possible) soul of David Eagleman: A neuroscientist imagines life beyond the brain.
