The Neighborhood Project by David Sloan Wilson

By vinodnarayan on December 18, 2011 • ( 0 )

David Sloan Wilson’s “The Neighborhood Project” is his attempt to study and change his neighborhood, his town of Binghamton in New York. As an evolutionary biologist and the professor of Biological sciences and Anthropology at the Binghamton University he has been in the forefront of the concept of Group Selection or multilevel selection in evolution which argues that though genes are the means of how a organism’s design is transmitted across generations, individuals and groups are vehicles for those genes and both are arenas for genes to act on.

This argument opens a new was to understand the world around us and look at every social even from an evolutionary angle. He and his team works through collecting data about schools, Halloween decoration and more and show the reader the numbers that connect their argument

His earlier book Darwin’s cathedral claimed that religion is a product of the cultural evolution and so religion should also be studied with an evolutionary eye. That would be the next one I would like to read.

His parables on bees and water striders and how they make a living will keep us hooked on to the book showing the fantastic life that we never get to know otherwise. It is a very important question, how are we like this and evolution has the most sensible arguments for us to study further. And if you like to explore the fascinating world of evolutionary facts you should try this..