The Hominid Post is an independent publication about human behavior, evolutionary anthropology, human behavioral ecology, and cultural evolution. About The Hominid Post
A worker honeybee may spend her life gathering food, regulating the temperature of the hive, feeding larvae, or defending the colony. She usually produces no offspring of her own. An ant may follow a similar path, working within a colony containing thousands—or, in some species, millions—of individuals organized around a reproductive queen.
From an individual perspective, this appears puzzling. Natural selection depends on reproduction. Why would evolution produce animals that surrender their own reproductive opportunities and devote their lives to others?
This was one of the central questions behind Edward O. Wilson's sociobiology: the systematic study of the biological foundations of social behavior. It also connects with the evolutionary world described by Matt Ridley in The Red Queen, where organisms must continually adapt because parasites, competitors, mates, and rivals are adapting around them.
Bees and ants show how far cooperation can evolve. Humans reveal something more complicated: cooperation among individuals who remain reproductively independent, cognitively flexible, culturally diverse, and frequently divided over who deserves help.
Eusociality: A form of social organization involving cooperative care of young, overlapping generations, and a reproductive division of labor.
Sociobiology: The study of social behavior through evolutionary theory, ecology, genetics, and comparative biology.
Inclusive fitness: An organism's genetic contribution through its own reproduction and through effects on the reproduction of genetically related individuals.
Reciprocal altruism: Cooperation in which one individual provides a benefit with the possibility of receiving help later.
August 12, 2026
Tomorrow's total solar eclipse crosses northern Russia, Greenland, Iceland, Spain and a small part of Portugal. Eclipses shaped calendars, navigation and astronomy -- and once observers could predict the shadow, the same darkness enabled spectroscopy and tests of gravity.
Northeastern University / NASA, August 10July 2026 was the warmest month in the 132-year U.S. record -- 76.9°F average, 3.3°F above the twentieth-century mean. Overnight lows hit 64.2°F, the highest on record. Hot nights limit physiological recovery and can increase cooling demand.
NOAA, August 10Inflation expectations eased slightly -- one-year at 3.6% -- but the perceived probability of higher national unemployment rose to 42.8%. A household can feel better about its own finances while still expecting a weaker labor market.
New York Fed, August 10Researchers analyzing more than 1,000 human samples reported thousands of amino-acid substitutions not predicted by the standard genetic sequence -- a process they call alternative RNA decoding. The signal was more abundant near tumors, but the study does not show these proteins cause cancer.
Northeastern University, August 10A three-part regimen -- antiretroviral therapy, broadly neutralizing antibodies and leronlimab -- cleared HIV in an infant macaque model when started within three days. This is an animal result, not a cure demonstrated in human newborns.
OHSU, August 10A prerecorded call offering navigator help raised Medicaid renewal by 1.0 percentage point and reduced procedural denials by 1.1 points in a Wisconsin randomized trial of 55,310 households. Effects were larger for Tribal members, children and people with chronic conditions.
J-PAL / STAT News, August 10South Australia announced a Royal Commission into artificial intelligence, intended to start October 1 and report by July 1, 2027. Its proposed scope includes education, health, workforce effects, regulation, and the energy and water demands of AI infrastructure.
Government of South Australia, August 11NASA's PACE satellite observed substantially lower surface chlorophyll in the central equatorial Pacific in June 2026 compared with neutral June 2025. Weaker trade winds and reduced nutrient upwelling are the expected mechanism -- shifts at this level can reach fisheries and food prices.
NASA Earth Observatory, August 10The SEC charged a pre-IPO fund adviser and affiliates with alleged fraud -- false claims, misuse of client assets, undisclosed markups, an improper $10 million credit-line pledge, and failure to register. The defendants agreed to proposed judgments without admitting the allegations.
SEC, August 10UN independent experts reported approximately 160 Palestinians killed in Gaza in July and at least 14 in the West Bank, with attacks on shelters and hospitals, movement restrictions, and worsening access to food and water.
OHCHR, August 10A new synthesis argues that prolonged childhood may have preceded major brain expansion. Cooperative care may have made extended development viable before encephalization -- not after. The proposed causal order is a synthesis to be tested, not a settled chronology.
Developmental Review, September 2026 issuePAHO closed World Breastfeeding Week by emphasizing that the operational challenge is scaling support -- counseling, paid leave, workplace protection, and human-milk networks. Fewer than half of infants under six months in Latin America and the Caribbean are exclusively breastfed.
PAHO / WHO, August 7UTMB held its inaugural correctional health symposium linking infectious disease, mental health, chronic care, telemedicine, and reentry continuity. People move between correctional facilities and communities; interruptions in care affect patients, families, and public health.
UTMB Center for Correctional Health and Equity, August 7Researchers used inverse rendering to compensate for light scattering in cell-dense hydrogels, printing 500-micrometer vascular channels at 20 million cells per milliliter. This is a proof of concept, not a transplantable tissue.
arXiv preprint, August 5FDA's proposed MDUFA VI recommendations for fiscal years 2028-2031 passed their public comment deadline. User fees finance a substantial part of device-review capacity and shape how quickly products reach patients. Congressional reauthorization is still required.
FDA, August 5-7UNESCO completed regional youth consultations for the Arab region and Latin America on August 7 to shape the post-2030 global education agenda. Credibility will depend on whether final policy documents visibly preserve what participants said.
UNESCO / SDG 4 Education 2030, August 7EPA's Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals completed peer review of draft technical-support documents for five chemicals used in solvents, flame retardants, and fuels. Draft findings are not final risk determinations.
EPA / TSCA, August 3-7These cornerstone articles explain how evolutionary theory can be used to study human behavior. Begin with natural selection, behavioral ecology, tradeoffs, cooperation, and cultural evolution—the concepts that guide everything we publish.
The evidence in brief: Many preindustrial Europeans described a “first sleep” and “second sleep,” separated by…
Handing consequential decisions to something you cannot fully watch is the oldest management problem our speci…
Can frozen childhood tissue produce sperm years later? Yes, in one reported human case. Researchers transplant…
A worker honeybee may spend her life gathering food, regulating the temperature of the hive, feeding larvae, o…
A person watching an artificial intelligence (AI) system produce software, images, research summaries, or cust…
A Presbyterian minister dies in colonial America. His household loses more than a husband or father. It may lo…
Around 4,600 years ago, communities along the Nile turned stone, transport, skilled labor, food, administratio…
A computer can calculate a lending risk score in milliseconds. It can search a medical record faster than a ph…
People cooperate constantly. We raise children together, share food, build companies, follow rules, defend fri…
How Thomas Paine turned independence from elite argument into public judgment In January 1776, the American co…
Manifestation is usually sold as a cosmic shortcut. Think clearly enough, believe strongly enough, vibrate at…
How life history theory and Bill Perkins’ Die With Zero converge on the same uncomfortable arithmetic. A centu…
We examine human origins, adaptation, life history and the evolutionary tradeoffs that shaped our species. These articles explain established scientific concepts while identifying where evidence remains incomplete or contested.
Explore human evolution →Humans cooperate, compete, reciprocate, form coalitions and respond strongly to status and reputation. We explore how these behaviors work across families, groups, institutions and modern societies.
Explore behavior and cooperation →Biological evolution alone cannot explain human behavior. Our articles examine cultural transmission, religion, political identity, morality, social norms and the institutions through which people organize collective life.
Explore culture and society →Healthcare, insurance, artificial intelligence and automation are human systems before they are technical systems. We study how incentives, trust, accountability and judgment shape their outcomes.
Explore health and technology →The Hominid Post is a publication about human behavior, evolutionary anthropology, human behavioral ecology, and cultural evolution. We connect research on cooperation, conflict, kinship, status, health, technology, and institutions to the problems people face today.
Our editorial standard is evidence first, interpretation second, and speculation clearly labeled.