Evolution made us cheats, now free-riders run the world and we need to change, new book warns

To save democracy and solve the world's biggest challenges, we need to get better at spotting and exposing people who exploit human cooperation for personal

Cambridge University News • cambridge
June 17, 2025 ~6 min

Water cooperation is essential when countries share lakes and rivers – yet it’s been deteriorating in many places, with serious consequences

Nationalistic behavior can put people, economies and ecosystems, and even peace, at risk. The US, which paused Columbia River talks with Canada, isn’t the only country shifting in this direction.

Melissa McCracken, Assistant Professor of International Environmental Policy, Fletcher School, Tufts University • conversation
March 18, 2025 ~11 min


As human population grows, people and wildlife will share more living spaces around the world

As the world’s population grows, contact between humans and wildlife will increase in more than half of Earth’s land areas. A new study shows where the largest changes will occur.

Deqiang Ma, Postdoctoral Researcher in Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan • conversation
Aug. 21, 2024 ~6 min

At its core, life is all about play − just look at the animal kingdom

Reduced to its essence, the process of natural selection would look a lot like play.

David Toomey, Professor of English, UMass Amherst • conversation
Aug. 12, 2024 ~8 min

Insight into evolution of cooperation

As one of our closest living animal relatives, bonobos show humanlike ability to work together outside social borders in new study.

Anne J. Manning • harvard
Nov. 17, 2023 ~5 min

Maine voters don't like their electric utilities, but they balked at paying billions to buy them out

Power companies can be publicly or privately owned and may report to corporate boards, local governments or co-op members. But there’s no one best way to deliver electricity reliably and affordably.

Theodore J. Kury, Director of Energy Studies, University of Florida • conversation
Nov. 9, 2023 ~10 min

Kindness has persisted in a competitive world – cultural evolution can explain why

Ancient religious customs have accelerated the evolutionary process of humans becoming more cooperative.

Jonathan R Goodman, Researcher, Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge • conversation
Sept. 25, 2023 ~7 min

Want to collaborate better? Pick your partner wisely and learn how to read them

‘Mind-reading’ requires the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, predicting their actions and reading their emotions.

Roksana Markiewicz, PhD candidate in Psychology/ Neuroscience, University of Birmingham • conversation
July 13, 2023 ~6 min


Inventor of First Mobile Phone Looks back, Thinks about Future

VOA Learning English • voa
Feb. 28, 2023 ~4 min

Microbes in your food can help or hinder your body's defenses against cancer – how diet influences the conflict between cell 'cooperators' and 'cheaters'

Cancer cells are ‘cheaters’ that do not cooperate with the rest of the body. Certain microbes in your diet can either protect against or promote tumor formation by influencing cell cooperation.

Athena Aktipis, Associate Professor of Psychology, Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University • conversation
Jan. 31, 2023 ~7 min

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