Excerpt: Iain Couzin specialises in collective animal behaviour, a phenomenon that encompasses flocking birds, shoaling fish and swarming locusts.
My comment: This series of videos is an excellent representation of biologically based cause and effect. See, for example, the second short video representation by Iain Couzin on cannibalism and cooperation in locusts.
Cannibalism, not cooperation is the basis of nutrient-dependent behavior of locusts before swarming occurs. Apparently, there is a transition to cooperative swarming behavior when nutrient-dependent reproduction and development of morphological and behavioral phenotypes leads to pheromone-controlled insect behavior in locusts with wings. The developmental transition can be compared to developmental transitions in eusocial behavior in honeybees via conserved molecular mechanisms. These conserved molecular mechanisms are exemplified in species from microbes to man and microbes are discussed in the series of videos by Bonnie Bassler.
“Bonnie Bassler is a molecular biologist who has made a stunning discovery: bacteria ‘talk’ to each other using chemical signals that enable them to act as a unit, mount attacks and coordinate defence.”
If you watch these two short videos and still think that mutation-driven evolution is responsible for nutrient-dependent pheromone-controlled ecological adaptations in species from microbes to man, please tell your friends. Ask them if they consider themselves to be more like cannibalistic locusts, or more like bacteria and honeybees. The biological basis of these behaviors is the same, but your beliefs and the beliefs of your friends will probably determine whether or not you eat each other if you become extremely hungry. Any friend who you think might eat you is probably a co-worker or a manager — not a friend.
James Vaughn Kohl was the first to accurately conceptualize human pheromones, and began presenting his findings to the scientific community in 1992. He continues to present to, and publish for, diverse scientific and lay audiences, while constantly monitoring the scientific presses for new information that is relevant to the development of his initial and ongoing conceptualization of human pheromones.
Recently, Kohl integrated scientific evidence that pinpoints the evolved neurophysiological mechanism that links olfactory/pheromonal input to genes in hormone-secreting cells of tissue in a specific area of the brain that is primarily involved in the sensory integration of olfactory and visual input, and in the development of human sexual preferences. His award-winning 2007 article/book chapter on multisensory integration: The Mind’s Eyes: Human pheromones, neuroscience, and male sexual preferences followed an award winning 2001 publication: Human pheromones: integrating neuroendocrinology and ethology, which was coauthored by disinguished researchers from Vienna. Rarely do researchers win awards in multiple disciplines, but Kohl’s 2001 award was for neuroscience, and his 2007 “Reiss Theory” award was for social science.
Kohl has worked as a medical laboratory scientist since 1974, and he has devoted more than twenty-five years to researching the relationship between the sense of smell and the development of human sexual preferences. Unlike many researchers who work with non-human subjects, medical laboratory scientists use the latest technology from many scientific disciplines to perform a variety of specialized diagnostic medical testing on people.
James V. Kohl is certified with:
* American Society for Clinical Pathology
* American Medical Technologists
James V. Kohl is a member of:
* Society for Neuroscience
* Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology
* Association for Chemoreception Sciences
* Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality
* International Society for Human Ethology
* American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science
* Mensa, the international high IQ society
