Science Life as Art

Anyone working on ants knows the name of Robert Trivers.  His work in the 1970s  on how evolution handles conflict within species led to some remarkable predictions.  In the case of ants, he examined the evolutionary conflict between queens and workers with respect to the ideal ratio of male and female offspring.  This led to some specific predictions regarding sex ratios in ants that have been largely supported by field observations.

His life and his work has now become a Broadway play.  Leave a Light On, written by Ann Marie Healy will be performed as part of the First Light Festival series this April at the Ensemble Studio Theatre.  For those a bit closer to New York than myself, Tickets can be purchased here.

The life of Robert Trivers has in some ways been as dramatic as the topic of conflict which has driven his academic career.  Most notably his friendship with Huey Newton, former chairman of the Black Panthers.  He and Newton actually published a paper together on the role of self-deception in the crash of an American airplane(Science Digest 1982 Vol 111:66-67.)

Photo credit: Robert Trivers taken by Nick Romanenko, Rutgers University