Owen Gilbert
Ph. D., Evolutionary Biology
- owen.gilbert@gmail.com
- 512-585-9071
About me
My Research
I am involved with three main projects:
Why do botryllid ascidians recognize kin? Why do frog tadpoles associate preferentially with kin? How do we test Hamilton’s rule in turkeys? Questions like these inform our understanding of social evolution. The theory that I am developing, association theory, helps answer these questions. At its core is a distinction between how individuals treat each other (help/harm), versus whether they associate. The theory yields the first adaptive explanation for kin recognition and kin association preference upheld by empirical evidence, and it yields new approaches to testing Hamilton’s rule.
Why does the history of life show apparently progressive trends of increasing command over free energy and the expansion of cellular, multicellular and colonial forms of life? What accounts for discontinuous rates of change in the fossil record and the apparent sudden appearance of higher taxa? Why has life become more advanced with time? The macroevolutionary theory that I am developing helps answer these questions. The theory proposes the existence of a second non-random force of evolution, natural reward, which acts upon the random variation of invention provided by natural selection. Whereas natural selection acts as nature’s inventor, creating new inventions with no foresight for the broader market, natural reward acts as nature’s entrepreneur, spreading inventions into the environments that they happen to be able to exploit. Just as in human societies, invention and entrepreneurship are both important for innovation, so this is true in nature. Understanding the dual forces of natural selection and natural reward is essential to understanding the history of life.
A main problem with science, as everybody knows, is that it is difficult to get new ideas funded. The more an idea departs from current thought, the higher the burden of proof required to get it funded. This presents a catch-22. Much preliminary evidence is required to get new ideas funded, but it is difficult to collect enough evidence without funding for new lines of research. In short, existing paradigms and theories have an incumbent advantage of being the first to adaptively radiate, producing specialized models and hypotheses that can prevent the invasion of superior competitors. In nature, such constraints on innovation are periodically lifted by mass extinction. In science, however, there is nothing similar to mass extinction. The entire corpus of human knowledge is preserved on the internet, and dinosaur-like gatekeepers squash any furry rodent-like animals before they can evolve into humans (so to speak). Therefore, it is important to rethink our ways of funding science, which themselves grew out of military funding during WWII.
Favorite subjects
My Journey
1998-2002
Yale University
Undergrad EEB major
As an undergraduate, I was inspired by Elisabeth Vrba and Leo Buss. These professors convinced me that there were major discoveries awaiting the theory of evolution. My favorite courses outside of biology were general physics and environmental history. I also participated in two varsity sports, football and track. I left Yale with the hope of testing Buss's hypothesis for the evolution of kin recognition using social amoebae as a model.
2003-2011
Rice University
Graduate Student
As a graduate student, I performed field work on social amoebae that tested Buss's hypothesis for kin recognition. I ended up outlining a new approach to modeling the evolution of kin recognition.
2014-2024
University of Texas at Austin
Visiting Researcher
I further developed a new model of kin recognition based on "association theory." I also found that my research suggested an alternative approach to explaining macroevolution. I outlined a new theory of macroevolution based on "natural reward."
