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WORK TITLE: Not So Different
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://nathanlents.com/
CITY: New York
STATE: NY
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
AU blog: https://thehumanevolutionblog.com/ * http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/faculty/nathan-h-lents * http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/sites/default/files/faculty/cv/NHLents-CurriculumVitae-Jan2016.pdf * https://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/nathan-h-lents-phd
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2016010159
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2016010159
HEADING: Lents, Nathan H.
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PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Saint Louis University, B.S., 1999; Saint Louis University Medical School, Ph.D., 2004; New York University, postdoctoral studies, 2006.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Molecular biologist, educator, and writer. John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, assistant professor of molecular biology, 2006-10, associate professor, 2011-15; professor of molecular biology and director of the honors college, 2016–. Also life sciences editor of the Visionlearning Project, New York, NY, 2011–; self-employed forensic science legal and educational consultant, 2012–; and University of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, visiting professor of forensic biology, 2013–.
WRITINGS
Contributor to professional journals, including Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Cell Cycle, International Journal of Dermatology, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Cellular Physiology, Journal of Chemical Education, Journal of Forensic Identification, Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, and Journal of Phylogenetics and Evolutionary Biology.
SIDELIGHTS
Nathan H. Lents is a molecular biologist whose expertise includes forensic biology, forensic DNA, and forensic toxicology. One of his primary areas of research is the human microbiome, the community of bacteria and other microbes that live in and on people, and how this community changes following the death of the human host. This research focuses on developing forensic tools to better estimate the postmortem interval (time since death) to aid death investigations. Lents also studies the genetic diversity in common household plants in order to develop a DNA barcoding system for the identification of trace plant residue recovered from crime scenes.
A contributor to professional journals, Lents is also the author of Not So Different: Finding Human Nature in Animals. Drawing from psychology, evolutionary biology, cognitive science, anthropology, and ethology, Lents argues that animals have been shaped by the same evolutionary forces of cooperation and competition that helped shape human beings. As a result, writes Lents, understanding this shared programming can help lead to a better understanding of various phenomena, such as the biological basis of grief and sibling rivalry. Furthermore, he presents his case that this understanding can help people have a better moral stance in relation to animals, which are humans’ closest kin.
“The thesis of this book is that underneath even our most complex behaviors are some rather simple, genetically encoded predispositions that we share with other animals,” Lents writes in the introduction to Not So Different, adding: “That is not to say that human behavior can be reduced to simple urges, but rather that much of it is situated atop some behavioral scaffolding that is shared with most other animals. This behavioral scaffolding is tweaked in unique ways across species, but some general trends reveal some common tendencies.”
Throughout Not So Different Lents discusses a wide range of experiments showing how strikingly similar animal and human behaviors are in a variety of areas. In Lents’s opinion these experiments can only be explained by the notion that very similar behavioral programs are run in both human and animal brains. As a result, scientists are coming to believe that animals’ inner experiences are much more complex than once believed. Lents go on to explore how analyzing underlying pursuits and desires in both animals and human beings can help explain “seemingly bizarre and counterintuitive behavior” in humans, as Lents writes in Not So Different.
Lents begins by discussing why humans and animal play. He examines the reasons and benefits behind play in different animals, such as dogs using play to establish social order, while the play of young kittens helps them learn to hunt. Human children use play for a variety of reasons, from improving coordination to learning communication and social skills. “Play can also be a formalized variety of conflict, like a chess game or basketball match, satisfying innate needs to compete while leaving nobody dead or wounded,” wrote Fresh Fiction Web site contributor Clare O’Beara, who goes on to point out that research has shown that play helps to reduce stress and its negative impacts, such as making people more likely to contract a disease.
Lents next moves on on to an examination of systems of justice in animals, followed by a chapter delving into the morals of animals. Next he explores sexual politics in animals. He asks the question of whether or not animals fall in love and then discusses animals and grief. Lents also explores some disturbing traits shared by both animals and humans, such as jealously, envy, greed, and the seeking of power. The final two chapters examine fear and the complexity of animal communication. Fresh Fiction Web site contributor Clare O’Beara noted: Not So Different contains a “fascinating compendium of studies, personal observations and deductions.” A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked: “Whether Lents is discussing love, grief, greed, or envy, he provides ample evidence that animals have a rich inner life.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Lents, Nathan H. Not So Different: Finding Human Nature in Animals, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2016.
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, April 11, 2016, review of Not So Different: Finding Human Nature in Animals, p. 50.
ONLINE
Fresh Fiction, http://freshfiction.com/ (August 9, 2016), Clare O’Beara, review of Not So Different.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice Web site, http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/ (March 14, 2017), author faculty profile.
Nathan H. Lents Home Page, www.nathanlents.com (March 14, 2017).
Psychology Today Online, https://www.psychologytoday.com/ (March 14, 2017), author profile.
NATHAN H. LENTS
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EDUCATION
BIO
EXPERTISE
DOWNLOAD C.V.
Nathan H. Lents
Professor of Molecular Biology; Director of the Honors College
Email: nlents@jjay.cuny.edu
Phone number: 646.557.4504
Website URL: www.nathanlents.com
Room number: 08.64 NB
EDUCATION
2006 Post-doc New York University (Computational Biology)
2004 PhD Saint Louis University Medical School
(Physiology and Pharmacology)
1999 BS Saint Louis University (Molecular Biology)
BIO
My research lab currently has two active projects. First, we are studying the human microbiome, the community of bacteria and other microbes that live in and on us, and how this community changes following the death of the human host. The goal of this project is to develop tools to better estimate the postmortem interval (time since death) to aid death investigations. Second, we are exploring the genetic diversity in common household plants. The goal is to develop a DNA barcording system for the identification of trace plant residue recovered from crime scenes.
EXPERTISE
Biology, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Forensic Biology, Forensic DNA, Forensic Toxicology
DOWNLOAD C.V.
NHLents-CurriculumVitae-Jan2016.pdf
Nathan H. Lents, Ph.D.
Nathan H. Lents, Ph.D.
Nathan H. Lents, Ph.D., is a Professor of molecular biology at John Jay College, of the City University of New York, where he also serves as the director of the honors program and the Macaulay Honors College. He is the author of Not So Different: Finding Human Nature in Animals and maintains The Human Evolution Blog.
Not So Different: Finding Human Nature in Animals
Publishers Weekly.
263.15 (Apr. 11, 2016): p50.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Not So Different: Finding Human Nature in Animals
Nathan H. Lents. Columbia Univ., $35 (352p) ISBN 978-0-231-17832-7
In a thoroughly enjoyable and accessible style, Lents, professor of molecular biology at the City University of New York, compares the behavior
of humans with many other animals. His overarching goal is to demonstrate that "the suite of programs that underlies animal behavior is
remarkably similar to that which underlies human behavior." He succeeds by examining a broad array of behaviors, with separate chapters
focusing on such topics as play, morality, justice, and sex. Lents provides ample documentation of fascinating behaviors and builds his arguments
convincingly using two tactics. First, he differentiates between anecdotes and data arising from controlled experiments, setting his work apart
from some non-scientific texts claiming to ascribe various, occasionally fantastic, powers to animals. Second, he situates his analysis within an
evolutionary framework. For example, after demonstrating the distress of many mammals, including monkeys and dogs, when they observe
unfair treatment, Lents concludes that "intolerance of inequity is being observed in a diverse and growing list of mammals, which would push its
origins back ... to well more than one hundred million years ago." He also makes it clear that, beyond behavior, animals also share many emotions
with humans. Whether Lents is discussing love, grief, greed, or envy, he provides ample evidence that animals have a rich inner life. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Not So Different: Finding Human Nature in Animals." Publishers Weekly, 11 Apr. 2016, p. 50+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA449663003&it=r&asid=df01e7552f6fbae922efbd98e52228f8. Accessed 6 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A449663003
Not So Different
Nathan H. Lents
Reviewed by Clare O'Beara
Posted August 9, 2016
Non-Fiction Philosphy | Non-Fiction Pet-Lover | Non-Fiction
Subtitled Finding Human Nature in Animals this intriguing look at what the latest studies tell of us of animal behavior, might as well be asking if we find animal behavior in humans. The answer to that would be, of course, yes sometimes humans behave in the same way as animals do. We play, gather food, groom one another, care for infants, work in teams, indulge in bullying and mourn the dead. NOT SO DIFFERENT then says Nathan H. Lents.
Humans have the ability to reason, and we learn from past experiences not just of our own but of other people. Animal behavior is more based on genetic and environmental factors. Nathan Lents describes how his family sheepdog herded a room full of toddlers on her own initiative, without having been taught herding. Natural selection gave rise to an ancestor, he explains, now extinct, which produced the separate lines of chimps, bonobos and humans. Living things tend to produce variations and over time, those which are best suited to their environment and any changes - like drought or an influx of predators - will survive to produce offspring. Social co-operation is one way to overcome challenges and this trait is what helped humans to rise to our current state.
I was curious about the statement that humans are now the most abundant mammal on the planet. I would have said it was rats. I looked it up and Britannica.com says that with seven billion humans, it will be either humans or rats, with mice a probable third place. The rodents, of course, take advantage of human agriculture and habitations. Is our great number a good or bad thing? Bad, if we outpace the available resources. Good, if there had to be this many of us in order to create the internet.
In the section on play, there's some thought given to how we can objectively define and study something so subjective, and what reasons and benefits cause animals to play. Dogs play to establish social order; cats, to learn to hunt. Children play to improve motor co-ordination, to see how to manipulate objects, to communicate and learn social skills, and to practice with items and skills they will need as adults. Play can also be a formalized variety of conflict, like a chess game or basketball match, satisfying innate needs to compete while leaving nobody dead or wounded. While Lents emphasizes that stress is harmful to animals or people, making them more prone to disease, and relaxation can alleviate the harmful effects of stress. Play has physical and psychological benefits; Stuart Brown, a leading expert on play, says that play is not the opposite of work, but the opposite of depression.
Justice features in a section which includes behavioral experiments with chimpanzees at Georgia State University. The chimps were rewarded for tasks; interestingly the chimps had to earn a token and trade it for food, a grape or a slice of carrot. If shown a grape but only given a carrot, they protested. If two chimps saw each other doing the same task and one got a grape but the other carrot, the one given carrot protested and sometimes the one given the grape refused to eat it in solidarity. Equal pay for equal tasks was a concept they understood. Children understand this too, and humans don't mind paying taxes if everyone is taxed fairly. Lents tells us that intolerance of injustice is being observed in progressively more animals, like dogs. He discusses what purpose it must serve.
I hope that has whetted your appetite for this fascinating compendium of studies, personal observations and deductions. Other areas covered include emotions and empathy, morals and immorality, the politics of sexual behavior and reproductive strategies, in which the author compares the offered potential to mate, with our glamorous commercials. NOT SO DIFFERENT after all, says Nathan Lents. Anyone interested in animal behavior and in modern psychology will find this an absorbing read - and the author makes room for skepticism.
Learn more about Not So Different
SUMMARY
Animals fall in love, establish rules for fair play, exchange valued goods and services, hold “funerals” for fallen comrades, deploy sex as a weapon, and communicate with one another using rich vocabularies. Animals also get jealous and violent or greedy and callous and develop irrational phobias and prejudices, just like us. Monkeys address inequality, wolves miss each other, elephants grieve for their dead, and prairie dogs name the humans they encounter. Human and animal behavior is not as different as once believed.
In Not So Different, the biologist Nathan H. Lents argues that the same evolutionary forces of cooperation and competition have shaped both humans and animals. Identical emotional and instinctual drives govern our actions. By acknowledging this shared programming, the human experience no longer seems unique, but in that loss we gain a fuller understanding of such phenomena as sibling rivalry and the biological basis of grief, helping us lead more grounded, moral lives among animals, our closest kin. Through a mix of colorful reporting and rigorous scientific research, Lents describes the exciting strides scientists have made in decoding animal behavior and bringing the evolutionary paths of humans and animals closer together. He marshals evidence from psychology, evolutionary biology, cognitive science, anthropology, and ethology to further advance this work and to drive home the truth that we are distinguished from animals only in degree, not in kind.