From Merrelyn Emery, Fred Emery Institute
I was delighted to read that biology has caught up with the concept of co-evolution through niche construction (15 November, p 43). This appears to be one of the few instances where the social sciences have led the way. Fred Emery and Eric Trist provided a rigorous conceptualisation of co-evolution in 1965. Since then, co-evolution has been elaborated and built on in open systems theory and has proved an extremely useful concept.
I hope co-evolution will be accepted in biology, as I would love to see some studies on how niche construction is affecting our species. There are many possible starting points, but perhaps the priorities could include the long-term effects of spending about 16 hours a day in a light-rich environment heavily dominated by visual media.
Canberra, ACT, Australia
