Evolutionary psychology is one of many biologically informed approaches to the study of human behavior. Along with cognitive psychologists, evolutionary psychologists propose that much, if not all, of our behavior can be explained by appeal to internal psychological mechanisms. What distinguishes evolutionary psychologists from many cognitive psychologists is the proposal that the relevant internal mechanisms are adaptations—products of natural selection—that helped our ancestors get around the world, survive and reproduce. To understand the central claims of evolutionary psychology we require an understanding of some key concepts in evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, philosophy of science and philosophy of mind. Philosophers are interested in evolutionary psychology for a number of reasons. For philosophers of science —mostly philosophers of biology—evolutionary psychology provides a critical target. There is a broad consensus among philosophers of science that evolutionary psychology is a deeply flawed enterprise. For philosophers of mind and cognitive science evolutionary psychology has been a source of empirical hypotheses about cognitive architecture and specific components of that architecture. Philosophers of mind are also critical of evolutionary psychology but their criticisms are not as all-encompassing as those presented by philosophers of biology. Evolutionary psychology is also invoked by philosophers interested in moral psychology both as a source of empirical hypotheses and as a critical target.

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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) provides long-wavelength capability for the mission in imaging bands at 24, 70, and 160 ?m and measurements of spectral energy distributions between 52 and 100 ?m at a spectral resolution of about 7%. By using true detector arrays in each band, it provides both critical sampling of the Spitzer point-spread function and relatively large imaging fields of view, allowing for substantial advances in sensitivity, angular resolution, and efficiency of areal coverage compared with previous space far-infrared capabilities. The 24 ?m array has excellent photometric properties, and measurements with rms relative errors of about 1% can be obtained. The two longer-wavelength arrays use detectors with poor photometric stability, but a system of onboard stimulators used for relative calibration, combined with a unique data pipeline, produce good photometry with rms relative errors of less than 10%.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/422717/pdf

The Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS)

Building on the legacy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-I and II), SDSS-III is a program of four spectroscopic surveys on three scientific themes: dark energy and cosmological parameters, the history and structure of the Milky Way, and the population of giant planets around other stars. In keeping with SDSS tradition, SDSS-III will provide regular public releases of all its data, beginning with SDSS DR8 (which occurred in Jan 2011). This paper presents an overview of the four SDSS-III surveys. BOSS will measure redshifts of 1.5 million massive galaxies and Lya forest spectra of 150,000 quasars, using the BAO feature of large scale structure to obtain percent-level determinations of the distance scale and Hubble expansion rate at z 100 per resolution element), H-band (1.51-1.70 micron) spectra of 10^5 evolved, late-type stars, measuring separate abundances for ~15 elements per star and creating the first high-precision spectroscopic survey of all Galactic stellar populations (bulge, bar, disks, halo) with a uniform set of stellar tracers and spectral diagnostics. MARVELS will monitor radial velocities of more than 8000 FGK stars with the sensitivity and cadence (10-40 m/s, ~24 visits per star) needed to detect giant planets with periods up to two years, providing an unprecedented data set for understanding the formation and dynamical evolution of giant planet systems. (Abridged)

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Sdss-iii: massive spectroscopic surveys of the distant universe, the milky way, and extra-solar planetary systems

At least two arguments suggest that the orbits of a large fraction of binary stars and extrasolar planets shrank by 1-2 orders of magnitude after formation: (1) the physical radius of a star shrinks by a large factor from birth to the main sequence, yet many main-sequence stars have companions orbiting only a few stellar radii away, and (2) in current theories of planet formation, the region within ~0.1 AU of a protostar is too hot and rarefied for a Jupiter-mass planet to form, yet many hot Jupiters are observed at such distances. We investigate orbital shrinkage by the combined effects of secular perturbations from a distant companion star (Kozai oscillations) and tidal friction. We integrate the relevant equations of motion to predict the distribution of orbital elements produced by this process. Binary stars with orbital periods of 0.1-10 days, with a median of ~2 days, are produced from binaries with much longer periods (10 to ~105 days), consistent with observations indicating that most or all short-period binaries have distant companions (tertiaries). We also make two new testable predictions: (1) For periods between 3 and 10 days, the distribution of the mutual inclination between the inner binary and the tertiary orbit should peak strongly near 40? and 140?. (2) Extrasolar planets whose host stars have a distant binary companion may also undergo this process, in which case the orbit of the resulting hot Jupiter will typically be misaligned with the equator of its host star.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/521702/pdf

Shrinking binary and planetary orbits by Kozai cycles with tidal friction

Radiation forces on small particles in the solar system

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Aerodynamics of solid bodies in the solar nebula.

A plurality of worlds

Dust to planetesimals: Settling and coagulation in the solar nebula

THE recent discoveries1–4 of massive planetary companions orbiting several solar-type stars pose a conundrum. Conventional models5,6 for the formation of giant planets (such as Jupiter and Saturn) place such objects at distances of several astronomical units from the parent star, whereas all but one of the new objects are on orbits well inside 1 AU; these planets must therefore have originated at larger distances and subsequently migrated inwards. One suggested migration mechanism invokes tidal interactions between the planet and the evolving circumstellar disk7. Such a mechanism results in planets with small, essentially circular orbits, which appears to be the case for many of the new planets. But two of the objects have substantial orbital eccentricities, which are difficult to reconcile with a tidal-linkage model. Here we describe an alternative model for planetary migration that can account for these large orbital eccentricities. If a system of three or more giant planets form about a star, their orbits may become unstable as they gain mass by accreting gas from the circumstellar disk; subsequent gravitational encounters among these planets can eject one from the system while placing the others into highly eccentric orbits both closer and farther from the star.

Stuart J. Weidenschilling

Papers

Aerodynamics of solid bodies in the solar nebula.

A plurality of worlds

Dust to planetesimals: Settling and coagulation in the solar nebula

Gravitational scattering as a possible origin for giant planets at small stellar distances

The Origin of Comets in the Solar Nebula: A Unified Model