Topics and Scope

• Biochemistry and Fine-Tuning: to what extent can arguments analogous to "fine tuning" in physics and cosmology be applied to chemistry and biochemistry? For a more detailed answer, contact prime essays as well as other specialists who are competent in this field.
  
• How optimal are life's nucleotide and amino-acid alphabets? How were these selected?
• Do the properties of proteins or protein interaction networks show any evidence of fine-tuning?
• Are there alternative solvents to water for the emergence and maintenance of life?
• From Molecules to Minds: Investigating the Relationship Between Neural Complexity and Cognitive Capacities
• Are there evidences of fine tuning and convergence in biochemical pathways (such as the Krebs cycle)?
• Does systems biology shed new light on the range of chemistries suited for the emergence of life?
• What is the relationship between randomness at the molecular level and emergent biochemical properties?
• Philosophical aspects and potential theological significance of biochemical fine tuning.
  
• Evolutionary History and Contemporary Life: Evolution, Ecology, Ethology
• What features in common do evolutionary trends show?
• Is convergence of evolutionary importance?
• How well do we understand evolutionary simplifications?
  
• How can we define better the concept of character-complexes?
• How similar are social systems in different groups of organisms?
• How common are evolutionary reversals?
• To what extent do differently constructed nervous systems: e.g. mammalian and molluscan, achieve similar mental capacities?
• How similar are different modes of communication?
  
• Becoming Fully Human: Social Complexity and Human Engagement with the Natural and Supernatural World
• What is the nature and significance of convergences in cultural evolution (shamanism, the blossoming at certain times of monumental religious construction, sacrificial cults and potentially many others)?
• Is the spiritual sense a human universal or perhaps even more broadly found among other hominids?
• What does a study of the earliest symbolic cultures (as found at the Blombos cave site, for example) reveal about the connection of symbolism with being, spirit, and concepts of the transcendent?
• How do archaeologists evaluate the "religion-drives-innovation" thesis that is more often proposed in other fields of study and with other kinds of data?
• What do Neanderthal 'burials' imply about the evolution of a spiritual sense?
• Can a study of prehistory contribute to the debate in the social sciences about the nature and importance of human agency and purpose? The fact that archaeology rarely reveals individuals never mind their intentions does not necessarily mean all of culture change is due to extrinsic factors such as climate, outside of any kind of 'purpose'. Has the field progressed to the point where we may be able to newly enter this territory?
• How can we recognise the spiritual, the religious, and conceptions of the transcendent from archaeological data?
• What can we know of the religious or spiritual experiences of early Homo sapiens?
• What evidence is there for directionality in human asocial and technological development?