Sarah Hrdy is one of the absolute best popular science writers out there. This and her earlier book "Mother Nature" are two of the best unsung biology books I know of. I've given multiple copies as gifts.
Edit: Having now read more of the referenced paper, my opinion of the Scientific American article drops further. The key detail left out of the SA summary is that the paper describes an interesting mathematical model, rather than yet another 'just so' story. Read the paper, skip the summary.
Here's the actual paper: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/06...
And here's a delightful book that hits this topic and more: http://www.amazon.com/Mothers-Others-Evolutionary-Origins-Un...
Sarah Hrdy is one of the absolute best popular science writers out there. This and her earlier book "Mother Nature" are two of the best unsung biology books I know of. I've given multiple copies as gifts.
Edit: Having now read more of the referenced paper, my opinion of the Scientific American article drops further. The key detail left out of the SA summary is that the paper describes an interesting mathematical model, rather than yet another 'just so' story. Read the paper, skip the summary.