NIMBioS recently added a new deadline of Dec. 17, 2010, for postdoctoral fellowship applications. Successful applications propose a research project addressing an interesting and important biological question and include sections on background, objectives, methods and expected results. More tips for successful applications can be found here. We are particularly interested in requests to support research that integrates diverse fields, requires synthesis at multiple scales, and/or makes use of or requires development of new mathematical/computational approaches. Projects should not require the collection of additional empirical data, but may involve many aspects (collating, formulating data bases, developing models) of synthesizing existing data. The next deadline for applications is Dec. 17, 2010, for activities beginning June 1, 2011. For more information about NIMBioS postdoctoral fellowships and how to apply, click here.  

When two individuals face off in conflict, the classic problem in evolutionary biology known as the prisoner's dilemma says that the individuals are not likely to cooperate even if it is in their best interests to do so. But a new study suggests that with incentives to cooperate, natural selection can minimize conflict, changing the game from one of pure conflict to one of partial cooperation. The findings, published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggest that the prisoner's dilemma game, which has reigned as the dominant theoretical paradigm used to explain the costs and benefits of the evolution of cooperation, is not as evolutionarily stable a strategy as once assumed. Erol Akçay, a postdoctoral fellow at NIMBioS, and Joan Roughgarden, a professor of biology at Stanford University, are co-authors of the paper. Citation: Akcay E, Roughgarden J. 2010. The evolution of payoff matrices: providing incentives to cooperate. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Published online 8 December 2010.