2023-06-24 03:49:30
Suzanne C. Alberts, Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Anthropology at Duke University, walks through Bilbao in amazement to see her portrait hanging from banners and bus shelters. “We sat on a bench next to the estuary, I looked up, and there was my photo. My partner took a photo and sent it to my daughters: ‘Your mother is a rockstar!'”. The city has decked itself out to award the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awardswhich Alberts has won in his category of Ecology and Conservation Biology.
She shares the award with two other researchers of great significance to her: Marlene Zuk, a pioneer in the study between parasitism and sexual reproduction, and Jeanne Altmann, her mentor. She opened the doors of the research project with the baboons of Amboseli National Park in Kenya, a community of 2,000 individuals with whom we share 94% of the genome. There, Alberts and Altmann documented that males recognized their young despite having multiple mates, and cared for them. Or that the females wove networks of support and collaboration among themselves, behaviors considered by tradition as exclusively human.
Is a greater recognition of science and celebrations of this magnitude necessary to make society appreciate it?
Of course. Science has superlative importance for society, it implies solutions for all our problems except political ones. Science cannot deal with politics effectively, but it provides us with the knowledge that informs social discourse. And I am grateful to the Foundation for the way in which they elevate scientific and cultural creation. We could never raise them too high! Speaking as a scientist, I think our main challenges are climate change and artificial intelligence. And while it is causing contention now, at least in the United States, we must have the science to solve them in the long term.
[Hito científico español: secuencian el genoma de más de 800 primates para saber por qué enfermamos]
The traditional image of evolution gave prominence to the alpha male who imposes his will on the rest. His research changed that.
Well, there was a prevalent idea until the fifties that was that of Desmond Morris in the naked monkey, where everything was hunting and oppression. And it was too simplistic a view of a complex world. I like to think that our research has added nuance. And I think that no one questions our contribution to the understanding of phenomena such as paternal care, how males can be very good fathers. Of course they have an interest in seeing their offspring prosper. But it was assumed that, if the species is not monogamous, they would ignore them by default. And for females, we believe we have demonstrated the deep integration of individuals into the social systems of their groups, and the importance of bonds for survival that we have inherited through the history of human evolution.
They showed that qualities such as parental love, solidarity support or compassion for orphans are not exclusive to the human being.
Exactly. Furthermore, one of the things that has become clear in the last three or four decades is that humans prosper more the more socially integrated they are. We survive heart attacks or operations better, live longer and be healthier if our social networks are strong. And what our research has helped show is that multiple non-human primates function this way as well, including baboons.
It is a matter of extreme relevance now that we are suffering from a crisis of loneliness and unwanted isolation in our societies.
Yes. And another thing that our research helped to figure out was that social media doesn’t just affect longevity in adulthood. Adversity in the first years of life will also determine survival. The worse childhood you have, the shorter your life will be. Humans are long-lived, and we must consider how the factors interact: if the problems with social ties are consequences of bad childhood experiences, of emotional detachment caused by trauma, and if an intervention to improve the support networks of the individual could correct the trend. With baboons, we have been able to confirm this: a female that has a strong social network as an adult will be able to reduce part of these negative effects. For conservation, social networks are just as important to preserve as the environment.
A very interesting aspect is that social support is not just a matter of females: males who are accepted into the circle also live longer.
Exactly, social ties are essential for survival regardless of sex.
Evolutionary biologist Susan Alberts during the interview. Asier Camacho BBVA Foundation
The Amboseli baboon community has been defined as an experiment in which evolution can be seen in vivo.
Yes, that’s a nice way of saying it. It is a natural experiment. Things always happen that make you wonder, “How are they going to react?” Observational studies have limits, because you can’t perform experimental manipulations, but they also have enormous advantages.
Is climate change one of the changes you are facing? Can we learn something from how they deal with it?
Amboseli is suffering its second consecutive year of a terrible drought. Both the human and animal populations are suffering terribly. Climate change induced by human activity is affecting everything, and there are more factors: livestock exploitation, disappearance of predators… But baboons, like us, have a very flexible society. Where other species would simply go extinct, they are using their adaptability and foraging skills, despite undergoing social changes as a consequence. There is always a trade-off: if you adapt to survive, you lose something along the way.
Will baboons benefit in these circumstances from having males that are more cooperative with females as an alternative to more dominant ones?
Evolutionarily, it doesn’t have to be that way. Seizing resources by force may be what they have to do to survive. In times of scarcity, aggressiveness and competition between groups tend to increase. But it may be that, as the habitat changes, individuals choose to rely more on their mates for the benefits it brings. It’s a double-edged sword, a tension that I think is also reflected in human society.
It’s unsettling to think that we have both futures ahead of us: cooperating to overcome difficulties, or annihilating each other.
Both things can be possible. We can become more cooperative with our closest partners and more competitive with those we consider to be distant from us. It’s a very complex matter, and baboons are too simple a model to translate directly into human society.
One of the most curious aspects is the study of why males live less. Does it really have to do with taking more physical risks?
Not only is this true, but it is especially true of men. It can be seen in mortality regardless of age: males are consistently exposed to higher background mortality associated with risk exposure. But it also appears that men age at a faster rate, and have a higher initial mortality. There seems to be something biological underlying the behavior. It’s a mystery, but we’re getting closer to the answer. Also, it does not happen in all species. In monogamous birds, the males live longer, due to the physiological cost for the females to gestate, lay and incubate the eggs. And there have also been times when the mortality of women exceeded that of men, such as the Middle Ages. There are multiple factors involved.
Wouldn’t it be possible to think that, as roles become more equal in society, longevity between the sexes would become even?
But there are other factors that get in the way. Tobacco, for example, which is the deadliest habit that human beings have ever invented, and men continue to smoke more than women.
In Spain, however, the trend is the opposite: smoking women are growing..
I’m shocked at how much people smoke here! What is the Government doing? Have they put warning images on the packs, have taxes gone up? Do you have universal healthcare in Spain? Yeah? And how do you accept the disproportion in health spending? Raising tobacco taxes would be the bare minimum. If everyone is free to smoke, that they at least cover it by contributing to public spending.
Duke University Professor Susan Alberts. Asier Camacho BBVA Foundation
Do you consider that your research has a feminist aspect, by vindicating the social organization led by females in human evolution?
I consider myself a feminist. That means to me that men and women should have the same rights, the same opportunities and the same access. That there should be no disparity or lack of equality. I don’t think there is an analogy that applies directly to science, any more than you can apply a political approach to research. That said, both the scientific results we obtain and the political causes we participate in inform each other to shape our worldview. If you are not aware of the inequality between men and women in the world, you are going blind in your research. You’re not going to ask the right questions and you’re not going to see the patterns. Science is not feminist, but science is what removes the blindfold from feminists.
Another indisputable feminist aspect is that her research project has always been led by women.
Yes, and in fact the winners in this field are all women this year. I would say that in my discipline, Evolutionary and Behavioral Biology, women tend to predominate. There were certain events in the sixties, seventies and eighties that opened it up much more for us, with figures that gave us a sense of the possible. Marlene Zuk was a student in the eighties and she coined with her mentor one of the most important tools, the Hamilton–Zuk hypothesis. A very young researcher thus obtained visibility. I was mentored by Jeanne Altmann, also awarded, a precursor along with great primatologists such as Jane Goodall and Diane Fossey… Women who paved the way for us.
Parity has not yet reached family reconciliation. Female researchers tend to bear the brunt of the leave, and their CVs are penalized.
That is a very big problem. I didn’t take sick leave when my daughters were little. My eldest daughter was born just when she was going to take the place at the university. I took three months off, but after two I was already anxious to return. With the second, six years later, I was constantly torn between work and parenting. It’s a real dilemma, and I wish I had the answer. But I think that society has to start being less inclement. And that when it is said that maternity leave is supported, means are used, not just good intentions.
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