A Call for the Scientific Investigation of Senseless Violence

This article was written in the aftermath of the downing of the World Trade Center
in New York, and the partial destruction of the Pentagon in Washington D.C. by terrorist
suposedly related to Osama bin Laden. It is a call to the scientific community for the need
of humanity to investigate objectively these acts of apparent senseless violence. The
hypothesis presented here is that violence is common to all groups, races, or creeds, and
perhaps has, or had, an importance in the evolution of the human species. One possible
explanation is that violence on a large scale forces groups of humans into new ecological
nitches where they will be under new environmental pressures and thus may evolve new
characteristics, and eventually, new species.

This paper was sent to the journal Nature for consideration for publication. Unfortunately,
the response of the editors of nature was along the lines that they did not see clearly the
intent of the article and therefore could not accept it for publication:

If you are interested in a .pdf version of this article .