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The Newton Project
The Newton Project The Newton Project The Newton Project, which has recently moved to the University of Oxford, was created in 1998 by Rob Iliffe and Scott Mandelbrote (Peterhouse, Cambridge). For most of its existence, the Newton Project has been primarily concerned with publishing Newton’s theological writings but in the last decade, the Project has released detailed diplomatic transcriptions of all of his major scientific and mathematical texts, including all of his optical correspondence. The Project is now embarking on an edition of Newton’s financial and administrative papers, created as a result of Newton’s tenure as Warden and then Master of the Mint (1696-1727). By attributed to 'English School' (Bonhams) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons to By attributed Above: Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton, c.1715 17 | The Oxford Historian | Electronic Edition Volume I The Newton Project The vast activity that has gone into the process of creating an online edition of Newton’s papers has been motivated by a number of related concerns. These include the view that the audiences for such materials should not be restricted to academics; that, where possible, the materials should be Open Access; and that readers should have access to ‘everything’, that is, to the entirety of Newton’s surviving writings (amounting over 10 million words). The last point seems to be vital for serious twenty- first century scholarship. Not only might stray and ostensibly uninteresting notes allow editors to date various writings, but a proper understanding of his individual works requires a grasp of how they fit into a larger whole and vise versa. -
Nuclear DNA Analyses in Genetic Studies of Populations: Practice, Problems and Prospects
Molecular Ecology (2003) 12, 563–584 INVITEDBlackwell Publishing Ltd. REVIEW Nuclear DNA analyses in genetic studies of populations: practice, problems and prospects DE-XING ZHANG* and GODFREY M. HEWITT† *State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Zhongguancun Road, Beijing 100080, PR China, †School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK Abstract Population-genetic studies have been remarkably productive and successful in the last dec- ade following the invention of PCR technology and the introduction of mitochondrial and microsatellite DNA markers. While mitochondrial DNA has proven powerful for genea- logical and evolutionary studies of animal populations, and microsatellite sequences are the most revealing DNA markers available so far for inferring population structure and dynamics, they both have important and unavoidable limitations. To obtain a fuller picture of the history and evolutionary potential of populations, genealogical data from nuclear loci are essential, and the inclusion of other nuclear markers, i.e. single copy nuclear poly- morphic (scnp) sequences, is clearly needed. Four major uncertainties for nuclear DNA analyses of populations have been facing us, i.e. the availability of scnp markers for carry- ing out such analysis, technical laboratory hurdles for resolving haplotypes, difficulty in data analysis because of recombination, low divergence levels and intraspecific multi- furcation evolution, and the utility of scnp markers for addressing population-genetic ques- tions. In this review, we discuss the availability of highly polymorphic single copy DNA in the nuclear genome, describe patterns and rate of evolution of nuclear sequences, sum- marize past empirical and theoretical efforts to recover and analyse data from scnp markers, and examine the difficulties, challenges and opportunities faced in such studies. -
Distinguishing Drift and Selection Empirically: “The Great Snail Debate” of the 1950S
Distinguishing Drift and Selection Empirically: “The Great Snail Debate” of the 1950s ROBERTA L. MILLSTEIN Department of Philosophy University of California, Davis One Shields Avenue Davis, CA 95616 USA E-mail: [email protected] Forthcoming in the Journal of the History of Biology -- no doubt, there will be some (hopefully small) changes in the proofing process Distinguishing Drift and Selection Empirically p. 1 Abstract: Biologists and philosophers have been extremely pessimistic about the possibility of demonstrating random drift in nature, particularly when it comes to distinguishing random drift from natural selection. However, examination of a historical case - Maxime Lamotte's study of natural populations of the land snail, Cepaea nemoralis in the 1950s - shows that while some pessimism is warranted, it has been overstated. Indeed, by describing a unique signature for drift and showing that this signature obtained in the populations under study, Lamotte was able to make a good case for a significant role for drift. It may be difficult to disentangle the causes of drift and selection acting in a population, but it is not (always) impossible. Keywords: adaptationism, Arthur J. Cain, conspicuous polymorphism, Cepaea nemoralis, random genetic drift, ecological genetics, evolution, Philip M. Sheppard, Maxime Lamotte, natural selection, selectionist Pessimistic Introduction The process known as “random drift”1 is often considered to be one of the most important chance elements in evolution. Yet, over the years, biologists and philosophers have expressed pessimism about the possibility of demonstrating random drift in nature. The following is just a sampling. In 1951, Arthur Cain argued: 1 Authors refer to this phenomenon variously as “random drift,” “genetic drift,” “random genetic drift,” or simply “drift,” without any apparent shift in meaning. -
The Genetic Legacy of the Quaternary Ice Ages
review article The genetic legacy of the Quaternary ice ages Godfrey Hewitt School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ Global climate has fluctuated greatly during the past three million years, leading to the recent major ice ages. An inescapable consequence for most living organisms is great changes in their distribution, which are expressed differently in boreal, temperate and tropical zones. Such range changes can be expected to have genetic consequences, and the advent of DNA technology provides most suitable markers to examine these. Several good data sets are now available, which provide tests of expectations, insights into species colonization and unexpected genetic subdivision and mixture of species. The genetic structure of human populations may be viewed in the same context. The present genetic structure of populations, species and communities has been mainly formed by Quaternary ice ages, and genetic, fossil and physical data combined can greatly help our understanding of how organisms were so affected. The study of palaeoclimates is a particularly active research field that These severe climatic oscillations produced great changes in species is producing much data and increasingly coherent explanations. distributions, and these have been described in some detail, particularly The Earth’s climate became cooler through the Tertiary (65 million from the fossil records of pollen and beetles in Europe and North years (Myr)) with frequent oscillations that increased in amplitude America1,9. Species went extinct over large parts of their range, some and lead to the series of major ice ages of the Quaternary (2.4 Myr to dispersed to new locations, some survived in refugia and then the present). -
Divining Darwin: Evolving Responses and the Contribution of David Lack1
S & CB (2014), 26, 53–78 0954–4194 R. J. (SAM) BERRY Divining Darwin: Evolving Responses and the Contribution of David Lack1 Christian believers, particularly evangelicals, often react to evolutionary ideas with more heat than light. A significant contribution to clarifying understanding was a book published in 1957, Evolutionary Theory and Christian Belief by the eminent ornithologist David Lack. It was the first attempt to tease out the issues by a scientist of his calibre. Information about this book has recently been published in a biography of Lack. This essay seeks to put Lack’s contribution into the perspective of both past and continuing perceptions of Christianity and evolution. Key words: Darwin, Darwinism, Evolutionary Theory and Christian Belief, David Lack, Dan and Mary Neylan, C.S.Lewis, human nature, imago Dei This paper is about the contribution of David Lack, one of the most dis- tinguished biologists of the twentieth century, to the debates about evolu- tion and Christianity, and his personal journey thereto. His contribution is significant because of the authority he brought to a book he wrote in 1957, which raised these debates to a much more positive and informed level than had previously been the practice. But before we get to Lack and his book, we need to understand something of the background to the understanding of evolution by both scientists and Christians. The reaction of the Christian community to Darwin’s Origin of Species2 ought to be a simple matter of historical record.3 In practice it is regularly muddied. An Editorial in Nature in 2009 claimed, ‘In England the Church reacted badly to Darwin’s theory, going so far as to say that to believe it was to imperil your soul.’4 There may well have been those who maintained this, but they seem to have been few. -
The King's Coiner
THE KING’S COINER The true story of Isaac Newton, detective A radio drama by Philip Palmer BBC Radio Afternoon Theatre Producer: Toby Swift FOR EDUCATION PURPOSES ONLY Converted to PDF by www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom SCENE 1 ACOUSTIC: A ROOM IN A BOARDING HOUSE. CHALONER: You are very beautiful. Let me hold your hand. Oh yes. And let your eyes look into mine. I can see your soul. You are full of love. You will meet a man, and he will love you in return. He will be…dark haired. With a ferocious temper. But kind. He’ll hold your hand, as I am holding it now, and he will stroke your arm… HOLLOWAY: Steady on, man. CHALONER: Play the part Tom. He will be a tailor by trade. You will have five children. Four girls, and a boy. HOLLOWAY: Can’t I have all boys? CHALONER: But beware. Beware of water! HOLLOWAY: This is going to work for us, is it? CHALONER: Trust me. I’ll make us a fortune. HOLLOWAY: I preferred the thieving. CHALONER: I’ll do the talking. My name is Dr Huygens, I am Dutch. No, my name is Dr Paracelus, I am from Germany. I also dabble in alchemy. HOLLOWAY: If you touch my arse, doctor, will it turn to gold? CHALONER: It will feel like gold, but tragically, t’will smell the same. - 1 - Converted to PDF by www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom HOLLOWAY: Ha! SCENE 2 ACOUSTIC: ROYAL MINT, WALKING PAST THE PRINTING PRESSES. NEWTON: The mills start up at four of the morning. -
Cain on Linnaeus: the Scientist-Historian As Unanalysed Entity
Stud. Hist. Phil. Biol. & Biomed. Sci., Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 239–254, 2001 Pergamon 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain 1369-8486/01 $ - see front matter www.elsevier.com/locate/shpsc Cain on Linnaeus: The Scientist-Historian as Unanalysed Entity Mary P. Winsor* Zoologist A. J. Cain began historical research on Linnaeus in 1956 in connection with his dissatisfaction over the standard taxonomic hierarchy and the rules of binomial nomenclature. His famous 1958 paper ‘Logic and Memory in Linnaeus’s System of Taxonomy’ argues that Linnaeus was following Aristotle’s method of logical division without appreciating that it properly applies only to ‘analysed entities’ such as geo- metric figures whose essential nature is already fully known. The essence of living things being unanalysed, there is no basis on which to choose the right characters to define a genus nor on which to differentiate species. Yet Cain’s understanding of Aristotle, which depended on a 1916 text by H. W. B. Joseph, was fatally flawed. In the 1990s Cain devoted himself to further historical study and softened his verdict on Linnaeus, praising his empiricism. The idea that Linnaeus was applying an ancient and inappropriate method cries out for fresh study and revision. 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: A. J. Cain; Linnaeus; Aristotle; Essentialism; Systematics; Logic. The category to which the following belongs is not the history of systematics but the history of the history of systematics. I have just one small tale to tell, but I suspect there are similar tales scattered about unnoticed in the history of other sciences, and it seems to me they are worth uncovering. -
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment
566 Arctic Biodiversity Assessment The lesser snow goose Chen c. caerulescens shows an approximate east-west cline in their Nearctic breeding distribution in frequency of pale or dark morphs, with blue morphs most common in the east. Although studies of fitness components failed to uncover any adaptive advantage associated with either morph, geese show strong mating preference based on the color of their parents, leading to assortative mating. Queen Maud Gulf Bird Sanctuary, Nunavut, Canada. Photo: Gustaf Samelius. 567 Chapter 17 Genetics Lead Author Joseph A. Cook Contributing Authors Christian Brochmann, Sandra L. Talbot, Vadim B. Fedorov, Eric B. Taylor, Risto Väinölä, Eric P. Hoberg, Marina Kholodova, Kristinn P. Magnusson and Tero Mustonen Contents Summary ..............................................................568 17.5. Recommendations and conservation measures ������������������582 17.1. Introduction .....................................................568 17.5.1. Call for immediate development of freely available, specimen-based archives ...................................582 17.2. Systematics, phylogenetics and phylogeography ................569 17.5.1.1. Build European, Asian and North American 17.2.1. Systematics ................................................569 tissue archives .....................................582 17.2.1.1. Phylogenetics and taxonomy �����������������������569 17.5.2. Expand biodiversity informatics ............................582 17.2.1.2. Systematics and phylogenetics in Arctic species ....569 17.5.2.1. Connect GenBank, EMBL and DDJB to Archives .....582 17.2.2. Phylogeography – setting the stage for interpreting 17.5.2.2. Connect GenBank (Genomics) to GIS applications ..583 changing environmental conditions ........................571 17.5.2.3. Stimulate emerging pathogen investigations 17.2.2.1. Influence of dynamic climates on structuring through integrated inventories ���������������������583 Arctic diversity .....................................571 17.5.2.4. Develop educational interfaces and portals for 17.2.2.2. -
Submission to Nature Reviews Genetics
Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2014 Genomics and the origin of species Seehausen, Ole ; Butlin, Roger K ; Keller, Irene ; Wagner, Catherine E ; Boughman, Janette W ; Hohenlohe, Paul A ; Peichel, Catherine L ; Saetre, Glenn-Peter ; Bank, Claudia ; Brännström, Ake ; Brelsford, Alan ; Clarkson, Chris S ; Eroukhmanoff, Fabrice ; Feder, Jeffrey L ; Fischer, Martin C; Foote, Andrew D ; Franchini, Paolo ; Jiggins, Chris D ; Jones, Felicity C ; Lindholm, Anna K ; Lucek, Kay ; Maan, Martine E ; Marques, David A ; Martin, Simon H ; Matthews, Blake ; Meier, Joana I ; Möst, Markus ; Nachman, Michael W ; Nonaka, Etsuko ; Rennison, Diana J ; Schwarzer, Julia ; Watson, Eric T ; Westram, Anja M ; Widmer, Alex Abstract: Speciation is a fundamental evolutionary process, the knowledge of which is crucial for under- standing the origins of biodiversity. Genomic approaches are an increasingly important aspect of this research field. We review current understanding of genome-wide effects of accumulating reproductive isolation and of genomic properties that influence the process of speciation. Building on this work,we identify emergent trends and gaps in our understanding, propose new approaches to more fully integrate genomics into speciation research, translate speciation theory into hypotheses that are testable using genomic tools and provide an integrative definition of the field of speciation genomics. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3644 Posted at the Zurich -
Using Phylogeographic Analyses of Gene Trees to Test Species Status and Processes
MEC1199.fm Page 779 Monday, March 12, 2001 6:55 PM Molecular Ecology (2001) 10, 779–791 UsingBlackwell Science, Ltd phylogeographic analyses of gene trees to test species status and processes ALAN R. TEMPLETON Department of Biology, Campus Box 1137, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130–4899, USA Abstract A gene tree is an evolutionary reconstruction of the genealogical history of the genetic vari- ation found in a sample of homologous genes or DNA regions that have experienced little or no recombination. Gene trees have the potential of straddling the interface between intra- and interspecific evolution. It is precisely at this interface that the process of speciation occurs, and gene trees can therefore be used as a powerful tool to probe this interface. One application is to infer species status. The cohesion species is defined as an evolutionary lineage or set of lineages with genetic exchangeability and/or ecological interchangeability. This species concept can be phrased in terms of null hypotheses that can be tested rigorously and objectively by using gene trees. First, an overlay of geography upon the gene tree is used to test the null hypothesis that the sample is from a single evolutionary lineage. This phase of testing can indicate that the sampled organisms are indeed from a single lineage and therefore a single cohesion species. In other cases, this null hypothesis is not rejected due to a lack of power or inadequate sampling. Alternatively, this null hypothesis can be rejected because two or more lineages are in the sample. The test can identify lineages even when hybridization and lineage sorting occur. -
Isaac Newton and Currency Crime in Modern England
The Counterfeit Presentment of Two Britons: Isaac Newton and Currency Crime in Modern England SAM HIEBENDAAL* Though I may seem to incurr the Censure of Vanity and Ostentation, by pretending to advance any thing New, on a Theme that hath already employ'd so many able Pens: Yet on an Impartial Perusal of all that is extant on this Subject, I doubt not but there will be found such ample Scope for so many Considerable Alterations and Additions as will render this Further Attempt not only Excusable but Necessary .... I I INTRODUCTION Isaac Newton published the Philosophi3Naturalis PrincipiaMathematica in 1687. He gave the world the three laws of motion, the theory of universal gravitation, and a remarkable advancement in the development of modern calculus. The PrincipiaMathematica alone ensured that Newton would be noted as "one of the tiny handful of supreme geniuses who have shaped the categories of the human intellect, a man not finally reducible to the criteria by which we comprehend our fellow beings".' One would have forgiven him for retiring after that. Yet Newton's exploits did not end in 1687, and they were not limited to the scientific and philosophic worlds. As Warden of the Royal Mint, he made considerable contributions to the legal sphere by prosecuting 'coiners' and 'clippers' during a perilous period for the stability of the Kingdom, and when the King's currency was vulnerable to threats both internal and external. Over this article's eight Parts, Newton's adventures into the law are discussed. In Part II, the social context that made coining and clipping rampant is explored. -
Medieval Londoners Essays to Mark the Eightieth Birthday of Caroline M
IHR Conference Series Medieval Londoners Essays to mark the eightieth birthday of Caroline M. Barron Edited by Elizabeth A. New and Christian Steer Medieval Londoners Essays to mark the eightieth birthday of Caroline M. Barron Medieval Londoners Essays to mark the eightieth birthday of Caroline M. Barron Edited by Elizabeth A. New and Christian Steer UNIVERSITY OF LONDON PRESS INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH Published by UNIVERSITY OF LONDON PRESS SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU Text © contributors, 2019 Images © contributors and copyright holders named in captions, 2019 The authors have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as authors of this work. This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. More information regarding CC licenses is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Any third-party material in this book is published under the book’s Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in the credit line to the material. If you would like to re-use any third-party material not covered by the book’s Creative Commons license, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. Available to download free at http://www.humanities-digital-library.org or to purchase at https://www.sas.ac.uk/publications ISBN 978-1-912702-14-5 (hardback edition) 978-1-912702-15-2 (PDF edition) 978-1-912702-16-9 (.epub edition) 978-1-912702-17-6 (.mobi edition) This publication has been made possible by a grant received from the late Miss Isobel Thornley’s bequest to the University of London.