Biology Transition to a Level
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Selfish Gene
THE SELFISH GENE Richard Dawkins is Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. Born in Nairobi of British parents, he was educated at Oxford and did his doctorate under the Nobel-prizewinning ethologist Niko Tin- bergen. From 1967 to 1969 he was an Assistant Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, returning as University Lecturer and later Reader in /oology at New College, Oxford, before becoming the first holder of the Simonyi Chair in 1995. He is a fellow of New College. The Selfish Gene (1976; second edition 1989) catapulted Richard Dawkins to fame, and remains his most famous and widely read work. It was followed by a string of bestselling books: The Extended Phenolype (1982), The Blind Watchmaker (1986), River Out of Eden (1995), Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), Unweaving the Rainbow (1998), and The Ancestor's Tale (2004). A Devil's Chaplain, a collection of his shorter writings, was published in 2003. Dawkins is a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature. He is the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including the 1987 Royal Society of Literature Award, the Los Angeles Times Literary Prize of the same year, the 1990 Michael Faraday Award of the Royal Society, the 1994 Nakayama Prize, the 1997 International Cosmos Prize for Achievement in Human Science, the Kistler Prize in 2001, and the Shakespeare Prize in 2005. This page intentionally left blank THE SELFISH GENE RICHARD DAWKINS OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS You scratch my back, I'll ride on yours 185 better than the suckers. -
The Thing Inside Each Organism That Is in Charge
Anatomy Physiology & Biochemistry International Journal Review Article Anatomy Physiol Biochem Int J Volume 1 Issue 1 - July 2016 Copyright © All rights are reserved by Julius Adler A Search for the Boss: The Thing inside Each Organism That Is in Charge *Julius Adler Departments of Biochemistry and Genetics, University of Wisconsin, USA Submission: April 20, 2016; Published: July 26, 2016 *Corresponding author: Julius Adler, Departments of Biochemistry and Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin53706, USA, Email: Abstract It is proposed that every organism is controlled by The Boss. The Boss is in charge of each organism’s behavior, metabolism, development, immune response, and reproduction. All organisms have perhaps the same Boss. This is an unknown mechanism. An example is behavior: in people and other primates, The Boss acts at the prefrontal cortex of the brain to direct the behavior of the organism by means of executive function. It is proposed that simpler versions of a prefrontal cortex occur also in other animals and in plants and in microorganisms. Thus The Boss directs the behavior of all organisms. Keywords: Executive Function; Global Regulators; Biochemistry; Neurobiology; Genetics; Bacteriology Introduction This has been a century of great accomplishments in the Behavior, Metabolism, Development, Immunological biological sciences. We have learned a vast amount of what Response, Reproduction organisms do and how they do it, all the way from microorganisms Behavior and its Control to plants to animals including humans. But the search for what Behavior in Humans and in other Primates: Starting in ties it all together (if anything) has been avoided and the answer the 1870’s it became apparent to some psychologists that there is unknown. -
Download What a Plant Knows a Field Guide to the Senses, Daniel Chamovitz
NEW CUSTOMER? START HERE. A captivating journey into the inner lives of plants – from the colours they see to the schedules they keep How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can a fern get jet lag? Do roses remember the romance of springtime? In What a Plant Knows, renowned biologist Daniel Chamovitz presents a beguiling exploration of how plants experience our shared Earth — in terms of sight, smell, touch, hearing, memory, and even awareness. Combining cutting-edge research with lively storytelling, he explains the intimate details of plant behaviour, from how a willow tree knows when its neighbours have been commandeered by an army of ravenous beetles to why an avocado ripens when you give it the company of a banana in a bag (it’s the pheromones). And he settles the debate over whether the beloved basil on your kitchen windowsill cares whether you play Led Zeppelin or Bach. Whether you are a green thumb, a science buff, a vegetarian, or simply a nature lover, this rare inside look at the life of plants will surprise and delight you. About the Author Daniel Chamovitz, PhD, is the director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv University. He grew up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and studied at Columbia University before DOWNLOAD PDF HERE receiving his PhD in genetics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been a visiting scientist at Yale University and at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and has lectured at universities worldwide. His research on plants and fruitflies has appeared in leading scientific journals. -
The God Delusion: a Worldview Analysis Bill Martin Cornerstone Church of Lakewood Ranch - August 6, 2008
The God Delusion: A Worldview Analysis Bill Martin Cornerstone Church of Lakewood Ranch - August 6, 2008 Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University “The God Delusion really marked the point where Dawkins transformed from the professor holding the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science to the celebrity fundamentalist atheist.” - Carl Packman, “An Evangelical Atheist” in New Statesman, 8.5.08 The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press, 1976 The Extended Phenotype, Oxford University Press, 1982 The Blind Watchmaker, W. W. Norton & Company, 1986 River out of Eden, Basic Books, 1995 Climbing Mount Improbable, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996 Unweaving the Rainbow, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998 A Devil's Chaplain, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003 The Ancestor's Tale, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004 The God Delusion, Bantam Books, 2006 / Bill’s edition: Mariner Books; 1 edition (January 16, 2008) Ad hominem - attacking an opponent's character rather than answering his argument Outline of Bill’s Talking Points 1. General Summary 2. Two Worldview Presuppositions 3. Personal Reflections and Lessons Resources: Books and Journals Aikman, David. The Delusion of Disbelief. Nashville: Tyndale House, 2008. McGrath, Alister. The Dawkins Delusion? Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2007. _______. Dawkins’ God: Genes, Memes and the Meaning of Life. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. Ganssle, Gregory E. “Dawkins’s Best Argument: The Case against God in The God Delusion,” Philosophia Christi , 2008,Volume 10, Number 1, pp. 39-56. Plantinga, Alvin. “The Dawkins Confusion,” Books & Culture, March/April 2007, Vol. 13, No. 2, Page 21. The Duomo Pieta (Florence, Italy) Reviews of The God Delusion “dogmatic, rambling and self-contradictory” - Andrew Brown in Prospect “he risks destroying a larger target”- Jim Holt in The New York Times “I'm forced, after reading his new book, to conclude he's actually more an amateur.” - H. -
Ending Jim Crow Life Insurance Rates Mary L
University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Law Faculty Publications School of Law 2009 Ending Jim Crow Life Insurance Rates Mary L. Heen University of Richmond, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/law-faculty-publications Part of the Civil Law Commons, Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, and the Insurance Law Commons Recommended Citation Mary L. Heen, Ending Jim Crow Life Insurance Rates, 4 Nw. J. L. & Soc. Pol'y. 360 (2009). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Law Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Copyright 2009 by Mary Heen Volume 4 (Fall 2009) Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy Ending Jim Crow Life Insurance Rates Mary L. Heen* How people count and measure embodies certain assumptions about the thing they are counting; this was true in the nineteenth century, and it is equally true today.' [E]ver since the 1880's, Negroes have been subject to differential treatment by white insurance companies in that some of them, at that time, started to apply higher premium schedules for Negro than for white customers, whereas others decided not to take on any Negro business at all. The underlying reason, of course, is the fact that mortality rates are 2 much higher for Negroes than for whites. [I]f the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin..3 I. -
Seminar 2020 Adams Seminar 2020 סמינר אדמס תש״ף
סמינר תש״ף | Seminar 2020 Adams Seminar 2020 סמינר אדמס תש״ף Guest Lecturer Prof. Daniel A. Chamovitz Professor of Plant Pathology President, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Editor Deborah Greniman Photographers Michal Fattal, Udi Katzman, Sasson Tiram Graphic Design Navi Katzman-Kaduri The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities P.O.Box 4040 Jerusalem 9104001 Tel 972-2-5676207 E-mail [email protected] www.adams.academy.ac.il The Adams Fellowships is a joint program of the late Mr. Marcel Adams of Canada and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Chartered by law in 1961, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities acts as a national focal point for Israeli scholarship in both the natural sciences and the humanities and social sciences. The Academy consists of approximately 135 of Israel’s most distinguished scientists and scholars, who, with the help of the Academy’s staff and committees, monitor and promote Israeli intellectual excellence, advise the government on scientific planning, fund and publish research of lasting merit, and maintain active contact with the broader international scientific and scholarly community. For more information, please send an e-mail to [email protected] or call 972-2-5676207. Visit our website: adams.academy.ac.il Adams Seminar 2020 | 3 The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities expresses its enduring appreciation for the legacy of Mr. Marcel Adams who passed away shortly after his 100th birthday. His generosity in promoting higher education in Israel lives on. Adams Fellowships Marcel Adams Hebrew-speaking philanthropist Marcel Adams, who escaped from a forced-labor camp in Romania in 1944, fought in Israel’s War of Independence and made his fortune in Montreal, has endowed the Adams Fellowship Program to support Israel’s brightest doctoral students in the natural and exact sciences each year. -
Cloning a Gene Coding for Norflurazon Resistance in Cyanobacteria
Cloning a Gene Coding for Norflurazon Resistance in Cyanobacteria Daniel Chamovitz, Iris Pecker, Gerhard Sandmann*, Peter Böger*, and Joseph Hirschberg Department of Genetics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel and * Lehrstuhl für Physiologie und Biochemie der Pflanzen. Universität Konstanz, D-7750 Konstanz, Bundesrepublik Deutschland Z. Naturforsch. 45c, 4 8 2 -4 8 6 (1990); received November 15, 1989 Norflurazon, Phytoene Dehydrogenase (= Phytoene Desaturase), Herbicide Resistance, Cyanobacteria, Gene Cloning The herbicide norflurazon inhibits carotene biosynthesis in photosynthetic organisms by blocking the enzyme phytoene dehydrogenase (= phytoene desaturase). We have isolated nor- flurazon-resistant mutants of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus PCC 7942. The herbicide- resistance gene from the mutant NFZ4 has been cloned by genetic complementation of the resistance trait in wild type cells. The experiment described here illustrates the usefulness of employing cyanobacteria to clone herbicide-resistance genes in a quick and simple way. Introduction Molecular description of carotenogenesis in Studies of herbicide-resistant plants have pro general, and of phytoene dehydrogenase in partic vided an insight on the mode of action of herbi ular has been lacking. Several of the genes in cides and on the biochemical and physiological volved in carotenogenesis have been cloned from properties of their target proteins. The develop Rhodobacter [6-8], among them the gene crtl ment of new techniques for DNA-mediated trans which encodes phytoene dehydrogenase. How formation of plants have paved the way to the pos ever, due to a large phylogenetic gap, this gene did sibility for genetic engineering of herbicide resist not hybridize with DNA from higher plants (J. ance in crop plants. -
Biology a Level
World class thinking. World class achieving. St Mary’s College BIOLOGY (EDEXCEL BIOLOGY A) Pre-course reading and guidance A LEVEL Biology WHY SHOULD I CHOOSE BIOLOGY? › Biology is a wonderful science that gives you the opportunity to go into many areas, with dentistry, veterinary science, medicine to name a few. The course is taught by members of staff that have a great deal of expertise in delivering the subject. The study of life itself, A level Biology explores the theories and principles involved in living systems, in all their intricate beauty. Topics you will learn about include: lifestyle, transport, genes and health, development, plants and the environment, the natural environment and species survival, energy, exercise and co-ordination, as well as practical biology and research skills. By the end of the course you will know about the principles of genetics, molecules, taxonomy, natural selection, evolutionary theory, global warming, bacteria and viruses, and more. WHAT IS THE COURSE STRUCTURE LIKE? › The course is a two year course. It consists of three exams. The exams are worth a total of 33% each. All exams will be taken at the end of your second year. There is no coursework. World class thinking. World class achieving. A LEVEL Biology Exams (sat in Y13) Weighting Paper Topics Time (hours) (%) Topic 1: Lifestyle, Health and Risk Topic 2: Genes and Health Topic 3: Voice of the Genome 1 33.3 2 Topic 4: Biodiversity and Natural Resources Topic 5: On the Wild Side Topic 6: Immunity, Infection and Forensics Topic 1: Lifestyle, Health and Risk Topic 2: Genes and Health Topic 3: Voice of the Genome 2 33.3 2 Topic 4: Biodiversity and Natural Resources Topic 7: Run for your Life Topic 8: Grey Matter Topic 1: Lifestyle, Health and Risk Topic 2: Genes and Health Topic 3: Voice of the Genome Topic 4: Biodiversity and Natural Resources 3 Topic 5: On the Wild Side 33.3 2 Topic 6: Immunity, Infection and Forensics Topic 7: Run for your Life Topic 8: Grey Matter Exam Syllabus for Biology: https://bit.ly/2xJ6bTw World class thinking. -
The Evolution of Landscape in Venetian Painting, 1475-1525
THE EVOLUTION OF LANDSCAPE IN VENETIAN PAINTING, 1475-1525 by James Reynolds Jewitt BA in Art History, Hartwick College, 2006 BA in English, Hartwick College, 2006 MA, University of Pittsburgh, 2009 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2014 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by James Reynolds Jewitt It was defended on April 7, 2014 and approved by C. Drew Armstrong, Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture Kirk Savage, Professor, History of Art and Architecture Jennifer Waldron, Associate Professor, Department of English Dissertation Advisor: Ann Sutherland Harris, Professor Emerita, History of Art and Architecture ii Copyright © by James Reynolds Jewitt 2014 iii THE EVOLUTION OF LANDSCAPE IN VENETIAN PAINTING, 1475-1525 James R. Jewitt, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2014 Landscape painting assumed a new prominence in Venetian painting between the late fifteenth to early sixteenth century: this study aims to understand why and how this happened. It begins by redefining the conception of landscape in Renaissance Italy and then examines several ambitious easel paintings produced by major Venetian painters, beginning with Giovanni Bellini’s (c.1431- 36-1516) St. Francis in the Desert (c.1475), that give landscape a far more significant role than previously seen in comparable commissions by their peers, or even in their own work. After an introductory chapter reconsidering all previous hypotheses regarding Venetian painters’ reputations as accomplished landscape painters, it is divided into four chronologically arranged case study chapters. -
DAWKINS: the GOD DELUSION the Criticism of Religion Which Has Become a Polemic Without Limits
DAWKINS: THE GOD DELUSION The Criticism of Religion which has Become a Polemic Without Limits JAVIER MONSERRAT Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Dawkins bases his criticism of the religious on the consideration that Darwinism eliminates all rationality regarding the belief in God. Another grand contemporary biologist, Michael Ruse, considers that Darwinism and Christianity are compatible. In his book, «Can a Darwinist be a Christian?», he responds affirmatively and offers us the following characterisation of the radicalism of Dawkins, from whom he differs radically, «He is a man who takes his atheism seriously, so much so that, in contrast, the grand Scottish philosopher of the XVIII century, David Hume (who was described memorably as “the greatest gift of God to the unbelievers”), seems moderate». The biologist Richard Dawkins holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the «Public Knowl- edge of Science», at the University of Oxford. He studied zoology at Oxford and, after accessing academic life, he soon began to stand out within the framework of Evolution- ary Biology. His fundamental contribution consisted of contributing to the theoretical interpretation of the genes in evolutionary selection, through what we could call a «gene- tic» reading of traditional Darwinism. These ideas can be followed through the books of reference: The Selfish Gene (1976) and The Extended Phenotype (1982). For Dawkins the genetic-evolutionary mechanism is interactive with the environment as the medium are the «genes». Among other things, he introduced the concept of «meme» for the first time, therefore, the idea of «memetics» (see Breaking the Spell by Daniel Dennett). Apart from his contributions to Theoretical Biology, Dawkins became famous for his work in the scientific divulgation of Darwinism and as a critic of religion. -
EMBO Awardees Reveal Blueprints for Success
NATURE|Vol 443|19 October 2006 THE CAREERS MAGAZINE FOR SCIENTISTS eeing fellow researchers receive awards for their endeavours offers an ideal time to study success and learn valuable lessons about how to guide your scientific career. The two medals given out in the past month by the SEuropean Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), based in Heidelberg, Germany, are no exception. The organization’s 2006 Award for Communication in the Life Sciences went to developmental geneticist Armand Marie Leroi of Imperial College London. Leroi’s success had its roots in his desire to spice up his lectures. When he discussed the connection between mutated fruitfly genes and disabilities in humans, his students “sat up and took notice — especially after snoozing through the 50th fly gene”, Leroi says. Inspired, Leroi sought out other connections between genetic mutations and human development, and brought them together in a book called Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body. A television producer saw a copy of the book’s manuscript and approached Leroi to make a programme, which was broadcast under the title Human Mutants. Although Leroi says he finds public communication of science “seductive”, he tries to stay “grounded” in his research on the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. “Ultimately communicating science isn’t more satisfying than doing science,” he says. Frank Uhlmann, winner of the 2006 EMBO Gold Medal, attributes much of his success to working in a number of different locations. Now based at Cancer Research UK in London, Uhlmann moved round six labs in Munich while doing his diploma in Germany. -
Meme (French Mème, German Mem), a Term Coined by Richard Dawkins
This is my (slightly revised) English translation of my article “Mem”, which appeared in: J. Mittelstraß (ed.), Enzyklopädie Philosophie und Wissenschaftstheorie, 2nd edn, vol. 5, Stuttgart/Weimar 2013, pp. 318–24. C.v.B. Meme (French mème, German Mem), a term coined by Richard Dawkins in analogy to “gene”, intended to desig- nate pieces of culture (‘units of cultural transmission’ or ‘units of imitation’; Dawkins 1976, p. 206) which are subject to a Darwinian process of evolution. 2 In The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Dawkins tries among Dawkins: Generalized theory of evolution other things to give a general characterization of the phe- nomenon of evolution by natural selection. This charac- terization is intended to be general in the sense that it is independent of particular ‘substrates’ like, say, organic molecules or (populations of) organisms. What is essential for the evolution of complex struc- Replicators tures by natural selection, according to Dawkins, is the existence of ‘replicators’, i.e., objects which (in a suitable environment) generate copies of themselves. Replicators which are better able to multiply than others consequently spread more strongly than these do. In view of the result- ing exponential growth (and the more so as the available resources of space, energy, materials etc. will ordinarily be limited) better replicators will, in the course of not too many copying-‘generations’, drive worse ones to numerical marginality or even obliteration. If such displacement of old variants by superior new ones takes place again and again over a protracted period of time, eventually replica- tors with extremely sophisticated mechanisms of action will hold the stage.