Stability-Based Sorting: the Forgotten Process Behind (Not Only) Biological Evolution
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Scientist Jaroslav Flegr on the Resurgence of Covid-19
Scientist Jaroslav Flegr on the resurgence of Covid-19 Scientist Jaroslav Flegr on the resurgence of Covid-19 A lot more should have been done to prepare for what we’re seeing now Well-known evolutionary biologist and parasitologist Jaroslav Flegr, who teaches at CU’s Faculty of Science , anticipated in August that things weren’t going to go the way we hoped regarding the coronavirus. As of last week, cases jumped to record levels in the Czech Republic – a marked turnaround from the situation just a few months ago. Professor Flegr says there is still a “small window of opportunity” in which steps can be taken, where we can act to prevent infections from spiralling further out of control. But even in the best-case scenario, he says, we’re in for a long, tough winter. Compiled Sep 18, 2020 2:13:41 PM by Document Globe ® 1 Compiled Sep 18, 2020 2:13:41 PM by Document Globe ® 2 A lot of people thought back in May that the worst was behind us and that we had “won”. Was it a win? It was not and at the time I believed that our institutions and people involved in fighting Covid-19 knew it. That we had not won but gained a bit of time, a reprieve, by adhering to tough lockdown measures. I also thought it was more than apparent that the moment we started lifting measures, that the virus would come back. It’s a mistake that politicians and institutions did not warn people more that the problem was not over and that more – even after considerable financial sacrifice - would be required. -
Print Special Issue Flyer
IMPACT FACTOR 3.492 an Open Access Journal by MDPI Effects of Toxoplasma gondii Infection on Human Behaviour Guest Editor: Message from the Guest Editor Prof. Dr. Jaroslav Flegr This Special Issue welcomes contributions (original papers, 1. Department of Biology, Faculty meta-analytic studies, and reviews) on any of the of Science, Charles University, aforementioned aspects of the effects of latent 128 44 Prague, Czech Republic 2. Department of Applied toxoplasmosis on the behavior, personality, performance, Neurosciences and Brain cognition, and mental health, of humans and other Imagination, National Institute of primates. Mental Health, 250 67 Klecany, Czech Republic [email protected] Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2021 mdpi.com/si/74330 SpeciaIslsue IMPACT FACTOR 3.492 an Open Access Journal by MDPI Editor-in-Chief Message from the Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Lawrence S. Young The worldwide impact of infectious disease is incalculable. Warwick Medical School, The consequences for human health in terms of morbidity University of Warwick, Coventry, and mortality are obvious and vast but, when infections of UK animals and plants are also taken into account, it is hard to imagine any other disease that has such a significant impact on our lives—on healthcare systems, on agriculture and on world economics. Pathogens is proud to continue to serve the international community by publishing high quality studies that further our understanding of infection and have meaningful consequences for disease intervention. Author Benefits Open Access:— free for readers, with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions. High Visibility: indexed within Scopus, SCIE (Web of Science), PubMed, PMC, Embase, AGRICOLA, CaPlus / SciFinder, and many other databases. -
Peter D. Ward – Curriculum Vitae Born May 12, 1949, Seattle Washington, USA Married, Two Children
1 Peter D. Ward – Curriculum Vitae Born May 12, 1949, Seattle Washington, USA Married, two children 1. Education B.S., 1971 Interdisciplinary Studies (Paleoecology), University of Washington, Seattle M.S., 1973 Geology, University of Washington, Seattle Ph.D., 1976 Geology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Employment 1976-1978 Assistant Professor, Department of Geology, Ohio State University 1978-1981 Assistant Professor, Department of Geology, University of California, Davis 1981-1983 Associate Professor with Tenure, Department of Geology and Division of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Davis 1982 Visiting Scientist, Laboratoire Arago (C.N.R.S.), Banyuls, France 1984 Professor, Department of Geology, University of California, Davis 1985 Associate Professor, University of Washington 1986 Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Zoology, University of Washington 1989- 1996 Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology, Thomas Burke Memorial Museum, University of Washington 1991. Visiting Scientist, South African Museum 1992-1996 Chairman and Head, Division of Geology and Paleontology, Thomas Burke Memorial Museum, University of Washington 2000. Visiting Scientist, South African Museum 2001 – present, Adjunct Professor, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington 2003- present, Professor, Dept. of Biology, and Professor, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, The University of Washington 2007- Adjunct Curator, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of -
Gaia's Evil Twin: Is Life Its Own Worst Enemy? Page 1 of 5 Gaia's Evil Twin
Gaia's evil twin: Is life its own worst enemy? - life - 17 June 2009 - New Scientist Page 1 of 5 Home | Life | Environment | In-Depth Articles | Back to article Gaia's evil twin: Is life its own worst enemy? 17 June 2009 by Peter Ward Magazine issue 2713. Subscribe and save For similar stories, visit the Endangered Species and Evolution Topic Guides ADVERTISEMENT Interactive graphic: Medean extinctions throughout evolutionary history THE twin Viking landers that defied the odds to land on Mars in 1976 and 1977 had one primary goal: to find life. To the disappointment of nearly all concerned, the data they sent back was a sharp dash of cold water. The Martian surface was harsh and antibiotic and there was no sign of life. To two NASA scientists, James Lovelock and Dian Hitchcock, this came as no surprise - in fact, they would have been amazed to see Toxic gases and mass extinctions mean Earth isn't any evidence of life on Mars. A decade always life friendly (Image: Sarah Howell) before Viking, Lovelock and Hitchcock, both Enlarge image atmospheric scientists, had used observations of the Martian atmosphere to 1 more image deduce that there could be no life on the planet. From their research arose one of the most influential, ground-breaking scientific ideas of the 20th century - the Gaia hypothesis, named after the ancient Greek goddess of the Earth, a nurturing "mother" of life. But is it correct? New scientific findings suggest that the nature of life on Earth is not at all like Gaia. If we were to choose a mythical mother figure to characterise the biosphere, it would more accurately be Medea, the murderous wife of Jason of the Argonauts. -
How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy
• SUBSCRIBE • RENEW • GIVE A GIFT • DIGITAL EDITION Print | Close How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy JAROSLAV FLEGR IS NO KOOK. AND YET, FOR YEARS, HE SUSPECTED HIS MIND HAD BEEN TAKEN OVER BY PARASITES THAT HAD INVADED HIS BRAIN. SO THE PROLIFIC BIOLOGIST TOOK HIS SCIENCE-FICTION HUNCH INTO THE LAB. WHAT HE’S NOW DISCOVERING WILL STARTLE YOU. COULD TINY ORGANISMS CARRIED BY HOUSE CATS BE CREEPING INTO OUR BRAINS, CAUSING EVERYTHING FROM CAR WRECKS TO SCHIZOPHRENIA? By Kathleen McAuliffe NO ONE WOULD accuse Jaroslav Flegr of being a conformist. A self-described “sloppy dresser,” the 53-year-old Czech scientist has the contemplative air of someone habitually lost in thought, and his still-youthful, square-jawed face is framed by frizzy red hair that encircles his head like a ring of fire. Certainly Flegr’s thinking is jarringly unconventional. Starting in the early 1990s, he began to suspect that a single-celled parasite in the protozoan family was subtly manipulating his personality, causing him to behave in strange, often self-destructive ways. And if it was messing with his mind, he reasoned, it was probably doing the same to others. The parasite, which is excreted by cats in their feces, is called Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii or Toxo for short) and is the microbe that causes toxoplasmosis—the reason pregnant women are told to avoid cats’ litter boxes. Since the 1920s, doctors have recognized that a woman who becomes infected during pregnancy can transmit the disease to the fetus, in some cases resulting in severe brain damage or death. -
This Article Appeared in a Journal Published by Elsevier. the Attached
This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues. Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier’s archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: http://www.elsevier.com/copyright Author's personal copy Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 299 (2011) 110–128 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/palaeo Ecology and evolution of Devonian trees in New York, USA Gregory J. Retallack a,⁎, Chengmin Huang b a Department of Geological Sciences, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA b Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Sichuan, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, China article info abstract Article history: The first trees in New York were Middle Devonian (earliest Givetian) cladoxyls (?Duisbergia and Wattieza), Received 16 January 2010 with shallow-rooted manoxylic trunks. Cladoxyl trees in New York thus postdate their latest Emsian evolution Received in revised form 17 September 2010 in Spitzbergen. Progymnosperm trees (?Svalbardia and Callixylon–Archaeopteris) appeared in New York later Accepted 29 October 2010 (mid-Givetian) than progymnosperm trees from Spitzbergen (early Givetian). Associated paleosols are Available online 5 November 2010 evidence that Wattieza formed intertidal to estuarine mangal and Callixylon formed dry riparian woodland. -
Positive Effects of Multiple Gene Control on the Spread of Altruism by Group Selection Tomáš Kulich, Jaroslav Flegr
Positive effects of multiple gene control on the spread of altruism by group selection Tomáš Kulich, Jaroslav Flegr To cite this version: Tomáš Kulich, Jaroslav Flegr. Positive effects of multiple gene control on the spread ofal- truism by group selection. Journal of Theoretical Biology, Elsevier, 2011, 284 (1), pp.1. 10.1016/j.jtbi.2011.05.017. hal-00720864 HAL Id: hal-00720864 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00720864 Submitted on 26 Jul 2012 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Author’s Accepted Manuscript Positive effects of multiple gene control on the spread of altruism by group selection Tomáš Kulich, Jaroslav Flegr PII: S0022-5193(11)00259-1 DOI: doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2011.05.017 Reference: YJTBI6481 To appear in: Journal of Theoretical Biology www.elsevier.com/locate/yjtbi Received date: 21 July 2010 Revised date: 10 May 2011 Accepted date: 11 May 2011 Cite this article as: Tomáš Kulich and Jaroslav Flegr, Positive effects of multiple gene control on the spread of altruism by group selection, Journal of Theoretical Biology, doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2011.05.017 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. -
The Cronus Hypothesis – Extinction As a Necessary and Dynamic Balance to Evolutionary Diversification
The Cronus hypothesis – extinction as a necessary and dynamic balance to evolutionary diversification Corey J. A. Bradshaw1,2 and Barry W. Brook1 1The Environment Institute and School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia 2South Australian Research and Development Institute, P.O. Box 120, Henley Beach, South Australia 5022, Australia [email protected]; [email protected] Abstract The incredible diversity of life on Earth veils the tumultuous history of biodiversity loss over deep time. Six mass extinction events since the Cambrian species explosion (including the current Anthropocene), and many smaller extinction spasms, have terminated 99 % of all species that have ever existed. Evolution and extinction, as universal processes, have been unified previously under James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, and most recently, under Peter Ward’s Medea hypothesis. Gaia (the Greek Earth mother) posits that life on Earth functions like a single, self-regulating organism, whereas Medea (siblicidal wife of Jason of the Argonauts) describes instead a self-destructive feedback where life ‘seeks’ to destroy itself. We argue that these contrasting views are actually extremes of a scale-invariant stability-entropy spectrum of speciation and extinction for all life on Earth, much as the abundance and stability of a metapopulation of an individual species is the emergent property of births, deaths and migration. In this context, we propose a new metaphor called the Cronus hypothesis (patricidal son of Gaia) to explain how these processes can be quantified with existing mathematical tools and so be used to describe the ebb and flow of life on Earth along a thermodynamic spectrum. -
A Closer Look at Toxoplasma Gondii Winner of the Barbara Banks
WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED IN: A Closer Look at Toxoplasma gondii Winner of the Barbara Banks Brodsky Prize for Excellence in Real World Writing Maggie Millner, Brown University 2013 Jaroslav Flegr teaches evolutionary biology at Charles University in Prague, where I visited him in September. In recent years, the parasitologist’s work has attracted increasing attention as the subject of numerous popular journal articles, new studies at places like Stanford and Imperial College London, and zombie apocalypse conspiracy theories. The more I learned about Flegr’s research, the more convinced I became that my body was playing host to a colony of sinister parasites. The more I needed to talk to him. Toxoplasma gondii, the parasite Flegr studies, is a protozoa that lives in cats, rats, birds, and other warm-blooded creatures. In most of these organisms, the parasite reproduces asexually by a process called endodyogeny, in which two daughter cells form inside, and then consume, a mother cell. But in cats—both domestic and wild—T. gondii can reproduce sexually. When infected cats defecate, they excrete microscopic cysts containing T. gondii zygotes. This means that if, like me, you’ve changed a litter-box or played in a neighborhood sandpit, you too could be carrying around a legion of cat-loving protists. What’s the big deal? After all, we’ve known for a long time that the vast majority of the cells in our bodies don’t belong, strictly, to us. Estimates from the National Institute of Health hold that our bodies’ nonhuman genes could outnumber our own by a factor of 100-to-one. -
Effects of Stress Or Infection on Rat Behavior Show
F1000Research 2017, 6:2097 Last updated: 17 MAY 2019 RESEARCH ARTICLE Effects of stress or infection on rat behavior show robust reversals due to environmental disturbance [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations] Samira Abdulai-Saiku*, Akshaya Hegde*, Ajai Vyas, Rupshi Mitra School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 637551, Singapore * Equal contributors First published: 06 Dec 2017, 6:2097 ( Open Peer Review v1 https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.13171.1) Latest published: 16 Jan 2018, 6:2097 ( https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.13171.2) Reviewer Status Abstract Invited Reviewers Background: The behavior of animals is intricately linked to the 1 2 environment; a relationship that is often studied in laboratory conditions by using environmental perturbations to study biological mechanisms underlying the behavioral change. version 2 report Methods: This study pertains to two such well-studied and well-replicated published perturbations, i.e., stress-induced anxiogenesis and Toxoplasma-induced 16 Jan 2018 loss of innate fear. Here, we demonstrate that behavioral outcomes of these experimental manipulations are contingent upon the ambient quality of the version 1 wider environment where animal facilities are situated. published report report Results: During late 2014 and early 2015, a building construction project 06 Dec 2017 started adjacent to our animal facility. During this phase, we observed that maternal separation stress caused anxiolysis, rather than historically Jaroslav Flegr , Charles University in observed anxiogenesis, in laboratory rats. We also found that Toxoplasma 1 infection caused an increase, rather than historically observed decrease, in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic innate aversion to predator odors in rats. -
Human Ethology Bulletin
Volume 25, Number 4 ISSN 0739‐2036 December 2010 Human Ethology Bulletin © 2010 − The International Society for Human Ethology – www.ISHE.org Contents BULLETIN STAFF & POLICIES 2 CALL FOR NOMINATIONS for ISHE Officers and Trustees 3 2011 SUMMER INSTITUTE IN HUMAN ETHOLOGY by Tom Alley 4 BOOK REVIEWS 5 Catherine S. Reeve reviews Frozen Evolution: Or that’s not the way it is, Mr. Darwin by Jaroslav Flegr Peter LaFreniere reviews The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, Emotion, Mind by Melvin Konner Amy E. Steffes reviews How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like by Paul Bloom EXPANDED CALL FOR PAPERS for The Human Ethology Bulletin as a peer‐reviewed journal 14 NEW BOOKS by Amy Steffes and Shiloh Betterley 17 CURRENT LITERATURE by Johan van der Dennen 18 BACK ISSUES and ADDRESS CHANGES 21 MINUTES: Meeting of the ISHE General Assembly by Maryanne Fisher 22 ANNOUNCEMENTS 24 UPCOMING CONFERENCES by Amy Steffes and Shiloh Betterley 25 2010 OWEN ALDIS AWARDS by John Richer 26 Membership & Subscriptions 27 IMPORTANT: This is the LAST ISSUE of the Human Ethology Bulletin to be distributed in hard (paper) copy over regular post. All future copies will be distributed electronically over email. If you currently receive paper copies, please be sure the Membership Chair [Astrid Juette at [email protected]] has your email address 2 Human Ethology Bulletin, 25(4), 2010 Bulletin Policies Editorial Staff Submissions. All items of interest to ISHE members EDITOR-IN-CHIEF are welcome, including articles, responses to articles, Aurelio José Figueredo news about ISHE members, announcements of Department of Psychology meetings, journals or professional societies; etc. -
Prix Ig-Nobel
Prix Ig-Nobel 1 Le prix Ig Nobel (qui peut être prononcé Ignobel, car nommé ainsi par jeu de mots entre « prix Nobel » et l'adjectif « ignoble » en anglais ) est un prix parodique du prix Nobel décerné chaque année à dix recherches scientifiques qui paraissent insolites mais qui amènent secondairement à réfléchir. Prix Ig-Nobel L'objectif déclaré de ces prix est de « récompenser les réalisations qui font d'abord rire les gens, puis les font réfléchir ». Les prix sont également utilisés pour souligner que même les Organisateur The Annals of recherches paraissant absurdes peuvent apporter des connaissances utiles. Les lauréats sont tous volontaires pour recevoir le prix et aucun ne l'a refusé excepté Volkswagen (en Improbable Research 2016). Pays États-Unis Date de L'Ig Nobel est organisé par un magazine scientifique humoristique, le Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) ; les recherches sont présentées par un groupe qui comprend des 1991 création lauréats du prix Nobel lors d'une cérémonie au Sanders Theater de l'université Harvard, et, après l'attribution des prix, une série de conférences publiques est donnée par les 2 Site officiel (en)improbable.com (ht récipiendaires au Massachusetts Institute of Technology . tp://improbable.com) Sommaire Principe Critères Liste des prix Ig Nobel Prix décernés en 1991 Prix décernés en 1992 Prix décernés en 1993 Prix décernés en 1994 Prix décernés en 1995 Prix décernés en 1996 Prix décernés en 1997 Prix décernés en 1998 Prix décernés en 1999 Prix décernés en 2000 Prix décernés en 2001 Prix décernés en