Genetic Drift Question
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A Timeline of Significant Events in the Development of North American Mammalogy
SpecialSpecial PublicationsPublications MuseumMuseum ofof TexasTexas TechTech UniversityUniversity NumberNumber xx66 21 Novemberxx XXXX 20102017 A Timeline of SignificantTitle Events in the Development of North American Mammalogy Molecular Biology Structural Biology Biochemistry Microbiology Genomics Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Computer Science Statistics Physical Chemistry Information Technology Mathematics David J. Schmidly, Robert D. Bradley, Lisa C. Bradley, and Richard D. Stevens Front cover: This figure depicts a chronological presentation of some of the significant events, technological breakthroughs, and iconic personalities in the history of North American mammalogy. Red lines and arrows depict the chronological flow (i.e., top row – read left to right, middle row – read right to left, and third row – read left to right). See text and tables for expanded interpretation of the importance of each person or event. Top row: The first three panels (from left) are associated with the time period entitled “The Emergence Phase (16th‒18th Centuries)” – Mark Catesby’s 1748 map of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, Thomas Jefferson, and Charles Willson Peale; the next two panels represent “The Discovery Phase (19th Century)” – Spencer Fullerton Baird and C. Hart Merriam. Middle row: The first two panels (from right) represent “The Natural History Phase (1901‒1960)” – Joseph Grinnell and E. Raymond Hall; the next three panels (from right) depict “The Theoretical and Technological Phase (1961‒2000)” – illustration of Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson’s theory of island biogeography, karyogram depicting g-banded chromosomes, and photograph of electrophoretic mobility of proteins from an allozyme analysis. Bottom row: These four panels (from left) represent the “Big Data Phase (2001‒present)” – chromatogram illustrating a DNA sequence, bioinformatics and computational biology, phylogenetic tree of mammals, and storage banks for a supercomputer. -
What the Modern Age Knew Piero Scaruffi 2004
A History of Knowledge Oldest Knowledge What the Jews knew What the Sumerians knew What the Christians knew What the Babylonians knew Tang & Sung China What the Hittites knew What the Japanese knew What the Persians knew What the Muslims knew What the Egyptians knew The Middle Ages What the Indians knew Ming & Manchu China What the Chinese knew The Renaissance What the Greeks knew The Industrial Age What the Phoenicians knew The Victorian Age What the Romans knew The Modern World What the Barbarians knew 1 What the Modern Age knew Piero Scaruffi 2004 1919-1945: The Age of the World Wars 1946-1968: The Space Age 1969-1999: The Digital Age We are not shooting enough professors An eye for an eye makes (Lenin’s telegram) the whole world blind. (Mahatma Gandhi) "Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist.” (George Orwell, 1942) "The size of the lie is a definite factor What good fortune for governments in causing it to be believed" that the people do not think (Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf") (Adolf Hitler) 2 What the Modern Age knew • Bibliography – Paul Kennedy: The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987) – Jacques Barzun: "From Dawn to Decadence" (2001) – Gregory Freeze: Russia (1997) – Andrzej Paczkowski: The Black Book of Communism (1999) – Peter Hall: Cities in Civilization (1998) – Edward Kantowicz: The World In The 20th Century (1999) – Paul Johnson: Modern Times (1983) – Sheila Jones: The Quantum Ten (Oxford Univ Press, 2008) – Orlando Figes: “Natasha's Dance - A Cultural History of Russia” (2003) 3 What the Modern Age knew • Bibliography – -
Theodosius Dobzhansky: a Man for All Seasons
GENERAL ARTICLE Theodosius Dobzhansky: A Man For All Seasons Francisco J Ayala In 1972, Theodosius Dobzhansky addressed the convention of Francisco J Ayala the National Association of Biology Teachers on the theme obtained his Ph D with Theodosius Dobzhansky "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolu in the 1960s and is tion". The title of that address (published in The American presently the Donald Bren Biology Teacher, Vol. 35, pp. 125-129) might serve as an epigram Professor of Biological of Dobzhansky's worldview and life, although it is limited in Sciences at the University of California, Irvine and a scope, for Dobzhansky believed and propounded that the impli member of President cations of biological evolution reach much beyond biology into Clinton's Committee of philosophy, sociology, and even socio-political issues. The Advisors on Science and place of biological evolution in human thought was, according Technology. He is a member of the U S to Dobzhansky, best expressed in a passage that he often quoted National Academy of from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: "(Evolution) is a general Sciences and has been postulate to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must President and Chairman hence forward bow and which they must satisfy in order to be of the Board of the American Association for thinkable and true. Evolution is a light which illuminates all the Advancement of facts, a trajectory which all lines of thought must follow - this is Science. He has worked what evolution is". extensively on the population ecology and The Modern Synthesis of Evolutionary Theory evolutionary genetics of Drosophila species. -
Karl Jordan: a Life in Systematics
AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF Kristin Renee Johnson for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History of SciencePresented on July 21, 2003. Title: Karl Jordan: A Life in Systematics Abstract approved: Paul Lawrence Farber Karl Jordan (1861-1959) was an extraordinarily productive entomologist who influenced the development of systematics, entomology, and naturalists' theoretical framework as well as their practice. He has been a figure in existing accounts of the naturalist tradition between 1890 and 1940 that have defended the relative contribution of naturalists to the modem evolutionary synthesis. These accounts, while useful, have primarily examined the natural history of the period in view of how it led to developments in the 193 Os and 40s, removing pre-Synthesis naturalists like Jordan from their research programs, institutional contexts, and disciplinary homes, for the sake of synthesis narratives. This dissertation redresses this picture by examining a naturalist, who, although often cited as important in the synthesis, is more accurately viewed as a man working on the problems of an earlier period. This study examines the specific problems that concerned Jordan, as well as the dynamic institutional, international, theoretical and methodological context of entomology and natural history during his lifetime. It focuses upon how the context in which natural history has been done changed greatly during Jordan's life time, and discusses the role of these changes in both placing naturalists on the defensive among an array of new disciplines and attitudes in science, and providing them with new tools and justifications for doing natural history. One of the primary intents of this study is to demonstrate the many different motives and conditions through which naturalists came to and worked in natural history. -
Representatives and Committees of the Society
REPRESENTATIVES AND COMMITTEES OF THE SOCIETY Representatives of the Society in the Division of Physical Sciences of the National Research Council: 1944-1945—Marston Morse, M. H. Stone, Warren Weaver. 1945-1946—A. B. Coble, G. A. Hedlund, Saunders MacLane, Marston Morse, Oswald Veblen, Warren Weaver. 1946-1947—A. B. Coble, Saunders MacLane, John von Neumann, M. H. Stone, Oswald Veblen, Warren Weaver. 1947-1948—R. V. Churchill, M. R. Hestenes, Saunders MacLane, John von Neu mann, M. H. Stone, Oswald Veblen. Representatives on the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: 1945—R. P. Agnew, M. R. Hestenes. 1946—Philip Franklin, C. V. Newsom. 1947—Solomon Lefschetz, G. T. Whyburn. Representatives on the Editorial Board of the Annals of Mathematics: K. 0. Friedrichs, Norman Levinson, R. L. Wilder. Representatives on the Editorial Board of the Duke Mathematical Journal: F. J. Murray, Morgan Ward. Representative on the American Year Book: G. T. Whyburn. Liaison Officer in Connection with Editorial Management of Quarterly of Applied Mathematics: Einar Hille. Colloquium Speakers: 1944—Einar Hille. 1946—Hassler Whitney. 1945—Tibor Rado. 1947—Oscar Zariski. Committee to Select Gibbs Lecturers for 1946 and 1947: L. M. Graves (Chairman), G. A. Hedlund, S. S. Wilks. Gibbs Lecturers: 1923—M. I. Pupin. 1930—E. B. Wilson. 1939—Theodore von Kârmân. 1924—Robert Henderson. 1931—P. W. Bridgman. 1941—Sewall Wright. 1925—James Pierpont. 1932—R. C. Tolman. 1943—Harry Bateman. 1926—H. B. Williams. 1934—Albeit Einstein. 1944—John von Neumann. 1927-E. W. Brown. 1935—Vannevar Bush. 1945—J. C. Slater. 1928—G. -
The 2 Fundamental Questions: Linneaus and Kirchner
2/1/2011 The 2 fundamental questions: y Has evolution taken pp,lace, and if so, what is the Section 4 evidence? Professor Donald McFarlane y If evolution has taken place, what is the mechanism by which it works? Lecture 2 Evolutionary Ideas Evidence for evolution before Darwin Golden Age of Exploration y Magellan’s voyage –1519 y John Ray –University of y Antonius von Leeuwenhoek ‐ microbes –1683 Cambridge (England) y “Catalog of Cambridge Plants” – 1660 –lists 626 species y 1686 –John Ray listing thousands of plant species! y In 1678, Francis Willoughby publishes “Ornithology” Linneaus and Kirchner Athenasius Kircher ~ 1675 –Noah’s ark Carl Linneaus – Sistema Naturae ‐ 1735 Ark too small!! Uses a ‘phenetic” classification – implies a phylogenetic relationship! 300 x 50 x 30 cubits ~ 135 x 20 x 13 m 1 2/1/2011 y Georges Cuvier 1769‐ 1832 y “Fixity of Species” Evidence for Evolution –prior to 1830 • Enormous diversity of life –WHY ??? JBS Haldane " The Creator, if He exists, has "an inordinate fondness for beetles" ". Evidence for Evolution –prior to 1830 Evidence for Evolution –prior to 1830 y The discovery of variation. y Comparative Anatomy. Pentadactyl limbs Evidence for Evolution –prior to Evidence for Evolution –prior to 1830 1830 y Fossils – homologies with living species y Vestigal structures Pentadactyl limbs !! 2 2/1/2011 Evidence for Evolution –prior to 1830 Evidence for Evolution –prior to 1830 y Invariance of the fossil sequence y Plant and animal breeding JBS Haldane: “I will give up my belief in evolution if someone finds a fossil rabbit in the Precambrian.” Charles Darwin Jean Baptiste Lamark y 1744‐1829 y 1809 –1882 y Organisms have the ability to adapt to their y Voyage of Beagle 1831 ‐ 1836 environments over the course of their lives. -
What Is a Species, and What Is Not? Ernst Mayr Philosophy of Science
What Is a Species, and What Is Not? Ernst Mayr Philosophy of Science, Vol. 63, No. 2. (Jun., 1996), pp. 262-277. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8248%28199606%2963%3A2%3C262%3AWIASAW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H Philosophy of Science is currently published by The University of Chicago Press. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/journals/ucpress.html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org Tue Aug 21 14:59:32 2007 WHAT IS A SPECIES, AND WHAT IS NOT?" ERNST MAYRT I analyze a number of widespread misconceptions concerning species. -
Darwin's Big Problem and Mendelian Genetics
Introduction to Biological Anthropology: Notes 7 Darwin’s big problem and Mendelian genetics Copyright Bruce Owen 2011 − Darwin’s big problem − We have seen that natural selection works by favoring the most successful variants among the individuals in a population − it only works if individuals vary in ways that affect their survival and reproduction − offspring must be similar to their parents, but not exactly the same − if offspring were identical to their parents, they would be identical to each other, and there would be no “more successful” and “less successful” individuals for natural selection to pick from − so there could be no change in the next generation: no evolution − Darwin had no good explanation for why offspring resemble parents, but also vary − he knew that this was a big gap in his theory − The prevalent idea of inheritance in Darwin’s time was blending inheritance − blending inheritance holds that the characteristics of offspring are mixtures of the characteristics of their parents − the idea was that the material from the two parents that controlled inherited characteristics blended like two colors of paint − this is a reasonable approximation, based on everyday experience − so, every mating should produce offspring that are intermediate between the parents − for example, if a six-foot man mates with a five-foot woman… − then the offspring should all be between five and six feet tall − no offspring are expected to be more extreme than either parent − there are two huge problems with the blending model of inheritance − First, it obviously isn't true − lots of parents have children who are taller, or shorter, than both of the parents − many kids have traits like hair color, eye color, etc. -
On Darwin's and Mendel's Concepts and Methods in Heredity
J Gen Philos Sci (2010) 41:31–58 DOI 10.1007/s10838-010-9122-0 ARTICLE Gemmules and Elements: On Darwin’s and Mendel’s Concepts and Methods in Heredity Ute Deichmann Published online: 10 June 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract Inheritance and variation were a major focus of Charles Darwin’s studies. Small inherited variations were at the core of his theory of organic evolution by means of natural selection. He put forward a developmental theory of heredity (pangenesis) based on the assumption of the existence of material hereditary particles. However, unlike his proposition of natural selection as a new mechanism for evolutionary change, Darwin’s highly speculative and contradictory hypotheses on heredity were unfruitful for further research. They attempted to explain many complex biological phenomena at the same time, disregarded the then modern developments in cell theory, and were, moreover, faithful to the widespread conceptions of blending and so-called Lamarckian inheritance. In contrast, Mendel’s approaches, despite the fact that features of his ideas were later not found to be tenable, proved successful as the basis for the development of modern genetics. Mendel took the study of the transmission of traits and its causes (genetics) out of natural history; by reducing complexity to simple particulate models, he transformed it into a scientific field of research. His scientific approach and concept of discrete elements (which later gave rise to the notion of discrete genes) also contributed crucially to the explanation of the existence of stable variations as the basis for natural selection. Keywords Variations Á Discreteness Á Gradualism Á Statistical laws Á Chance Á Blending inheritance Á Soft inheritance Á Pangenesis Á Mendel Á Darwin 1 Introduction The emergence of the science of genetics began as a result of the fruitful application of both the research methods and the concept of discrete ‘‘elements’’ (which later gave rise to the concept of discrete genes) developed by Mendel around 150 years ago. -
Motoo Kimura (1924-1994)
Motoo Kimura (1924-1994) OR decades the field of mathematical population prize-winners. When our textbook (CROW and KIMURA F genetics and evolutionary theory was dominated 1970) was published, he used his royalties to build a by the three pioneers,J. B. S. HALDANE,R. A. FISHER, tiny greenhouse attached to his home. Every Sunday and SEM'A1.L. WRIGHT.M'ith WRIGI-IT'Sdeath (CROW was orchid day. He used his artistic talent to paint pic- 1988), and for some time before, the leadingsuccessor tures of his favorite flowers, usually on chinaware. to this great heritage was MOTOO KIMURA.Although From age 17 to 19 KIMURA was in high school, where best known for his daring neutral theory of molecular a friendly and scientifically literate teacher encouraged evolution, a concept of great interest andequally great his study of chromosome morphology, and hebecame controversy, he is admired by populationgeneticists a plant cytogeneticist. At that time, cytogenetics was even more forhis deep contributions to the mathemati- very popular in Japan,and he joined thearmy of chro- cal theory. mosome watchers. During this period he was also fasci- MOTOO KIMURA was born November 13,1924 in Oka- nated by a physics course. HIDEKIYUKAWA, later to win zaki, Japan. He diedNovember 13, 1994, on theseventi- the Nobel Prize for predicting the meson, became his eth anniversary of his birth. For some timehe had been scientific hero, and KIMURA began to take an interest a victim of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and was pro- in mathematics as the language of science. gressively weakening. Nevertheless, his death was acci- Japan was then in themidst of World War 11, and the dental. -
Looking in the Right Direction
REVIEW REVIEW RNA Biology 11:3, 1–6; March 2014; © 2014 Landes Bioscience Looking in the right direction Carl Woese and evolutionary biology Nigel Goldenfeld I nstitute for Universal Biology; Institute for Genomic Biology, and Department of Physics; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Urbana, IL USA Carl Woese is known to the scientific community primarily So began a scientific partnership and friendship that lasted through his landmark contributions to microbiology, in par- more than a decade until his death. During that time, we met ticular, his discovery of the third Domain of Life, which came to nearly every day and talked on the phone or via email other- be known as the Archaea. While it is well known how he made wise. Looking back at these fragments of correspondence, it is this discovery, through the techniques he developed based on remarkable to note how much of our future trajectory was set in his studies of rRNA, the reasons why he was driven in this scien- those initial exchanges. Carl had indeed set his sights on a goal tific direction, and what he saw as the principle outcome of his of making biology a quantitative science with roots in complex discovery—it was not the Archaea!—are not so widely appre- dynamical systems, but his enlisting a theoretical physicist to his ciated. In this essay, I discuss his vision of evolution, one which distribute. transcends population genetics, and which has ramifications cause was more than a way to help create a new breed of biolo- not only for our understanding of the origin of life on Earth and gist—one with better math skills. -
The Nature of Inheritance
I THE NATURE OF INHERITANCE The consequences of the blending theory, as drawn by Darwin. Difficulties felt by Darwin. Particulate inheritance. Conservation of the variance. Theories of evolution worked by mutations. Is all inheritance particulate ? Nature and frequency of observed mutations. But at present, after drawing up a rough copy on this subject, my conclusion is that external conditions do extremely little, except in causing mere variability. This mere variability (causing the child not closely to resemble its parent) I look at as very different from the formation of a marked variety or new species. DARWIN, 1856. (Life and Letters, ii, 87.) As Samuel Butler so truly said: 'To me it seems that the "Origin of " Variation ", whatever it is, is the only true Origin of Species 'V w. BATESON, 1909. The consequences of the blending theory THAT Charles Darwin accepted the fusion or blending theory of inheritance, just as all men accept many of the undisputed beliefs of their time, is universally admitted. That his acceptance of this theory had an important influence on his views respecting variation, and consequently on the views developed by himself and others on the possible causes of organic evolution, was not, I think, apparent to himself, nor is it sufficiently appreciated in our own times. In the course of the present chapter I hope to make clear the logical con- sequences of the blending theory, and to show their influence, not only on the development of Darwin's views, but on the change of attitude towards these, and other suppositions, necessitated by the acceptance of the opposite theory of particulate inheritance.