carbon isotope ratio: A measure of the proportion of the carbon-14 isotope to the carbon-12 isotope. Living material contains carbon-14 and carbon-12 in the same proportions as exists in the atmosphere. When an organism dies, however, it no longer takes up carbon from the atmosphere, and the carbon-14 it contains decays to nitrogen-14 at a constant rate. By measuring thecarbon-14-to-carbon-12 ratio in a fossil or organic artifact, its age can be determined, a method called radiocarbon dating. Because most carbon-14 will have decayed after 50,000 years, the carbon isotope ratio is mainly useful for dating fossils and artifacts younger than this. It cannot be used to determine the age of Earth, for example.
carnivorous: Feeding largely or exclusively on meat or other animal tissue.
Carroll, Sean: Developmental geneticist with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. From the large-scale changes that distinguish major animal groups to the finely detailed color patterns on butterfly wings, Dr. Carroll's research has centered on those genes that create the "molecular blueprint" for body pattern and play major roles in the origin of new features. Coauthor, with Jennifer Grenier and ScottWeatherbee, of From DNA to Diversity: Molecular Genetics and the Evolution of Animal Design.
Carson, Rachel: A scientist and writer fascinated with the workings of nature. Her best-known publication, Silent Spring, was written over the years 1958 to1962. The book looks at the effects of insecticides and pesticides on song bird populations throughout the United States. The publication helped set off a wave of environmental legislation and galvanized the emerging ecological movement.
Castle, W.E.: An early experimental geneticist, his 1901 paper was the first on Mendelism in America. His Genetics of Domestic Rabbits, published in 1930 by Harvard University Press, covers such topics as the genes involved in determining the coat colors of rabbits and associated mutations.
cell: The basic structural and functional unit of most living organisms. Cell size varies, but most cells are microscopic. Cells may exist as independent units of life, as in bacteria and protozoans, or they may form colonies or tissues, as in all plants and animals. Each cell consists of a mass of protein material that is differentiated into cytoplasm and nucleoplasm, which contains DNA. The cell is enclosed by a cell membrane, which in the cells of plants,f ungi, algae, and bacteria is surrounded by a cell wall. There are two main types of cell, prokaryotic and eukaryotic.
Cenozoic: The era of geologic time from 65 mya to the present, a time when the modern continents formed and modern animals and plants evolved.
centromere: A point on a chromosome that is involved in separating the copies of the chromosome produced during cell division. During this division, paired chromosomes look somewhat like an X, and the centromere is the constriction in the center.
cephalopod: Cephalopods include squid, octopi, cuttlefish, and chambered nautiluses. They are mollusks with tentacles and move by forcing water through their bodies like a jet.
character: Any recognizable trait, feature, or property of an organism. In phylogenetic studies, a character is a feature that is thought to vary independantly of other features, and to be derived from a corresponding feature in a common ancestor of the organisms being studied. A "character state" is one of the possible alternative conditions of the character. For example, "present" and "absent" are two states of the character "hair" in mammals. Similarly, a particular position in a DNA sequence is a character, and A, T, C, and G are its possible states (see bases.)
character displacement: The increased difference between two closely related species where they live in the same geographic region (sympatry) as compared with where they live in different geographic regions (allopatry). Explained by the relative influences of intra- and inter-specific competition in sympatry and allopatry.
chloroplast: A structure (or organelle) found in some cells of plants; its function is photosynthesis.
cholera: An acute infectious disease of the small intestine, caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae which is transmitted in drinking water contaminated by feces of a patient. After an incubation period of 1-5 days, cholera causes severe vomiting and diarrhea, which, if untreated, leads to dehydration that can be fatal.
chordate: A member of the phylum Chordata, which includes the tunicates, lancelets, and vertebrates. They are animals with a hollow dorsal nerve cord; arodlike notochord that forms the basis of the internal skeleton; and paired gill slits in the wall of the pharynx behind the head, although in some chordates these are apparent only in early embryonic stages. All vertebrates are chordates, but the phylum also contains simpler types, such as sea-squirts, in which only the free-swimming larva has a notochord.
chromosomal inversion: See inversion.
chromosome: A structure in the cell nucleus that carries DNA. At certain times in the cell cycle, chromosomes are visible as string-like entities. Chromosomes consist of the DNA with various proteins, particularly histones, bound to it.
chronology: The order of events according to time.
Clack, Jenny: A paleontologist at Cambridge University in the U.K., Dr. Clack studies the origin, phylogeny, and radiation of early tetrapods and their relatives among the lobe-finned fish. She is interested in the timing and sequence of skeletal and other changes which occurred during the transition, and the origin and relationships of the diverse tetrapods of the late Paleozoic.
clade: A set of species descended from a common ancestral species. Synonym ofmonophyletic group.
cladism: Phylogenetic classification. The members of a group in a cladistic classification share a more recent common ancestor with one another than with the members of any other group. A group at any level in the classificatory hierarchy, such as a family, is formed by combining a subgroup at the next lowest level (the genus, in this case) with the subgroup or subgroups with which it shares its most recent common ancestor. Compare with evolutionary classification and phenetic classification.
cladistic species concept: The concept of species, according to which a species is a lineage of populations between two phylogenetic branch points (or speciation events). Compare with biological species concept, ecological species concept, phenetic species concept, and recognition species concept.
cladists: Evolutionary biologists who seek to classify Earth's life forms according to their evolutionary relationships, not just overall similarity.
cladogram: A branching diagram that illustrates hypotheses about the evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms. Cladograms can be considered as a special type of phylogenetic tree that concentrates on the order in which different groups branched off from their common ancestors. A cladogram branches like a family tree, with the most closely related species on adjacent branches.
class: A category of taxonomic classification between order and phylum, a class comprises members of similar orders. See taxon.
classification: The arrangement of organisms into hierarchical groups. Modern biological classifications are Linnaean and classify organisms into species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, and certain intermediate categoric levels. Cladism, evolutionary classification, and phenetic classification are three methods of classification.
cline: A geographic gradient in the frequency of a gene, or in the average valueof a character.
clock: See molecular clock.clone: A set of genetically identical organisms asexually reproduced from oneancestral organism. coadaptation: Beneficial interaction between (1) a number of genes at different loci within an organism, (2) different parts of an organism, or (3) organisms belonging to different species.
codon: A triplet of bases (or nucleotides) in the DNA coding for one amino acid. The relation between codons and amino acids is given by the genetic code. The triplet of bases that is complementary to a condon is called an anticodon; conventionally, the triplet in the mRNA is called the codon and the triplet in the tRNA is called the anticodon.
coelacanth: Although long thought to have gone extinct about 65 million years ago, one of these deep-water, lungless fish was caught in the 1930s. Others have since been caught and filmed in their natural habitat.
coevolution: Evolution in two or more species, such as predator and its prey or a parasite and its host, in which evolutionary changes in one species influence the evolution of the other species.
cognitive: Relating to cognition, the mental processes involved in the gathering, organization, and use of knowledge, including such aspects as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment. The term refers to any mental "behaviors" where the underlying characteristics are abstract in nature and involve insight, expectancy, complex rule use, imagery, use of symbols, belief, intentionality, problem-solving, and so forth.
common ancestor: The most recent ancestral form or species from which two different species evolved.
comparative biology: The study of patterns among more than one species.
comparative method: The study of adaptation by comparing many species. concerted evolution: The tendency of the different genes in a gene family to evolve in concert; that is, each gene locus in the family comes to have the same genetic variant.
conodont: A jawless fish that had tiny, tooth-like phosphate pieces that are abundant in the fossil record, these were the earliest known vertebrates.
continental drift: The process by which the continents move as part of large plates floating on Earth's mantle. See plate tectonics.
contrivance: An object or characteristic used or modified to do something different from its usual use.
convergence: The process by which a similar character evolves independently in two species. Also, a synonym for analogy; that is, an instance of a convergently evolved character, or a similar character in two species that was not present in their common ancestor. Examples include wings (convergent in birds, bats, and insects) and camera-type eyes (convergent in vertebrates and cephalopod mollusks).
convergent evolution: The evolution of species from different taxonomic groups toward a similar form; the development of similar characteristics by taxonomically different organisms.
Conway Morris, Simon: Paleobiologist and professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge University in the U.K. His research centers around the early evolution of the metazoans, and he is a leading authority on Cambrian and Precambrian fossils. Conway Morris established a link between the Ediacaran fossils, a Burgess Shale fernlike frond Thaumaptilon, and the modern seapens, colonial animals related to the corals.
Cope's rule: The evolutionary increase in body size over geological time in a lineage of populations.
coral (also, rugose coral, tabulate coral): These tiny animals make calcium carbonate skeletons that are well known as a key part of tropical reefs. The skeletons of the extinct rugose and tabulate corals are known from fossils.
cranium: The part of the skull that protects the brain in vertebrates.
creationism: The religious doctrine that all living things on Earth were createdseparately, in more or less their present form, by a supernatural creator, as stated in the Bible; the precise beliefs of different creationist groups vary widely. See separate creation.
creation science: An assortment of many different, non-scientific attempts to disprove evolutionary theory, and efforts to prove that the complexity of living things can be explained only by the action of an "intelligent designer."
Cretaceous: The final geological period of the Mesozoic era that began 144million years ago and ended 65 million years ago. The end of this period is defined most notably by the extinction of the dinosaurs in one of the largest mass extinctions ever to strike the planet.
crinoid: A marine invertebrate animal belonging to a class (Crinoidea; about 700species) of echinoderms, including sea lilies and feather stars. They have a small cup-shaped body covered with hard plates and five radiating pairs of feathery flexible arms surrounding the mouth at the top. Sea lilies, most of which are extinct, are fixed to the sea bottom or some other surface such as a reef by a stalk. Feather stars are free-swimming and are usually found on rocky bottoms. Crinoids occur mainly in deep waters and feed on microscopic plankton and detritus caught by the arms and conveyed to the mouth. The larvae are sedentary. They arose in the Lower Ordovician (between 500 and 460 million years ago), and fossil crinoids are an important constituent of Palaeozoic limestones.
crossing over: The process during meiosis in which the chromosome of a diploid pair exchange genetic material, visible in the light microscope. At a genetic level, it produces recombination.
crustacean: A group of marine invertebrates with exoskeletons and several pairs of legs. They include shrimp, lobsters, crabs, amphipods (commonly known as "sand fleas"), and many more.
Currie, Cameron: A Canadian ecologist and recipient of the 2001 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Doctoral Prize for his research on the complex symbiotic relationship of fungus-growing ants, the fungi they cultivate, mutualistic bacteria that the ants carry on their bodies, and pathogens that attack the fungi.
cytoplasm: The region of a eukaryotic cell outside the nucleus.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Dictionary of Evolutionary Nomenclature - Letter B
bacteria: Tiny, single-celled, prokaryotic organisms that can survive in a wide variety of environments. Some cause serious infectious diseases in humans, other animals, and plants.
base: The DNA molecule is a chain of nucleotide units; each unit consists of a backbone made of a sugar and a phosphate group, with a nitrogenous base attached. The base in a unit is one of adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C),or thymine (T). In RNA, uracil (U) is used instead of thymine. A and G belong to the chemical class called purines; C, T, and U are pyrimidines.
Batesian mimicry: A kind of mimicry in which one non-poisonous species (the Batesian mimic) mimics another poisonous species.
belemnite: An extinct marine invertebrate that was related to squid, octopi, and chambered nautiluses. We know from the fossil record that belemnites were common in the Jurassic period and had bullet-shaped internal skeletons.
big bang theory: The theory that states that the universe began in a state of compression to infinite density, and that in one instant all matter and energy began expanding and have continued expanding ever since.
biodiversity (or biological diversity): A measure of the variety of life, biodiversity is often described on three levels. Ecosystem diversity describes the variety of habitats present; species diversity is a measure of the number of species and the number of individuals of each species present; genetic diversity refers to the total amount of genetic variability present.
bioengineered food: Food that has been produced through genetic modification using techniques of genetic engineering.
biogenetic law: Name given by Haeckel to recapitulation.
biogeography: The study of patterns of geographical distribution of plants and animals across Earth, and the changes in those distributions over time.
biological species concept: The concept of species, according to which a species is a set of organisms that can interbreed among each other. Compare with cladistic species concept, ecological species concept, phenetic species concept, and recognition species concept.
biometrics: The quantitative study of characters of organisms.
biosphere: The part of Earth and its atmosphere capable of sustaining life.
bipedalism: Of hominids, walking upright on two hind legs; more generally, using two legs for locomotion.
bivalve: A mollusk that has a two-part hinged shell. Bivalves include clams, oysters, scallops, mussels, and other shellfish.
Blackmore, Susan: A psychologist interested in memes and the theory of memetics, evolutionary theory, consciousness, the effects of meditation, and why people believe in the paranormal. A recent book, The Meme Machine, offers an introduction to the subject of memes.
blending inheritance: The historically influential but factually erroneous theory that organisms contain a blend of their parents' hereditary factors and pass that blend on to their offspring. Compare with Mendelian inheritance.
botanist: A scientist who studies plants.
brachiopod: Commonly known as "lamp shells," these marine invertebrates resemble bivalve mollusks because of their hinged shells. Brachiopods were at their greatest abundance during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras.
Brodie, Edmund D., III: A biologist who studies the causes and evolutionary implications of interactions among traits in predators and their prey. Much of his work concentrates on the coevolutionary arms race between newts that posess tetrodotoxin, one of the most potent known toxins, and the resistant garter snakes who prey on them.
Brodie, Edmund D., Jr.: A biologist recognized internationally for his work on the evolution of mechanisms in amphibians that allow them to avoid predators. These mechanisms include toxins carried in skin secretions, coloration, and behavior.
Bruner, Jerome: A psychologist and professor at Harvard and Oxford Universities, and a prolific author whose book, The Process of Education, encouraged curriculum innovation based on theories of cognitive development.
bryozoan: A tiny marine invertebrate that forms a crust-like colony; colonies ofbryozoans may look like scaly sheets on seaweed.
Burney, David: A biologist whose research has focused on endangered species, paleoenvironmental studies, and causes of extinction in North America, Africa, Madagascar, Hawaii, and the West Indies.
base: The DNA molecule is a chain of nucleotide units; each unit consists of a backbone made of a sugar and a phosphate group, with a nitrogenous base attached. The base in a unit is one of adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C),or thymine (T). In RNA, uracil (U) is used instead of thymine. A and G belong to the chemical class called purines; C, T, and U are pyrimidines.
Batesian mimicry: A kind of mimicry in which one non-poisonous species (the Batesian mimic) mimics another poisonous species.
belemnite: An extinct marine invertebrate that was related to squid, octopi, and chambered nautiluses. We know from the fossil record that belemnites were common in the Jurassic period and had bullet-shaped internal skeletons.
big bang theory: The theory that states that the universe began in a state of compression to infinite density, and that in one instant all matter and energy began expanding and have continued expanding ever since.
biodiversity (or biological diversity): A measure of the variety of life, biodiversity is often described on three levels. Ecosystem diversity describes the variety of habitats present; species diversity is a measure of the number of species and the number of individuals of each species present; genetic diversity refers to the total amount of genetic variability present.
bioengineered food: Food that has been produced through genetic modification using techniques of genetic engineering.
biogenetic law: Name given by Haeckel to recapitulation.
biogeography: The study of patterns of geographical distribution of plants and animals across Earth, and the changes in those distributions over time.
biological species concept: The concept of species, according to which a species is a set of organisms that can interbreed among each other. Compare with cladistic species concept, ecological species concept, phenetic species concept, and recognition species concept.
biometrics: The quantitative study of characters of organisms.
biosphere: The part of Earth and its atmosphere capable of sustaining life.
bipedalism: Of hominids, walking upright on two hind legs; more generally, using two legs for locomotion.
bivalve: A mollusk that has a two-part hinged shell. Bivalves include clams, oysters, scallops, mussels, and other shellfish.
Blackmore, Susan: A psychologist interested in memes and the theory of memetics, evolutionary theory, consciousness, the effects of meditation, and why people believe in the paranormal. A recent book, The Meme Machine, offers an introduction to the subject of memes.
blending inheritance: The historically influential but factually erroneous theory that organisms contain a blend of their parents' hereditary factors and pass that blend on to their offspring. Compare with Mendelian inheritance.
botanist: A scientist who studies plants.
brachiopod: Commonly known as "lamp shells," these marine invertebrates resemble bivalve mollusks because of their hinged shells. Brachiopods were at their greatest abundance during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras.
Brodie, Edmund D., III: A biologist who studies the causes and evolutionary implications of interactions among traits in predators and their prey. Much of his work concentrates on the coevolutionary arms race between newts that posess tetrodotoxin, one of the most potent known toxins, and the resistant garter snakes who prey on them.
Brodie, Edmund D., Jr.: A biologist recognized internationally for his work on the evolution of mechanisms in amphibians that allow them to avoid predators. These mechanisms include toxins carried in skin secretions, coloration, and behavior.
Bruner, Jerome: A psychologist and professor at Harvard and Oxford Universities, and a prolific author whose book, The Process of Education, encouraged curriculum innovation based on theories of cognitive development.
bryozoan: A tiny marine invertebrate that forms a crust-like colony; colonies ofbryozoans may look like scaly sheets on seaweed.
Burney, David: A biologist whose research has focused on endangered species, paleoenvironmental studies, and causes of extinction in North America, Africa, Madagascar, Hawaii, and the West Indies.
Dictionary of Evolutionary Nomenclature - Letter A
acquired trait: A phenotypic characteristic, acquired during growth and development, that is not genetically based and therefore cannot be passed on tothe next generation (for example, the large muscles of a weightlifter).
adaptation: Any heritable characteristic of an organism that improves itsability to survive and reproduce in its environment. Also used to describe theprocess of genetic change within a population, as influenced by naturalselection.
adaptive landscape: A graph of the average fitness of a population in relationto the frequencies of genotypes in it. Peaks on the landscape correspond togenotypic frequencies at which the average fitness is high, valleys to genotypicfrequencies at which the average fitness is low. Also called a fitness surface.
adaptive logic: A behavior has adaptive logic if it tends to increase the numberof offspring that an individual contributes to the next and following generations. If such a behavior is even partly genetically determined, it willtend to become widespread in the population. Then, even if circumstances changesuch that it no longer provides any survival or reproductive advantage, thebehavior will still tend to be exhibited -- unless it becomes positivelydisadvantageous in the new environment.
adaptive radiation: The diversification, over evolutionary time, of a species orgroup of species into several different species or subspecies that are typicallyadapted to different ecological niches (for example, Darwin's finches). The term can also be applied to larger groups of organisms, as in "the adaptive radiationof mammals."
adaptive strategies: A mode of coping with competition or environmentalconditions on an evolutionary time scale. Species adapt when succeedinggenerations emphasize beneficial characteristics.
agnostic: A person who believes that the existence of a god or creator and thenature of the universe is unknowable.
algae: An umbrella term for various simple organisms that contain chlorophyll(and can therefore carry out photosynthesis) and live in aquatic habitats and inmoist situations on land. The term has no direct taxonomic significance. Algae range from macroscopic seaweeds such as giant kelp, which frequently exceeds 30m in length, to microscopic filamentous and single-celled forms such asSpirogyra and Chlorella.
allele: One of the alternative forms of a gene. For example, if a genedetermines the seed color of peas, one allele of that gene may produce greenseeds and another allele produce yellow seeds. In a diploid cell there areusually two alleles of any one gene (one from each parent). Within a population there may be many different alleles of a gene; each has a unique nucleotidesequence.
allometry: The relation between the size of an organism and the size of any ofits parts. For example, an allometric relation exists b etween brain size andbody size, such that (in this case) animals with bigger bodies tend to havebigger brains. Allometric relations can be studied during the growth of a single organism, between different organisms within a species, or between organisms indifferent species.
allopatric speciation: Speciation that occurs when two or more populations of aspecies are geographically isolated from one another sufficiently that they donot interbreed.
allopatry: Living in separate places. Compare with sympatry.
amino acid: The unit molecular building block of proteins, which are chains of amino acids in a certain sequence. There are 20 main amino acids in the proteins of living things, and the properties of a protein are determined by its particular amino acid sequence.
amino acid sequence: A series of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins,usually coded for by DNA. Exceptions are those coded for by the RNA of certainviruses, such as HIV.
ammonoid: Extinct relatives of cephalopods (squid, octopi, and chamberednautiluses), these mollusks had coiled shells and are found in the fossil recordof the Cretaceous period.
amniotes: The group of reptiles, birds, and mammals. These all develop through an embryo that is enclosed within a membrane called an amnion. The amnion surrounds the embryo with a watery substance, and is probably an adaptation forbreeding on land.
amphibians: The class of vertebrates that contains the frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders. The amphibians evolved in the Devonian period (about 370 millionyears ago) as the first vertebrates to occupy the land. They have moist scaleless skin which is used to supplement the lungs in gas exchange. The eggs are soft and vulnerable to drying, therefore reproduction commonly occurs inwater. Amphibian larvae are aquatic, and have gills for respiration; they undergo metamorphosis to the adult form. Most amphibians are found in damp environments and they occur on all continents except Antarctica.
analogous structures: Structures in different species that look alike or performsimilar functions (e.g., the wings of butterflies and the wings of birds) that have evolved convergently but do not develop from similar groups ofembryological tissues, and that have not evolved from similar structures known to be shared by common ancestors. Contrast with homologous structures. Note: Therecent discovery of deep genetic homologies has brought new interest, new information, and discussion to the classical concepts of analogous andhomologous structures.
anatomy: (1) The structure of an organism or one of its parts. (2) The science that studies those structures.ancestral homology: Homology that evolved before the common ancestor of a set of species, and which is present in other species outside that set of species. Compare with derived homology.
anthropoid: A member of the group of primates made up of monkeys, apes, andhumans.
antibacterial: Having the ability to kill bacteria.
antibiotics: Substances that destroy or inhibit the growth of microorganisms, particularly disease-causing bacteria.
antibiotic resistance: A heritable trait in microorganisms that enables them tosurvive in the presence of an antibiotic.
aperture: Of a camera, the adjustable opening through which light passes to reach the film. The diameter of the aperture determines the intensity of light admitted. The pupil of a human eye is a self-adjusting aperture.
aquatic: Living underwater.
arboreal: Living in trees.
archeology: The study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of physical remains, such as graves, tools, pottery, andother artifacts.
archetype: The original form or body plan from which a group of organisms develops.
artifact: An object made by humans that has been preserved and can be studied tolearn about a particular time period.
artificial selection: The process by which humans breed animals and cultivate crops to ensure that future generations have specific desirable characteristics.In artificial selection, breeders select the most desirable variants in a plantor animal population and selectively breed them with other desirable individuals. The forms of most domesticated and agricultural species have been produced by artificial selection; it is also an important experimental technique for studying evolution.
asexual reproduction: A type of reproduction involving only one parent thatususally produces genetically identical offspring. Asexual reproduction occurs without fertilization or genetic recombination, and may occur by budding, by division of a single cell, or by the breakup of a whole organism into two or more new individuals.assortative mating: The tendency of like to mate with like. Mating can be assortative for a certain genotype (e.g., individuals with genotype AA tend tomate with other individuals of genotype AA) or phenotype (e.g., tall individualsmate with other tall individuals).
asteroid: A small rocky or metallic body orbitting the Sun. About 20,000 havebeen observed, ranging in size from several hundred kilometers across down todust particles.
atheism: The doctrine or belief that there is no god.atomistic: (as applied to theory of inheritance) Inheritance in which the entities controlling heredity are relatively distinct, permanent, and capable of independent action. Mendelian inheritance is an atomistic theory because in it,inheritance is controlled by distinct genes.
australopithecine: A group of bipedal hominid species belonging to the genus Australopithecus that lived between 4.2 and 1.4 mya.
Australopithecus afarensis: An early australopithecine species that was bipedal; known fossils date between 3.6 and 2.9 mya (for example, Lucy).
autosome: Any chromosome other than a sex chromosome.
avian: Of, relating to, or characteristic of birds (members of the class Aves).
adaptation: Any heritable characteristic of an organism that improves itsability to survive and reproduce in its environment. Also used to describe theprocess of genetic change within a population, as influenced by naturalselection.
adaptive landscape: A graph of the average fitness of a population in relationto the frequencies of genotypes in it. Peaks on the landscape correspond togenotypic frequencies at which the average fitness is high, valleys to genotypicfrequencies at which the average fitness is low. Also called a fitness surface.
adaptive logic: A behavior has adaptive logic if it tends to increase the numberof offspring that an individual contributes to the next and following generations. If such a behavior is even partly genetically determined, it willtend to become widespread in the population. Then, even if circumstances changesuch that it no longer provides any survival or reproductive advantage, thebehavior will still tend to be exhibited -- unless it becomes positivelydisadvantageous in the new environment.
adaptive radiation: The diversification, over evolutionary time, of a species orgroup of species into several different species or subspecies that are typicallyadapted to different ecological niches (for example, Darwin's finches). The term can also be applied to larger groups of organisms, as in "the adaptive radiationof mammals."
adaptive strategies: A mode of coping with competition or environmentalconditions on an evolutionary time scale. Species adapt when succeedinggenerations emphasize beneficial characteristics.
agnostic: A person who believes that the existence of a god or creator and thenature of the universe is unknowable.
algae: An umbrella term for various simple organisms that contain chlorophyll(and can therefore carry out photosynthesis) and live in aquatic habitats and inmoist situations on land. The term has no direct taxonomic significance. Algae range from macroscopic seaweeds such as giant kelp, which frequently exceeds 30m in length, to microscopic filamentous and single-celled forms such asSpirogyra and Chlorella.
allele: One of the alternative forms of a gene. For example, if a genedetermines the seed color of peas, one allele of that gene may produce greenseeds and another allele produce yellow seeds. In a diploid cell there areusually two alleles of any one gene (one from each parent). Within a population there may be many different alleles of a gene; each has a unique nucleotidesequence.
allometry: The relation between the size of an organism and the size of any ofits parts. For example, an allometric relation exists b etween brain size andbody size, such that (in this case) animals with bigger bodies tend to havebigger brains. Allometric relations can be studied during the growth of a single organism, between different organisms within a species, or between organisms indifferent species.
allopatric speciation: Speciation that occurs when two or more populations of aspecies are geographically isolated from one another sufficiently that they donot interbreed.
allopatry: Living in separate places. Compare with sympatry.
amino acid: The unit molecular building block of proteins, which are chains of amino acids in a certain sequence. There are 20 main amino acids in the proteins of living things, and the properties of a protein are determined by its particular amino acid sequence.
amino acid sequence: A series of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins,usually coded for by DNA. Exceptions are those coded for by the RNA of certainviruses, such as HIV.
ammonoid: Extinct relatives of cephalopods (squid, octopi, and chamberednautiluses), these mollusks had coiled shells and are found in the fossil recordof the Cretaceous period.
amniotes: The group of reptiles, birds, and mammals. These all develop through an embryo that is enclosed within a membrane called an amnion. The amnion surrounds the embryo with a watery substance, and is probably an adaptation forbreeding on land.
amphibians: The class of vertebrates that contains the frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders. The amphibians evolved in the Devonian period (about 370 millionyears ago) as the first vertebrates to occupy the land. They have moist scaleless skin which is used to supplement the lungs in gas exchange. The eggs are soft and vulnerable to drying, therefore reproduction commonly occurs inwater. Amphibian larvae are aquatic, and have gills for respiration; they undergo metamorphosis to the adult form. Most amphibians are found in damp environments and they occur on all continents except Antarctica.
analogous structures: Structures in different species that look alike or performsimilar functions (e.g., the wings of butterflies and the wings of birds) that have evolved convergently but do not develop from similar groups ofembryological tissues, and that have not evolved from similar structures known to be shared by common ancestors. Contrast with homologous structures. Note: Therecent discovery of deep genetic homologies has brought new interest, new information, and discussion to the classical concepts of analogous andhomologous structures.
anatomy: (1) The structure of an organism or one of its parts. (2) The science that studies those structures.ancestral homology: Homology that evolved before the common ancestor of a set of species, and which is present in other species outside that set of species. Compare with derived homology.
anthropoid: A member of the group of primates made up of monkeys, apes, andhumans.
antibacterial: Having the ability to kill bacteria.
antibiotics: Substances that destroy or inhibit the growth of microorganisms, particularly disease-causing bacteria.
antibiotic resistance: A heritable trait in microorganisms that enables them tosurvive in the presence of an antibiotic.
aperture: Of a camera, the adjustable opening through which light passes to reach the film. The diameter of the aperture determines the intensity of light admitted. The pupil of a human eye is a self-adjusting aperture.
aquatic: Living underwater.
arboreal: Living in trees.
archeology: The study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of physical remains, such as graves, tools, pottery, andother artifacts.
archetype: The original form or body plan from which a group of organisms develops.
artifact: An object made by humans that has been preserved and can be studied tolearn about a particular time period.
artificial selection: The process by which humans breed animals and cultivate crops to ensure that future generations have specific desirable characteristics.In artificial selection, breeders select the most desirable variants in a plantor animal population and selectively breed them with other desirable individuals. The forms of most domesticated and agricultural species have been produced by artificial selection; it is also an important experimental technique for studying evolution.
asexual reproduction: A type of reproduction involving only one parent thatususally produces genetically identical offspring. Asexual reproduction occurs without fertilization or genetic recombination, and may occur by budding, by division of a single cell, or by the breakup of a whole organism into two or more new individuals.assortative mating: The tendency of like to mate with like. Mating can be assortative for a certain genotype (e.g., individuals with genotype AA tend tomate with other individuals of genotype AA) or phenotype (e.g., tall individualsmate with other tall individuals).
asteroid: A small rocky or metallic body orbitting the Sun. About 20,000 havebeen observed, ranging in size from several hundred kilometers across down todust particles.
atheism: The doctrine or belief that there is no god.atomistic: (as applied to theory of inheritance) Inheritance in which the entities controlling heredity are relatively distinct, permanent, and capable of independent action. Mendelian inheritance is an atomistic theory because in it,inheritance is controlled by distinct genes.
australopithecine: A group of bipedal hominid species belonging to the genus Australopithecus that lived between 4.2 and 1.4 mya.
Australopithecus afarensis: An early australopithecine species that was bipedal; known fossils date between 3.6 and 2.9 mya (for example, Lucy).
autosome: Any chromosome other than a sex chromosome.
avian: Of, relating to, or characteristic of birds (members of the class Aves).
Thursday, April 9, 2009
The Implications of God and Free Will
I received this predictable answer from a creationist earlier today:
> It was man's choice to bring sin into the world.
> They disobeyed.
This is precisely the response that creationists give to any question when they are pushed into a corner. But it is surely very superficial.
Certainly free choice has good and bad implications. But this answer is simply the sort of mindless nonsense that creationism so strongly encourages.
We are often referred to as God's children. Therefore it is reasonable to compare God's actions with how good, responsible human parents treat their children.
A good parent will allow their children to use their free will. They let them try things and fail on occasion.
Parents let their children play in playgrounds knowing full well that those children will likely get the occasional skinned knee or bruised elbow.
But responsible parents don't let their children play with loaded handguns. The potential for serious injury and even death for small children playing with guns is too high to allow that.
Why isn't such an analogy applicable to God's involvement in human activities? Why did God create the physical laws such that atomic bombs are possible? Since God can do ANYTHING presumably it would be possible to create the universe such that those bombs wouldn't be conceivable.
So why did God do that?
Isn't that quite analogous to an irresponsible parent leaving loaded handguns around?
There might be an answer to that question. But the superficial, kneejerk response: "Man fell and thereby created sin" is NOT that answer.
> It was man's choice to bring sin into the world.
> They disobeyed.
This is precisely the response that creationists give to any question when they are pushed into a corner. But it is surely very superficial.
Certainly free choice has good and bad implications. But this answer is simply the sort of mindless nonsense that creationism so strongly encourages.
We are often referred to as God's children. Therefore it is reasonable to compare God's actions with how good, responsible human parents treat their children.
A good parent will allow their children to use their free will. They let them try things and fail on occasion.
Parents let their children play in playgrounds knowing full well that those children will likely get the occasional skinned knee or bruised elbow.
But responsible parents don't let their children play with loaded handguns. The potential for serious injury and even death for small children playing with guns is too high to allow that.
Why isn't such an analogy applicable to God's involvement in human activities? Why did God create the physical laws such that atomic bombs are possible? Since God can do ANYTHING presumably it would be possible to create the universe such that those bombs wouldn't be conceivable.
So why did God do that?
Isn't that quite analogous to an irresponsible parent leaving loaded handguns around?
There might be an answer to that question. But the superficial, kneejerk response: "Man fell and thereby created sin" is NOT that answer.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Pseudogenes and Natural Selection
It turns out that the DNA of all organisms is filled with things called pseudogenes. A pseudogene is defined like this[1]:
“A sequence of DNA that is very similar to a normal gene but that has been altered slightly so it is not expressed. Such genes were probably once functional but over time acquired one or more mutations that rendered them incapable of producing a protein product.”
Basically it is a gene that doesn’t do anything. That’s because it is not needed any more. Blind cave fish, for example, have pseudogenes for sight. The genes used to be needed for them to see, but once the fish began to live in total darkness, the gene wasn’t needed any more. So the gene developed mutations that “broke” it.
These genes exist. The question is whether or not natural selection should eliminate these genes.
Here’s how one creationist asked about them:
> Actually the "theory" of Fisher, Wright, Mayr and
> even Dawkins predicted with descend from the creature
> with the 'superior' genes.
> Not from the viruses and a creature with all these
> failed genes.
The question, then, is whether or not a DNA that lacked “pseudogenes” would be superior to one that included “pseudogenes”.
There really isn’t reason to think that is the case. Pseudogenes add extra base-pairs to the genome, but there isn’t any empirical evidence that indicates that is a bad thing. Other than those extra base-pairs, they have no effect at all. There is even something called “polyploidy” where entire genomes are duplicated while copying. This happens primarily in plants. It results in a doubling of the genome size. There seem to be no ill effects for the organism when this takes place.
In fact, an argument could be made that such pseudogenes are really required for evolution to take place effectively and efficiently. That’s because without the genetic material provided by such pseudogenes, the percentage of mutations that are beneficial would diminish considerably.
If there were no pseudogenes whatsoever, then every gene – by definition - would be one that is required for the organism to survive. In that case, even if a mutation occurred that was beneficial it would result in the loss of another characteristic that was also beneficial. That would mean that some percentage of potentially beneficial mutations would be rejected simply because they are not as beneficial as the gene that is being replaced.
As an analogy consider adding a new room to a house.
In the first case, let’s assume that every single room is used. There is no unused space. Now let’s say that we want to add a new bathroom. In this house, in order to do that, we would have to lose one of those other rooms that is being used – possibly we’d have to give up a bedroom. It might be the case that the bathroom has more utility than the bedroom. But it might also well be the case that the bedroom is actually more useful than the new bathroom. It certainly makes the decision about making the conversion more problematic.
But consider the case if the house has extra rooms that are not used. In that case the decision is much easier. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
Such is the case with pseudogenes in DNA. They provide extra “unused space” that makes it easier for mutations that are beneficial to become part of the DNA.
If God “designed” DNA, He did so in a way that makes evolution perform more efficiently.
It appears that God is an evolutionist!
[1] Definition from: “Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms” compiled by the National Human Genome Research Institute, referenced on April 6, 2009
“A sequence of DNA that is very similar to a normal gene but that has been altered slightly so it is not expressed. Such genes were probably once functional but over time acquired one or more mutations that rendered them incapable of producing a protein product.”
Basically it is a gene that doesn’t do anything. That’s because it is not needed any more. Blind cave fish, for example, have pseudogenes for sight. The genes used to be needed for them to see, but once the fish began to live in total darkness, the gene wasn’t needed any more. So the gene developed mutations that “broke” it.
These genes exist. The question is whether or not natural selection should eliminate these genes.
Here’s how one creationist asked about them:
> Actually the "theory" of Fisher, Wright, Mayr and
> even Dawkins predicted with descend from the creature
> with the 'superior' genes.
> Not from the viruses and a creature with all these
> failed genes.
The question, then, is whether or not a DNA that lacked “pseudogenes” would be superior to one that included “pseudogenes”.
There really isn’t reason to think that is the case. Pseudogenes add extra base-pairs to the genome, but there isn’t any empirical evidence that indicates that is a bad thing. Other than those extra base-pairs, they have no effect at all. There is even something called “polyploidy” where entire genomes are duplicated while copying. This happens primarily in plants. It results in a doubling of the genome size. There seem to be no ill effects for the organism when this takes place.
In fact, an argument could be made that such pseudogenes are really required for evolution to take place effectively and efficiently. That’s because without the genetic material provided by such pseudogenes, the percentage of mutations that are beneficial would diminish considerably.
If there were no pseudogenes whatsoever, then every gene – by definition - would be one that is required for the organism to survive. In that case, even if a mutation occurred that was beneficial it would result in the loss of another characteristic that was also beneficial. That would mean that some percentage of potentially beneficial mutations would be rejected simply because they are not as beneficial as the gene that is being replaced.
As an analogy consider adding a new room to a house.
In the first case, let’s assume that every single room is used. There is no unused space. Now let’s say that we want to add a new bathroom. In this house, in order to do that, we would have to lose one of those other rooms that is being used – possibly we’d have to give up a bedroom. It might be the case that the bathroom has more utility than the bedroom. But it might also well be the case that the bedroom is actually more useful than the new bathroom. It certainly makes the decision about making the conversion more problematic.
But consider the case if the house has extra rooms that are not used. In that case the decision is much easier. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
Such is the case with pseudogenes in DNA. They provide extra “unused space” that makes it easier for mutations that are beneficial to become part of the DNA.
If God “designed” DNA, He did so in a way that makes evolution perform more efficiently.
It appears that God is an evolutionist!
[1] Definition from: “Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms” compiled by the National Human Genome Research Institute, referenced on April 6, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Einstein and Darwin
Everyone’s heard of Albert Einstein. He is generally considered to be the smartest person of the 20th century.
Though he was a scientist, many people believe that since he was so smart his views on other subjects as well. Those other subjects include religion.
Creationists in particular like to refer to this quote from Einstein:
"The scientist's religious feeling takes the form of rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection."
- The World As I See It, p.29
Creationists argue that is a clear indication that Einstein believed in Intelligent Design!
But, that’s not the case.
Einstein was raised by a Jewish mother and father, but neither of them kept kosher nor attended a synagogue. Einstein called his parents “entirely irreligious”. He actually attended a Roman Catholic school when he was young. Though he was the only Jew in the entire school he took the required courses in Catholicism and excelled in them[1].
When Einstein was nine-years-old he developed a brief but “very passionate zeal for Zionism”[2].
Einstein eventually developed a belief in something called “Pantheism”. He kept this belief throughout his years after college and he was quite clear about this belief throughout his remaining life.
Wikipedia defines Pantheism as[3]:
Pantheism is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing immanent God. In pantheism the Universe, or nature, and God are equivalent. More detailed definitions tend to emphasize the idea that God is better understood as an abstract principle representing natural law, existence, and the Universe (the sum total of all that is, was, and shall be) than an anthropomorphic entity.
Putting it more simply, in Pantheism, “God” is simply a shorthand way of referring to the universe. They are one and the same thing.
The Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza was the most well-known advocate of Pantheism and Einstein referred to Spinoza often. Here’s a sample[4]:
"I believe in a Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists, but not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and actions of human beings."
In this context, it is clear that Einstein’s discussion of “intelligence” in nature bears no relationship to anything that ID advocates are endorsing.
The best statement on his philosophical and religious views can be found in his credo[5].
“At the end of August 1932 Einstein wrote ‘My Credo’. The original text was written in German. At the beginning of September he read it for a recording by order and to the benefit of the German League of Human Rights.”
My Credo
"It is a special blessing to belong among those who can and may devote their best energies to the contemplation and exploration of objective and timeless things. How happy and grateful I am for having been granted this blessing, which bestows upon one a large measure of independence from one's personal fate and from the attitude of one's contemporaries. Yet this independence must not inure us to the awareness of the duties that constantly bind us to the past, present and future of humankind at large.
Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here, involuntarily and uninvited, for a short stay, without knowing the why and the wherefore. In our daily lives we feel only that man is here for the sake of others, for those whom we love and for many other beings whose fate is connected with our own. I am often troubled by the thought that my life is based to such a large extent on the work of my fellow human beings, and I am aware of my great indebtedness to them.
I do not believe in free will. Schopenhauer's words: 'Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wills,' accompany me in all situations throughout my life and reconcile me with the actions of others, even if they are rather painful to me. This awareness of the lack of free will keeps me from taking myself and my fellow men too seriously as acting and deciding individuals, and from losing my temper.
I have never coveted affluence and luxury and even despise them a good deal. My passion for social justice has often brought me into conflict with people, as has my aversion to any obligation and dependence I did not regard as absolutely necessary. I have a high regard for the individual and an insuperable distaste for violence and fanaticism. All these motives have made me a passionate pacifist and antimilitarist. I am against any chauvinism, even in the guise of mere patriotism.
Privileges based on position and property have always seemed to me unjust and pernicious, as does any exaggerated personality cult. I am an adherent of the ideal of democracy, although I know well the weaknesses of the democratic form of government. Social equality and economic protection of the individual have always seemed to me the important communal aims of the state.
Although I am a typical loner in daily life, my consciousness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice keeps me from feeling isolated.
The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as of all serious endeavour in art and science. He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all there is."
He never disavowed these words. The fact that he didn’t even believe in free will says quite a bit about how different his views are from those of creationists. (There are some rumors that very late in his life Einstein began to accept the idea of a personal God. I’ve never seen any confirmation of that.)
There are also strong implications that Einstein was a believer in evolution. I’m not aware of any time that he specifically talks about the thing called “evolution”, but more than once he spoke of Charles Darwin in very positive terms.Probably the most significant quote from Einstein about Darwin is this one:
"A conflict arises when a religious community insists on the absolute truthfulness of all statements recorded in the Bible. This means an intervention on the part of religion into the sphere of science; this is where the struggle of the Church against the doctrines of Galileo and Darwin belongs."
- Albert Einstein, Science and Religion (1941)
Anyone who groups Galileo and Darwin together so closely is surely not diminishing Darwin.
A second quote is this one:
"I do not believe that a great era of atomic science is to be assured by organising science, in the way large corporations are organised. One can organize to apply a discovery already made, but not to make one. Only a free individual can make a discovery. There can be a kind of organising by which scientists are assured their freedom and proper conditions of work. Professors of science in American universities, for instance, should be relieved of some of their teaching so as to have time for more research. Can you imagine an organisation of scientists making the discoveries of Charles Darwin?"
- Albert Einstein, 1945
Here Einstein is arguing that research is important and if scientists are to match the discoveries of Charles Darwin they need more freedom. He would hardly use Darwin in this context to denigrate him.
Einstein was first and foremost a scientist so his views on religion are not necessarily more important than the views of anyone else in our society.
But, his religious views offer no support for anything that creationists believe.
[1] Walter Isaacson, “Einstein: His Life and Universe”, 2007, pp 15-16
[2] Ibid.
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism, referenced on April 3, 2009
[4] Telegram to a Jewish newspaper, 1929;
[5] http://www.einstein-website.de/z_biography/credo.html, referenced on April 3, 2009
Though he was a scientist, many people believe that since he was so smart his views on other subjects as well. Those other subjects include religion.
Creationists in particular like to refer to this quote from Einstein:
"The scientist's religious feeling takes the form of rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection."
- The World As I See It, p.29
Creationists argue that is a clear indication that Einstein believed in Intelligent Design!
But, that’s not the case.
Einstein was raised by a Jewish mother and father, but neither of them kept kosher nor attended a synagogue. Einstein called his parents “entirely irreligious”. He actually attended a Roman Catholic school when he was young. Though he was the only Jew in the entire school he took the required courses in Catholicism and excelled in them[1].
When Einstein was nine-years-old he developed a brief but “very passionate zeal for Zionism”[2].
Einstein eventually developed a belief in something called “Pantheism”. He kept this belief throughout his years after college and he was quite clear about this belief throughout his remaining life.
Wikipedia defines Pantheism as[3]:
Pantheism is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing immanent God. In pantheism the Universe, or nature, and God are equivalent. More detailed definitions tend to emphasize the idea that God is better understood as an abstract principle representing natural law, existence, and the Universe (the sum total of all that is, was, and shall be) than an anthropomorphic entity.
Putting it more simply, in Pantheism, “God” is simply a shorthand way of referring to the universe. They are one and the same thing.
The Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza was the most well-known advocate of Pantheism and Einstein referred to Spinoza often. Here’s a sample[4]:
"I believe in a Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists, but not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and actions of human beings."
In this context, it is clear that Einstein’s discussion of “intelligence” in nature bears no relationship to anything that ID advocates are endorsing.
The best statement on his philosophical and religious views can be found in his credo[5].
“At the end of August 1932 Einstein wrote ‘My Credo’. The original text was written in German. At the beginning of September he read it for a recording by order and to the benefit of the German League of Human Rights.”
My Credo
"It is a special blessing to belong among those who can and may devote their best energies to the contemplation and exploration of objective and timeless things. How happy and grateful I am for having been granted this blessing, which bestows upon one a large measure of independence from one's personal fate and from the attitude of one's contemporaries. Yet this independence must not inure us to the awareness of the duties that constantly bind us to the past, present and future of humankind at large.
Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here, involuntarily and uninvited, for a short stay, without knowing the why and the wherefore. In our daily lives we feel only that man is here for the sake of others, for those whom we love and for many other beings whose fate is connected with our own. I am often troubled by the thought that my life is based to such a large extent on the work of my fellow human beings, and I am aware of my great indebtedness to them.
I do not believe in free will. Schopenhauer's words: 'Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wills,' accompany me in all situations throughout my life and reconcile me with the actions of others, even if they are rather painful to me. This awareness of the lack of free will keeps me from taking myself and my fellow men too seriously as acting and deciding individuals, and from losing my temper.
I have never coveted affluence and luxury and even despise them a good deal. My passion for social justice has often brought me into conflict with people, as has my aversion to any obligation and dependence I did not regard as absolutely necessary. I have a high regard for the individual and an insuperable distaste for violence and fanaticism. All these motives have made me a passionate pacifist and antimilitarist. I am against any chauvinism, even in the guise of mere patriotism.
Privileges based on position and property have always seemed to me unjust and pernicious, as does any exaggerated personality cult. I am an adherent of the ideal of democracy, although I know well the weaknesses of the democratic form of government. Social equality and economic protection of the individual have always seemed to me the important communal aims of the state.
Although I am a typical loner in daily life, my consciousness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice keeps me from feeling isolated.
The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as of all serious endeavour in art and science. He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all there is."
He never disavowed these words. The fact that he didn’t even believe in free will says quite a bit about how different his views are from those of creationists. (There are some rumors that very late in his life Einstein began to accept the idea of a personal God. I’ve never seen any confirmation of that.)
There are also strong implications that Einstein was a believer in evolution. I’m not aware of any time that he specifically talks about the thing called “evolution”, but more than once he spoke of Charles Darwin in very positive terms.Probably the most significant quote from Einstein about Darwin is this one:
"A conflict arises when a religious community insists on the absolute truthfulness of all statements recorded in the Bible. This means an intervention on the part of religion into the sphere of science; this is where the struggle of the Church against the doctrines of Galileo and Darwin belongs."
- Albert Einstein, Science and Religion (1941)
Anyone who groups Galileo and Darwin together so closely is surely not diminishing Darwin.
A second quote is this one:
"I do not believe that a great era of atomic science is to be assured by organising science, in the way large corporations are organised. One can organize to apply a discovery already made, but not to make one. Only a free individual can make a discovery. There can be a kind of organising by which scientists are assured their freedom and proper conditions of work. Professors of science in American universities, for instance, should be relieved of some of their teaching so as to have time for more research. Can you imagine an organisation of scientists making the discoveries of Charles Darwin?"
- Albert Einstein, 1945
Here Einstein is arguing that research is important and if scientists are to match the discoveries of Charles Darwin they need more freedom. He would hardly use Darwin in this context to denigrate him.
Einstein was first and foremost a scientist so his views on religion are not necessarily more important than the views of anyone else in our society.
But, his religious views offer no support for anything that creationists believe.
[1] Walter Isaacson, “Einstein: His Life and Universe”, 2007, pp 15-16
[2] Ibid.
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism, referenced on April 3, 2009
[4] Telegram to a Jewish newspaper, 1929;
[5] http://www.einstein-website.de/z_biography/credo.html, referenced on April 3, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Tips for Debating Creationists
I've been debating creationists for nearly 20 years now. I've learned a few things.
The next few BLOG entries will discuss my recommendations for how to win such debates (or, at least, how to have fun in those debates).
My first recommendation is to not engage in an oral debate. In general creationists might tend to throw questions at you for which you don't have answers. But since creationism is totally fraudulent, rest assured that there are answers. But often a little research is required. Engaging in a written debate allows such research to be performed. Learn how to do such research.
The first place that I typically look when I'm challenged with a claim that I have never seen before, is the talkorigins web site. Do a search there. I'm confident that well over 90% of all creationist claims have been refuted on that site.
Good luck and have fun! I know that I've had a lot of fun debating creationists.
The next few BLOG entries will discuss my recommendations for how to win such debates (or, at least, how to have fun in those debates).
My first recommendation is to not engage in an oral debate. In general creationists might tend to throw questions at you for which you don't have answers. But since creationism is totally fraudulent, rest assured that there are answers. But often a little research is required. Engaging in a written debate allows such research to be performed. Learn how to do such research.
The first place that I typically look when I'm challenged with a claim that I have never seen before, is the talkorigins web site. Do a search there. I'm confident that well over 90% of all creationist claims have been refuted on that site.
Good luck and have fun! I know that I've had a lot of fun debating creationists.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)