Evolution theory and the future of humanity

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Wills
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Skin Pigmentation ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Skin Colour ◽  
Evolution Theory ◽  
The Future ◽  
Genetic Level ◽  
High Level

No field of science has cast more light on both the past and the future of our species than evolutionary biology. Recently, the pace of new discoveries about how we have evolved has increased (Culotta and Pennisi, 2005). It is now clear that we are less unique than we used to think. Genetic and palaeontological evidence is now accumulating that hominids with a high level of intelligence, tool-making ability, and probably communication skills have evolved independently more than once. They evolved in Africa (our own ancestors), in Europe (the ancestors of the Neanderthals) and in Southeast Asia (the remarkable ‘hobbits’, who may be miniaturized and highly acculturated Homo erectus). It is also becoming clear that the genes that contribute to the characteristics of our species can be found and that the histories of these genes can be understood. Comparisons of entire genomes have shown that genes involved in brain function have evolved more quickly in hominids than in more distantly related primates. The genetic differences among human groups can now be investigated. Characters that we tend to think of as extremely important markers enabling us to distinguish among different human groups now turn out to be understandable at the genetic level, and their genetic history can be traced. Recently a single allelic difference between Europeans and Africans has been found (Lamason et al., 2005). This functional allelic difference accounts for about a third of the differences in skin pigmentation in these groups. Skin colour differences, in spite of the great importance they have assumed in human societies, are the result of natural selection acting on a small number of genes that are likely to have no effects beyond their influence on skin colour itself. How do these and other recent findings from fields ranging from palaeontology to molecular biology fit into present-day evolution theory, and what light do they cast on how our species is likely to evolve in the future? I will introduce this question by examining briefly how evolutionary change takes place.

Natural selection and adaptation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Lewens
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Skin Pigmentation ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
Biology Textbook ◽  
Selection For ◽  
The Relationship

Students of the natural world have long remarked on the fact that animals and plants are well suited to the demands of their environments. ‘Adaptation’, as it is used in modern biology, can name both the process by which organisms acquire this functional match, and the products of that process. Eyes, wings, beaks, camouflaging skin pigmentation and so forth, are all ‘adaptations’ in this second sense. Modern biological orthodoxy follows Darwin in giving a central role to natural selection in explaining the production of adaptations such as these. This much is uncontroversial. But a number of more contentious conceptual questions are raised when we look in more detail at the relationship between natural selection and adaptation. One of these questions concerns how we should define adaptation. It is tempting to characterize adaptations as functional traits – eyes are for seeing, large beaks are for cracking tough seed-casings. This in turn has led many commentators in biology and philosophy to define adaptations as those traits which have been shaped by natural selection for their respective tasks. Others – especially biologists – have complained that such a definition trivializes Darwin’s claim that natural selection explains adaptation. This claim was meant to be an important discovery, not a definitional consequence of the meaning of ‘adaptation’. These worries naturally lead on to the issues of how natural selection itself is to be understood, how it is meant to explain adaptation, and how it should be distinguished from other important evolutionary processes. These topics have a historical dimension: is Darwin’s understanding of natural selection, and its relationship to adaptation, the same as that of today’s evolutionary biology? Textbook presentations often say yes, and this is surely legitimate if we make the comparison in broad terms. But differences emerge when we look in more detail. Darwin, for example, seems to make the ‘struggle for existence’ an essential element of natural selection. It is not clear whether this is the case in modern presentations. And Darwin’s presentation is largely neutral on the inheritance mechanism that accounts for parent/offspring resemblance, while modern presentations sometimes insist that natural selection always implies a genetic underpinning to inheritance.

scholarly journals Role of environmentally induced epigenetic transgenerational inheritance in evolutionary biology: Unified Evolution Theory

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael K Skinner ◽  
Eric E Nilsson
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Phenotypic Variation ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Genetic Alterations ◽  
Modern Synthesis ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Evolution Theory ◽  
Transgenerational Inheritance ◽  
Extended Evolutionary Synthesis

Abstract The current evolutionary biology theory primarily involves genetic alterations and random DNA sequence mutations to generate the phenotypic variation required for Darwinian natural selection to act. This neo-Darwinian evolution is termed the Modern Evolution Synthesis and has been the primary paradigm for nearly 100 years. Although environmental factors have a role in neo-Darwinian natural selection, Modern Evolution Synthesis does not consider environment to impact the basic molecular processes involved in evolution. An Extended Evolutionary Synthesis has recently developed that extends the modern synthesis to consider non-genetic processes. Over the past few decades, environmental epigenetics research has been demonstrated to regulate genetic processes and directly generate phenotypic variation independent of genetic sequence alterations. Therefore, the environment can on a molecular level through non-genetic (i.e. epigenetic) mechanisms directly influence phenotypic variation, genetic variation, inheritance and adaptation. This direct action of the environment to alter phenotype that is heritable is a neo-Lamarckian concept that can facilitate neo-Darwinian (i.e. Modern Synthesis) evolution. The integration of genetics, epigenetics, Darwinian theory, Lamarckian concepts, environment, and epigenetic inheritance provides a paradigm shift in evolution theory. The role of environmental-induced epigenetic transgenerational inheritance in evolution is presented to describe a more unified theory of evolutionary biology.

To the memory of the geobotanist. Leonid E. Rodin (to the 100th anniversary of his birthday)

2007 ◽  
pp. 106-107
Author(s):  
B. K. Gannibal
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
100Th Anniversary ◽  
State University ◽  
Botanical Institute ◽  
Komarov Botanical Institute ◽  
The Future ◽  
Long Time ◽  
High Level

Leonid Efimovich Rodin (1907-1990) was a graduate of Leningrad state University. To him, the future is known geobotanica, happened to a course in Botanical geography is still at the N. A. Bush. His teachers were also A. P. Shennikov and A. A. Korchagin, who subsequently headed related Department of geobotany and Botanical geography of Leningrad state University. This was the first school scientist. And since the beginning of the 30s of XX century and until the end of life L. E. was an employee of the Department of geobotany of the Komarov Botanical Institute (RAS), where long time worked together with E. M. Lavrenko, V. B. Sochava, B. A. Tikhomirov, V. D. Alexandrova and many other high-level professionals, first continuing to learn and gain experience, then defining the direction of development of geobotany in the Institute and the country as a whole.

Procurement Analytics: Enabling Data Architectures in the Age of Big Data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Goul ◽  
T. S. Raghu ◽  
Ziru Li
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Data Space ◽  
Prescriptive Analytics ◽  
Data Architecture ◽  
The Future ◽  
High Level ◽  
Area Data

As procurement organizations increasingly move from a cost-and-efficiency emphasis to a profit-and-growth emphasis, flexible data architecture will become an integral part of a procurement analytics strategy. It is therefore imperative for procurement leaders to understand and address digitization trends in supply chains and to develop strategies to create robust data architecture and analytics strategies for the future. This chapter assesses and examines the ways companies can organize their procurement data architectures in the big data space to mitigate current limitations and to lay foundations for the discovery of new insights. It sets out to understand and define the levels of maturity in procurement organizations as they pertain to the capture, curation, exploitation, and management of procurement data. The chapter then develops a framework for articulating the value proposition of moving between maturity levels and examines what the future entails for companies with mature data architectures. In addition to surveying the practitioner and academic research literature on procurement data analytics, the chapter presents detailed and structured interviews with over fifteen procurement experts from companies around the globe. The chapter finds several important and useful strategies that have helped procurement organizations design strategic roadmaps for the development of robust data architectures. It then further identifies four archetype procurement area data architecture contexts. In addition, this chapter details exemplary high-level mature data architecture for each archetype and examines the critical assumptions underlying each one. Data architectures built for the future need a design approach that supports both descriptive and real-time, prescriptive analytics.

scholarly journals Climate Vulnerability and Adaptation Challenges in Szekszárd Wine Region, Hungary

Climate ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Attila Buzási
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Evaluation Methodology ◽  
Intrinsic Factors ◽  
Vulnerability Assessments ◽  
The Future ◽  
Climate Vulnerability ◽  
High Level ◽  
Wine Region ◽  
Lock In

Wine producers face several challenges regarding climate change, which will affect this industry both in the present and the future. Vulnerability assessments are at the forefront of current climate research, therefore, the present paper has two main aims. First, to assess two components of climate vulnerability regarding the Szekszárd wine region, Hungary; second, to collect and analyze adaptation farming techniques in terms of environmental sustainability aspects. Exposure analyses revealed that the study area will face several challenges regarding intensive drought periods in the future. Sensitivity indicators show the climate-related characteristics of the most popular grapevines and their relatively high level of susceptibility regarding changing climatic patterns. Since both external and intrinsic factors of vulnerability show deteriorating trends, the development of adaptation actions is needed. Adaptation interventions often provide unsustainable solutions or entail maladaptation issues, therefore, an environmental-focused sustainability assessment of collected interventions was performed to avoid long-term negative path dependencies. The applied evaluation methodology pointed out that nature-based adaptation actions are preferred in comparison to using additional machines or resource-intensive solutions. This study can fill the scientific gap by analyzing this wine region for the first time, via performing an ex-ante lock-in analysis of available and widely used adaptation interventions in the viticulture sector.

Breaking Bad News — Skills and Evidence

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (10) ◽  
pp. 605-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Thistlethwaite
Keyword(s):  
Human Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Status ◽  
Bad News ◽  
Breaking Bad News ◽  
Breaking Bad ◽  
Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Patient’S View ◽  
The Impact

Bad or unfavorable news may be defined as ‘any news that drastically and negatively alters the patient's view of her or his future’( Buckman 1992 ). When GPs talk about breaking bad news, they usually mean telling patients that they have cancer, though in fact similar communication skills may be employed when informing patients about a positive human immunodeficiency virus status, or that a relative has died. Of key importance in the process is the doctor gaining an understanding of what the patient's view of the future is or was — the expectation that now might not be met. A doctor should not assume the impact of the diagnosis without exploring the patient's worldview.

scholarly journals Genome size correlates with reproductive fitness in seed beetles

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1815) ◽  
pp. 20151421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Göran Arnqvist ◽  
Ahmed Sayadi ◽  
Elina Immonen ◽  
Cosima Hotzy ◽  
Daniel Rankin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Genome Size ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Reproductive Fitness ◽  
Correlated Evolution ◽  
Seed Beetles

The ultimate cause of genome size (GS) evolution in eukaryotes remains a major and unresolved puzzle in evolutionary biology. Large-scale comparative studies have failed to find consistent correlations between GS and organismal properties, resulting in the ‘ C -value paradox’. Current hypotheses for the evolution of GS are based either on the balance between mutational events and drift or on natural selection acting upon standing genetic variation in GS. It is, however, currently very difficult to evaluate the role of selection because within-species studies that relate variation in life-history traits to variation in GS are very rare. Here, we report phylogenetic comparative analyses of GS evolution in seed beetles at two distinct taxonomic scales, which combines replicated estimation of GS with experimental assays of life-history traits and reproductive fitness. GS showed rapid and bidirectional evolution across species, but did not show correlated evolution with any of several indices of the relative importance of genetic drift. Within a single species, GS varied by 4–5% across populations and showed positive correlated evolution with independent estimates of male and female reproductive fitness. Collectively, the phylogenetic pattern of GS diversification across and within species in conjunction with the pattern of correlated evolution between GS and fitness provide novel support for the tenet that natural selection plays a key role in shaping GS evolution.

scholarly journals Implementation of and experiences with new automation

2000 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 199-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ifte Mahmud ◽  
David Kim
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Regulatory Compliance ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
The Future ◽  
Industry Automation ◽  
High Level ◽  
Automation Technology ◽  
And Robotics ◽  
Testing Group

In an environment where cost, timeliness, and quality drives the business, it is essential to look for answers in technology where these challenges can be met. In the Novartis Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance Department, automation and robotics have become just the tools to meet these challenges. Although automation is a relatively new concept in our department, we have fully embraced it within just a few years. As our company went through a merger, there was a significant reduction in the workforce within the Quality Assurance Department through voluntary and involuntary separations. However the workload remained constant or in some cases actually increased. So even with reduction in laboratory personnel, we were challenged internally and from the headquarters in Basle to improve productivity while maintaining integrity in quality testing. Benchmark studies indicated the Suffern site to be the choice manufacturing site above other facilities. This is attributed to the Suffern facility employees' commitment to reduce cycle time, improve efficiency, and maintain high level of regulatory compliance. One of the stronger contributing factors was automation technology in the laboratoriess, and this technology will continue to help the site's status in the future. The Automation Group was originally formed about 2 years ago to meet the demands of high quality assurance testing throughput needs and to bring our testing group up to standard with the industry. Automation began with only two people in the group and now we have three people who are the next generation automation scientists. Even with such a small staff,we have made great strides in laboratory automation as we have worked extensively with each piece of equipment brought in. The implementation process of each project was often difficult because the second generation automation group came from the laboratory and without much automation experience. However, with the involvement from the users at ‘get-go’, we were able to successfully bring in many automation technologies. Our first experience with automation was SFA/SDAS, and then Zymark TPWII followed by Zymark Multi-dose. The future of product testing lies in automation, and we shall continue to explore the possibilities of improving the testing methodologies so that the chemists will be less burdened with repetitive and mundane daily tasks and be more focused on bringing quality into our products.

scholarly journals The Sound of Silence?

2005 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 392-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Hassall ◽  
J. Joyce ◽  
M.D. Bramhall ◽  
I.M. Robinson ◽  
J.L. Arquero
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Communication Apprehension ◽  
Vocational Choice ◽  
Communication Performance ◽  
Vocational Skills ◽  
Communication Development ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
High Level

Employers often consider graduates to be unprepared for employment and lacking in vocational skills. A common demand from them is that the curriculum should include ‘communication skills’, as specific skills in their own right and also because of the central role that such skills can play in developing other desirable attributes. Current thinking in communication has indicated a split between communication apprehension and communication development. There are indications that techniques designed to develop communication skills will not resolve communication apprehension and that, if an individual has a high level of communication apprehension, these techniques will not result in improved communication performance. This paper compares and contrasts the levels and profiles of communication apprehension exhibited by accounting and engineering students. The implications of the findings are then discussed and the need for further research in the area of vocational choice is identified.

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