The New Story in Biology: Parts and Wholes in the Web of Life

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Nadeau
Keyword(s):  
Outer Space ◽  
Protective Layer ◽  
Distinct Species ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
Biological Reality ◽  
Preceding Paragraph ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time

In July of 1969 the Apollo 11 spacecraft emerged from the dark side of the moon and the on-board camera panned through the vast emptiness of outer space. Against the backdrop of interstellar night hung the great ball of earth, with the intense blue of its oceans and the delicate ochres of its landmasses shimmering beneath the vibrant and translucent layer of its atmosphere. In the shock of this visual moment, distances between us contracted; boundaries and borders ceased to exist. But the impression that sent the adrenaline flowing through my veins was that the teeming billions of organisms writhing about under the protective layer of the atmosphere were not separate—they were interdependent, fluid, and interactive aspects of the one organic dance of the planet’s life. The preceding paragraph, an entry form my diary written a few days after images of the whole earth first appeared on television, cannot be classed as scientific analysis. But it is entirely consistent with what the new story of science has revealed about the relationship between human and environmental systems in biological reality. The large problem here is that the political and economic narratives that now serve as the basis for coordinating global human activities are premised on scientifically outmoded assumptions about this relationship in the old story of classical physics. And this problem is further complicated by the fact that the view of this relationship that is still widely viewed as scientific in Darwin’s theory of evolution is also premised on these scientifically outmoded assumptions. Darwin went public with his theory for the first time in a paper presented to the Linnean Society in 1848. This paper begins with the following sentence: “All nature is at war, one organism with another, or with external nature.” In The Origins of Species , Darwin is more specific about the character of this war: “There must be in every case a struggle for existence, either one individual with another of the same species, or with the individuals of distinct species, or with the physical conditions of life.”

Spider diversity in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Singapore

2019 ◽  
Vol 71 ((suppl.1)) ◽  
pp. 209-243
Author(s):  
J.K.H. Koh ◽  
D.J. Court
Keyword(s):  
Nature Reserve ◽  
New Records ◽  
Secondary Forest ◽  
Distinct Species ◽  
Primary Forest ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Vegetation Zones ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
First Time

This paper discusses the preliminary results of the first comprehensive survey of the spiders of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR) in Singapore. Two plots were established in each of the three zones of vegetation, viz., primary forest, old secondary forest, and maturing secondary forest. They were repeatedly sampled over an 18-month period. Sorting of the collection so far suggests that the three vegetation zones harbour rather different spider assemblages. Only ~9% of the total spider fauna recovered was shared by all three zones. The results have also yielded a preliminary picture of dominance, abundance and rarity. Although first intended to obtain a baseline for future quantitative analyses, the survey became a testing ground to modify and refine methodology so as to conduct future quantitative surveys with greater scientific rigour. Taxonomic work on the samples so far shows that the spiders in the BTNR span over 43 families, of which six families are listed for the first time in Singapore. The tally is summarised in an interim checklist of BTNR spiders. The checklist, with a total of 317 entries, shows that there are 158 described species of spiders in BTNR, of which 25 species are new records for Singapore. Another 159 morphospecies are provisionally recognised as distinct species, some of which may be new to science. Our observations during the survey have allowed us to provide a narrative of BTNR spider diversity against a backdrop of their microhabitat specialisation.

Status of Family Fissidentaceae in Gujarat

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D.G. Shah ◽  
D.N. Mehta ◽  
R.V. Gujar
Keyword(s):  
Distinct Species ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Land Plants ◽  
Reproductive Structures ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Status ◽  
Vegetative Characters ◽  
First Time ◽  
Different Parts

Bryophytes are the second largest group of land plants and are also known as the amphibians of the plant kingdom. 67 species of bryophytes have been reported from select locations across the state of Gujrat. The status of family fissidentaceae which is a large moss family is being presented in this paper. Globally the family consists of 10 genera but only one genus, Fissidens Hedw. has been collected from Gujarat. Fissidens is characterized by a unique leaf structure and shows the presence of three distinct lamina, the dorsal, the ventral and the vaginant lamina. A total of 8 species of Fissidens have been reported from the state based on vegetative characters as no sporophyte stages were collected earlier. Species reported from the neighboring states also showed the absence of sporophytes. The identification of different species was difficult due to substantial overlap in vegetative characters. Hence a detailed study on the diversity of members of Fissidentaceae in Gujarat was carried out between November 2013 and February 2015. In present study 8 distinct species of Fissidens have been collected from different parts of the state. Three species Fissidens splachnobryoides Broth., Fissidens zollingerii Mont. and Fissidens curvato-involutus Dixon. have been identified while the other five are still to be identified. Fissidens zollingerii Mont. and Fissidens xiphoides M. Fleisch., which have been reported as distinct species are actually synonyms according to TROPICOS database. The presence of sexual reproductive structures and sporophytes for several Fissidens species are also being reported for the first time from the state.

Reading Roman Declamation

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman History ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Latin Literature ◽  
Sociocultural Context ◽  
International Group ◽  
Seneca The Elder ◽  
First Time ◽  
Literary Phenomenon

Situated at the crossroads of rhetoric and fiction, the genre of declamatio offers its practitioners the freedom to experiment with new forms of discourse. This volume places the literariness of Roman declamation into the spotlight by showcasing its theoretical influences, stylistic devices, and generic conventions as related by Seneca the Elder, the author of the Controversiae and Suasoriae, which jointly make up the largest surviving collection of declamatory speeches from antiquity. In so doing, it draws attention to the complexity of these texts, and maps out, for the first time, the sociocultural context for their composition, delivery, and reception. The volume’s chapters have been authored by an international group of leading scholars in Latin literature and rhetoric, and explore not only the historical roles of individual declaimers but also the physical and linguistic techniques upon which they collectively drew. In addition, the ‘dark side of declamation’ is illuminated by contributions on the competitiveness of the arena and the manipulative potential of declamatory skill. In keeping with the volume’s overall treatment of declamation as a literary phenomenon, a section has also been dedicated to intertextuality. This comprehensive, innovative, and up-to-date treatment provides thought-provoking analyses of Roman declamation, and therefore constitutes an essential volume for both students and scholars in the fields of Latin literature, Republican Roman history, and rhetoric.

Big Decisions: Opting, Converting, Drifting

2006 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 157-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edna Ullmann-Margalit
Keyword(s):  
Decision Theory ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Atomic Level ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Newtonian Physics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Separate Treatment ◽  
The One

I want to focus on some of the limits of decision theory that are of interest to the philosophical concern with practical reasoning and rational choice. These limits should also be of interest to the social-scientists' concern with Rational Choice.Let me start with an analogy. Classical Newtonian physics holds good and valid for middle-sized objects, but not for the phenomena of the very little, micro, sub-atomic level or the very large, macro, outer-space level: different theories, concepts and laws apply there. Similarly, I suggest that we might think of the theory of decisionmaking as relating to middle-sized, ordinary decisions, and to them only. There remain the two extremes, the very ‘small’ decisions on the one hand and the very ‘big’ decisions on the other. These may pose a challenge to the ordinary decision theory and may consequently require a separate treatment.

scholarly journals Atlas of ticks (Acari: Argasidae, Ixodidae) in Germany

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz Rubel ◽  
Katharina Brugger ◽  
Lidia Chitimia-Dobler ◽  
Hans Dautel ◽  
Elisabeth Meyer-Kayser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tick Species ◽  
Migratory Birds ◽  
Dermacentor Reticulatus ◽  
Ixodid Ticks ◽  
Federal States ◽  
Ixodes Frontalis ◽  
Argas Reflexus ◽  
The One ◽  
Argasid Tick ◽  
First Time

AbstractAn updated and increased compilation of georeferenced tick locations in Germany is presented here. This data collection extends the dataset published some years ago by another 1448 new tick locations, 900 locations of which were digitized from literature and 548 locations are published here for the first time. This means that a total of 3492 georeferenced tick locations is now available for Germany. The tick fauna of Germany includes two species of Argasidae in the genera Argas and Carios and 19 species of Ixodidae in the genera Dermacentor, Haemaphysalis, and Ixodes, altogether 21 tick species. In addition, three species of Ixodidae in the genera Hyalomma (each spring imported by migratory birds) and Rhipicephalus (occasionally imported by dogs returning from abroad with their owners) are included in the tick atlas. Of these, the georeferenced locations of 23 tick species are depicted in maps. The occurrence of the one remaining tick species, the recently described Ixodes inopinatus, is given at the level of the federal states. The most common and widespread tick species is Ixodes ricinus, with records in all 16 federal states. With the exception of Hamburg, Dermacentor reticulatus was also found in all federal states. The occurrence of the ixodid ticks Ixodes canisuga, Ixodes frontalis, Ixodes hexagonus and I. inopinatus were documented in at least 11 federal states each. The two mentioned argasid tick species were also documented in numerous federal states, the pigeon tick Argas reflexus in 11 and the bat tick Carios vespertilionis in seven federal states. The atlas of ticks in Germany and the underlying digital dataset in the supplement can be used to improve global tick maps or to study the effects of climate change and habitat alteration on the distribution of tick species.

Intuitionistic fuzzy two-factor variance analysis of movie ticket sales

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Velichka Traneva ◽  
Stoyan Tranev
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets ◽  
Real Numbers ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Important Method ◽  
Ticket Sales ◽  
Intuitionistic Fuzzy ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is an important method in data analysis, which was developed by Fisher. There are situations when there is impreciseness in data In order to analyze such data, the aim of this paper is to introduce for the first time an intuitionistic fuzzy two-factor ANOVA (2-D IFANOVA) without replication as an extension of the classical ANOVA and the one-way IFANOVA for a case where the data are intuitionistic fuzzy rather than real numbers. The proposed approach employs the apparatus of intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs) and index matrices (IMs). The paper also analyzes a unique set of data on daily ticket sales for a year in a multiplex of Cinema City Bulgaria, part of Cineworld PLC Group, applying the two-factor ANOVA and the proposed 2-D IFANOVA to study the influence of “ season ” and “ ticket price ” factors. A comparative analysis of the results, obtained after the application of ANOVA and 2-D IFANOVA over the real data set, is also presented.

scholarly journals Experiential ownership and body ownership are different phenomena

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caleb Liang ◽  
Wen-Hsiang Lin ◽  
Tai-Yuan Chang ◽  
Chi-Hong Chen ◽  
Chen-Wei Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Distinct Type ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time ◽  
Full Body

AbstractBody ownership concerns what it is like to feel a body part or a full body as mine, and has become a prominent area of study. We propose that there is a closely related type of bodily self-consciousness largely neglected by researchers—experiential ownership. It refers to the sense that I am the one who is having a conscious experience. Are body ownership and experiential ownership actually the same phenomenon or are they genuinely different? In our experiments, the participant watched a rubber hand or someone else’s body from the first-person perspective and was touched either synchronously or asynchronously. The main findings: (1) The sense of body ownership was hindered in the asynchronous conditions of both the body-part and the full-body experiments. However, a strong sense of experiential ownership was observed in those conditions. (2) We found the opposite when the participants’ responses were measured after tactile stimulations had ceased for 5 s. In the synchronous conditions of another set of body-part and full-body experiments, only experiential ownership was blocked but not body ownership. These results demonstrate for the first time the double dissociation between body ownership and experiential ownership. Experiential ownership is indeed a distinct type of bodily self-consciousness.

Address of the President Lord Blackett, O. M., C. H. at the Anniversary Meeting, 1 December 1969

1970 ◽  
Vol 174 (1037) ◽  
pp. 403-417
Keyword(s):  
Immunological Response ◽  
Immunological Tolerance ◽  
Cell Mediated Immunity ◽  
Specific Cell ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time ◽  
Improved Methods ◽  
Specific Tolerance ◽  
Immunological Barrier

The Copley Medal is awarded to Sir Peter Medawar, C. B. E., F. R. S. Medawar’s first major contribution was to prove conclusively that skin grafts made between different individuals usually fail because of an immunological response made by the recipient against foreign antigens in the donor’s cells, and then to show that the most important mechanism was a specific cell-mediated immunity due to lymphocytes. In attempting to find means of preventing the response against grafted tissues, without impairing immunological capacity in other respects, Medawar made a second major contribution by showing for the first time that it was possible to induce specific tolerance of foreign antigens by administering them to very young animals. His subsequent work, directed towards achieving practical means of overcoming the immunological barrier to tissue transplantation, led him on the one hand to investigate improved methods of inducing specific immunological tolerance and, on the other, to use antiserum against lymphocytes to suppress the damaging effects of these cells. His successful results in experimental animals have indicated the way to their possible application in Man. Medawar’s work has throughout been distinguished by a penetrating clarity of thought combined with insight, and by elegant and original experimental design. He also has a justly high reputation for his analyses and predictions in wider fields of biology, and his study of scientific method.

CsOH and its Lighter Homologues – a Comparison

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 1229-1236
Author(s):  
Matthias Wörsching ◽  
Constantin Hoch
Keyword(s):  
Gas Phase ◽  
Room Temperature ◽  
Structure Type ◽  
Alkali Metal Hydroxide ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Raman Spectroscopic ◽  
Cesium Hydroxide ◽  
Free Ion ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time

Abstract Cesium hydroxide, CsOH, was for the first time characterised on the basis of single-crystal data. The structure is isotypic to the one of the room-temperature modification of NaOH and can be derived from the NaCl structure type thus allowing the comparison of all alkali metal hydroxide structures. Raman spectroscopic investigations show the hydroxide anion to behave almost as a free ion as in the gas phase. The X-ray investigations indicate possible H atom positions.

scholarly journals Gamma Astrometric Measurement Experiment: testing General Relativity with a small mission

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S248) ◽  
pp. 290-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Vecchiato ◽  
M. G. Lattanzi ◽  
M. Gai ◽  
R. Morbidelli
Keyword(s):  
General Relativity ◽  
Solar Eclipse ◽  
Galactic Center ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Measurement Experiment ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time ◽  
Bending Of Light

AbstractGAME (Gamma Astrometric Measurement Experiment) is a concept for an experiment whose goal is to measure from space the γ parameter of the Parameterized Post-Newtonian formalism, by means of a satellite orbiting at 1 AU from the Sun and looking as close as possible to its limb. This technique resembles the one used during the solar eclipse of 1919, when Dyson, Eddington and collaborators measured for the first time the gravitational bending of light. Simple estimations suggest that, possibly within the budget of a small mission, one could reach the 10−6level of accuracy with ~106observations of relatively bright stars at about 2° apart from the Sun. Further simulations show that this result could be reached with only 20 days of measurements on stars ofV≤ 17 uniformly distributed. A quick look at real star densities suggests that this result could be greatly improved by observing particularly crowded regions near the galactic center.

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