Inseparable Impulses: The Science and Aesthetics of Ernst Haeckel and Charley Harper

Leonardo ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 465-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan K. Halpern ◽  
Hannah Star Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Visual Language ◽  
Ernst Haeckel ◽  
Darwin's Finches ◽  
Darwin’S Finches ◽  
Art Forms ◽  
Specific Interpretation ◽  
Scientific Argument

This article examines the role of aesthetics in scientific argument by analyzing two images. The first, from Ernst Haeckel's Art Forms in Nature (1904), depicts 15 bats evenly spaced on a white field. The second, Charley Harper's Darwin's Finches (1961), shows 13 finches, similarly displayed. Although these two images may at first appear to have little in common, they both present a specific interpretation of Darwin's theories using visual language. This article argues that the act of representation and scientific theory are inextricably intertwined.

scholarly journals Role of sexual imprinting in assortative mating and premating isolation in Darwin’s finches

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (46) ◽  
pp. E10879-E10887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter R. Grant ◽  
B. Rosemary Grant
Keyword(s):  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Good Choice ◽  
Premating Isolation ◽  
Sexual Imprinting ◽  
Darwin's Finches ◽  
Darwin’S Finches ◽  
Adaptive Radiations ◽  
Beak Size ◽  
Species Specific

Global biodiversity is being degraded at an unprecedented rate, so it is important to preserve the potential for future speciation. Providing for the future requires understanding speciation as a contemporary ecological process. Phylogenetically young adaptive radiations are a good choice for detailed study because diversification is ongoing. A key question is how incipient species become reproductively isolated from each other. Barriers to gene exchange have been investigated experimentally in the laboratory and in the field, but little information exists from the quantitative study of mating patterns in nature. Although the degree to which genetic variation underlying mate-preference learning is unknown, we provide evidence that two species of Darwin’s finches imprint on morphological cues of their parents and mate assortatively. Statistical evidence of presumed imprinting is stronger for sons than for daughters and is stronger for imprinting on fathers than on mothers. In combination, morphology and species-specific song learned from the father constitute a barrier to interbreeding. The barrier becomes stronger the more the species diverge morphologically and ecologically. It occasionally breaks down, and the species hybridize. Hybridization is most likely to happen when species are similar to each other in adaptive morphological traits, e.g., body size and beak size and shape. Hybridization can lead to the formation of a new species reproductively isolated from the parental species as a result of sexual imprinting. Conservation of sufficiently diverse natural habitat is needed to sustain a large sample of extant biota and preserve the potential for future speciation.

scholarly journals Reproductive isolation of sympatric morphs in a population of Darwin's finches

2007 ◽  
Vol 274 (1619) ◽  
pp. 1709-1714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah K Huber ◽  
Luis Fernando De León ◽  
Andrew P Hendry ◽  
Eldredge Bermingham ◽  
Jeffrey Podos
Keyword(s):  
Strong Support ◽  
Darwin's Finches ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Darwin’S Finches ◽  
Ecological Resources ◽  
Geospiza Fortis ◽  
Breeding Seasons ◽  
Assortative Pairing ◽  
Sympatric Morphs

Recent research on speciation has identified a central role for ecological divergence, which can initiate speciation when (i) subsets of a species or population evolve to specialize on different ecological resources and (ii) the resulting phenotypic modes become reproductively isolated. Empirical evidence for these two processes working in conjunction, particularly during the early stages of divergence, has been limited. We recently described a population of the medium ground finch, Geospiza fortis , that features large and small beak morphs with relatively few intermediates. As in other Darwin's finches of the Galápagos Islands, these morphs presumably diverged in response to variation in local food availability and inter- or intraspecific competition. We here demonstrate that the two morphs show strong positive assortative pairing, a pattern that holds over three breeding seasons and during both dry and wet conditions. We also document restrictions on gene flow between the morphs, as revealed by genetic variation at 10 microsatellite loci. Our results provide strong support for the central role of ecology during the early stages of adaptive radiation.

Contributions of Contemporary Political Science to an Understanding of the Common Good

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.J. Matthew Carnes
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Politics And Government ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Nature And Society

The transformation of political science in recent decades opens the door for a new but so far poorly cultivated examination of the common good. Four significant “turns” characterize the modern study of politics and government. Each is rooted in the discipline’s increased emphasis on empirical rigor, with its attendant scientific theory-building, measurement, and hypothesis testing. Together, these new orientations allow political science to enrich our understanding of causality, our basic definitions of the common good, and our view of human nature and society. In particular, the chapter suggests that traditional descriptions of the common good in Catholic theology have been overly irenic and not sufficiently appreciative of the role of contention in daily life, on both a national and international scale.

There Are No Such Things As Theories

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven French
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
The One ◽  
Realism Debate

What is a scientific theory? Is it a set of propositions? Or a family of models? Or is it some kind of abstract artefact? These options are examined in the context of a comparison between theories and artworks. On the one hand, theories are said to be like certain kinds of paintings, in that they play a representational role; on the other, they are compared to musical works, insofar as they can be multiply presented. I shall argue that such comparisons should be treated with care and that all of the above options face problems. Instead, I suggest, we should adopt a form of eliminativism towards theories, in the sense that a theory should not be regarded as any thing. Nevertheless, we can still talk about them and attribute certain qualities to them, where that talk is understood to be made true by certain practices. This shift to practices as truth-makers for theory talk then has certain implications for how we regard theories in the realism debate and in the context of the nature and role of representation in science.

Creating with Constraints

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Hasegawa
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
Georges Perec ◽  
Gyorgy Ligeti ◽  
Raymond Queneau ◽  
Art Forms ◽  
Musical Creativity ◽  
Process Constraints

Musicians have long framed their creative activity within constraints, whether imposed externally or consciously chosen. As noted by Leonard Meyer, any style can be viewed as an ensemble of constraints, requiring the features of the artwork to conform with accepted norms. Such received stylistic constraints may be complemented by additional, voluntary limitations: for example, using only a limited palette of pitches or sounds, setting rules to govern repetition or transformation, controlling the formal layout and proportions of the work, or limiting the variety of operations involved in its creation. This chapter proposes a fourfold classification of the limits most often encountered in music creation into material (absolute and relative), formal, style/genre, and process constraints. The role of constraints as a spur and guide to musical creativity is explored in the domains of composition, improvisation, performance, and even listening, with examples drawn from contemporary composers including György Ligeti, George Aperghis, and James Tenney. Such musical constraints are comparable to self-imposed limitations in other art forms, from film (the Dogme 95 Manifesto) and visual art (Robert Morris’s Blind Time Drawings) to the writings of authors associated with the Oulipo (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle) such as Georges Perec and Raymond Queneau.

scholarly journals Isotopic Niche Segregation among Darwin’s Finches on Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Mariana Villegas ◽  
Catherine Soos ◽  
Gustavo Jiménez-Uzcátegui ◽  
Shukri Matan ◽  
Keith A. Hobson
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Sympatric Species ◽  
Isotopic Niche ◽  
Museum Specimens ◽  
Santa Cruz Island ◽  
Santa Cruz ◽  
Δ13c And Δ15n ◽  
Darwin's Finches ◽  
Darwin’S Finches ◽  
Foraging Guilds

Darwin’s finches are a classic example of adaptive radiation involving differential use of dietary resources among sympatric species. Here, we apply stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N, and δ2H) analyses of feathers to examine ecological segregation among eight Darwin’s finch species in Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos collected from live birds and museum specimens (1962–2019). We found that δ13C values were higher for the granivorous and herbivorous foraging guilds, and lower for the insectivorous finches. Values of δ15N were similar among foraging guilds but values of δ2H were higher for insectivores, followed by granivores, and lowest for herbivores. The herbivorous guild generally occupied the largest isotopic standard ellipse areas for all isotopic combinations and the insectivorous guild the smallest. Values of δ2H provided better trophic discrimination than those of δ15N possibly due to confounding influences of agricultural inputs of nitrogen. Segregation among guilds was enhanced by portraying guilds in three-dimensional isotope (δ13C, δ15N, and δ2H) space. Values of δ13C and δ15N were higher for feathers of museum specimens than for live birds. We provide evidence that Darwin’s finches on Santa Cruz Island tend to be generalists with overlapping isotopic niches and suggest that dietary overlap may also be more considerable than previously thought.

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