The Making and Development of E. N. Mirzoyan’s Evolutionary Concept (In Commemoration of the 90 th Anniversary of His Birth)

Author(s):  
Marianna Kozlova

A renowned biologist and historian of science Eduard Nikolaevich Mirzoyan would have turned 90 in April 2021. The author of over 200 publications, including 15 monographs, on the history of evolutionary morphology, evolutionary histology, evolutionary physiology and biochemistry, and evolutionary and global ecology, he was also exploring the problem of how ontogenesis and phylogenesis are related to the theoretical aspects of evolutionary biology. As a result of a long-time creative pursuit, Mirzoyan developed his own outlook on biological evolution, captured mostly in his personal archive. Analyzing the 20 th century evolutionary synthesis strategies, Mirzoyan formulated his own evolutionary concept and put forward an idea that the 21 st century evolutionists must concentrate their efforts on constructing a general theory of the living matter evolution instead of the evolutionary theories that prevailed in the 20 th century and focused on explaining the formation of species. This article is devoted to the analysis of Mizoyan’s evolutionary views.

Author(s):  
Andrew Briggs ◽  
Hans Halvorson ◽  
Andrew Steane

The chapter discusses the history of life on Earth, and the lessons to be learned from the neo-Darwinian synthesis of evolutionary biology. The long and complex sequence of events in the evolutionary history of life on Earth requires considered interpretation. The neo-Darwinian synthesis is well-supported by evidence and gives rich insight into this process, but does not itself furnish a complete explanation or understanding of living things. This is because a process of exploration can only explore; it cannot fully dictate and can only partially constrain what type of thing will be found. What is found is constrained by other considerations, such as what is possible, and what can make sense. A brief critique of some of Richard Dawkins’ work is given, and also of the movement known as ‘Intelligent Design’. Education policy is well served by a fair appraisal of informed opinion in this area.


2006 ◽  

This book is a collection of the works submitted at the twelfth meeting of the Italian evolutionary biology group, held in Florence in February 2004. The evolutionary theories are treated in a balanced manner, from various points of view (those of the historian, the zoologist, the palaeontologist, the anthropologist and the molecular biologist) in the light of various recent discoveries of both an experimental and theoretical nature. The debate and the diversity of the approaches demonstrate the validity and topicality of the study of biological evolution.


Author(s):  
Paolo Renati

Despite the successes earned in cataloguing and finding the role of the most of molecular components in living matter, the “biochemical and molecular” perspective, popular in biology, medicine and genetics, is unable to give account for crucial topics as the faculty of living systems to “feel”, to “perceive” what a given stimulus implies (means, indeed) for their survival. Condensed matter physics too, if bounded to a local, short-range, and perturbative approach, fails dramatically. This is also due to the role commonly assigned to water – actually the main constituent of living matter – deemed for long time to be merely chemical (as “solvent” or a reactant/product). Nonetheless, today many evidences show how living matter can be right conceived as a super-structured coherent water-based matrix, suggesting that the characterization of bio(electro)chemical and physical processes undertaken at molecular level in living matter, would let us unable to answer a question like this: what allows an amoeba, moreover without any neurons, to “know” to get closer to a nutrient or escape away from a toxin? I propose that to pursue such a fundamental inquiry it’s necessary an essentially relational approach, that is: to consider the living being at its grounding as the outcome of a physical history of relationships where symmetry-breakings, dissipation and coherence yield the emergence of the living state of matter, conceivable only as a time-dependent open process, and not as a portraited “body”. The effective tools to build up such an approach may be retrieved in far-from-equilibrium thermodynamics (TD), symmetry-breakings and gauge-fields theory, science of complexity, within the framework of a Quantum Field Theory. Indeed, within a field-view of matter, and of water especially, as it has been developed by a Quantum Electrodynamic (QED) description of condensed matter, it’s possible to give account for a physical basis too such an epistemologically elusive, though crucial, feature of living systems (i.e.: perception and meaning). The emerging landscape allows some important meditations about adaptation, evolution, ecodynamics, and about different conceptions of complexity and “information” in living realm. Furthermore, some neuroscientific themes like consciousness, qualia and their links to artificial intelligence could be supplied with due insights.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Н.Е. Басова ◽  
А.И. Кривченко ◽  
Г.А. Оганесян ◽  
Е.В. Розенгарт

The history of I.M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry is reviewed with emphasis on continuity in the activities of its directors starting from academician Leon Abgarovich Orbeli, the founder and the first director thereof.


1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 419-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Lazcano

AbstractDifferent current ideas on the origin of life are critically examined. Comparison of the now fashionable FeS/H2S pyrite-based autotrophic theory of the origin of life with the heterotrophic viewpoint suggest that the later is still the most fertile explanation for the emergence of life. However, the theory of chemical evolution and heterotrophic origins of life requires major updating, which should include the abandonment of the idea that the appearance of life was a slow process involving billions of years. Stability of organic compounds and the genetics of bacteria suggest that the origin and early diversification of life took place in a time period of the order of 10 million years. Current evidence suggest that the abiotic synthesis of organic compounds may be a widespread phenomenon in the Galaxy and may have a deterministic nature. However, the history of the biosphere does not exhibits any obvious trend towards greater complexity or «higher» forms of life. Therefore, the role of contingency in biological evolution should not be understimated in the discussions of the possibilities of life in the Universe.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-135
Author(s):  
Tatiana S. Minaeva ◽  
Sergey S. Gulyaev

Introduction. The organization of transport links and the bridge building in cities located on the banks of wide rivers has always been one of the most important tasks of the local administration. The study of the history of bridge building allows not only to trace the process of modernization of different regions of the country, but also to help in solving similar problems of our time. Nevertheless, the history of Russian bridge building is poorly studied. The purpose of the article is to determine the characteristics and features of the organization of bridge building in big cities of the European North of Russia as a way to solve one of the problems of urban infrastructure in the early XX century. Materials and Methods. The sources for this study are the documents of the State archive of the Arkhangelsk region, published documents on the history of Vologda, articles in the local periodicals of the early XX century. The analysis of the studied problem used a systematic approach, the method of economic analysis, historical and historical-comparative methods. Results and Discussion. The building of permanent bridges was a need for the development of Arkhangelsk and Vologda. In Vologda the two wooden bridges were built in the middle of XIX century on city funds and in the future these bridges were repaired or rebuilt. The Arkhangelsk city authorities did not hurry to solve a problem of city infrastructure by own efforts and a long time they used the floating bridge. The lack of experience in the building of large bridges and the desire to save money led to the rapid destruction of the first permanent bridge in Arkhangelsk. Conclusion. The Development of trade and industry in cities of the European North of Russia, such as Arkhangelsk and Vologda, led to the expansion of their territory and the emergence over time, the so-called third parts of the cities. Despite the comparable size of the population of the districts located across the river, the process of connecting them with bridges to the rest of the city went at different rates, which depended on the attitude of the local administration to the problem of urban infrastructure.


Author(s):  
مها بنت منصور الصائغ

شهد تاريخ الأمة الإسلامية حضارة ونهضة عالمية في جميع مجالات الحياة الإنسانية، ومما كان له كبير الأثر في ذلك هو الأوقاف التي بدأت مع سيد البشرية محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم واستمرت بتنوع وشمولية إلى عصرنا الحالي؛ ولكن ما تعرضت إليه الأوقاف من إهمال وإقصاء وضياع يرجع لأسباب عديدة من أهمها غياب التوثيق الوقفي. تقوم الدراسة على تتبع مفهوم الوقف والتوثيق، والوقف في الإمارات العربية المتحدة ول سيما في إمارة الشارقة. توصلت الدراسة إلى نتائج منها: أن الأوقاف قائمة منذ زمن بعيد، وأن رغبة الواقف بالوقف وإقدامه عليها لم ينقصها سوى وثيقة، وأنه لا وثائق لها ولا مستندات، كما أن العرض الموجز لنشأة دائرة الأوقاف بالشارقة وسعيها لإحياء سنة الوقف ونشر ثقافته نراه يتضح شيئاً فشيئاً من خلال تفعيل مواد القانون والبحث حول الأنسب والأصح لحماية الأوقاف، ولم يكن هذا الاهتمام بالوقف إلا انعكاساً لتوجه الواقفين وتماشياً لرؤية الحكام وامتثالاً لنهج خير الأنام ورغبة في تكافل الأرواح وحباً للسلام. الكلمات المفتاحيّة: الوقف، التوثيق، المقارنة، الشارقة. Abstract The history of Islamic nation has witnessed a global civilization and it has had a great impact in all areas of human life, including the endowments that began with the master of humankind; Muhammad S.A.W. and it was continuing in diversity and comprehensively until our epoch. However, there are some problems related to endowment management such as negligence, exclusion and loss that due to many reasons. Among the most important reasons is the absence of endowment documentations. Therefore, the study aims to discuss the concept of endowment and documentation, as well as the endowment in United Arabic Emirates, especially in the Emirate of Sharjah. The study concluded that the practice of endowment has been existed for a long time, yet there are in need of endowment documentations. This study also found that the information related to the establishment of institution of endowment in Sharjah and its role has   spread widely to the people through the enforcement of the law and the implementation of the research related to the practice of endowment in order to sustain them in a good way. This documentation system was only a reflection of what has  stated in Shariah laws regarding the practice of endowment among the donors, so that it will be in line with the approach of good intentions and love of peace. Keywords: Endowment, Documentation, Comparison, Sharjah.   


Author(s):  
Ж.В. Васильева

вопросы взаимодействия моды и сферы искусства, аспекты сближения их позиций в области репрезентации базовых эстетических установок конца XIX – начала XX вв. долгое время оставались вне поля исследовательского внимания культурологов и искусствоведов. Между тем, для преподавания курса мировой художественной культуры (МХК) анализ динамики взаимопроникновения моды и искусства в период модерна, выявление параллелей в развитии фэшн-трендов и художественных направлений конца XIX – начала ХХ в. имеет принципиальное значение. Обосновать необходимость включения учебного материала по вестиментарным фэшн-трендам в курс МХК – наша задача. questions of interaction between fashion and art, aspects of convergence of their positions in the field of representation of basic aesthetic attitudes of the late XIX – early XX centuries for a long time remained out of the field of attention of researchers. Meanwhile, for teaching the history of world culture, the analysis of the dynamics of the interpenetration of fashion and art in the modern period, the identification of parallels in the development of fashion trends and artistic trends of the late XIX – early XX century is of fundamental importance. Our task is to justify the need to include educational material on vestigial fashion trends in the course of world art culture.


2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 003685042110042
Author(s):  
Haiying Zhou ◽  
Hui Lu

Neurofibroma is a rare nerve sheath tumor of neuroectodermal origin, especially the huge and isolated neurofibroma located in the inguinal region. To our knowledge, no such case has previously been reported. We report a case of 34-year-old male patient with a 4-year history of progressive enlargement of the medial root mass in his left thigh with sitting and standing disorders along with pain. The tumor was completely removed by operation, and pathological diagnosis showed neurofibroma. There was no obvious neurologic defect after surgery, and no recurrence tendency was found in the follow-up of 2 years. For a large solitary mass with slow growth and no malignant clinical manifestations for a long time, clinicians cannot rule out the hypothetical diagnosis of neurofibroma, even though its growth site is very rare, such as this case of a huge tumor located in the groin. For neurogenic tumors, early operation should be performed, and the prognosis of patients after tumor resection is excellent.


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