...Overview of Evolution | Devonte McLean | Why are we here? How are we here? What can account for the broad diversity of life we see around us every day? These are the questions people have been asking for thousands of years. It has been recently that science was sophisticated enough for us to be able to find the real answer. Anyone can tell you that the currently accepted explanation is the Theory of Evolution. In the early 19th century, the Theory of Evolution was being formed in the minds of many scientists but it was first given voice by Charles Darwin in his Origin of Species. He proposed that a process called natural selection acts on random variation within a species to cause only the most fit of that species to survive and leave fertile offspring. Natural Selection is a process that chooses specific individuals based on their characteristics, by allowing them to survive and multiply, less suited individuals die out. Over time, only a certain amount of organisms most suited to their environment survive, and organisms become more and more specialized. Darwin's theory was failing at the time of its broadcast as being an excellent explanation for the diversity of living things on our planet. Generally, the only opposition to the Theory of Evolution came from religious circles who believed that the world was created in six days and all the animals and plants were created exactly as we see them. While many scientists in the public stuck to their beliefs, this theory did not...
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...What is Evolution? Biological evolution is genetic change in a population from one generation to another. The speed and direction of change is variable with different species lines and at different times. Continuous evolution over many generations can result in the development of new varieties and species. Likewise, failure to evolve in response to environmental changes can, and often does, lead to extinction. When scientists speak of evolution as a theory they do not mean that it is a mere speculation. It is a theory in the same sense as the propositions that the earth is round rather than flat or that our bodies are made of atoms are theories. Most people would consider such fundamental theories to be sufficiently tested by empirical evidence to conclude that they are indeed facts. As a result of the massive amount of evidence for biological evolution accumulated over the last two centuries, we can safely conclude that evolution has occurred and continues to occur. All life forms, including humans, evolved from earlier species, and all still living species of organisms continue to evolve today. They are not unchanging end-products. For those who have difficulty in accepting evolution because of what they perceive as contradictions with their fundamental religious beliefs, it may be useful to distinguish the ultimate origin of life from its later evolution. Many, if not most, biological scientists accept that primordial life on earth began as a result of chance natural...
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...What is evolution? Providing a definition of “evolution” is tricky because the word is used in different ways. First we need to distinguish between the broader worldview some associate with evolution and the scientific theory of evolution. The theory of evolution by natural selection, first formulated in Charles Darwin's book "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, is the process by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in heritable physical or behavioral traits. Changes that allow an organism to better adapt to its environment will help it survive and have more offspring. The theory of evolution is based on the idea that all species are related and gradually change over time. Evolution relies on there being genetic variation in a population which affects the physical characteristics (phenotype) of an organism. Some of these characteristics may give the individual an advantage over other individuals which they can then pass on to their offspring. Evolution by natural selection is one of the best substantiated theories in the history of science, supported by evidence from a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including paleontology, geology, genetics and...
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...Evolution and Creation Rodger Fickel COM170 July 7th, 2013 Winifred Winstead Donnelly Evolution and Creation For several decades there has been a debate between creation and evolution, and which one should be taught in schools. While many individuals on both sides of the issue wonder why it even matters, it should not be understated how important these topics are for ideas ranging from humanities place in the world, to how antibiotics work. Evolution sits at the very heart of scientific understanding, while creation rests within the realm of humanities spiritual views. History of the debate. Evolution, at its most basic level, is the idea that tiny changes over a long period of time will eventually add up. The concept, although not called evolution, dates back to some of the earliest Greek philosophers, such as Anaximander of Miletus who proposed that life began in the ocean and eventually moved onto land. Empedocles (c. 490-430 BC), postulated that what is seen as birth and death is the joining and separating of elements which cause the countless “tribes of mortal things.” The concept of evolution took a bit of a downturn in the early middle ages, resurfacing during the renaissance and eventually leading to the observations of Charles Darwin. Since then scientists have discovered deoxyribonucleic acids, sequenced the human genome, and traced the ancestry of humanity back nearly 200,000 years to a tribe in Africa because of how they have come to understand Evolution...
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...Logan Evans Theory of Evolution Throughout the years many scientists have contributed to the theory of evolution. Scientists like Linnaeus, Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck have all put their research together to each form their version of evolution. Not all of the scientists were considered to be correct, but all of their ideas led to the theory of evolution, which we still follow today. In the mid 18th century a biologist named Carolus Linnaeus formed his theory about evolution. Linnaeus wrote about 180 books about nature, the books were considered accurate and very descriptive. At first, Linnaeus thought that he was just “revealing the unchanging order of life created by god”. Later on he became troubled by the fact that hybrid plants could cross-pollinate, because of...
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...History of Evolution The word "evolution" in its broadest sense refers to change or growth that occurs in a particular order. Although this broad version of the term would include astronomical evolution and the evolution of computer design, this article focuses on the evolution of biological organisms. That use of the term dates back to the ancient Greeks, but today the word is more often used to refer to Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. This theory is sometimes crudely referred to as the theory of "survival of the fittest." It was proposed by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species in 1859 and, independently, by Alfred Wallace in 1858—although Wallace, unlike Darwin, said the human soul is not the product of evolution. Greek and medieval references to "evolution" use it as a descriptive term for a state of nature, in which everything in nature has a certain order or purpose. This is a teleological view of nature. For example, Aristotle classified all living organisms hierarchically in his great scala naturae or Great Chain of Being, with plants at the bottom, moving through lesser animals, and on to humans at the pinnacle of creation, each becoming progressively more perfect in form. It was the medieval philosophers, such as Augustine, who began to incorporate teleological views of nature with religion: God is the designer of all creatures, and everything has a purpose and a place as ordained by Him. In current times, to some, the terms "evolution" and "God"...
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...positive and growth aspects of human nature. It is know for having lack of control that people have over their own lives. Last of all is evolutionary, this is how humans adapt traits and characteristic that have evolved through natural selection. This theory was also based off of the Charles Darwin theory of evolution and it's principles of natural selection. The goals of psychology are applicable in life because goal one is used to help researchers or psychologist describe what I'd being observed. This can be used to conduct more assessments later on and can be used in any publications to describe what went on through the observation. Goal two is used to explain, which is to organize and understand observations of behaviors. In the example listed the psychologist noticed a change in the miners. So, in order to figure out what caused the change the psychologist devolved an explanation for their findings. Predict is the third goal which is to predict behaviors or outcomes. Psychologist can use this goal to make predictions about what will happen in the future. In the example the researcher made a prediction about what would happen to the miners based on previous research done on the miners. By making a prediction the psychologist knew what the outcome would be because of the previous studies. Goal four is used to take research findings to shape, modify, and control behavior....
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...Some people believe completely in origination from the Bible. Others believe in evolution. To go further in depth, Charles Darwin made his own theory that involves natural selection, also known as Darwinism. This is a very controversial topic, especially when it comes to what is taught in schools. People get very heated when it comes to this. Evolution is defined as the change in inherited characteristics of populations to become successful. Scientists use this as an explanation for how humans and all other species were created. It all originated from the proposal that one type of animal could descend from another type of animal. Evolution is skimmed over in schools, but is never really taught in depth, at least in my case. I can tell someone the basics of evolution, but that’s as far I can cover. According to Darwin, it is important for natural variation to take place. This allows a species to change, improve, and adjust to the ever changing climate. Without variation, all species would be like clones, never adapting and soon would die. There have to be certain traits that make another type of the same species better than the other. The species with the bad traits will get killed off and the one with the good traits will get to pass on its genes. Creationism is basically the mixture of evolution and religion. Creationists believe that everything scientists find to prove religion wrong, is just what they’re supernatural being created. They also believe that the time frame of...
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...Creationism VS. Evolution “Why evolution should be taught in public schools” by Laura H. Kahn discusses how evolution being taught in the public school system is essential to our future in science and medicine. Kahn discusses how the theory of evolution has come to be over the many years of research and experimentation by many famous scientists, she also talks about the uphill battle it has been for the theory of evolution to be taught in the public school system because “certain segments of society insist that religious doctrine, masquerading as science, be taught instead. Laura presents her audience with the facts that in the nineteenth century theory of spontaneous generation, the theory that proposed that life could emerge from nonliving material, was the main theory of evolution back then. How ever a French chemist, Louis Pasteur, would try to disprove the theory through his discovery that yeasts were responsible for making wine palatable and bacteria was responsible for turning wine bad. He also discovered through the use of silkworms that microbes caused their illness and death. She states that Pasteur saw the connection between microbes, fermentation, putrefaction, and disease. She claims that his biggest challenge however was to try to convince the scientific community to accept is idea. She backs up her statement with bringing to our attention that at the same time Pasteur was pushing his theory a scientist by the name of Felix-Archimede claimed he had successfully...
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...| Research Paper | Inherit the Wind | | Ronald Ma | 103945967 | | Research Paper: Inherit the Wind “Inherit the Wind” is a film that addresses the age old debate on evolution vs creationism, and is based off of the Scopes Trial back in 1925. The film takes set in a fundamentalist town, Hillsboro, where a teacher, Bertram Cates, is being held on trial for introducing some of Darwin’s theories of evolution to the kids in his class. Although being a very old film, it reveals a lot of the crucial problems and issues with society that is even apparent in today’s societies. The town of Hillsboro is depicted as a place filled with narrow minded people who blindly follow their statesman, Matthew Brady. Throughout this film, many reoccurring themes are seen. The many themes including but not limited to: individualism, fundamentalism, free speech, critical thinking and progress. When watching this film, the audience is immediately presented with two clear sides that are at conflict. During the post discussion held in class, a classmate pointed out that many problems in today’s society stem from religion, and that many international conflicts are caused because of religion. While this argument certainly has it merits, I do not believe this is the main focal point the film is trying to depict. There is no doubt that religion causes a split in the community but that is only because of how the individuals choose to interpret and relay their sacred and biblical readings....
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...Ishmael, a gorilla that can somehow telepathically communicate with people, is mentoring a middle-aged, no-named writer who isn't exactly the brightest person on Earth. Ishmael helps the writer understand how most of mankind is playing out a story that will eventually destroy the world, while a small minority of people live in communion with the community of life and can lead to an eventually brighter future. Ishmael teaches about captivity, identity, and evolution in the forms of “takers” and “leavers” (140), as well as “mother culture” (20) and “civilized peoples”(22). The first name that was given to Ishmael was Goliath, which makes him more self-aware of his personal identity, but a name is only a name, and not one's whole identity like names so often force onto someone. He teaches that we do not need to accept the identity that we were born with, but can make our own destiny. Names are just another way for “mother culture” to imprison people in her game. Ishmael was raised in captivity and it is what he considered to be his “area of educational expertise” and...
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...Pranesh S S USN: 2SD06CS061 H.O.D 2 INDEX 1. INTRODUCTION 2. HISTORY 3. DEFINITION AND EXPLANATION 4. NEED FOR GENETIC ALGORITHM 5. IMPORTANCE OF GAOVER OTHER TECHNIQUES? 6. WORKING OF GA 6.1 BASIC DESCRIPTION 6.2 GENERAL ALGORITHM 7. IMPLEMENTATION 8. EXAMPLE-A SIMULATION BY HAND 9. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 10. CONCLUSION 11. REFERENCES 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 11 12 13 13 3 Abstract Genetic Algorithms have recently become a popular artificial technique for solving complex optimization problems and a sophisticated tool for machine learning. This paper provides an introduction to genetic algorithms and brief applicability to problems. There is a focus on GAs used as a optimisation technique. GAs technique is based on natural evolution where provides a robust solution for a given problem. This paper explains how GAs approaches to optimization for a problem with implementation methods. 1. Introduction Nature provides us different things. When...
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...What is Music? The problem with answering the question “What is music?” is understanding what would constitute a proper answer. Music arises from human behaviour, and the study of human behaviour is part of biology. So any question about music is a question about biology, and every question about biology requires an answer within the framework of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. 2.1 Music is Something We Like What is music? It’s what comes out of the speakers when we play a CD on our stereo. It’s what we hear on the radio. Music is singers singing and musicians playing. Music is a sound that we enjoy hearing. Is this a proper answer to the question “What is music?”? If I asked “What is a car?”, you could answer by pointing at a large object moving up the street and saying “It’s one of those.” But this may not be a satisfactory answer. A full explanation of what a car is would mention petrol, internal combustion engines, brakes, suspension, transmission and other mechanical things that make a car go. And we don’t just want to know what a car is; we also want to know what a car is for. An explanation of what a car is for would include the facts that there are people and other things (like shopping) inside cars and that the purpose of cars is to move people and things from one place to another. By analogy, a good answer to the question “What is music?” will say something about the detailed mechanics of music: instruments, notes, scales, rhythm...
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...to test if inorganic substances could produce organic substances to find out if living things could come from non-living things. The experiment was formed to explore Haldane and Oparin’s theory. Urey and Miller’s experiment has been redone by scientists throughout time to perfect it with new technology but there is a high possibility that the hypothesis will never be proved. There are many theories on how life started on Earth. Before technology, the widely believed theory was Spontaneous generation, which was widely accepted due to religious beliefs in earlier years. The theory suggested that all animals and plants appeared from nothing buy there was no evidence to prove it and was later disproved by Redi. Another related theory was Special creation, which suggested that a God created all beings, again there is no evidence to prove or disprove this theory but is not accepted in the scientific community. One of the only theories that has supporting evidence is the biochemical evolution theory – In 1924, Oparin (a Russian scientist) produced one of the most influential scientific theories, that life on Earth had developed through a gradual evolution of carbon-based molecules in a ‘primordial soup’. At the same time as this, a Scottish biochemist by the name of John Haldane proposed a theory that was very similar. John Haldane and Alexander Oparin hypothesized that organic matter could be produced from inorganic matter when an energy source (such as UV light, heat and radiation)...
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...Design Arguments St. Thomas Aquinas was an important theologian and philosopher whose work on the nature and existence of God and his arguments for a moral code based on the ‘natural law’ God has instilled in the universe have formed the central teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. He sought to bring faith and reason together in order to develop the place of theology in the world. The argument from design finds its origins in Aquinas’ Summa Theologica and is the fifth of his five ways of proving the existence of God. Aquinas’ argument can be explained as follows: “The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world. We see that things which lack knowledge, such as natural bodies, act for an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result. Hence it is plain that they achieve their end, not fortuitously, but designedly. Now whatever lacks knowledge cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is directed by the archer. Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.” Aquinas argued from design qua regularity. He saw the overall order in the world as proof of a designer: ‘this being we call God.’ Aquinas stated that everything works together to achieve order, despite the fact that inanimate objects have no mind or rational powers to achieve...
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