Large, introductory, nonmajors biology classes present challenges when trying to encourage class discussion to help reinforce important concepts. Lively in-class discussion involving hundreds of students is more succe...
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Large, introductory, nonmajors biology classes present challenges when trying to encourage class discussion to help reinforce important concepts. Lively in-class discussion involving hundreds of students is more successful when a relevant story told with passion is used to introduce a topic. In my courses, each semester begins with thorough treatment of the scientific method, followed by the multiple Darwinian theories of evolution. To reinforce these two important themes, the story of the ivory-billed woodpecker's ecology, evolution, conservation, and probable extirpation has been effective in provoking class dialogue and reinforcing the two themes. Although I describe this approach as a large-class activity, it works well in courses of all sizes. In this article, I discuss teaching with storytelling and detail the use of the ivory-billed woodpecker story as a teaching tool.
Stephen Jay Gould is rightly remembered for many different kinds of contributions to our intellectual life. I focus on his criticisms of uses of evolutionary ideas to defend inegalitarian doctrines and on his attempts...
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Stephen Jay Gould is rightly remembered for many different kinds of contributions to our intellectual life. I focus on his criticisms of uses of evolutionary ideas to defend inegalitarian doctrines and on his attempts to expand the framework of Darwinian evolutionary theory. I argue that his important successes in the former sphere are applications of the idea of local critique, grounded in careful attention to the details of the inegalitarian proposals. As he became more concerned with the second project, Gould was inclined to suggest that the abuses of evolutionary ideas rested on an insufficiently expanded Darwinism. I suggest that what is valuable in Gould's contribution to general evolutionary theory is the original claim about punctuated equilibrium ( advanced, with Niles Eldredge in 1972), and the careful defense of that claim through the accumulation of paleontological evidence. I try to show that the more ambitious program of a hierarchical expansion of neo-Darwinism is misguided, and that the endeavor to go beyond local critique fails.
The biopsychosocial model remains a key paradigm for healthcare, despite widely recognised scientific and philosophical shortcomings. Here we report on recent updates integrating evolutionary theory with the biopsycho...
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The biopsychosocial model remains a key paradigm for healthcare, despite widely recognised scientific and philosophical shortcomings. Here we report on recent updates integrating evolutionary theory with the biopsychosocial model to provide a more comprehensive and scientifically complete approach to understanding the multiple relevant levels of causation of medical and psychiatric problems.
This research note presents the results of a content analysis of 234 letters to the editors that discuss evolutionary theory and were published in American newspapers. We find that letters to the editor both support a...
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This research note presents the results of a content analysis of 234 letters to the editors that discuss evolutionary theory and were published in American newspapers. We find that letters to the editor both support and hinder the cause of teaching evolutionary theory in American secondary schools. On the one hand, anti-evolutionary theory messages are marginalized in the letters section. This marginalization signals a low level of legitimacy for creationism. It might also contribute to the sense of tension that sustains creationist identities. On the other hand, relatively few letters explicitly note the fact that scientists or the scientific community accept evolution. Interestingly, the obscuration of the scientific community's support for evolutionary theory occurs both in letters supporting and opposing evolutionary theory.
evolutionary theory and neuroscience are recommended as a foundational theory for social work. Advantages of evolutionary theory include explanatory power, suggestion of interventions to beginning social work practiti...
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evolutionary theory and neuroscience are recommended as a foundational theory for social work. Advantages of evolutionary theory include explanatory power, suggestion of interventions to beginning social work practitioners, and accommodation of more specific theories of human behavior. The explanatory power of neuroscience is also discussed, along with its evidence base and compatibility with the strengths perspective and destigmatization work of the profession. Connections between evolutionary theory, neuroscience, and social work values are also discussed.
After long neglect, evolutionary thinking is receiving new emphasis in the social sciences. Although evolutionary theories in biology are complex, changing, and often controversial, the basic concepts of variation, se...
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After long neglect, evolutionary thinking is receiving new emphasis in the social sciences. Although evolutionary theories in biology are complex, changing, and often controversial, the basic concepts of variation, selection, and transmission potentially have powerful applications in sociology. In such uses, a crucial distinction must be made between developmental processes and evolutionary processes. Two main approaches characterize current evolutionary thinking in sociology: sociobiological explanations, and coevolutionary accounts of the interaction of genes and culture. Evolution through natural selection can occur with genes, cultural elements, and any other self-replicating codes. Although social learning is the cultural analogue of genetic transmission, cultural evolution does not necessarily maximize genetic fitness. Newly emerging sociological theories of evolution hold promise of integrating micro- and macroprocesses, providing explanations of complexity and diversity in social change, reconciling ideas of agency and structure, and linking sociology to biology without misleading reductionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
evolutionary biological theory has been shown to be relevant to an understanding of how individuals assess others 'physical and sexual attractiveness. This research used the Body-Esteem Scale and multiple regressi...
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Recent advances in the study of the genetic and physiological basis of self-incompatibility have raised novel evolutionary questions. I enumerate basic elements of the classical theory for the evolution of self-incomp...
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Recent advances in the study of the genetic and physiological basis of self-incompatibility have raised novel evolutionary questions. I enumerate basic elements of the classical theory for the evolution of self-incompatibility, describe some evolutionary questions inspired by the new empirical findings, and indicate promising directions for ongoing and future development of the theory of self-incompatibility. (C) 2000 Annals of Botany Company.
The central dogma of molecular biology (Crick, 1958, 1970), as an expression of the template principle in biology, provides a basis for the consideration of different variability types connected with replication, tran...
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The central dogma of molecular biology (Crick, 1958, 1970), as an expression of the template principle in biology, provides a basis for the consideration of different variability types connected with replication, transcription, and translation from the unified position. There are also conformational templates (the second order templates), which should be considered in addition to the generally accepted templates of the first order. Nevertheless, there is no direct correspondence between molecular mechanisms and organismic (phenotypic) manifestation of variability types. This explains contradictions in the commonly accepted classification of variability types. Uniform mechanisms may underlie both hereditary and nonhereditary variations, depending on the taxonomic position and stage of the life cycle. Hereditary genetic and epigenetic variations differ in frequency and, hence, have different effect on the efficiency of natural selection, resulting in different tempos of evolution.
Historically, conceptualizations of symbiosis and endosymbiosis have been pitted against Darwinian or neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory. In more recent times, Lynn Margulis has argued vigorously along these lines. How...
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Historically, conceptualizations of symbiosis and endosymbiosis have been pitted against Darwinian or neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory. In more recent times, Lynn Margulis has argued vigorously along these lines. However, there are only shallow grounds for finding Darwinian concepts or population genetic theory incompatible with endosymbiosis. But is population genetics sufficiently explanatory of endosymbiosis and its role in evolution? Population genetics "follows" genes, is replication-centric, and is concerned with vertically consistent genetic lineages. It may also have explanatory limitations with regard to macroevolution. Even so, asking whether population genetics explains endosymbiosis may have the question the wrong way around. We should instead be asking how explanatory of evolution endosymbiosis is, and exactly which features of evolution it might be explaining. This paper will discuss how metabolic innovations associated with endosymbioses can drive evolution and thus provide an explanatory account of important episodes in the history of life. Metabolic explanations are both proximate and ultimate, in the same way genetic explanations are. Endosymbioses, therefore, point evolutionary biology toward an important dimension of evolutionary explanation.
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