24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Tyranny of the Gene Tempered by Junk DNA
The analogies between the genetic evolution of biological species and the cultural evolution of human societies have been brilliantly explored by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene. The book is mainly concerned with biological evolution; the cultural analogies are only pursued in the last chapter. Dawkins's main theme is the tyranny which the rigid demands of the replication apparatus have imposed upon all biological species throughout evolutionary history. Every species is the pris...03 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
Specialization is the Way to Extinction
Now let us examine more closely what we know scientifically about extinction. At the annual Congress of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as held approximately ten years ago in Philadelphia, two papers were presented in widely-separated parts of the Congress. One was presented in anthropology and the other in biology, and though the two author-scientists knew nothing of each other's efforts they were closely related. The one in anthropology examined the case histories o...Specialization comes at the cost of general adaptability. So when the environment changes, the highly-specialized go extinct.
16 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
The Earth is an Energy-Collecting Body
The kinetic intercomplementarity of finite Universe requires that what disassociates here must associate there—and also there. High-pressure con¬ ditions at one point are balanced by low pressures elsewhere. The stars are all radiantly dissipating energy. The Earth, however, is a celestial center where energies from the stars are being collected and photosynthetically combined in an orderly molecular assembly as hydrocarbons, which are consumed by orderly designed species, and then self-mu...Folksonomies: thermodynamics
Folksonomies: thermodynamics
Storing energy in molecules and molecular machinery. Is the transformation of the Earth into a Star in this passage metaphorical?
08 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Babies are Scientists
Babies start out believing that there are profound similarities between their own mind and the minds of others. That belief gives them a jump start in solving the Other Minds problem. But during the first three years they also observe the differences in what people do and say. Those differences stem from the fact that all minds aren't actually entirely alike. Babies and young children watch and listen with careful focused interest as their mother refuses to let them touch the lamp cord or as ...Their drive to play is a drive to explore, they are equipped with the cognitive and physical tools to explore their world and feed their curiosity about it.