The Random Genetic Drift Fallacy

The Random Genetic Drift Fallacy PDF Author: William B. Provine
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781500924126
Category : Human population genetics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Much of my life has been devoted to the history of population genetics. My early book was my Ph.D. thesis still in print: The Origins of Theoretical Populations Genetics (1971, 2nd edition, 1991). I stated in the 2nd edition in the Afterword that "random genetic drift" was giving me pause, as does the evolutionary synthesis. My later book was Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology (1986) and is also still in print. Now I am writing this book against "random genetic drift," invented by R. A. Fisher and followed by Sewall Wright and J. B. S. Haldane. "Random genetic drift" is the core of population genetics. Any person who believes in "random genetic drift" should read this book.

The Random Genetic Drift Fallacy

The Random Genetic Drift Fallacy PDF Author: William B. Provine
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781500924126
Category : Human population genetics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Much of my life has been devoted to the history of population genetics. My early book was my Ph.D. thesis still in print: The Origins of Theoretical Populations Genetics (1971, 2nd edition, 1991). I stated in the 2nd edition in the Afterword that "random genetic drift" was giving me pause, as does the evolutionary synthesis. My later book was Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology (1986) and is also still in print. Now I am writing this book against "random genetic drift," invented by R. A. Fisher and followed by Sewall Wright and J. B. S. Haldane. "Random genetic drift" is the core of population genetics. Any person who believes in "random genetic drift" should read this book.

Evolutionary Biology: Contemporary and Historical Reflections Upon Core Theory

Evolutionary Biology: Contemporary and Historical Reflections Upon Core Theory PDF Author: Thomas E. Dickins
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031220285
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 606

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Book Description
This book is reflecting upon core theories in evolutionary biology – in a historical as well as contemporary context. It exposes the main areas of interest for discussion, but more importantly draws together hypotheses and future research directions. The Modern Synthesis (MS), sometimes referred to as Standard Evolutionary Theory (SET), in evolutionary biology has been well documented and discussed, but was also critically scrutinized over the last decade. Researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds have claimed that there is a need for an extension to that theory, and have called for an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES). The book starts with an introductory chapter that summarizes the main points of the EES claim and indicates where those points receive treatment later in the book. This introduction to the subjects can either serve as an initiation for readers new to the debate, or as a guide for those looking to pursue particular lines of enquiry. The following chapters are organized around historical perspectives, theoretical and philosophical approaches and the use of specific biological models to inspect core ideas. Both empirical and theoretical contributions have been included. The majority of chapters are addressing various aspects of the EES position, and reflecting upon the MS. Some of the chapters take historical perspectives, analyzing various details of the MS and EES claims. Others offer theoretical and philosophical analyses of the debate, or take contemporary findings in biology and discuss those findings and their possible theoretical interpretations. All of the chapters draw upon actual biology to make their points. This book is written by practicing biologists and behavioral biologists, historians and philosophers - many of them working in interdisciplinary fields. It is a valuable resource for historians and philosophers of biology as well as for biologists. Chapters 8, 20, 22 and 33 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Evolutionary Bioinformatics

Evolutionary Bioinformatics PDF Author: Donald R. Forsdyke
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319287559
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 471

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Book Description
Now in its third edition and supplemented with more online material, this book aims to make the "new" information-based (rather than gene-based) bioinformatics intelligible both to the "bio" people and the "info" people. Books on bioinformatics have traditionally served gene-hunters, and biologists who wish to construct family trees showing tidy lines of descent. While dealing extensively with the exciting topics of gene discovery and database-searching, such books have hardly considered genomes as information channels through which multiple forms and levels of information have passed through the generations. This “new bioinformatics” contrasts with the "old" gene-based bioinformatics that so preoccupies previous texts. Forms of information that we are familiar with (mental, textual) are related to forms with which we are less familiar (hereditary). The book extends a line of evolutionary thought that leads from the nineteenth century (Darwin, Butler, Romanes, Bateson), through the twentieth (Goldschmidt, White), and into the twenty first (the final works of the late Stephen Jay Gould). Long an area of controversy, diverging views may now be reconciled.

Making 20th Century Science

Making 20th Century Science PDF Author: Stephen G. Brush
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199978158
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 553

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Book Description
Historically, the scientific method has been said to require proposing a theory, making a prediction of something not already known, testing the prediction, and giving up the theory (or substantially changing it) if it fails the test. A theory that leads to several successful predictions is more likely to be accepted than one that only explains what is already known but not understood. This process is widely treated as the conventional method of achieving scientific progress, and was used throughout the twentieth century as the standard route to discovery and experimentation. But does science really work this way? In Making 20th Century Science, Stephen G. Brush discusses this question, as it relates to the development of science throughout the last century. Answering this question requires both a philosophically and historically scientific approach, and Brush blends the two in order to take a close look at how scientific methodology has developed. Several cases from the history of modern physical and biological science are examined, including Mendeleev's Periodic Law, Kekule's structure for benzene, the light-quantum hypothesis, quantum mechanics, chromosome theory, and natural selection. In general it is found that theories are accepted for a combination of successful predictions and better explanations of old facts. Making 20th Century Science is a large-scale historical look at the implementation of the scientific method, and how scientific theories come to be accepted.

Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race

Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race PDF Author: Ashley Montagu
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1447495209
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
DR. ASHLEY MONTAGU’S book possesses two great merits rarely found in current discussions of human problems. Where most writers over-simplify, he insists on the principle of multiple and interlocking causation. And where most assume that “facts will speak for themselves,” he makes it clear that facts are mere ventriloquists’ dummies, and can be made to justify any course of action that appeals to the socially conditioned passions of the individuals concerned. These two truths are sufficiently obvious; but they are seldom recognized, for the good reason that they are very depressing. To recognize the first truth is to recognize the fact that there are no panaceas and that therefore most of the golden promises made by political reformers and revolutionaries are illusory. And to recognize the truth that facts do not speak for themselves, but only as man’s socially conditioned passions dictate, is to recognize that our current educational processes can do very little to ameliorate the state of the world. In the language of traditional theology (so much more realistic, in many respects, than the “liberal” philosophies which replaced it), most ignorance is voluntary and depends upon acts of the conscious or subconscious will. Thus, the fallacies underlying the propaganda of racial hatred are not recognized because, as Dr. Montagu points out, most people have a desire to act aggressively, and the members of other ethnic groups are convenient victims, whom one may attack with a good conscience. This desire to act aggressively has its origins in the largely unavoidable frustrations imposed upon the individual by the processes of early education and later adjustments to the social environment. Dr. Montagu might have added that aggressiveness pays a higher dividend in emotional satisfaction than does coöperation. Coöperation may produce a mild emotional glow; but the indulgence of aggressivness can be the equivalent of a drinking bout or sexual orgy. In our industrial societies, the goodness of life is measured in terms of the number and intensity of the excitements experienced. (Popular philosophy is moulded by, and finds expression in, the advertising pages of popular magazines. Significantly enough, the word that occurs more frequently in those pages than any other is “thrill.”) Like sex and alcohol, aggressiveness can give enormous thrills. Under existing social conditions, it is therefore easy to represent aggressiveness as good. Concerning the remedies for the social diseases he has so penetratingly diagnosed, Dr. Montagu says very little, except that they will have to consist in some process of education. But what process? It is to be hoped that he will answer this question at length in another work. ALDOUS HUXLEY

What's in Your Genome?

What's in Your Genome? PDF Author: Laurence A. Moran
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 148753857X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
What’s in Your Genome? describes the functional regions of the human genome, the evidence that 90% of it is junk DNA, and the reasons this evidence has not been widely accepted by the popular press and much of the scientific community. The human genome contains about 25,000 protein-coding and noncoding genes and many other functional elements, such as origins of replication, regulatory elements, and centromeres. Functional elements occupy only about 10 percent of the more than three billion base pairs in the human genome. Much of the rest is composed of ancient fragments of broken genes, transposons, and viruses. Almost all of this is thought to be junk DNA, based on evidence that dates back fifty years. This conclusion is controversial. What’s in Your Genome? describes the arguments on both sides of the debate and attempts to explain the reasoning behind those different points of view. The book corrects a number of false narratives that have arisen in recent years and examines how they have affected the debate over junk DNA. In addition, Laurence A. Moran focuses on scientific misconceptions and misinformation and on how the junk DNA controversy has been incorrectly portrayed in both the scientific literature and the popular press. Tracing the earliest indications of junk DNA back to the 1960s, the book explains the success of nearly neutral theory and the importance of random genetic drift, which gave rise to the view that evolution produces sloppy genomes full of junk DNA. What’s in Your Genome? aims to offer the most accurate and current account of the human genome.

Essential Readings in Evolutionary Biology

Essential Readings in Evolutionary Biology PDF Author: Francisco J. Ayala
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421413051
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 572

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Book Description
Traces scholarly thought from the nineteenth-century birth of evolutionary biology to the mapping of the human genome through forty-eight essays, arranged in chronological order, each preceded by a one-page essay that explains the significance of the chosen work.

Advances in Genetics, Development, and Evolution of Drosophila

Advances in Genetics, Development, and Evolution of Drosophila PDF Author: Seppo Lakovaara
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461583217
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
In 1906 Castle, Carpenter, Clarke, Mast, and Barrows published a paper entitled "The effects of inbreeding, cross-breeding, and selection upon the fertility and variability of Drosophila." This article, 55 pages long and published in the Proceedings of the Amer ican Academy, described experiments performed with Drosophila ampe lophila Lov, "a small dipterous insect known under various popular names such as the little fruit fly, pomace fly, vinegar fly, wine fly, and pickled fruit fly." This study, which was begun in 1901 and published in 1906, was the first published experimental study using Drosophila, subsequently known as Drosophila melanogaster Meigen. Of course, Drosophila was known before the experiments of Cas tles's group. The small flies swarming around grapes and wine pots have surely been known as long as wine has been produced. The honor of what was the first known misclassification of the fruit flies goes to Fabricius who named them Musca funebris in 1787. It was the Swedish dipterist, C.F. Fallen, who in 1823 changed the name of ~ funebris to Drosophila funebris which was heralding the beginning of the genus Drosophila. Present-day Drosophila research was started just 80 years ago and first published only 75 years ago. Even though the history of Drosophila research is short, the impact and volume of study on Drosophila has been tremendous during the last decades.

Introduction to Genetics: A Molecular Approach

Introduction to Genetics: A Molecular Approach PDF Author: T A Brown
Publisher: Garland Science
ISBN: 1136665358
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 554

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Book Description
Genetics today is inexorably focused on DNA. The theme of Introduction to Genetics: A Molecular Approach is therefore the progression from molecules (DNA and genes) to processes (gene expression and DNA replication) to systems (cells, organisms and populations). This progression reflects both the basic logic of life and the way in which modern biol

Race and the Genetic Revolution

Race and the Genetic Revolution PDF Author: Sheldon Krimsky
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231156979
Category : Genetics
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
"A project of the Council for Responsible Genetics."