Evolution Definition and 706 Threads

Wikipedia states that evolution is fact; however, how evolution works is theory. Is this true? A friend of mine doesn't believe in evolution, and I have been trying to convince him. Is there a scientific dictionary that will give me an answer?

Hey, Just wondering: How does evolution explains the process by which some species, spceially from insects, have mimicry tactics for defense? Thx in advance, Mimicry: The phenomenon in which some species [the mimic] resembles another species [the model] and gains protection from the...

This is a question geared toward human evolution, but I figured a biologist would be able to answer it. There are two parts: 1. If supposedly, we physically evolved (less hair, stand up straight, etc.) because we changed our behaviour, would it be safe to say that generally, as something...

I was wondering if it was possible, via biological thermodynamics, to demonstrate that evolution does not violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics in mathematical terms. From my understanding, the Earth is a closed system (this seemed odd, but I read this in a book on biological thermodynamics. I...

Hi. I have a problem with a statement that was in the first chapter of my "World Religions" book for school. It first explains that the word "God" can have many different meanings. It then concludes the chapter with "It is a fact, not a mystery, that God, whatever or whoever God might be...

Here you go people :smile: :smile: :smile: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17162341-13762,00.html *EDIT*oops.. meant Intelligent Design:shy:

people who believe in creation say evolution violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics. those who believe in evolution say it does not. who's right? if it does violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics why and how? i just want to know who's right on this issue. p.s. sorry if this has been asked before...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4348751,00.html For those who dream of a better life, science has bad news: this is the best it is going to get. Our species has reached its biological pinnacle and is no longer capable of changing. That is the stark, controversial view of a...

Disclaimer: While I think I'm pretty well educated in math and the physical sciences, I'm pretty much a moron in biology. Be nice to me.:redface: I read the following statement from one George Olshevsky, responding to a Creationist argument: He was responding to the claim that...

Why do antibiotic super bugs keep evolving more and more so they are resistant to antibiotics? Wouldn't this evolution be considered on a macroscale or would you say microscale seeing as how they are becoming stronger and stronger? It's interesting to learn that these things are becoming more...

I've notice a rash of recent papers on galactic evolution. Clearly, this is an important area of study with serious theoretical implications. Comments? GDDS Highlights: Galaxy Evolution Revealed http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0510056 Significant evolution of the stellar mass-metallicity...

Many famous people have suffer some form of mental illness, but it is also linked to genius, will this mental illness genius group evolve differently to the rest of the human race ?

Where are the current unknowns in the evolution timeline? It is my knowledge that the progressions from gaslike "soup" to amino acids is believed to have been caused by intense lightning and UV radiation. But the mystery is how we went from amino acid to protein? Are there any other unknowns...

It seems the study of Evolution is always geared toward physical matter; but what about language? If we are so far advanced why are we speaking a backwards language? :confused: According to history all mankind once spoke biblical Hebrew which is much more advanced than English, or any...

I am not good in Biology and I do not have much knowledge. Also I do not have enough time to search all the topics in this forum concerning evolution. I would ask you to help me find some information (articles/webpages) concering what famous living scientists say about evolution. I am not to...

Oh hello This's just strange. We did a small project "Making ice-cream" You know, put milk and sugar and vanilla into a zimploc, place the pack into a bigger one stuffed with ice and salt. We've luckily gone through the questions he asked. But the last question just doesn't make sense to me...

---quote from the science blog Pharyngula---Evolution Schmevolution info PZ Myers • 21 Comments This is going to be good: Science vs. Religion. Evolution vs. Creation. It is an age-old battle whose time has come. "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" will gather together all the experts (or at...

I recall there being several past topics where we debated whether evolution is still ongoing for humans. I just found & wanted to share http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/comments/or_maybe_its_an_example_of_absurdist_british_humor/" ...

I’d guess the majority of people participating at this site would say intellect. After all, isn’t that what most of us believe sets us apart from other animals? In fact, I am fairly certain there are those here who would say the ability to reason entirely distinguishes human consciousness...

In non-relativistic quantum mechanics time evolution is given by the usual e^{\frac{-i\hat{H}t}{\hbar}} (for non time dependent hamiltonians). How does one time evolve a quantum system in the context of relativity, where time and space have been placed on equal footing? We clearly cannot use...

Someone posted in another forum that "Evolution is the result of hundreds of thousands of years of natural selection." Is that true?

"the jury is still out" on evolution http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=151471&source=r_science

From http://www.whatwemaybe.org/ His new book is free to download from http://www.whatwemaybe.org/

http://arxiv.org/ftp/gr-qc/papers/0506/0506007.pdf Title: A New Interpretation about the Evolution of the Cosmos Authors: Fang-Pei Chen Comments: 16 pages Based on Lorentz and Levi-Civita's conservation laws, it can be shown that the energy of the matter field in the universe might...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/28/national/28smithsonian.html Sell-outs. I can't believe this.

I hope this topic belongs in this forum. If not, please move it to where it should be. What is the difference between evolution and adaptation? Is evolution just the term used to embody all the adaptation that an organism has gone through?

If we treat space and time equally, in classical QM, by defining, formally, a time observable (and a conjugate observable), we can see that the postulates of QM have a simpler form: we can derive the unitary evolution from the measurment collapse postule. (We use the units hbar=1). Just take...

This idea came out pondering the question if scientific research is limited in what it can achieve. Evolution is the process that can lead to the organization of matter as complex as the human mind. Scientific research can lead to different (not necessarily as complex) organizations of...

First year astronomy question, goes as follows: "A closely exact description of the cooling described above is to consider the differential equation which says that rate of charge of thermal energy equals the rate of radiative output. That is: \frac{d}{dt} \frac{\left(3MkT\right)}{m_p} =...

Suppose it turns out that humans with a set of eyes behind their head, or humans with 2 pairs of hands were better than current morphologies. How would evolution even begin to evolve humans with such features? We don't have any mutations that can produce something remotely close to a second...

Beside mutation, molecular drive, and variation of genetic, what are the factors which triggled the evolution?

This is for those who believe QM includes a phase of unitary evolution. In ordinary QM the state is given by a complex vector (actually a ray) in Hilbert space and it evolves by unitary operators transforming it. Does this complex thing and its behavior exist in out spacetime? If not, then...

The Origin of Mind: Evolution of Brain, Cognition, and General Intelligence, 2005 Hello, I liked the book The Origin of Mind: Evolution of Brain, Cognition, and General Intelligence, by David C. Geary, 2005 because it not only discusses some of the latest research on human intelligence, but...

I am exploring the evolution discussion from many different subjects. I have thought that maybe math could provide some impact on the discussion. I would like to explore the mathmatical probability of one aspect of evolution. It would seem that the key to man's biological evolution seems to be...

I'm guessing that our history class is (in the next couple of days) going to break out into a huge debate about evolution. In order to quell the usual outburst of completely illogical and factually incorrect arguments that will come up, I want to learn a few basic things about chemistry, mainly...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/01/14/evolution.stickers.ap/index.html

How does natural selection change the DNA of a population of a certain species to create a new species? In order for a new species to evolve into another won't new DNA have to be formed some how? If so where does this new DNA come from?

Is society not "The Ever Changing and Most Usefull Human Evolution" ? What are your opinions? ---- Life is a giant problem. SOLVE IT!

A couple of months ago someone left a kitten on the side of the road (it could not have been more than a week old, if that). Me being the push over that I am (even though I am not a cat lover) brought it home. On the way home I stopped by the pet store and got a litter box and the crap you put...

Hi, I just completed reading a very interesting article called "Love Thy Neighbor: The Evolution of In-Group Morality," by Professor John Hartung. Here is the link to the full article: http://members.aol.com/toexist/ltnhome.html His basic premise is that through the evolutionary processes...

Hey everyone. For my Biology II AP class we were assigned a project in which we have to basically write a term paper on a subject relating to evolution. I asked my teacher whether cancer was tied to evolution in any way and he said there is a possibility. I just have no clue where to start. If...

What is the difference between the Theory of Evolution, and the Mechanisms and Processes of Evolution? If someone could please help me out, that would be great!

is there any info out there about this. this might have to go in the philosphy section(well part of it) but i was just wondering if there is such a thing as instant evolution and the only reason I am asking, is the basis of the subjective power of the mind over the body. so far this appears to...

Yes yes, I’m a slacker. I have a short paper (2500 words max) due on Friday for an Earth Sci. class about ‘some aspect of biological evolution’. My chosen topic is the evolution of ears and hearing in animals. I chose it because I’m pretty sure no one else is doing it…and the evolution of eyes...

Hey guys I have some small questions on evolution. Or what would be the driving factor, or whatever. Take a population of individuals, that say lived in the mountains in high altitude for thousands of years, and they tend to be shorter with more barrel-shaped chests so that they are...

I've been reading a lot about this controversy about teaching evolution in classrooms, and I have to say that I'm just baffled that we're even arguing about whether or not evolution should be taught in schools. Conservative christians have over taken this country and seem to want to do away with...

has anyone tried using evolution as a tool? For example, I can envision an experiment where a colony of E.Coli is grown in ever increasing levels of radiation, after after say a year and a couple of million replications later, I would end up with E.Coli that would be very resistant to...

From the NCSE Oct 15 e-newsletter. I'm not trying to promote ID here, but it sure is refreshing to hear a voice from that arena finally say "hey, shouldn't we be using science to prove our case?"

I was talking to one of my friends earlier and somebody remarked that she wasn't an ape (I don't really remember how that came about). Anyway, I replied that by saying that our ancestors were. After that, she quickly responded that Adam and Eve were and began to say how she totally didn't...

This thread is based on some reading I've done on decoherence (a lot of it by Zurek) and recent experiments involving decoherence and complementarity. One interesting item is the recent experiment by Anton Zeilinger and team involving C60 molecules interacting to produce and interference pattern...