Before Darwin

Monday, 15th September 2014

Physicalists Physical Science

Mathematics, chemistry, physics

There is a simple explanation using chemistry when we get close enough to or better
understand life
Deductive reasoning
o Pyramid
o If 1 example disproving the rule would cause the rule to thrown away
lol

Vitalists (Same as Aristotle) Natural Science

They too believed that at its core, biology could be described using maths, physics and
chemistry
But there is something else, some vital force, some ESSENCE that gives living things life
Inductive reasoning
o Inverted Pyramid
o If the rule holds for most then the rule is good because you can extrapolate on your
observations
Can accept both theories together
Ex - Giraffe
Lol

Organicists

Life is the expresssion of the genetic program extremely com

o Responsible for variability, drives the mechanism
EMERGENCE a behaviour that is brings about an outcome that is more than the sum of the
parts
o They behave differently as a group then the do together
Na on its own is flammable
Cl is poisonous gas
Togther they are TOTALLY safe
Hence they behave differently together
o Swarm Behaviour
The birds in swarm
Use it to calculate the population
To find a place for roosting/food, etc.

Two Parts to scientific explanation

A pattern in the data

Mechanism to explain the data

Giraffe

Giraffes eat food at shoulder height and not at the top of the tree
If the giraffe dont stretch their necks to feed then the food competition theory is
disproven
The head is used like a flail
o The head is used as weapon

When there is male combat, there is death of the weaker giraffe

Hence there is Sexual Competition
When there is drought
o Giraffes feed off the top of the tree
o Hence there is Food Competion
Both explanations are correct
o Hence both are used to explain the long giraffe necks

Theory

Is the strongest most investigated way that can be used to describe science
b/c inductive reasoning is used, there is a potential left to leave it open and if an exception
might occur (b/c we extrapolate)
General public uses physical sciences logic (Laws and Facts)
Was first a hypothesis
Hypothesis was then tested and more proof was added
Then it becomes a theory
Hypothesis is not a guess
o Comes from literature eview, protocols and design and extensive obeservation
Darwins Theory is not a law because it is not universal
o Only applies to Earth (as far as we know)
Water the conditions to dissolve the back building blocks to devise life
o Then biological princible becomes law
Mendels LAWS are the only biological science field that has laws
o b/c it was the mathematics of paired structures alleles
o b/c of 50% chance of allees
o And the mathematics associated with paired allees

Prediction

Not a chronological statement

Its logical statement
Is like a baby-hypothesis
o After encovering evidence it becomes into a hypothesis

Sampling Error

Cannot get the exact value

o b/c of precicsion error, cannot get exact value, etc
If you take a # of measurements
o you will get a normal distribution of the measurements
You can undersample or oversample
If you have a sampling error of 7% then the values 49 and 51 are the same

Peer Review

Blind peer review where the reviewer reviews the paper without knowing the author of the
paper

Primary Literature

The scientist has done something

Has been peer reviewed
And is published in a journal

Secondary Literature

An expert in the field who has reviewed a topic

Not done all the research themselves but have collegues in the field
Has some scientific rigour

Tertiary Literature

Information is not referenced to primary

Not an expert in the field
No scientific rigour

Thursday, 18th September 2014

Peppered Moth (early 1900s)

The change in allele frequency within a population were affected, creating an

advantageous circumstance
Natural Selection is based on the change in allelic frequency within a population
Natural Selection causes changes in allele frequencies in th environment
White being predominant to black Something that is selecting this to happen
Why did this moth change?
Darwinian Fitness
o How many young you can produce in the next generation
o A trait that moves to the next generation
Trees stained from dirt and stacks (Industrial Melanism and Revolution)
Tree colour has changed over time regardless of industrial Revolution/Melanism
Null Hypothesis The opposite of your hypothesis
The moths that were used White ones disappeared Not make it to adulthood Not able
to pass their traits
o Not that they migrate cause the black ones would migrate too
o Hence would affect both populations
The more black ones
Hence are more Darwinianly Fit
Compared the dark bark by seeing where there where industries and darkening of the
trees
Thinking about changing gene frequency and natural selection TOGETHER
CRITIQUES
o Moths were placed on barks and not on branches where they actually live
Only the white ones were affected and not black
o The correlation between insdrustrial revolution and the darkening of the trees does
not represent cause
o PHYSICAL SCIENCES THINKING
Moths settle on similar backgrounds to escape from predation
The green movement causes the trees to become unpolluted
o It shifted back
o Population frequencies changed
o Birds still acting as natural selection