Evolution: A Scientifically-Guided Thought Experiment : Evolution by Other Means...? Book One

By O'Hare, Maria, B.

Book Id: WPLBN0004451031
Format Type: PDF (eBook)
File Size: 3.61 MB.
Reproduction Date: 10/13/2016

Title:	Evolution: A Scientifically-Guided Thought Experiment : Evolution by Other Means...? Book One
Author:	O'Hare, Maria, B.
Volume:	Book One
Language:	English
Subject:	Non Fiction, Science, Evolution
Collections:	Philosophy, Authors Community, Science, Most Popular Books in China, Favorites in India
Historic Publication Date:	2016
Publisher:	Dig-Press

Member Page:	Maria B. O'Hare
Citation APA MLA Chicago O'hare, M. B. (2016). Evolution: A Scientifically-Guided Thought Experiment : Evolution by Other Means...? Book One. Retrieved from http://www.self.gutenberg.org/

Description
This is the first of two distinct, but interrelated books which seeks to offer an alternative evolutionary scenario to our current standard Neo-Darwinian model by way of a scientifically-guided thought experiment. Book One is based upon the accumulative research spanning the past 200 years of a diverse range of highly respected scientists who have offered distinctively different pieces of the evolutionary puzzle and these are assessed in the light of our most current understanding of biological complexity and Book Two applies these alternative and rather novel, but scientifically supported evolutionary scenarios to what we currently know regarding the ancient environmental and fossil record. The need for a radical rethink of biological and evolutionary complexity and a solution to the many problems embedded in our current Neo-Darwinian model, became clearly apparent as a result of delving deeply (and unintentionally I might add) into the vast and often ideologically invested topic of biological evolution and discovering, according to the opinions of an increasingly alarming number of well-credentialed scientists, that an alternative model was seriously overdue. All in all, there is a common and cohesive thread that weaves all of these seemingly unrelated and diverse theories, concepts and discoveries together and in the end, a fascinating, elegant and surprisingly uncomplicated tapestry of biological complexity emerged, but with a somewhat unexpected quantum twist. In many ways, perhaps the best way to explain what essentially emerged as the overarching and cohesive principle, would be to use the concept of the Matryoshka Principle of nested scales of complexity (akin to the Russian folk art wooden nested dolls). This has been employed here to help visualise the increasingly likely fact which, is both measurable and demonstrable, that life and biological complexity is governed by universal laws of scale. From these universal patterns of life, we can perhaps begin to apply this knowledge to aspects of evolutionary development that we cannot test or know directly and thereby, at the very least, begin to formulate a fairly plausible hypothesis based upon empirical data as to how life got so complex in the first place. This overarching scaling phenomenon which is seemingly embedded within all of Nature and I believe, best encapsulated in the concept of the Matryoshka nested scales principle, is the foundational scientific guide that informs, not just the first chapter of this book; but it was the main principle that guided the research at its most fundamental level and it informed which theories would be included in this present book and their respective order of their presentation. When we have assessed each theory and evolutionary concept in the light of our most up-to-date understanding of biological complexity, we should not only have an overarching model by which to test and assess the fossil record – the main topic of Book Two, but, also: a fully comprehensive and powerfully explanatory, and testable theory of the complexity of biological life itself.

Summary
This book takes a broad interdisciplinary (mainly historically based scientific) approach to presenting an entirely distinct alternative evolutionary scenario to our present version of events. It explores the diverse range of evolutionary alternatives (both historical and those of more recent times)and assesses these against our most up to date understanding of biological complexity. By carrying this scientifically-guided thought experiment to its natural conclusion: an entirely cohesive and comprehensive alternative view of evolution that is highly distinct from the Neo-Darwinian version, emerges.

Excerpt
Professor Denis Noble (Professor Emeritus and Co-Director of Computational Physiology) sums up the situation quite succinctly in the following: PHYSIOLOGY IS ROCKING THE FOUNDATIONS OF BIOLOGY In this article, I will show that all the central assumptions of the Modern Synthesis (often also called Neo-Darwinism) have been disproved. Moreover, they have been disproved in ways that raise the tantalizing prospect of a totally new synthesis;... Noble (2013, Introduction) As the author took a rather broad and interdisciplinary approach with an emphasis on the historical context, she quickly came to the realisation that this ‘tantalising new synthesis’ is actually not that new. For instance, our more modern and recent insights into biological complexity are actually lending increasing support to some of the oldest and particularly to some of the most historically obscured alternative views of evolutionary complexity.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents PREFACE Why I’m not qualified to write this book, but reasons to read it anyway INTRODUCTION EVOLUTION BY OTHER MEANS...? CHAPTER ONE D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860 – 1948) EVOLUTIONARY SCALING LAWS OF LIFE The Matryoshka Principle CHAPTER TWO Alan Mathison Turing (1912-1954) THE TURING ENIGMA Morphogenesis and the other coding system of life CHAPTER THREE Alexander Graham Cairns-Smith Turing (Born 1931) THE POSSIBLE ORIGINS OF NATURE’S FIRST CRYSTALINE (QUANTUM) COMPUTERS CHAPTER FOUR Karl Ernst Von Baer (1792-1876) EMBRYOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT MIRRORS DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPECIES ON DIFFERENT SCALES CHAPTER FIVE Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) THE ORIGINAL NATURAL EVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF DESCENT – BY EPIGENETIC MODIFICATION CHAPTER SIX Hugo De Vries (1848 – 1935) LEAPS of EVOLUTIONARY NOVELTY – via HYBRIDATION? CHAPTER SEVEN Carl Woese (1928 –2012) THE WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW.HGT) LITTLE HYBRIDS GET EVERYWHERE CHAPTER EIGHT Lynn Margulis (1938-2011) MICRO MERGERS AND SYMBIOSIS CHAPTER NINE Donald Irving Williamson (1922- 2016) HYBRID-METAMORPHOSIS? CHAPTER TEN Barbara McClintock (1902 - 1992) SOS - SPECIES REMODELLING VIA JUMPING GENES Summary THE MATRYOSHKA PRINCIPLE REVIEWED Bibliography About the Author WHAT NEXT? Other Related Publications Origins of this Book