Search results for "Human evolution"
showing 10 items of 52 documents
From foes to friends: Viral infections expand the limits of host phenotypic plasticity
2020
Phenotypic plasticity enables organisms to survive in the face of unpredictable environmental stress. Intimately related to the notion of phenotypic plasticity is the concept of the reaction norm that places phenotypic plasticity in the context of a genotype-specific response to environmental gradients. Whether reaction norms themselves evolve and which factors might affect their shape has been the object of intense debates among evolutionary biologists along the years. Since their discovery, viruses have been considered as pathogens. However, new viromic techniques and a shift in conceptual paradigms are showing that viruses are mostly non-pathogenic ubiquitous entities. Recent studies hav…
Evolutionity – A New Age of Humanity: On the Concept of Human Evolution by Hoene-Wroński
2018
In this article, I present the concept of human evolution by Jozef Hoene-Wronski. I believe that his ideas are still an unexplored resource which can lead us to the better understanding of the evolution of humanity and of our human destiny. Hoene-Wronski has boldly challenged the deterministic picture of the world emerging from modern science and has derived human evolution from the moral and rational development of human beings. I follow closely his discussion of human evolution and describe its seven stages. Further, I argue that the case of human evolution is strongly supported by new scientific theories, especially by quantum theory and the novel perspectives that it opens for humankind…
Social Harmony or a Happy Society
2021
In this paper, I set out to prove that once we correctly identify human nature and organize our world according to the principle of cooperation, we can arrive at a world of social harmony. We can then engage in conscious human evolution, aiming at moral and intellectual perfection. Hence, we can arrive at evolutionity, a new evolutionary epoch which would replace the current conflicting and disharmonious times of postmodernity. The current world disharmony, which can be observed especially in the field of politics and economics, is largely related to the erroneous modern Western philosophical assertions identifying the human being with an individual moved by desires and the will to power, a…
Theism as a Product of the Human Triune Brain
2018
Religion implies thoughts and behaviors. According to Evolutionary (Darwinian) Psychology, all human behaviors or thoughts are products of neural (or neuroendocrine) functions in conjunction with inputs that trigger these functions: No function, no behavior or thought; no input, no behavior or thought. In this book, the Author searches for the origin of theism (considered a basic feature of religion) in early humans, using data from various sciences, such as neurobiology, ethology,physical anthropology, and cognitive psychology.
Sexual dimorphism in primates: Where are we and where do we go from here?
1986
There are currently several debates taking place in palaeoanthropological circles in which the issue of sexual dimorphism is crucial. During the 60th Jubilee of the discovery of the TaungAustralopithecus skull, the authors concurred that much of the debate was due to differences in perception concerning dimorphism, and it was suggested that a study session dealing principally with sexual dimorphism in Primates should be organised with a view to determining what, if anything, could be observed in extant primates that might be utilised for determining the existence of dimorphism in fossil species. An advertisement was placed in the Journal of Human Evolution, calling for papers. Response was …
Développement humain et loi log-périodique
2002
We suggest applying the log-periodic law formerly used to describe various crisis phenomena, in biology (evolutionary leaps), inorganic systems (earthquakes), societies and economy (economic crisis, market crashes) to the various steps of human ontogeny. We find a statistically significant agreement between this model and the data.
Paleoecology: An Adequate Window on the Past?
2014
Starting from Ernst Haeckel’s famous definition of ecology, our review considers the premises and the meaning of paleoecological research. Unlike current ecology, paleoecology has to pay more attention when dealing with ‘‘facts’’: the concept of uniformitarianism is presented and demonstrates the importance of philosophical constructs for scientific work. The middle‐range theory attempts to filter out false conclusions. Abiotic factors have had a strong influence on adaptive evolution; volcanism, tectonism, and climate are exemplified. Subsequently we discuss the biotic viewpoint with regard to aspects of fossil findings and in this context taphonomy, stratigraphic research, and interaction…
Subsistence strategies throughout the African Middle Pleistocene: Faunal evidence for behavioral change and continuity across the Earlier to Middle S…
2018
Abstract The African Middle Pleistocene (781–126 ka) is a key period for human evolution, witnessing both the origin of the modern human lineage and the lithic turnover from Earlier Stone Age (ESA) Acheulean bifacial tools to Middle Stone Age (MSA) prepared core and point technologies. This ESA/MSA transition is interpreted as representing changing landscape use with greater foraging distances and more active hunting strategies. So far, these behavioral inferences are mainly based on the extensive stone tool record, with only a minor role for site-based and regional faunal studies. To provide additional insights into these behavioral changes, this paper details a pan-African metastudy of 63…
The evolutionary genetics of the hobo transposable element in the Drosophila melanogaster complex.
1994
Hobo elements are a family of transposable elements found in Drosophila melanogaster and its three sibling species: D. simulans, D. mauritiana and D. sechellia. Studies in D. melanogaster have shown that hobo may be mobilized, and that the genetic effects of such mobilizations included the general features of hybrid dysgenesis: mutations, chromosomal rearrangements and gonadal dysgenis in F1 individuals. At the evolutionary level some hobo-hybridizing sequences have also been found in the other members of the melanogaster subgroup and in many members of the related montium subgroup. Surveys of older collected strains of D. melanogaster suggest that complete hobo elements were absent prior t…
1993
This quote by J. Huxley reflects the present consensus between scientists, philosophers, and theologians alike, after a long period of fundamental disagreement on this crucial question for mankind.