the evolving mind

The new growth of this backyard loquat tree is lighter in color and texture than the older growth. As with many plants, it is more vulnerable to infestation by parasites. Fortunately, it has few, as far as I have seen.

The oak trees rimming our property are another matter. Every spring, just after they sprout new leaves, the canopy comes alive with caterpillars. Caterpillar waste pellets rain from above as the insects feast on the tender new leaves. And then that phase of the cycle of life here in Florida is over. To be repeated next year. And the year after that.

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There is formal education and there is informal education. Actually, there aren’t just two types of education. There are more than two types, as well as gradations and degrees and combinations of the two I mentioned.

As for educators . . . talk about a rainbow coalition! The newest Carnival of Education is out. And its the “Hiking Edition.” There may be some colors among the group that you relate to.

And now for a fun science fact of the day. Some o’ that informal learnin’. Researchers have discovered a link between napping and hyperactivity. [source]

Results indicate that children between the ages of 4 and 5 who did not take daytime naps were reported by their parents to exhibit higher levels of hyperactivity, anxiety and depression than children who continued to nap at this age.

Of course, the finding suggests a causal relationship. But before we go out and mandate that all students, especially those diagnosed with hyperactivity, be required to take a mid-day nap, there is a possibility that the link is not causal. Or not entirely causal. The same factor(s) that cause hyperactivity may also cause an inability to nap. More research is needed better understand.

Darn. No easy answers.

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Besides reading, writing, and arithmetic, I think all school systems should teach evolution. Better yet, why not demonstrate it. Young students could start an experiment with ordinary fish tank guppies in 1st grade and by the time they entered freshmen year in high school they could have a genotypically different population of guppies in that tank. Evolution confirmed!

Yes, it can be done. In When Evolution Is Not So Slow And Gradual I learned:

A new article in The American Naturalist finds that guppy populations introduced into new habitats developed new and advantageous traits in just a few years. This is one of only a few studies to look at adaptation and survival in a wild population….

One Damier [river] environment was predator-free. The other contained fish that occasionally snack on guppies….

Eight years after their introduction, the team revisited the Damier guppies to see what adaptive changes they might have picked up in their new environments. The researchers found that the females had altered their reproductive effort to match their surroundings. In the environment where predators were present, females produced more embryos each reproductive cycle.

Of course, this experiment took place in the wild, but there is no reason two fish tanks wouldn’t suffice.

People who misunderstand evolution believe that to be able to confidently say it has occurred a new species must appear where there was a distinctly different one before. To a flock of chickens must be born a woodpecker. So to speak. But that is incorrect. While speciation is a fascinating and important sub-topic, it is not the cornerstone on which the entire theory of evolution rests.

According to my current, off-hand understanding, these are the crucial elements to evolution by natural selection (evolutionary theory):

1) multiple offspring with differing qualities (not necessarily visible/morphological, but certainly detectable and measurable)

2) environmental pressure that “selects” some individuals (some individuals survive and reproduce more/better)

3) a resulting change in the characteristics of the overall population (not necessarily visible, but certainly detectable via measurement, reflecting changes at the genetic level)

Heck, in another bunch of years I wouldn’t be surprised if you could order a home gene-sequencing kit online from Amazon.com. That would come in handy for science fair projects.

Back to my school project. Not to be “intolerant” of other theories, students of parents who believe in Intelligent Design, and those few teachers who do as well, could be offered use of any supplies they needed to likewise demonstrate the validity of their supposed theory. I’m kinda curious as to what materials and supplies they would do their science with.

Is it possible that Intelligent Design isn’t science?!!  That would explain why all we scientifically-inclined minds don’t care to weaken educational systems by pretending it is.

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This is “food” x200. I might sample it on a self-dare. But it isn’t people food. What is it? Answer and another pic below the fold.

Continue Reading »

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It seems to me that proteins could be called the building blocks of life. Maybe you could say they are the cellular equivalent of Legos.

A good example of protein structure determining its role in human physiology can be found in the findings of this recent neurological research.

A team of neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has demonstrated the mechanism by which a signaling protein found throughout the brain controls the maturation and strength of excitatory synapses, the tiny gaps across which the majority of neurons communicate.

How do those Legos in the brain do their work? The protein studied is a member of a family of proteins that “affect many aspects of neuronal development.” (I wonder, are members of the family related by similarity of structure or of function?)

How do the proteins “affect many aspects of neuronal development”? With a “filament-like scaffolding” they provide a structure for cell contents.

The researchers hypothesize that mis-formed variants of the proteins they studied become non-functional and contribute to the cognitive impairments seen in mental retardation. What causes the misformed variants? Mutations in genes that encode them.

Going “all philosophical here,” and returning to the theme of Legos, the structure and function of cells provides for life. Of course, no single protein “has life.” But given suitable numbers and a pattern of ongoing interactions (chemical) . . . there is life. Well, what we call life.

There is no life in one molecule, in one Lego. But it emerges. Certainly not all at once, like magic. But it emerges.

Of course, a protein and a Lgeo are quite different, so the analogy isn’t perfect. A better analogy might equate proteins with something like tiny, coiled springs. They dynamic forms and motions of life then emerging from spring-like units is probably easier to envision. But the questions of what we identify as life and the how of its emergence remain fascinating ones.

—

Lego art by Nathan Sawaya

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Religion has its costs. In time and resources. What was and perhaps is the payoff for paying the costs of religious rituals? Why do they persist?

Personal reasons may be akin to a baseball batter making the sign of the cross before each pitch slung his way. No real payoff beyond personal comfort in uncertain times, but no significant cost either. Or, in the case of millions of people buying their lottery tickets each week, while the mega-payoff never materializes, hope is a tangible feeling that apparently outweighs any doubt.

There may, however, be real social payoffs for groups of individuals. I am fully serious when I propose that part of the social payoff could be seen as a welfare program for schizotypal personalities. Tending to hear voices and finding (projecting) meaning at a pin drop–call them shaman, call them prophets, call them priests. Whether they are born that way and/or adapt to a social niche is likely a complex phenomenon.

The king contributed from his own possessions for the morning and evening burnt offerings and for the burnt offerings on the Sabbaths, New Moons and appointed feasts as written in the Law of the LORD. He ordered the people living in Jerusalem to give the portion due the priests and Levites. (2 Chronicles 31:3)

Many others have pointed out the irony of the situation. The priest asks to be supported by the community for his ability to hear the invisible leader and to speak for him. “Trust me, the great one told me to tell you to keep me housed and fed.”

Venturing now into the sphere of the less speculative (and defamatory towards the preaching class)–by engaging in ritual a person may be advertising to others a sign of loyalty. You can trust me. These are not just empty words I speak, or a way to deceive; I willingly pay the cost to advertise my value as a social cohort.

Continue Reading »

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This photo, as others, comes to you thanks to electric lines. Miles upon miles of copper cables. Power coming into my study, bytes of data leaving. And transmitted all the way to wherever you are. Where are you?

The pic is of a bougainvillea branch stretching into a relative void of space. It won’t make it to the power lines fifty or so feet away. At least not physically.

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We customarily think of stress as a bad thing. But it isn’t always bad. Some psychologists have taken to using the word eustress (vs. distress) to designate “good stress.” That, to me, seems quite a bit like a euphemism, perhaps confusingly introducing a new type of stress. Are there really different types of stress? I don’t know. I do believe that there seems to be optimal circumstances and levels for stress.

In my developmental psychology class we cover aging and there has been a fair amount of research that seems to show that some amount of stress is actually good for the elderly, in terms of overall physical and mental health and level of functioning. For stress, think “challenge and responsibility.” With zero challenge and responsibility, individuals don’t do so well. With too much challenge and responsibility, individuals don’t do so well. What is too little? What is too much? It depends upon the individual, their personality and their abilities.

Recent research into teenage depression rates in Chinese-Americans adds more evidence that some stress may actually be good for a person. In a longitudinal study of a couple hundred youths it was found that reported feelings of family obligation at age 14 was linked to lower depression rates at age 16. Interesting. Of course it is possible that the link is merely predictive and not causal. Perhaps a third factor causes both feelings of family obligation at 14 and lower rates of depression at 16.

And, yes, it is my interpretation that “family obligation” can be considered a stressor. Maybe we can file “caring for siblings or helping elders” under the category of stress. Unless, of course, the degree of stress is too great. Then we may have to move it over to distress.

Technorati Links: mental health, semantics

Call me biased, but I think our planet is the very best. None have been discovered by NASA, as for as I know, that fit this description:

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains there’s a land that’s fair and bright
Where the handouts grow on bushes and you sleep out every night
Where the boxcars are all empty and the sun shines every day
On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees
Where the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

(by Harry “Haywire Mac” McClintock, 1920-ish)

Okay, maybe that isn’t a description of our planet, and I, personally, loathe cigarettes. Still, in term of human needs and interests . . . Earth may not be a big mountain of rock candy, but it’s far better than a barren sphere of naked stone. IMO.

Photo thanks to NASA.

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This from the site, www.atheistcartoons.com -

When just out of college I knew a friend of a friend who frequently joked about his religiosity, or lack thereof. He claimed to be a member of the “Church of the Sacred Void.”

A sacred void, indeed.

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