EVOLUTION: MAJOR NEW POINTS

The most important new evolution points made in this blog site are in earlier posts as noted below.

The error infecting current views of animal phylogeny are described in post number 6, on 5/31/2013.

The evidence shows the old annelid theory of evolution of chordates was correct in its main point.  Details of evidence showing the process are found in posts 17, 18, 19, and 20 published on 6/24/2013, 6/28/2013, and 6/30/2013 (posts 19 & 20).

Post 15 on evolution in the deep sea (6/22/2013) is essential to help understand the environmental factors directing the evolutionary pathway not seen by current workers in phylogeny.

My second post on asteroids (May 11, 2013) might make the deep sea post more understandable.

Joseph G. Engemann      1/27/2014

GOD AND MLK

MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr. spoke at Western Michigan University December 18, 1963, fifty years ago today.  I had the privilege of being in the audience.  His message, as always, recommended non-violence in making social changes and the importance and rights of all individuals as children of God.

He must have realized his position exposed him to violent racist attack.  But he continued his mission and message for peaceful eradication of racial discrimination and establishment of racial justice.  When someone gives their life to promote the love God has for all of us, they are considered martyrs and deserving of automatic sainthood.  So, in my mind he is a Saint, although my church has not to my knowledge any policy of declaring sainthood for those of other denominations.

Joseph G. Engemann        December 18, 2013

CREATIVITY: HONESTY HELPS

Honesty was a section in The Two Way Street, my 1970's unpublished manuscript on creativity, Chapter 4, A Creative Frame of Mind.  The section reads as follows-

     Honesty is essential to the maintenance of creativity.  Honesty with others will reduce self-deception.  Honesty does not mean that everything known must be used or told.  Honesty must be coupled with the proper evaluation to be complete.  Accurate evaluation will make it easy to determine the best use.
     When honesty has been practiced so long and with such diligence that it is automatic, judgments and estimates will be realistic.  The resultant accuracy can contribute to the accuracy of derivative hypotheses.
     The defense of honesty should include the careful labeling of humor.  The unrealistic aspect of humor should not blend with the real and confuse, rather it should delight by its contrast.  Thus the choice of humor should be determined by the audience, not the teller.  Perhaps a sophisticated listener can discriminate on a very fine scale and appreciate what would be uniform and bland to the less sophisticated.  So also, honesty is partially determined by the listener, be it self or someone else.  Is it honesty to state something true when we know it is or will be misunderstood?  If we are willing to state something it is pointless to say anything unless we are willing to say it clearly.

A cartoon to amplify the third sentence of the above quotation showed a woman and a man in their backyard, each talking over adjacent sides of the fence to another woman and another man.  The quotation under the cartoon could be attributed to either one talking, it reads "I wish what went in Pat's ear went out the other ear instead of the mouth."

Honesty makes life easier when you don't have to clutter up your mind with lies or misinformation.  It makes it easier to keep from believing what started out as a lie.  It makes it easier to believe others; but evaluating information as it comes in may make it easier to reject untrue information.

A basic faith in the honesty of scientists made me look beyond the conflict of the view Gans and Northcutt present, as noted in blogs 16 and 17, June 23 and 24, 2013, and make the major discovery of how the two main groups of animals are linked.  That view reestablishing the annelid theory of chordate origin has yet to be understood by my peers.

Joseph G. Engemann       November 11, 2013

SCIENCE: WHALES AND CLIMATE CHANGE

A MUST READ BOOK

Coming Climate Crisis? Consider the Past, Beware the Big Fix is a 2010 book written by Claire A. Parkinson.  Chapter 11, Compounding Social Pressures, should be required reading for all scientists and would be scientists as well as those in the publishing and grant awarding fields and members of Congress and their staffs.  It is also an excellent reference for those interested in an objective assessment of the global warming/cooling controversy.

A major social pressure affecting scientific output in some unfortunate instances is peer pressure.  The pressure is not only seen in the peer review outcomes of publication and grant results but in modified behavior by scientists as well.

WHALES AND THE OCEANS AS A CARBON DIOXIDE SINK

While reading her book it occurred to me that a carbon sink aspect exists in the role of sperm whales (see August 31, 2013 blog on the whale’s role in fisheries production) that I did not think of when originally working on the topic in the 1970’s.  It was not part of the discussion in the joint manuscript I was working on with Dr. Patrick Kangas in 1989 (unpublished).  But it could be inferred from the massive amounts of carbon (tens of millions of tons) in the primary production by marine algae resulting from the sperm whale’s ammonia recycling role.  Recovery of sperm whale numbers to pre-whaling levels would more than double the value of the existing marine sink functioning in atmospheric carbon dioxide reduction.

The gradual rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide during the whaling years may have been as much a result of whaling as it was from the industrial revolution.

The climate concerns aside, Parkinson’s book gives remarkable insights into the way science functions.  I also want to thank Dr. Charles Heller for making the book available to me and prompting me to read it.  At the time of writing her book, Dr. Parkinson was climatologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.  One focus of her work has been the increase/decrease seen in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice.  If you know Dr. Parkinson, please convey my enthusiastic response to her book.

Joseph G. Engemann      November 4, 2013

EVOLUTION AND STEM CELL MORALITY

STEM CELLS AND MORALITY

Some contend that experimentation with embryonic stem cells violates the commandment prohibiting killing since the embryo destined to be an adult human being is destroyed in the process.  There is some support from evolutionary theory that it is also bad or wasteful science.  Experience in stem cell research also shows that embryonic stem cells have only the slimmest of chances of effecting cures whereas adult stem cells have produced a considerable number of successes.

The evolutionary process whereby organisms were produced involved many developmental steps prior to the adult stem cell production.  Those steps may have been modified in different ways in different species over time.  The same thing may be said for the process of producing the adult organ from the adult stem cell.  But the adult stem cell is programmed to do the right thing in the right place.  The embryonic stem cell is programmed to do everything, but it has been difficult to limit its development to just the job of one type of adult stem cells.  As a result, embryonic stem cell research for cures has mostly resulted in failures, many of which involved induction of tumors or cancers.  The failure is presumably due to the inability to turn off the potential of the embryonic cells in all directions but the desired one.

There is optimism in the recent discovery of methods to produce the equivalent of adult stem cells from some adult cells.  This can be potentially the best stem cell research line for the following reason.  The stem cells produced from this method could come from the individual needing treatment and as a result be free from the danger of rejection of non-compatible donor cells.

For the non-religious or those who have no objections on moral grounds, embryonic stem cell research should not be promoted or receive tax dollars because it is money wasted.  The value all research has for training new scientists and development methods is not unique to embryonic stem cell research and can as readily be had by doing adult stem cell research.

Joseph G. Engemann     October 27, 2013

EVOLUTION AND MORALITY

NATURAL LAW AND SEXUAL REPRODUCTION

Natural law is a foundation for the morality of some people, probably both those that are atheists and those that are deeply religious.  For those that are religious and believe that God created the world and is the author of natural law it would seem that they would find evolution an aide if they realized God is the author of evolution.

I recently started thinking about this topic when a friend of my wife was discussing with her the relative contributions of men versus women to genetic flaws found in offspring.  The friend thought women get blamed for the preponderance of genetic flaws such as trisomy 21 which occurs with a higher frequency when the mother is older.  I wasn't too quick to point out that males always pass on flaws of their X-chromosome to their daughters and of their Y-chromosome to their sons.

Of course, mitochondria are another matter since they are only passed on through the mother's egg.  So pick an energetic mother and don't worry about having a lethargic father if you want to have plenty of energy.  But it is not that simple.

From an evolutionary standpoint, in vitro fertilization is a terrible mistake.  Old-fashioned sex is the best way we have to deliver healthy sperm to an egg.  Aging and/or defective sperm may not have the energy to reach the egg and be the first to donate their chromosomes to the egg.  How important that is can be demonstrated by the higher percentage of males conceived.  Carrying a large X-chromosome must slow them somewhat compared to carrying a small Y-chromosome.  Not all deleterious genes will be expressed in egg or sperm but those that are can perhaps be selected out by the competition of sperm to reach and fertilize the egg.  The sperm also have to have some teamwork by helping to disperse some of the cells surrounding the egg so one can fertilize the egg and immediately cause the fertilization membrane to form and prevent other sperm from entering.  It makes it seem like males participate in team sports from day 1.

So it would seem that the fertility clinics may be unwittingly defeating the natural selection that helps maintain the fertility of the human population.

Who wins the battle of the sexes in a genetic sense?  I have no idea, it seems pretty even to me.  But sex-linked recessive genes behave as dominate genes when in a male.  For that reason red-green color deficiency in vision is many times more common in men than in women.

Joe Engemann     October 22, 2013

SPERM WHALE OIL AND DIVING

OIL and its multiple functions

A large sperm whale can have as much as ten thousand gallons of oil stored in a large organ above the upper jaw and in front of the skull.  The oil was dipped out by whalers of the past several hundred years until whaling was stopped due a great reduction in sperm whale numbers.  Even more oil was stored in the blubber in a thick inner layer of the skin.  The oil was a valuable commodity leading to a major maritime industry in the United States during its developmental years.

ECHOLOCATION, FEEDING, AND COMMUNICATION

Smaller toothed relatives such as dolphins and porpoises have a similar, but much smaller, organ called a melon in a similar position on their heads.  They are thought to function in echolocation by focusing sound waves sent out to produce echoes that enable the sender to identify the objects in their environment.  Some sounds sent out may be used to stun or disorient prey as well.  Baleen whales are better known for their many sounds, but both must be able to use sound for communicating with others of their species over vast distances. The sperm whale is said to produce the loudest sound of any animal.  It is thought to have a small structure, at the rear of the anterior air chamber where the connecting duct to the posterior chamber is located, that is where the sound originates.

ENERGY STORAGE, INSULATION, AND BUOYANCY

The blubber of all the large whales is important for storing energy for long trips away from their feeding areas.  In the sperm whale it serves as insulation when diving into deep waters where temperatures stay only a few degrees above freezing.  Oil in blubber also helps balance the weight of bones to give closer to neutral buoyancy.  The buoyancy provided by air in the lungs and passageways would be greatly reduced by pressure.  It would have about one-half the volume at thirty feet of depth, one-quarter at ninety feet, one-eighth at 210 feet, and less than 1% of the original volume on the deepest dives.

ORIENTATION SENSING

The large oil store in the head of the sperm whale has some connective tissue and two air chambers with a connecting duct that could possibly serve as a mechanism for providing information of orientation in the water more reliably than the minute inner ear mechanism of most other animals. If residual air in the lungs were transferred to the air sacs during deep dives it would provide less vascular surface area for nitrogen to enter the blood.  What really happens is unknown.  But it would seem that the uppermost chamber would have the most air and signal the direction of the surface; a survival mechanism that would be useful to a whale groggy from too long at great depth.  When the chambers are in a vertical position relative to each other, they could shift the center of gravity appropriately to help keep the orientation maintained on course when either diving or returning to the surface as well as aiding the sensory cues involved.

Nitrogen is much more soluble in sperm oil than it is in blood.  So it could help protect from nitrogen bubbles forming when return to the surface occurs from great depths.  The small quantity of air taken down with them may also help.  But exchange is not likely to have enough blood circulated close to the oil as the circulatory system shuts down less essential areas during a dive to make this function of much importance.

The large head oil storage organ bulges like an enormous nose that could also provide some shock absorber protection if they bumped into a rock bottom or submerged objects.  Evolution can lead to multiple functions developing for the same feature.  So energy storage, flotation, echolocation, communication, adjustment of center of gravity, and insulation, and mechanical protection can all be compatible uses for the oil stored in a sperm whale's head.

Sperm whales have a few large conical teeth on the lower jaw that fit in toothless sockets on the upper jaw when the mouth is closed.  The teeth may attract squid by mimicking a school of fish in dim bioluminescence of the deep sea when the lower jaw is open. 

The Great Sperm Whale, a book by Richard Ellis (2011, University Press of Kansas), is a interesting account of the sperm whale’s natural history and the story of the whaling industry from the perspective of an author with a love of whales and service on the International Whaling Commission to the time a moratorium was placed on sperm whale hunting.  Hal Whitehead is one of the more prolific sources of information on sperm whales in recent decades.

Joseph G. Engemann   September 16, 2013