The Present
The three years of this blog presents a mix of evolution and other topics that may lack focus for those wanting the story of evolution, or God, or creativity, or science. My life, in retrospect, seems to bring me to a blend of those topics in a cohesive view not easily clarified for others.
I have not tried to clarify things as much as I should have. In the rush (can one who works at snail or turtle's speed rush?) to get the essential new points presented before they got buried with me, I neglected making all the needed connections and clarifications,
I recently abandoned work on a blog post about the importance of the end products of protein metabolism (primarily ammonia, uric acid, and urea) in the evolutionary transition of animals from aquatic to terrestrial habitats. The uric acid method of storing many toxic ammonia molecules in less soluble, and therefore less toxic molecules, made possible the shelled eggs of vertebrates, and less need for water for elimination of those wastes by birds and insects, Mammals emphasized the conversion of ammonia to urea as a less toxic alternative. But the evolutionary story of these facts are well covered in many basic biology texts.
Many other important facts of evolutionary significance are also well covered in basic texts. But, unfortunately, extreme age of abyssal organisms due to their greatly slowed metabolism, the close relationship of all advanced animals via annelid ancestors, and related facts are missing. Those missing facts are explained in earlier posts during the three years of this blog.
How I Found Those Facts
Finding new facts of evolution
The reasons had nothing to do with sheer brilliance. It might seem like serendipity, since very little of it was planned by me. Things that I now see as part of the reason I see and understand seem to parallel things of the spiritual realm identified in both Old Testament and New Testament words as seeing but not seeing or hearing but not hearing among those not believing.
When Jesus said no one knows the Father except the Son
and those to whom the Son has revealed Him, it may explain why many fail to see
God as the Creator and evolution as part of God’s work of creation. So how does one as unworthy as myself manage
to see those things?
Perhaps it began with my youthful amazement at the
extent of creation when looking at the night sky and reflecting on the near
infinite distance and numbers of the stars as described by astronomers of the
time.
ROUTE TO THE DISCOVERIES
My post retirement reflections show a
number of events in my life that make serendipity an unlikely explanation for my
blundering into an evolutionary understanding others have not yet been able to
see, especially the role of pogonophorans explaining puzzles of molecular
biology and chordate origin.
1. It started early with a family that valued education and many other
important values. I was born into it and
in childhood had my physical activity periodically impeded by bouts of asthma; consequently,
at times all I could do was think. My
verbal skills were not up to explaining my reasoning to my older brother who
insisted that you didn’t know it if you couldn’t say it. Years later I realized my right-brain
thinking did not yet readily transfer to the left-brain for verbalization. But the sibling conflict helped make me look
for alternative explanations with very productive results in later analysis of
science research of both myself and others.
Score that as a benefit of having had asthma.
2.
At the same time my skin, especially on my hands was very scaly with
what was variously diagnosed as eczema, ichthyosis, and eventually
psoriasis. Concerns about my medical
state made me exclude careers in medicine and the ministry from consideration,
question whether I had a right to marry and bring children into the world, and
a partial withdrawal from developing my social life.
Such concerns receded during high school
and were mostly gone by the time I was drafted following college
graduation. Two years in close
association with army friends made me realize I was reasonably normal
(eccentricities seem to be part of being normal).
3. I
loved science and nature but only moved into biology as a sophomore in college
when a biology course, to meet part of the liberal arts requirements and was taught
by a very inspirational teacher, lured me in to biology. I minored in English and got a Bachelor of
Arts degree with a major in Biology. I
would have needed more of other sciences to get a Bachelor of Science with a
Biology major. Invertebrate zoology was
one of my favorite biology courses.
Biology was largely a mix of interesting disconnected facts to be
memorized until a class in genetics and a class in evolution finally helped me
to see the sense and connections in the diversity of life. Once that step is made, ecology, physiology,
and other specialties in biology also made sense. Perhaps others reach the same result via many
roads.
After the army I spent a little over a
year in tool and die work that made me consider engineering. But when I checked into the engineering
program at Michigan State I found that I would get no credit from my biology
degree toward a Bachelor’s of engineering.
So I went to the Zoology Department and expressed possible interest. A week later they called and offered me a
part-time instructorship, replacing someone with one on a grant that had resigned,
beginning immediately in the spring term.
It was essentially a graduate assistantship, but with the perk of a
faculty parking sticker for my car.
Two years later I was finishing my
Master’s degree after a thesis research project studying protozoan
cytochemistry. I applied for a Fulbright
award for studying in Australia because I thought there would be less competition
than for one in England. I didn’t speak
any other languages than English, that limited my ability to apply
elsewhere. I did not foresee that
Tasmania would be an entry into studies leading to my evolutionary findings.
About seven years later I finished my
doctoral thesis after three years teaching full-time at Western Michigan
University. Then, at a summer, 1963,
biological conference I contacted the Macmillan Publishing Company
representative about possibly revising their Invertebrate Zoology authored by
the deceased Robert Hegner. I had used
it as a student 15 years earlier, but was using one of the more recent books,
none of which were as student friendly as Hegner’s book. At a subsequent meeting, after he talked to
Dr. Stiles (author of their best-selling college zoology text), Zoology Chair
at Michigan State University and a fan of mine, he quickly arranged a contract
to revise their book. I would have been
very unlikely to be writing this blog without the experience of adding the new
group, the Pogonophora, to the text revision for Macmillan.
4.
After 23 years teaching invertebrate zoology, marine biology,
introductory zoology and numerous other courses at WMU I read the 1983 paper by
Gans and Nortcutt that gave me the cognitive dissonance experience yielding the
eureka moment of seeing the connecting link role of the Pogonophora. It is impossible for me to define all the
inputs giving rise to the moment.
5.
In the 1960’s I had developed the idea of extreme age among abyssal
Pogonophora. In 1983 their extreme
longevity and intermediate blend of features made me aware of their
evolutionary role.
6.
Failure to get acceptance of manuscripts over the years may have been
due to my poor writing. I prefer to
think it was due to reviewers having inadequate background, as well as their
accepting flawed research that had been published, had more to do with the
rejections.
The above recitation of factors shaping
the somewhat random direction of my life leading to my unique view of evolution
may have other meaning. It may be that
diverse life experience can be the grist for creative thinking. Moreover, many failures, not listed,
including inventions, grant and publication rejections, and other events that
might have absorbed my attention with otherwise narrowly focused activity
inhibiting global thinking. An example
is shown in the two posts about a Puttmeter.
I think it would have been a successful product if I had been willing to
put the effort into developing and marketing it. Proper packaging, marketing and advertising
has made commercial success of many other simple things.
ROUTE TO THIS BLOG
The accumulation of the eclectic research
and writing projects were originally began to be viewed late in my career as
something so disconnected that it might fit collectively into a volume called
“Animal Evolution: A Serial Symposium”.
As time went on, I thought there were only a few things of great
importance. They were primarily the two
things my peers did not recognize or accept – extreme age of abyssal
pogonophorans and their role as a major evolutionary link. I seemed to be the only one that knew
that. Two other views I share with
others so it is not so dependent on my proclaiming them are the role of God as
both creator of evolution and the reason the creation/evolution debate is meaningless.
Other of my evolutionary insights that
simplify understanding of animal diversity and function are of value but not
critically so. Fortunately, some of
those older posts about them are among those still attracting numerous viewers.
For about 20 years, extending from before
retirement in 1996 until I was diagnosed with MDS in 2007, I played with
various approaches to an evolution book.
My concern then was that I better pick up the pace of writing if I was
serious about doing it. I thought I had
about six months to two years to complete it.
So not realizing it was a mild version of MDS, I finally finished a
first draft of Evolution Insights in
2009. In early 2010 I completed the last
revision and realized after minimal efforts to find a publisher that the market
for book manuscripts from someone like me was practically non-existent.
The publicity to attract a publisher might
come from a successful blog or website.
Setting up a website turned out to be beyond my capabilities. But somehow I found Google’s Blogger program
and was able to start this blogspot.com blog even though the things that would
make it a more professional project still escape me.
DIVINE INTERVENTION
I think that God is more active in our
lives than we realize. I now see that
the early childhood difficulties were a blessing in disguise, enabling me to
develop as I did. God is usually like
the tiny breeze encountered by the Old Testament writer. But he is constantly with us if we accept
him. The first suspicion I had that it
was truer than we think was when I started reading random selections from the
Bible and found they very frequently gave me insights on current problems or
concerns.
I doubt that I would have started blogging
if I had not developed MDS. But between
writing the manuscript it is based on, and starting the blog, a more direct
event moved me to finally find Google’s Blogger and blogspot blogs. I had been trying to educate myself on blogs
by using publications designed for that purpose Perhaps
the distraction of a series of health issues and the reduced energy often
associated with increased age made the infrequent forays into self-help books
such that each attempt seemed to start from square one.
That was the situation in early 2013 when
a more pronounced reoccurrence of blood flow from my urinary system made me
stop and reflect. In my mind I was
telling Jesus that I had a life I was happy with and was ready any time God
wanted to take me. If I recovered I
would take it as a sign that I should renew my efforts to develop a blog. After that talk the bleeding stopped and has
not repeated in that location. Within
about a month of the event evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/ was an accomplished
fact.
Other people can do what I have been
trying to do. I feel so strongly that God
has made the numerous events occur in my life so that I do not deserve credit
of any of my evolution observations that turn out to be of value. I should pass them on freely to others. And if any profit is derived from my writing
that, rather than the biblical tithe of 10% to charity, 90% or some other substantial
sum should be given. It is the basis for
my encouraging readers who want to use my writing in not for profit ways to do
so, hopefully with a credit to the source.
Joseph G. Engemann Kalamazoo, Michigan July 23, 2016
