Pranam
3 Fantastically Wrong: What Darwin Really Screwed Up About Evolution
IT’S HARD TO overstate just how brilliant and huge an idea Charles
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was and continues to be.
It absolutely rocked Victorian England, to the extent that stuffy old
Victorian England could be rocked past people just barely raising their
voices in polite protest. But some folks, particularly highly religious
types, weren’t too happy with the idea that nature can run perfectly fine
on its own, without the guiding hand of a higher power. Not happy *in the
least bit*.
But contrary to popular belief today, scientists were kicking around the
idea of evolution before Darwin—even Charles' grandpa, Erasmus, alluded to
it in verse <http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/Edarwin.html>, like a
true OG. Charles' contribution was specifically the natural selection bit,
that organisms vary, and these variations can better suit individuals to
their environment, thus boosting their chances of passing down these traits
to future generations. (Weirdly, Darwin's friend, the brilliant naturalist
Alfred Russel Wallace, had arrived at the same idea independently at around
the same time. The two presented their preliminary findings
<http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/S043.htm> to the Linnean
Society of London, before Darwin blew the lid off the whole thing with *On
the Origin of Species*.)
There was a bit of a problem with all of this natural selection stuff,
though: Darwin didn’t know how it, uh, worked. Offspring had a mix of their
parents’ features, sure. But how? What was going on at the moment of
conception? It was a huge hole in Darwin’s theory of evolution. So in 1868,
almost a decade after he published *On the Origin of Species*, Darwin tried
to plug that hole with the theory of “pangenesis,”
<http://www.esp.org/books/darwin/variation/facsimile/contents/darwin-variation-chap-27-i.pdf>
a
wildly wrong idea that goes a little something like this:
Every cell in our bodies sheds tiny particles called gemmules, “which
are dispersed throughout the whole system,” Darwin wrote, and “these, when
supplied with proper nutriment, multiply by self-division, and are
ultimately developed into units like those from which they were originally
derived.” Gemmules are, in essence, seeds of cells. “They are collected
from all parts of the system to constitute the sexual elements, and their
development in the next generation forms a new being.”
Because both parents contribute these cell seeds, offspring end up blending
the features of mom and dad. But what about a child exhibiting more
features of one parent than the other? This comes about when “the gemmules
in the fertilized germ are superabundant in number,” where the gemmules
“derived from one parent may have some advantage in number, affinity, or
vigor over those derived from the other parent.” In other words, they kinda
just put more effort into it.
Gemmules must develop in the proper order to build a healthy organism. When
something glitches along the way, though, you get birth defects. “According
to the doctrine of pangenesis,” Darwin wrote, “the gemmules of the
transposed organs become developed in the wrong place, from uniting with
wrong cells or aggregates of cells during their nascent state.”
But most important of all, Darwin’s theory of pangenesis could finally
explain variations among organisms—the raw fuel of evolution. This has two
causes. First, "fluctuating variability" comes from “the deficiency,
superabundance, and transposition of gemmules, and the redevelopment of
those which have long been dormant." In other words, they're expressed in a
grandchild after skipping a generation, though the gemmules themselves
haven't "undergone any modification."
Darwin’s theory of pangenesis could finally explain variations among
organisms—the raw fuel of evolution.
The second touches on a now discredited theory of Lamarckism
<http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/lamarck.html>, which argued that
traits an organism acquires during its lifetime, perhaps because of
environmental factors, can then be inherited by its young. Darwin believed
gemmules could be altered during an organism's lifetime, and these newly
altered gemmules could multiply and supplant the old ones. I argue that the
rejection of soft inheritance by influential 20th-century geneticists
reflected two key ideas: a narrowed definition of heredity as the
transmission of DNA sequences at conception, and the belief that heredity
is mediated by a single, universal mechanism of transmission. As a
corollary of these ideas, many leading geneticists assumed that soft
inheritance, if it occurs, must involve the modification of germ-line DNA
sequences by environmental or somatic factors – a process that they
rejected as a ‘chemical impossibility’ . In contrast, recent challengers of
the established view of heredity propose a pluralistic model, whereby
heredity reflects the transmission of gene alleles (genetic inheritance)
alongside a variety of other factors that influence offspring phenotype
(nongenetic inheritance) . The pluralistic model of heredity points to
the existence
of variation in the nature of inheritance among taxa and traits. Although
the existence of nongenetic inheritance is not in doubt, some putative
mechanisms of nongenetic inheritance remain poorly understood.
So to sum up: Gemmules are seeds of cells that you get when your parents
conceive you. They must form in the proper order to build a healthy
organism, and the way they mix results in variations. Some gemmules can lie
dormant, resulting in traits that skip generations, or change over an
organism's lifetime, resulting in offspring inheriting traits that their
parents had developed due to environmental factors.
Any theory needs a solid experiment, and that fell to Darwin’s cousin,
Francis Galton. To prove gemmules induce variation, he took the blood of
one rabbit and injected it into another, with the idea that the offspring
of the latter would show traits of the former. In his essay
<http://www.blc.arizona.edu/courses/schaffer/449/Soft%20Inhertance/Geison%20-%20Pangenesis.pdf>
“Darwin
and Heredity: The Evolution of His Hypothesis of Pangenesis,” Gerald Geison
writes: “These experiments, like all that *followed, failed utterly to
confirm Darwin's view;* and when, in addition, the idea of the inheritance
of acquired characters became discredited, Pangenesis was rapidly swept out
of court by more satisfying explanations.”
“As a result,” Geison adds, “Pangenesis has often been looked upon as one
of those mysterious and inexplicable failures of genius. Perhaps because
they wish to present only Darwin's genius, several of his biographers fail
to mention Pangenesis at all.”
The real logic behind genetics was first discovered, oddly enough, by a
monk and his pea plants
<http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_13> in the 1850s,
just as Darwin was preparing *On the Origin of Species*. By breeding these
plants and recording how traits get passed down from generation to
generation, *Gregor Mendel noticed that offspring weren’t simply a blend of
their two parents, as biologists had reckoned at that time. The offspring
of a plant with smooth peas and another with wrinkled peas, for instance,
wouldn’t itself have kinda-wrinkled peas, but either full-blown smooth or
wrinkled peas.* This is what we now refer to as dominant and recessive
alleles <http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/inheritance/patterns/>, or
versions of a particular gene: If you have blue eyes, for instance, you’re
expressing a recessive allele, and if you have brown eyes, it’s the
dominant trait. This happens because you get two copies of each gene, one
from your mother and another from your father.
DNA isn't actually this colorful in your body, unless you're like a Muppet
or clown or something.
“Hey dudes, I found this cool thing here,” Mendel may have said, to the
deafening sound of crickets. No one gave a hoot about his work. It wasn’t
until 1900 that his research was rediscovered by botanists, kicking off the
age of genetics. Soon scientists had figured out that it was DNA that held
the information that gives you your many traits, and in 1953 Watson, Crick,
and colleagues finally gave it a shape: the famous double helix
<http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/discovery-of-dna-structure-and-function-watson-397>
.
We now know that inheriting traits has nothing to do with gemmules mixing
together. We of course get our DNA, which contains genes, from both our
mother and father. But these are combined in unique ways at each conception
<http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/IIIC5aShufflingdetails.shtml>,
leading to variations even among siblings. Variation can also come from
mutations <http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/IIIC3Causes.shtml>:
When our cells divide they frequently make copies of their DNA that don’t
always come out perfect (you probably have a whole lot of mutations that
you don’t even notice). So these mutations, combined with genetic shuffling
at birth, drive variations and therefore evolution: Some individuals are
born with traits that may suit them better to their environment, which
boosts their chances of surviving and breeding and passing those genes to
future generations.
KRIRS 18821 There are many books which threadbare analysed the Darwin
theory as no Good.
On Wed, 18 Aug 2021 at 06:46, 'gopala krishnan' via Thatha_Patty <
[email protected]> wrote:
> *CULTURAL QA 08-2021-18*
>
> *Being a compilation there may be errors*
>
> *Q1 Why do chefs burn new pans with salt before their first
> use?*
>
> *A1 Tara Neal Studied Fine Art at Virginia Commonwealth
> University (Graduated 2004)February 7, 2018*
>
> *Short answer: this is part of the seasoning process,** to create a
> nonstick surface on the pan.*
>
> *Longer answer: new cast iron and carbon steel** pans often have a
> protective coating on them that keeps them in good condition on the store
> shelf, but is not good for cooking. This must be removed before you can
> cook well with it. It takes a bit of heat and scrubbing with soap to lift
> the coating properly and expose the pan’s material. Sometime salt can even
> be used at this point as an added abrasive.*
>
> *Once the surface is uncovered, you can season the** pan (create that
> nonstick coating) by burning a mixture of oil and salt in it over high
> heat. The salt helps to pull any remaining water moisture out of the pan
> and the oil will begin to degrade under the heat (smoking) and form a
> polymer bond to the pan metal. This bond leaves a much smoother surface
> than the metal, which has microscopic texture, and the smoother a surface
> is, the less food can cook in and be gripped by the pan. The oil is a food
> safe coating, and you will want to wash gently so as not to remove it.*
>
> *In subsequent uses of the pan, you may want to rub** a little salt on it
> as it comes to temperature because it will continue to pull moisture from
> the minute cracks as they expand in the heat, creating that smooth cooking
> surface. (Toss out the seasoning salt before cooking though!)*
>
> *Q2 How can we install a water heater?*
>
> *A2 Harshita, m.com <http://m.com> from Sardar Childerns
> School (2014)Answered 27m ago*
>
> *A2 The process of installing a water heater isn't
> challenging, but you ought to master it well to avoid making mistakes. Here
> may be a guide to the whole process. Follow the steps*
>
> *Plan Well*
>
> *An average hot-water heater lasts for 10 to fifteen years. If your heater
> has lasted for that long, then you almost certainly need a more modern one.
> you'll also plan to install a replacement heater if your old one has shown
> signs of wear and tear and tear.*
>
> *Get the Equipment*
>
> *Collect all the equipment you'll need during the installation. *
>
> *Some vital tools that you simply might need include a voltage tester, a
> plumbers tape, electrical tape, a torch, safety glasses, and a tube cutter.
> you would possibly also need some materials like the piping, the valves,
> the connectors, and water.*
>
> *The exact tools will depend upon the sort of water you'll be installing.*
>
> *Disconnect the Utilities*
>
> *Water is that the main utility that you simply should cut before you
> begin the method. If you put in the hot-water heater when the valve remains
> on, you would possibly have a messy experience, and you would possibly not
> achieve your installation goals.*
>
> *Drain the hot-water heater*
>
> *Now that you simply have disconnected the utilities, your next step
> should be to empty the cistern. That water is of no use because you plan to
> eliminate the old heater. And in any case, you'll have a smoother time
> replacing the heater when it's empty than when full.*
>
> *Disconnect the Old hot-water heater*
>
> *Carefully disconnect both the recent and cold water piping. If the pipes
> are made from copper, then you'll need to use a hacksaw and cut 3 to 4
> inches from the hot-water heater unit. But if they're galvanized, then
> you'll only got to loosen them well and disconnect.*
>
> *Inspect the Wiring*
>
> *Don’t rush to exchange the new hot-water heater. Maybe, the wiring is
> faulty, and that‘s why you had a problem together with your previous
> hot-water heater. There could also be other issues too that you simply must
> sort before you put in the new hot-water heater.*
>
> *Reconnect the Gas, Water, and Electricity Lines*
>
> *Add your new hot-water heater. If your house is susceptible to
> earthquakes, add straps or brackets which hold the hot-water heater into
> place. you'll also add special valves and fittings.*
>
> *Seek assistance on the way to Install a hot-water heater*
>
> *It’s essential to understand the way to install a hot-water heater on
> your own. However, you ought to not force things. If you don’t know what to
> try to do, ask an experienced plumber to assist you. an honest plumber can
> guide you to make sure that you simply don’t cause mistakes or cause
> further damage.*
>
> *Do you have an urgent plumbing issue? Do you need help with water heater
> installation? Urban Repairing in Pune is a reputable 24/7 emergency Kitchen
> Appliances Repair and installation firm.*
>
> *My note- Best entrust a good plumber. They carry out the work more
> efficiently and in lesser time.*
>
> *Q3 How is it that Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace
> had the same ideas, neatly paired, nearly parallel? Is there a "potential
> discovery field" in science which develops organically out of base premises
> in the collective unconscious?*
>
> *A3 Claire Jordan Active in UK SF fandom and fanfiction since
> 1981, mod of Potter discussion group Mon*
>
> *The vague general idea of evolution, including that humans were primates,
> had been known about for a couple of thousand years. Ancient Greek and
> Mediaeval travellers regarded other great apes and baboons as types of
> human. The 14th century Tunisian polymath, Ibn Khaldun, wrote that humanity
> stemmed from “the world of the monkeys".*
>
> *From the 17th C onwards printing became affordable and common, including
> printing of** illustrations, and people started to share descriptions of
> fossils, making scientists more aware that life had been different in the
> past. Then in the 18th C Linneus formally classified humans as a type of
> primate, and showed that life-forms in general fell into discrete groups,
> which paved the way for the idea of life forming a branching tree, and
> Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) wrote a book called Zoonomia which
> speculated about evolution by sexual selection.*
>
> *In the early 19th C Lamarck published his ideas about evolution by a form
> of natural selection,** although he got the mechanism all wrong, and in
> the mid 19th C Patrick Matthew worked out the mechanism for natural
> selection by superior reproductive success, although he thought it so
> self-evident he just dashed off a description of it in an appendix to a
> book on commercial forestry.*
>
> *By the time Charles Darwin and Arthur Russell Wallace came along, it was
> become both feasible** and fashionable for upper middle class young men
> to join voyages of exploration to far-off lands, where they where both able
> to make detailed biological observations which had not previously been
> available to European scientists.*
>
> *Q4 What did Lord Krishna do with the gem that he removed
> from the forehead of Ashwatthama?*
>
> *A4 Tarun Yadav Interested in Sanatan Literature June 21*
>
> *It was not Krishna who removed the gem off Ashvatthama. It was
> Ashvatthama himself who was made to do this. After Ashvatthama slayed the
> relatives and sons of common wife of Pandavas, she expressed her desire to
> have his gem and see him dead.*
>
> *Bhima, Arjuna, Krishna and Yudhisthira then proceeded towards
> Ashvatthama. On seeing them, he released Brahmshira weapon. Arjuna also
> released the same weapon to counter it. Vyasa intervened between the two
> and asked them to withdraw their respective weapons.*
>
> *Arjuna knowing the withdrawal did it. Ashvatthama didn't knew the
> withdrawal. So he released it on the womb of Uttara.*
>
> * Vyasa then himself ordered Ashvatthama to offer his gem to Pandavas.
> That gem was then shown to the common wife of Pandavas after which she
> decided it to be fastened on Yudhisthira's crown.*
>
> *For more details and excerpts from the critical edition, refer the below
> answer.*
>
> *Q5 Did Draupadi insist Pandavas to kill Ashwatthama?*
>
> *A5 Tarun YadavHave read BORI and Gita Press June 7*
>
> *After the common wife of Pandavas received the news that her sons and
> relatives have been killed by Ashvatthama, she said these words to Pandavas
> *
>
> * O Pandavas! Listen to me. If, in an encounter today, you do not
> exhibit your valour and destroy him and his followers, and he remains alive
> in the encounter, I will resort to praya here. Drona’s son must be made to
> reap the fruits of his wicked deed.*
>
> *Note - Praya here means fast until death.*
>
> *She further expressed her desire to have the gem of Ashvatthama after he
> is killed. She said -*
>
> * I have heard that Drona’s son possesses a natural jewel on his head.
> I wish to see that jewel brought to me, after the wicked one has been slain
> in an encounter.*
>
> *She then approached Bhima and once again told him that she wished to see
> Ashvatthama dead. She said -*
>
> *O Bhima! You should remember the dharma of kshatriyas and save me. Slay
> the one whose deeds are wicked, like Maghavan against Shambara.12 There is
> no other man who is equal in valour to you. All the worlds have heard that
> when the Parthas confronted a great calamity in the city of Varanavata, you
> were the refuge.13 When we saw Hidimba, you were the refuge again.14 In the
> city of Virata, I was severely oppressed by Kichaka. You saved me from that
> calamity, like Maghavan saved Poulami.15 O Partha! You have performed many
> other great deeds earlier. O destroyer of enemies! Slay Drona’s son now and
> be happy.*
>
> *From these excerpts, it is very much clear that the wife of Pandavas was
> revengeful and wanted Ashvatthama dead.** She also wanted to have his
> precious gem.*
>
> *Misconception -*
>
> *Now there is a misconception that she spared Ashvatthama's life because
> of the following narration -*
>
> * Draupadi said, "I desired to only pay off our debt for the injury we
> have sustained. The preceptor's son is worthy of my reverence as the
> preceptor himself. Let the king bind this gem on his head, O Bharata!*
>
> *Point to be noted is that she said these words to Bhima after he
> explained to her that he let Ashvatthama go to honour brahmanas. Bhima said
> *
>
> *We have defeated and released Drona’s son, so as to honour brahmanas.*
>
> *Also, some people claim that she wanted justice and was not revengeful.
> But she herself told Bhima that she wanted revenge. The Gita Press
> tranlates the shloka beautifully as -*
>
> *Note that the word used in translation is pratishodh and not nyaya. So it
> was more of a revenge than justice against what Ashvatthama did.*
>
> *So final conclusion -*
>
> *She wanted him dead at any cost. She was revengeful. For this, she even
> threatened her husbands with fast unto death ultimatum*
>
> * The wife of Pandavas never spared Ashvatthama*
>
> *Ashvatthama cannot be killed because of the curse of Krishna*
>
> *Moreover, Bhima himself explained that Pandavas spared Ashvatthama as he
> was a brahmana.*
>
> *The quotations used in the answer have been taken from the critical
> edition of Vyasa Mahabharata.*
>
> *Q6 Does Queen Elizabeth II has a mobile phone?*
>
> *A6 Geoffrey Thorndyke Lived in the UK since 1944 August 9*
>
> *Indeed she does. however she does not actually carry it or answer it. It
> is in the hands of one of the Equerries, who in recognition of this new and
> important task has now been officially titled as “Greymantle Smartphone
> Pursuivant” by the Royal College of Arms.*
>
> *Q7 Can the activated carbon in "used water filters" be used
> for garden soil?*
>
> *A7 Meg Osterby, former Chemistry/Biochemistry/Chemical
> Safety Instructor (2000-2017)Answered September 5, 2020*
>
> *What are you growing? If food, not a good idea. Used carbon filters are
> full of all the harmful or not harmful chemicals they pulled out of your
> water. For example, if you lived in Flint, MI they might have a lot of lead
> in them. Putting that on your vegetable garden could conceivably cause the
> vegetables you grow to be toxic from absorbing the lead.*
>
> *Or, if you live where there is chemical contamination of your water
> supply, say nitrates from a nearby farm, or organic industrial chemicals
> from nearby oil distillery or chemical plant, then those toxins could be
> absorbed by the vegetables and then you would eat them.*
>
> *What you don't seem to understand is that a used filter contains the
> chemicals it removed, and you** don't want to add those back into your
> diet, so using the charcoal that's contaminated for growing food or even
> for flowers if you're going to cut them for vases in the house, is NOT a
> good idea.*
>
> *Q8* *Is cleaning a greasy mark from a plastic
> tablecloth with washing up liquid a chemical change?*
>
> *A8 Gopala Krishnan, former Assistant General Manager
> 1996-2004 at Department of Telecom (1966-2004) Answered 54m ago*
>
> *It is only tough cleaning. Using wet cloth, two or three times also it
> can be removed*
>
> *Q9 Can you get covid-19 by sitting on a toilet seat that
> someone else sat on?*
>
> *A9 3 Answers Gopala Krishnan, former Assistant General
> Manager 1996-2004 at Department of Telecom (1966-2004)Answered 1h ago*
>
> *Possibility is less if well cleaned by the one who previously used it. In
> Many homes in India there is only one toilet and used by all.*
>
> *If a home has four toilets and if members are four, it is advised to use
> separate toilets*
>
> *If you have taken two vaccinations there is lesser probability of getting
> disease.*
>
> *2ND ANSWER Liang-Hai Sie , Retired general**
> internist, former intensive care physician.Answered 4h ago*
>
> *Trolling? Covid-19 is transmitted by aerosols/droplets containing the
> virus entering our upper respiratory tract, can be through our mouths/eyes
> as well.*
>
> *3RD ANSWER- Joyce Bullen, Support Worker (2015-**present)Answered 5h ago*
>
> *In theory yes you will have touched numerous surfaces to get to the
> toilet handle door etc so if the person prior to you has covid you may get
> covid*
>
> *Q10 How can nobody be in good health if he does not have fresh
> air, sunshine, and good water all the time?*
>
> *A10 4Answers Teja BobAnswered 9h ago*
>
> *By mainting proper diet , yoga and by going places near to Nature*
>
> *2ND ANSWER Soreiyo Kasomva, Social Impact Head** (2020-present)Answered
> 9h ago*
>
> *Well If you live in a metro cities, you won’t get fresh air, Good water
> and not enough sunshine. That means one is not getting enough requirement
> needed for the body either for growth or development so that needs to be
> filled or made up by either food consumption with proper diet or by taking
> vitamin or nutrient tablets.*
>
> *True, we are hardly in any good health. That is why whenever there is any
> weather changes we become sick as our body immunity becomes low. As our
> body had been fighting against air pollution, water pollution and so many
> others. Due to all these most of the new technology are now being used as
> an essential items in most of the household.*
>
> *3RD ANSWER- Urvi Kasar, MA Psychology, Preventive and Primitive**
> Health Care from Appollo Hyderabad, Barkatullah University, Bhopal
> (1…Answered 6h ago*
>
> *See , every human beings adopt the situations in which they have been
> living for many generations.*
>
> *We get clear water , germ free water but poor people do not , they do not
> get fresh air atleast while sleeping because their surroundings are dirty
> we get such examples in slums of different countries and yes they can sit
> in sunshine if they wish because they are illiterate so they do not
> understand it's importance but they are living and many of them are
> healthy.*
>
> *And we people having better food in comparison to those people , having
> all facilities that we don't want to trouble our hands and legs and want to
> live comfortably , we take too much stress in comparison to poor people so
> we get victims of lifestyle diseases where as poor people do not have if we
> make comparison.*
>
> *4TH ANSWER- Gopala Krishnan, former Assistant** General Manager
> 1996-2004 at Department of Telecom (1966-2004) Answered 1h ago*
>
> *Even with all the items mentioned, still one can get diseases.*
>
> *All the above QA are based on Quora digest on 17-08- 2021/answered by me.
> Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers *
>
> *Compiled and posted by R. Gopala krishnan on 18- 08-2021*
>
>
>
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