‘Goldilocks’ genes that tell the tale of human evolution hold clues to variety of diseases – Science Daily

'Goldilocks' genes that tell the tale of human evolution hold clues to variety of diseases
Science Daily
The implication here is that wider variations in the number of gene copies may evolve and persist in benign CNVs, but not in disease-linked CNVs -- the effects would be too physiologically serious to be passed on by an individual to his/her children ...

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'Goldilocks' genes that tell the tale of human evolution hold clues to variety of diseases - Science Daily

Non-Chromosomal DNA Drives Tumor Evolution – The Scientist


The Scientist
Non-Chromosomal DNA Drives Tumor Evolution
The Scientist
Individual tumor cells have a unique spectrum of mutations, and this heterogeneity is known to drive tumor evolution and resistance to cancer treatments. Now, in a study published today (February 8) in Nature, Paul Mischel of the Ludwig Institute for ...

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Non-Chromosomal DNA Drives Tumor Evolution - The Scientist

Are Evolution Fresh Drinks ‘Poison’? – snopes.com

Claim: Evolution Fresh brand cold-pressed juices and smoothies are 'poison.'

Origin:In late February, an apparent hoax began circulating via Facebook claiming that Evolution Fresh brand cold-pressed juices and smoothies, commonly founds at Starbucks outlets, are "poison":

We found no evidence that Evolution Fresh drinks are "poison," nor that they are vended or produced "in Nigeria." According to the brand's official web site, most of the produce used in their manufacture is grown in California (and some of it in Arizona), and the product doesn't appear to be sold beyond the borders of the United States. Evolution Fresh products doe not appear in the FDA's database of food recalls.

It's unclear if the hoax was based on a 2013 news story about a Bay Area woman named Ramineh Behbehanian, who was accused of placing rubbing alcohol into two bottles Evolution Fresh drink, then switching the tainted bottles with others in a refrigerator at a San Jose Starbucks store. Behbehanian, a chemist, was initially charged with attempted murder and poisoning after tests by the San Jose Fire Department indicated the liquid in the bottles contained a lethal dose of rubbing alcohol.

However, subsequent lab tests ordered by the Santa Clara County District Attorneys Office found that the orange juice bottles allegedly dropped off by Behbehanian contained vinegar (a non-harmful substance), so the district attorney's office declined to file charges against her.

We haven't yet heard back from Starbucks, but we could find no reports of recalls or instances of people being poisoned by the brand's drinks.

Originally published: 06 February 2017

Featured Image: FLICKR

Lee, Henry. "Arrest in Attempted Starbucks Poisoning." SFGate. 30 April 2013.

KPIX-TV [San Francisco]. "No Charges for Woman in San Jose Starbucks Alleged Poisoning Case." 24 May 2013.

Bethania Palma Markus is a journalist from the Los Angeles area who started her career as a daily newspaper reporter and has covered everything from crime to government to national politics. She has written for a variety of publications as a staffer and freelancer, including the Los Angeles News Group, the LAist, LA School Report, the OC Weekly and Raw Story. She is a huge fan of the X Files, because while she's not saying it was aliens, it was aliens.

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How evolution turned ordinary plants into ravenous meat-eaters – Wired.co.uk

A species of carnivorous pitcher plant

AYImages / iStock

Meat-eating plants the world over, separated by thousands of miles and millions of year of evolution, share the same sneaky flesh-grabbing tricks down to a molecular level, a study has found.

By comparing the genomes of Australian, American and Asian pitcher plants the carnivorous flowering plants that entice insects into their tube-like leaves and drown them in a sticky liquid biologists could study how this deadly liquid trap evolved. In particular, the research team, headed up by evolutionary biology and plant genomics expert Victor Albert of the University of Buffalo, New York, sequenced the plants DNA to study the genetic differences between the Australian pitcher plants insect-trapping leaves, and its ordinary leaves used solely for photosynthesis. This revealed specific genes were only switched on in the tube-like leaves that generate the deadly serum, and those genes are used in the production of starches and sugars.

The serum was also compared to the insect-trapping juice of the plants distant relatives in Asia and America, and the liquid of a separate carnivorous plant. Despite evolving on different continents, the liquid in each plant had similar characteristics including enzymes used to break down bugs. The enzymes were not always destined to create bug soup, however. In non-carnivorous plants, they are used to break down a polymer called chitin as a defence mechanism against fungi that have chitin in their cell walls. Chitin is also found in the exoskeletons of insects, so it appears the carnivorous plant has a great deal in common with its relations - it has simply repurposed the enzymes to create a homegrown insecticide.

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Were really looking at a classic case of convergent evolution, said Albert, lead author on a paper describing the find, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

The study, though still leaving gaps in our knowledge relating to how certain mutations enable the enzymes to do their work, presents a leap forward in understanding how plants could have evolved from "ordinary", to meat-eating when habitats demand it and nutrients are scarce.

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See the Evolution of the Famed Porsche 911 in 7 Photos – WIRED

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Slide: 1 / of 7. Caption: Caption: 1963-1973: The original. Designed by Alexander Ferdinand Porsche, the 911 was the automaker's second production car, but the first that really mattered. Its basic design has evolved over the years, without losing its distinctive look.Porsche Archiv/Porsche-Werkfoto

Slide: 2 / of 7. Caption: Caption: 1974-1989: The G Model. A decade after its debut, the 911 had built its reputation, and there wasn't much sense in changing the car. The "G Model" hardly touched the proportions or interior, and skipped frills for elegant simplicity. Porsche Archiv/Porsche-Werkfoto

Slide: 3 / of 7. Caption: Caption: 1988-1994: The 964. The late 1980s weren't so good for Porsche, which was dealing with a sluggish German economy as well as heated competition from cars like Acura's NSX. And so it overhauled the 911, adding four-wheel drive, power steering, ABS, and a rear spoiler that deployed above 50 mph. Porsche Archiv/Porsche-Werkfoto

Slide: 4 / of 7. Caption: Caption: 1993-1996: The 993. Porsche boss Heinz Branitzky had hoped the 964 would serve for 25 years. Expensive to produce and beaten by the competition, it came nowhere close. So in 1993, the Germans brought out the 993. The last hurrah of the air-cooled Porsche, the 285-hp sports car offered improved, and more comfortable, handling. Porsche Archiv/Porsche-Werkfoto

Slide: 5 / of 7. Caption: Caption: 1997-2006: The 996. Heading into the new millennium, Porsche shocked traditionalists with the 996, the biggest break from the original look in more than 30 years of 911s. One 993 owner dismissed it as "a managerial limousine." It was a good car, Poschardt writes. Just not that good for a 911. And dropping the air-cooled engine for a water-based system still makes the old-school angry. Porsche Archiv/Porsche-Werkfoto

Slide: 6 / of 7. Caption: Caption: 2004-2013: The 997. The successor to the troublesome 996 didn't bring things all the way back to the original look, but it came close enough to calm the nerves of those happier in the past. The 997 added some of the athleticism missing from its predecessor, and was soon deemed a potential classic. Porsche Archiv/Porsche-Werkfoto

Slide: 7 / of 7. Caption: Caption: 2011- : The 991. Sitting alongside the car Ferdinand Alexander Porsche designed nearly 50 years earlier, the seventh generation of the 911 has clearly taken on modernity. The water-cooled engine stuck around, the edges softened, the nose extended. But anyone who spots it will recognize it as the Porsche 911. Porsche Archiv/Porsche-Werkfoto

The Porsche 911, like the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Corvette, has pulled off the neat trick of remaining thoroughly modern yet utterly timeless. The latest models look a lot like the car that rolled into the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1963, making it instantly recognizable even to people with no interest in cars.

You could fill a small library with the books written about the venerable sports car from Stuttgart, and the newest is Porsche 911: The Ultimate Sportscar as Culture Icon by the almost perfectly named Ulf Poschardt. It details, in beautiful detail, the evolution of the 911.

The cars iconic status belies its humble origins with the VW Beetle, which Ferdinand Porsche designed. The Beetle begat the Porsche 956, which Poschardt describes asa functionalist manifesto. It emphasized aerodynamics, minimal weight, and practicalitycharacteristics his grandson, Ferdinand Butzi Porsche, emphasized when he set out to build a more comfortable, more powerful vehicle. That car, the 911, featuredtwo doors, four seats, and a roof that sloped from the windshield to the taillights, nearly covering the engine out back.

The 911 didnt get much attention at the Frankfurt Motor Show, according to Poschardt, but the design proved a winner. The details have changed in the five decades since, but the fundamental lines are just as beautiful today as they were then.

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Exhibition charts 500 years of evolution of robots – Phys.Org

February 7, 2017 by Lynne O'donnell Animatronic baby London 2016, a mechanical human baby with an electronic umbilical cord is displayed, during a press preview for the Robot exhibition held at the Science Museum in London, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017. The exhibition which shows 500 years of mechanical and robotic advances is open to the public form Feb. 8 through to Sept. 3. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Inspired by his belief that human beings are essentially terrified of robots, Ben Russell set about charting the evolution of automatons for an exhibition he hopes will force people to think about how androids and other robotic forms can enhance their lives.

Robots, says Russell, have been with us for centuriesas "Robots," his exhibit opening Wednesday at London's Science Museum, shows.

From a 15th century Spanish clockwork monk who kisses his rosary and beats his breast in contrition, to a Japanese "childoid" newsreader, created in 2014 with lifelike facial expressions, the exhibition tracks the development of robotics and mankind's obsession with replicating itself.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's unstoppable Terminator cyborg is there, as is Robby the Robot, star of the 1956 film "Forbidden Planet," representing the horror and the fantasy of robots with minds of their own.

There are also examples of factory production-line machines blamed for taking people's jobs in recent decades; a "telenoid communications android" for hugging during long-distance phone calls to ease loneliness; and Kaspar, a "minimally expressive social robot" built like a small boy and designed to help ease social interactions for children with autism.

"When you take a long view, as we have done with 500 years of robots, robots haven't been these terrifying things, they've been magical, fascinating, useful, and they generally tend to do what we want them to do," said Russell, who works at the science museum and was the lead curator of the exhibition.

And while it's human nature to be worried in the face of change, Russell said, the exhibit should help people "think about what we are as humans" and realize that if robots are "going to come along, you've got a stake in how they develop."

A total of 100 robots are set in five different historic periods in a show that explores how religion, industrialization, pop culture and visions of the future have shaped society.

For Rich Walker, managing director of Shadow Robot Company in London, robotics is about what these increasingly sophisticated machines can do for humans to make life easier, particularly for the elderly or the impaired.

"I'm naturally lazy and got involved so that I could get robots to do things for me," Walker said. His company has developed a robotic hand that can replicate 24 of the 27 natural movements of the human hand.

As humans have a 1 percent failure rate at repetitive tasks, committing errors about once every two hours, the hand could replace humans on production lines, he said.

Walker concedes further erosion of certain types of jobs if inventions such as his are successful, but says having repetitive tasks performed by automatons would free up people to adopt value-added roles.

"The issue is to rebuild the economy so that it has a holistic approach to employment," he said.

This in turn leads to questions, raised at the exhibition as well as by the European Union, of whether or not robots should pay taxes on the value of their output as part of the new industrial revolution.

Explore further: Humans must overcome distrust of robots, say researchers

2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Social pedestrian navigation, such as walking down a crowded sidewalk, is something humans take for granted, but the actual process is quite sophisticated especially if you're a robot.

Remembering robots from film portrayals may help ease some of the anxiety that older adults have about using a robot, according to Penn State researchers.

Most Dutch people feel that the ideal social robot should not resemble a human being too much, as is the case with robots currently being produced in Japan. People do expect a robot to have certain human traits, but the distinction ...

Assembly line workers won't be swapping stories with their robotic counterparts any time soon, but future robots will be more aware of the humans they're working alongside.

Empathy is a basic human ability. We often feel empathy toward and console others in distress. Is it possible for us to emphasize with humanoid robots? Since robots are becoming increasingly popular and common in our daily ...

(Tech Xplore)Roboticists working on a robot's hardware and software can brag a lot. They have made robots which can flip pancakes, make sandwiches, ask children and adults questions, and generate expressions of happiness, ...

As the planet warms due to climate change and hot days become more common, the US electrical grid could be unable to meet peak energy needs by century's end, researchers warned Monday.

Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital have designed and demonstrated a small voltaic cell that is sustained by the acidic fluids in the stomach. The system can generate enough power to run small sensors or drug ...

Unlock them with an app, drop them off anywhere, and nip past lanes of stationary car traffic: the humble bicycle is seeing a revival in China as a new generation of start-ups help tackle urban congestion and pollution with ...

Bats have long captured the imaginations of scientists and engineers with their unrivaled agility and maneuvering characteristics, achieved by functionally versatile dynamic wing conformations as well as more than forty active ...

Engineers at MIT have fabricated transparent, gel-based robots that move when water is pumped in and out of them. The bots can perform a number of fast, forceful tasks, including kicking a ball underwater, and grabbing and ...

Self-driving car prototypes appear to be getting better at negotiating California streets and highways without a human backup driver intervening, according to data made public Wednesday by California transportation regulators.

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Incremental Versus Radical Innovation: A Response to Josh Swamidass on Evolution and Cancer – Discovery Institute

Joshua Swamidass is an Assistant Professor of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine at Washington University, and a frequent critic of intelligent design. At the theistic evolutionary site BioLogos, he recently posted on the use of evolutionary theory in understanding cancer. He has written on this topic previously, and we have analyzed his arguments (see here, here, and here). I would like to take a step back and put his case in a larger context, the question of incremental versus radical innovation.

But first, let's meet Dr. Swamidass. Recently, he and I exchanged emails, giving me a chance to ask him to clarify his positions. I thank him for his time.

Swamidass explained that he is a devout Christian, and believes that God did create life. However, he thinks that the exact means by which this was accomplished, how the blueprints of different species were instantiated in the physical world, is a mystery. Because of this, he said, he doubts that the unfolding of life can ever be disentangled from physical processes.

Instead, he feels the evidence for design in nature should be seen as an entire package. He is skeptical of any characteristics of living organisms being used, via modern design-detection methods, as distinct, isolated evidence for design. Rather, he thinks the Modern Synthesis offers a very helpful framework for understanding many aspects of nature, such as antibiotic resistance and cancer growth. He sees connections between these small-scale changes and patterns identified when comparing the genomes of different species. Therefore, he promotes the standard theory of evolution as the best approach to understanding the development of life.

There is some common ground here. Proponents of intelligent design agree with Swamidass that the evidence from nature taken as a whole points to a designer, while he's right as well that just how this design was instantiated in biology remains a mystery. There follows, however, a sharp parting of ways. First, ID theorists argue that many features of life could not plausibly arise from undirected natural process, and that those features instead display signatures (in the form of biological information) uniquely associated with intelligent agents. Second, we observe, recognizing this fact is scientifically fruitful. It leads to essential insights and new directions in research needed to fully understand biological processes and patterns.

Many biologists appear to recognize the second point, at least unconsciously. We notice this, in their frequent use of design language and logic in describing systems ranging from single cells to complex structures (see here and here). Of course, they always attribute such design features to the wondrous power of natural selection. This is their faith.

Which brings us to the subject of cancer. As Swamidass recognizes, and this is the key to his argument, an evolutionary framework can indeed provide insights into how tumor cells change and propagate (see here and here). However, this is true only to a certain limited extent. The key question is whether the sorts of mutations seen in tumors could accumulate in independent organisms to drive the large-scale transformations seen throughout the history of life. The answer is no. We see this, in part, from theories of engineering design that focus on the process of innovation. Such approaches recognize a fundamental difference between improving an existing design (incremental innovation) and creating an entirely new design based on a different design logic (radical innovation).

A crude example would be the difference between slightly modifying a car by streamlining the frame, on one hand, and changing a car into a helicopter, on the other. Making slight improvements through a series of small steps would help optimize performance. However, this process could not be extrapolated to change the basic design architecture. Very soon after incremental changes were made to start turning the car into a helicopter, the car would suffer a dramatic loss of functionality. This would occur long before it could ever fly. The problem is that the two basic designs operate under fundamental constraints that are directly in conflict. Any change helping to meet the target constraints (e.g., power from the engine redirected to turning the rotor) would cause the system to fail to meet the original constraints (e.g., power from the engine directed to turning the wheels), thus downgrading performance or eliminating it altogether. Such self-defeating alterations would be immediately abandoned, causing the "evolutionary" process to come to a halt.

Innovation experts Donald Norman and Roberto Verganti have illustrated this distinction in terms of hill climbing. They picture incremental improvements (in the evolutionary context, microevolution) as gradually climbing to the top of a local hill. A person only going uphill (improved fitness) would eventually reach a peak and become stuck. However, radical innovation (macroevolution) is the equivalent of moving from the face of one hill to an entirely different one. This would require a single, dramatic leap over the suboptimal terrain in between. What's more, the different hills are so isolated that any undirected leap would land the system in the middle of a sea of nonfunctional arrangements of parts. The whole basis of innovation theories (e.g., TRIZ) lies in using previous knowledge of innovation to anticipate where the islands of functionality might reside. Therefore, innovation can only proceed through intelligent direction.

The natural next question is to what extent this characteristic of engineered systems applies to life. At first glance, the logic seems to transfer completely. An illustration in nature would be the lung of a typical tetrapod evolving into the lung of a bird. All vertebrates, which long predate birds, have sack-like lungs, while birds and a few reptiles have lungs that are tubes, with air flowing in one direction only. Any mutation that alters a sack-like lung in such a way as to start turning it into a tube (e.g., puncturing a hole in the end) would seem to diminish the lung's effectiveness. This challenge, by the way, is part of the larger hurdle of a theropod dinosaur transforming into a bird.

However, the analogy is not complete. Living organisms differ from machines in many ways, such as their ability to grow, self-repair, and reproduce. Could these differences cause a comparison with human engineering to break down? Research over the past decades suggests the opposite. All of the differences actually result in even tighter constraints on life, making the challenge to evolution dramatically more severe. Imagine engineering a giant box filled with machinery, which self-assembles into a car. The constraints on that machinery would be greater than on a pre-assembled car, since any alteration at the beginning would have magnifying effects throughout the assembly process.

The self-assembly of a car corresponds in many ways to the development and growth of life (e.g., steps leading from a fish egg to an adult fish). The original egg cell divides into two cells. Then, those cells divide into four cells, and so forth for many generations. The earlier stages of this process establish the basic architecture (body plan) of an organism through networks of genes, which control cell duplication, migration, and differentiation. These developmental networks have been studied for decades, and the conclusion of leaders in the field is that they cannot tolerate even minor alterations. Any change that significantly alters an organism's body plan is always harmful and typically fatal, for the effects of early changes grow downstream, resulting in catastrophe for the adult. As a result, the fitness terrain that best corresponds to the different body plans is a series of highly isolated mountains, where every side is a steep, unscalable cliff.

Thus, changing from one body plan, such as a sponge or worm, into another plan, such as a fish, requires many dramatic alterations to be implemented, at once, through intelligent guidance. This conclusion leads directly to the expectation that new body plans (phyla) should appear suddenly in the fossil record without a continuous series of intermediates leading back to the trunk of an evolutionary tree. And this is what we find.

The prediction perfectly matches the pattern seen in the Cambrian explosion and in later sudden appearances of new architectures. Joshua Swamidass's protests about cancer notwithstanding, this seamless integration of design theory, developmental networks, and the fossil record is only possible within an ID framework.

Photo: Cancer researchers, by Rhoda Baer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Blockchain: Investment (R)Evolution For Developing Markets – Forbes


Forbes
Blockchain: Investment (R)Evolution For Developing Markets
Forbes
Allegedly a revolution is taking place on Wall street and the City of Londona financial revolution. The true action might be taking place somewhere else. Predicting revolutions almost always goes wrong, partly at least. When Marx and Engels worked on ...

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Blockchain: Investment (R)Evolution For Developing Markets - Forbes

Late-night hosts on the evolution of Trump: ‘Dickish to dictatorish’ – The Guardian

Trevor Noah: Trump has the impressive ability to take a bad situation and make it worse. Photograph: YouTube

Late-night hosts took aim at the latest developments within Trumps government, saying the president has gone from dickish to dictator.

On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah spoke of Trumps attack on James Robart, the federal judge who put a temporary halt to the controversial travel ban implemented last week. Noah compared judges to referees and criticized Trumps treatment of him.

You cant claim that the ref is not a ref unless you work at Foot Locker and thats different, he said. Noah then detailed Robarts unlikely popularity with both parties.

The Senate confirmed him unanimously and the Senate never agrees on anything, he said. Even when they all watched La La Land, even then they didnt agree. Ted Cruz and Chuck Schumer they both loved it. But Bernie was like its sentimental garbage, jazz doesnt belong to white people.

He then took apart Trumps tactics, suggesting that they show that a worrying future could lie ahead.

If theres one thing you should know about Trump, its that he has the impressive ability to take a bad situation and make it worse, he said. Alternative words. Disrespecting and delegitimizing a judge as just the start because then Trump took it from being dickish to dictatorish.

He also criticized Trumps tweet suggesting that Robart will be to blame if any terrorist attacks occur on US shores soon.

They use the fear of the people to convince people to surrender their rights and if you dont think the Trump administration would exploit a terror attack in that way, dont take my word for it, just ask the survivors of the Bowling Green Massacre, he said.

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert discussed Trumps recent assertion that the media is failing to report on many terror attacks.

The president is accusing the media of refusing to cover major terrorist attacks, he said. Why? Reasons. It makes perfect sense. You know the old news adage: if it bleeds, dont talk about it.

He referred to Kellyanne Conway as White House spokeswoman and person who has not slept since the Carter administration and went on to ridicule her much-publicized Bowling Green Massacre gaffe.

Yes, it didnt get covered, on the flimsy excuse that there was no Bowling Green Massacre, he said. But I think we all remember where we werent were when we didnt hear that nothing had happened.

Colbert then insisted the media finally give the bogus event the coverage it deserves: I demand the media not release the reports they did not do on the attacks that did not occur and I will not rest until they dont.

On Late Night with Seth Meyers, the host first took a quick swipe at the modest pro-Trump protest that took place over the weekend in New York.

Fifty to 100 people in New York City is not a rally, he said. Its a Times Square corner. Its the line to get into Dave and Busters.

Meyers critiqued a common tactic used by the administration to lie as a distraction to cover up an even worse lie. Thats like telling everyone you have a girlfriend in Canada when actually, you have a dead body in the basement, he said.

He also jokes about the reality TV star turned presidents inability to be reserved. Trying to strike a moderate tone with Trump as president is a little like trying to coyly seduce a woman with a bullhorn, he said.

He also took some time to joke about Chris Christies recent defense of Trump: Chris Christie cannot take a hint. How can I put this to you in a way that youll understand? The bridge to Trumps heart is closed bro.

Finally, he spoke about Trumps worrying interview with Bill OReilly where he defended Vladimir Putin, despite OReilly referring to him as a killer. It sounds like hes defending Putin because hes about to get caught for the exact same thing, he said.

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Gold’s Gym Regina rebrands to become Evolution Fitness – Regina Leader-Post

Published on: February 7, 2017 | Last Updated: February 7, 2017 4:01 PM CST

Skye Kaiss, left, owner of Evolution Fitness, and Korena Lafayette, director of operations, pose with the new signage at Evolution Fitness in Regina. The gym is formally known as Gold's Gym. TROY FLEECE / Regina Leader-Post

Following years of evolving from a bodybuilding imageto a health and fitness-focused facility, Golds Gym Regina has ended its franchise with Golds Gym and will now be known as Evolution Fitness.

Weve been Golds Gym now for 12 years in the city and well were proud of where we came from and how we developed this business. We found that the Golds Gym brand is no longer what we align ourselves with, saidSkye Kaiss, owner of Evolution Fitness.

The gym officially ended its franchise agreement with Golds on Friday at midnight and announced the rebranding Monday.

Golds Gym originally came to Regina 12 years ago withthe local company Family Fitness Incorporated.Eleven years ago the first gym was opened in north Regina. Over the years it has expanded to include three other locations in east, south and downtown Regina.

Golds Gym as a brand was founded in 1965 in Venice, Calif.In 1977, Golds received international attention when Pumping Iron a bodybuilding documentary starringArnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno was shot there. The gym brand quickly became synonymous with bodybuilding.

According to Kaiss, one of the reasons for the rebranding was due to the bodybuilding image of Golds. Over the years Golds Gym Regina has transitioned to more of a health and fitness image.

The stigma is still out there that this is only a bodybuilder gym, which its not. But its been a difficult to go all these years trying to change that image, or that perception, in peoples minds and its something that a lot of Golds Gyms currently still have challenges with, Kaiss said.

For current Evolution Fitness member Daniel Broussard, the bodybuilding image of Golds is what drew him to join the club three years ago when he moved to Regina from Nova Scotia.

Its always been a dream of mine since I was young (to train at a Golds Gym). Ive lifted weights since I was 12 years old,Broussard said.

Broussard and his son, Bryden, are both members and train at the east location. With the rebranding, Broussard said his family may look into changing gyms to a cheaper one.

With it no longer being a Golds Gym and becoming a fitness club to be honest, I think theyll lose members and theyll lose a part of it that was attractive to a certain group of individuals that wanted the Golds atmosphere,Broussard said.

Almost everything will stay the same at Evolution Fitness locations in Regina Kaiss said. Rebranding and changing of signs will be complete by Feb. 18.

However the partnerships with other gyms internationally will change.Under the Golds name members at the Regina club were able to use any other Golds location up to 14 times a year. Since the franchise agreementhas ended, the partnership is gone. Evolution Fitness however is currently working out the details on partnerships with Motion Fitness in Saskatoon and World Health in Calgary and Edmonton.

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Cultural evolution and the mutilation of women – The Economist

GENES that increase an individuals reproductive output will be preserved and spread from generation to generation. That is the process of evolution by natural selection. More subtly, though, in species that have the sorts of learnable, and thus transmissible, behaviour patterns known as culture, cultural changes that promote successful reproduction are also likely to spread. This sort of cultural evolution is less studied than the genetic variety, but perhaps that should change, for a paper published this week in Nature Ecology and Evolution, by Janet Howard and Mhairi Gibson of the University of Bristol, in England, suggests understanding it better may help to wipe out a particularly unpleasant practice, that of female genital mutilation.

FGM, as it is known for short, involves cutting or removing part or all of a females external genitaliausually when she is a girl or just entering puberty. Unlike male circumcision, which at least curbs the transmission of HIV, the AIDS-causing virus, FGM brings no medical benefit whatsoever. Indeed, it often does harm. Besides psychological damage and the inevitable risk that is associated with any sort of surgery (especially when not conducted in clinical conditions), FGM can cause subsequent obstetric complications and put a woman at risk of future infections. All these seem like good reasons why it would harm reproductive output and thus be disfavoured by evolution, whether biological or cultural. Yet the practice persists, particularly in parts of Africa and among migrant populations originating in these places. Ms Howard and Dr Gibson wanted to understand why.

To do so they drew on data from five national health surveys carried out in west Africa (specifically, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Mali and Senegal) over the past ten years. These provided data on the FGM-statusmutilated or otherwiseof more than 60,000 women from 47 ethnic groups. That enabled Ms Howard and Dr Gibson to establish the prevalence rates of mutilation in each of these groups, and to search for explanations of any variation.

They first established formally what common sense would suggest is truethat the daughters of a mother belonging to an ethnic group where the practice is widespread are, themselves, more likely to have undergone mutilation than those of a mother not belonging to such a group. But there was more to the pattern of those results than mere correlation. The average rates of mutilation in the groups the researchers looked at tended to cluster towards the ends of the distribution, near either 0% or 100%, rather than being spread evenly along it.

In the argot of statistics, then, the distribution is U-shaped. This suggests something is pushing behaviour patterns away from the middle and towards the extremes. What that something might be is in turn suggested by the two researchers second finding: the consequences of mutilation for a womans reproductive output.

For convenience, Ms Howard and Dr Gibson defined a womans reproductive output as the number of her children still living when she reached the age of 40. Just over 10,000 women in the five pooled surveys were over this age, and it was from these that the researchers drew their data. Their analysis showed that in ethnic groups where mutilation was common, mothers who were themselves mutilated had more children over their reproductive lifetimes than did the unmutilated. In groups where mutilation was rare, by contrast, it was the other way around. At the extremes, in groups where mutilation was almost ubiquitous or almost unheard of, the average difference amounted to a third or more of an extra child per lifetime. That is a strong evolutionary pressure to conform to the prevailing social norm, whatever it is.

What causes this difference Ms Howard and Dr Gibson cannot say for sure, but they suggest that conforming to whichever norm prevails might let a woman make a more advantageous marriage, and also give her better access to support networks, particularly of members of her own sex. Cultural evolution, in other words, is generating conformity in the same sort of way that biological evolution does when, say, the plumage of a male bird has to conform to female expectations of what a male looks like if that male is to mate successfully, even though the particular pattern of his plumage brings no other benefit.

All this does, though, offer a lever to those who are trying to eradicate female genital mutilation, for unlike genetic norms, cultural ones can be manipulated. The distributions shape suggests that, if mutilation rates in societies where FGM is now the norm could somehow be pushed below 50%, then positive feedback might continue to reduce them without further effort (though such effort could well speed things up).

One thing that is known to push in the right direction is more and better educationand not just for girls. That is desirable for reasons far wider than just the elimination of FGM, however. In a companion piece to Ms Howards and Dr Gibsons paper, Katherine Wander of Binghamton University, in New York state, offers a thought inspired directly by the new research. She wonders if fostering social connections between cut and uncut women in a community might reorganise support networks specifically in a way that reduces the advantages of mutilation.

More widely, the method Ms Howard and Dr Gibson have pioneered, of looking for unanticipated reproductive advantages that help explain the persistence of other undesirable behaviours, might be applied elsewhere. So-called honour killings would be a candidate for such a study, as would the related phenomena of daughter neglect, and the selective infanticide and selective abortion of females. On the face of things these might be expected to be bad for total reproductive output. But perhaps, as with FGM, that is not always the case. And, if it is not, such knowledge would surely help in the fight against them.

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Cultural evolution and the mutilation of women - The Economist

Lumpy, hairy, toe-like fossil could reveal the evolution of molluscs – The Guardian

A reconstruction of Calvapilosa, showing what this primitive mollusc most likely looked like in real life. Photograph: Jakob Vinther/Model made by Esben Horn (10tons.dk)

Lumpy, hairy and with a nail-like horny patch it sounds like a hobbits toe. In fact, its a portrait of what researchers say the common ancestor of slugs, snails and squid might have looked like.

The surmise is based on the discovery of the fossilised remains of a mollusc, thought to have lived about 480 million years ago, which has short spines all over its body and fingernail-like shell over its head which housed a radula a tongue-like structure found only in molluscs with more than 125 rows of teeth.

Believed to be a very early ancestor of a group of marine molluscs known as chitons, the discovery, scientists say, suggests that the common ancestor of all molluscs likely had a similar appearance.

I would say that our animal probably is very close to the spitting image of how the ancestor of all molluscs must have looked like 530 million years ago, said Jakob Vinther, a molecular palaeobiologist from the University of Bristol and co-author of the research published in the journal Nature.

The newly discovered animal is believed to have reached up to 12cm in length although the juvenile found in the Yale collection is less than 2cm long. Its name, Calvapilosa kroegeri, is a reference to the hairy shell that covered its head together with a nod to Bjrn Krger. The palaeontologist spotted a complete version of the fossilised creature among a drawer of recently collected Moroccan rocks at Yale University almost a decade after the first incomplete fossil was found.

We had been looking through those drawers to try and see if there were any specimens and we missed it, said Vinther. [Then Krger said] Why dont you guys use this specimen it is entirely complete, and then he pulled this thing out and it was like dude, that is totally what we needed!

The discovery also sheds light on a previously discovered fossils, revealing that a number of older creatures whose nature had been debated due to a lack of preserved details were also molluscs, due to their similarity in structure to the newly discovered creature. We could bring all these other fossils into the fold of thinking [about] molluscan evolution, said Vinther.

It also reveals that an type of early animal with two shell-like plates, known as Halkieria, was also a mollusc. Despite Halkeria being older, the authors suggest that the number of plates grew during evolution, leading to modern day chitons, which bear a row of eight plates on their back. Basically our animal sits right at the base of the branch that leads to chitons, said Vinther.

With a very early non-molluscan creature called Wiwaxia known to have had scales and spikes, the researchers go further, proposing an evolutionary path in which the common ancestor of all molluscs bore spines, a single plate, and a radula before a variety of branches emerged, eventually giving rise to molluscs as diverse as snails, clams and slugs.

Martin Smith, an invertebrate palaeontologist at the University of Durham who was not involved in the research, described the new find as exciting. This is a really important fossil, he said. Theres been a lot of discussion about the common ancestor of molluscs and of course there is such a wide diversity of body plans of molluscs today ranging from squids to snails to slugs and various other things that it is very hard to work out what their common ancestor looked like.

While it has previously been suggested that the common ancestor was shell-less, the new study, says Smith, points towards a single shell and a radula forming part of the body plan of molluscs, which have since been lost, modified or multiplied in various branches over the course of evolution. It completely transforms how we see the earliest history of molluscs and how we read the fossil record, said Smith of the new find.

But Julia Sigwart of Queens University Belfast, cautioned against such an interpretation, saying that even at 480 million years old, the newly-discovered fossil is too young to draw conclusions about what the common ancestor of all molluscs would have looked like.

This is not a particularly old fossil in the context of molluscan evolution, she said. But, she added, the fossil does show how many different forms existed through the history of molluscs over the last half billion years. Any time we find these exceptionally preserved fossils, they are very important for us to understand what the body plans looked like, because the fossils are so rare.

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Lumpy, hairy, toe-like fossil could reveal the evolution of molluscs - The Guardian

How Evolution Alters Biological Invasions – ScienceBlog.com (blog)


ScienceBlog.com (blog)
How Evolution Alters Biological Invasions
ScienceBlog.com (blog)
Biological invasions pose major threats to biodiversity, but little is known about how evolution might alter their impacts over time. Now, Rutgers scientists have performed the first study of how evolution unfolds after invasions change native systems.

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How Evolution Alters Biological Invasions - ScienceBlog.com (blog)

Ivanka Trump’s Beauty Evolution, From 1998 to Today Watch – Us Weekly

Ivanka Trump 'Feels Terrible' for Insensitive Gala Photo Nordstrom Drops Ivanka Trump's Line Ivanka Trumps Baby Theodore Crawls for First Time in the White House

If we could turn back time actually, we have! Ivanka Trump, the newly minted first daughter of President Donald Trump, has been in the limelight her whole life, which means we've watched her grow up. See her beauty evolution in the video above!

From a rosy-cheeked teen with a rosebud mouth (circa 1998) to a platinum-blonde student and model in the early aughts, to a sleek entrepreneur with a glamorous but understated makeup palette, the former Trump Organization VP has transformed right before our eyes.

Today, Ivanka, who first launched her eponymous brand in 2007 with fine jewelry, is now a mom of three children (with fellow real estate mogul husband Jared Kushner), but she's just as polished as ever.

"I keep my makeup minimal at the office, but that's also because I like to spend my time with my children in the mornings, and that tends to come at the expense of doing my makeup," Ivanka told Who What Wear in 2014. "That being said, I think that bright lipstick can work well, as long as the rest of your makeup is minimal."

Words she clearly lives by! Watch Ivanka's beauty transformation now.

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Ivanka Trump's Beauty Evolution, From 1998 to Today Watch - Us Weekly

YMCA evolution continues at lake – Gaston Gazette

By Michael Barrettmbarrett@gastongazette.com

For years, a new YMCA in Gastonia was merely an ever-shifting concept in the minds of local leaders.

But the former pipe dream is finally being welded and cemented together alongside Robinwood Lake in a framework of concrete, sheet metal and steel.

The 48,000-square-foot complex that was proposed as a $16 million project during a groundbreaking ceremony last May has ballooned. It now carries an anticipated price tag of $20 million, partially due to rising construction costs, said Gaston Family YMCA President and CEO Tony Sigmon.

Its also a result of some last-second tweaks to add a little more space and maximize the facilitys effectiveness for members, he said.

The anticipated late-summer 2017 opening date has shifted to November or December of this year. But positivity over whats coming together still reigns supreme.

Weve got the final floor plans, and everythings locked in and moving along, said Sigmon, during a visit to the construction site Thursday. This is going to be so good, and the changes weve made continue to make it better. The excitement from the community just continues to impress us.

Dreaming bigger

Sigmon and other YMCA leaders have found themselves continuing to battle misinformation, such as confounding rumors that the new branch wont have a swimming pool or gymnasium. But the footprint for those and other amenities are clearly being laid.

This will be the pool area here, and this is what I really like, Sigmon said during the walkthrough, gesturing toward an area that is now a muddy mess. This whole area back here is all going to be deck and patio space, and well have some fire pits over here, with picnic tables and chairs for sunbathing.

Visitors using the large indoor lap pool and separate recreational pool will have a clear view of the 34-acre lake through a glass wall. A boathouse alongside the reservoir will allow members to rent canoes, stand-up paddle-boards, kayaks and fishing boats with electric trolling motors.

Artificial reefs will be built in the lake, which will be stocked with about 40,000 large-mouth bass and bream for fishing. The YMCA is working with a nonprofit to install wood duck nests and osprey stands around the water, which has an average depth of 18 to 25 feet.

"We want to make sure we have a good habitat for wildlife out here," Sigmon said.

A playground and athletic fields for soccer, baseball, lacrosse, field hockey and other sports will flank the east side of the YMCA. A trail leading to the other side will guide people toward the woods, where a campground and two to three miles of natural trails will be built throughout the 110-acre site.

Inside the YMCA, the gymnasium's planned size has increased from 3,600 square feet to 4,800 square feet, to provide a little more breathing room. The wellness center will also be larger at 7,500 square feet.

'Trend space' downstairs will provide room for CrossFit-style workouts or other evolving exercise regimens that offer participants more of a personal touch. And the upstairs Spin Studio has also been expanded in scope, to fit as many as 50 bikes.

More money to raise

The expanded amenities will add about $2 million to the original project budget, and a roughly 10 percent hike in construction costs and materials will double that. Sigmon said it's more than they anticipated, but they're adjusting the only way they know how,.

"Were raising more money," he said. "Weve still probably got $3 million to $3.5 million left to raise, and our volunteers and staff are working incredibly hard to do it."

Other dynamic features inside will include a two-story climbing and adventure center for kids aged 6 to 11. Parents who need some freedom to work out can also drop off younger children from 6 weeks to 5 years at a neighboring child care center.

A large hearth and fireplace will be the dominant feature of the main lobby, and a nearby cafe will offer everything from muffins and healthy smoothies to grab-and-go sandwiches and salads.

Plans are to retain the YMCA's current membership rates, which range from $51 for an individual, to $76 for a family of two adults and their dependents. Beginning in 2018, members will have access to any other YMCA across the country.

Sigmon recently moved his office into a mobile trailer alongside the construction site, and said watching everything come together day by day is gratifying.

Its satisfying for the staff, but also the board, said Sigmon. There are board members whove told me theyve been talking about replacing the Central Branch and finding the right, new location for 20 to 25 years. To see this dream come true in this way is beyond what anyone could have imagined.

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or on Twitter @GazetteMike.

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YMCA evolution continues at lake - Gaston Gazette

EvolutionM.net – Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution | Reviews, News …

Perspective. When you take any testimony into account, its the single most important variable to consider. My vantage point of the RS is a bit unique coming from an Evo background, where the benchmark for a turbo-AWD car is performance first. Handling, acceleration, braking, and upgrade potential are all important to me. The furthest turbo-AWD [] More

A friend of mine recently picked up a 2016 GT350R, and we met at our local Cars & Coffee to weigh his car. As it turns out, we were able to find all versions of the S550 present and get weights on them, sans the V6. The GT350R is gorgeous inside and out. I took [] More

Recently Ive picked up some corner scales. My intention is to start to weigh, photograph, and write mini features on local cars. Im just getting ramped up, and its been pretty cold locally, so there isnt much data yet. Ill be posting results in this thread:**Corner weight database, click me** Im also using the [] More

Today marks the closing of a book, and that makes me feel a little sad. Im driving to Hallmark Mitsubishi in Nashville to review a Final Edition Evolution X, which will likely be the last new Evo Ill ever get to drive. Ive arranged this with my friend Evan, who is the sales manager here. [] More

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Evolution (2001 film) – Wikipedia

Evolution is a 2001 American comic science fiction monster film, directed by Ivan Reitman and starring David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott, Julianne Moore and Ted Levine. It was released by DreamWorks in the United States and by Columbia Pictures internationally.

The plot of the film follows college professor Ira Kane (David Duchovny) and geologist Harry Block (Orlando Jones), who investigate a meteor crash in Arizona. They discover that the meteor is harboring extraterrestrial life, which is evolving very quickly into large, diverse and outlandish creatures.

Evolution was based on a story by Don Jakoby, who turned it into a screenplay along with David Diamond and David Weissman. The movie was originally written as a serious horror science fiction film, until director Reitman re-wrote much of the script. Shooting took place in California with an $80million budget, and the film was released in the United States on June 8, 2001. The movie grossed $98,376,292 internationally. Reviews for the film were mixed, as the movie review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 42% positive rating.

A short-lived animated series, Alienators: Evolution Continues, loosely based on the film, was broadcast months after the movie was released.

Wayne Grey (Seann William Scott), a fireman trainee practicing in a shack in the desert near Glen Canyon, Arizona, sees a meteor strike his car and land in an underground cavern. College professor Ira Kane (David Duchovny) and his colleague, geology professor Harry Block (Orlando Jones), investigate, taking a sample of strange blue liquid that oozes from it. Ira discovers that it harbors extraterrestrial single-celled nitrogen-based organisms multiplying exponentially, condensing millions of years of evolution within a matter of hours. The next day, they take the science class to survey the meteor site and find it already surrounded by evolved oxygen-converting fungi and alien flatworms. Ira and Harry discover that the cells and organisms reproduce rapidly through mitosis after seeing one of the flatworms they collected in a jar split into another.

Soon, the site is sealed off by the Army, who set up a base. Ira and Harry take General Russell Woodman (Ted Levine) and the clumsy Dr. Allison Reed (Julianne Moore) to court for the right to be part of the research of their discovery, but their efforts fail when it's revealed Ira was discharged from the army after creating an anthrax vaccine that led to terribly debilitating side effects, which the soldiers dubbed "The Kane Madness". Woodman steals Ira and Harry's research, forcing them to infiltrate the base to get another sample; they find an alien rainforest teeming with life. They are caught by Allison as a mosquito-like alien gets inside Harry's body; they are forced to rectally remove the mosquito, which then dies.

Wayne arrives at the college and shows the two the dead body of an amphibian alien which killed a country club owner, much to his delight; they later investigate an animal attack, finding a dead dog-like alien in a woman's home and more dead flatworms. They find a valley behind the home filled with dead flying dinosaur-like aliens; Ira and Harry theorize the aliens are spreading through the caves connected to the main cavern, but can't breathe oxygen. One of the dying creatures spits out a pod containing a newborn, which then hatches into an oxygen-tolerant alien. The alien attacks a mall, where it nearly takes a shoplifter for a meal before Ira, Harry, and Wayne shoot it down.

Unfortunately, other alien encounters have made the news; this forces the Governor of Arizona (Dan Aykroyd) to demand answers. Allison explains the aliens will engulf the United States in two months. Woodman attempts to blame Ira, when he, Harry and Wayne arrive. However, the governor demands a solution; Woodman suggests evacuating the area and burn the aliens with napalm. At that moment, primate-like aliens attack them, but are fought off. The shaken governor approves Woodman's plan against protests from Ira and Allison that they don't know how the aliens will react. Allison quits the CDC and leaves the site, procuring Ira's original research and samples for him.

At the college, Harry accidentally tosses a match into a petri dish of alien liquid, causing a mass of flesh to rapidly grow from it. Ira realizes heat causes the aliens to evolve, and the meteor crashing to earth activated the alien DNA. Alison attempts to warn Woodman that napalm will only make the aliens stronger, but he ignores her call. Looking at the positions of nitrogen and carbon on the periodic table, Ira theorizes selenium might be poisonous to the aliens, since they are nitrogen-based, as arsenic is poisonous to Earth's carbon life. Much to Ira's surprise, his dumbest students Deke and Danny (Ethan Suplee and Michael Ray Bower) recall selenium sulfide is the active ingredient in Head & Shoulders. This makes Ira award the Donald brothers with an A, much to their excitement. So Wayne procures a firetruck and the team fills it with the shampoo, with help from the Donald Brothers, who tag along with them.

Just as the team arrives at the cave and prepare to fire the shampoo, Woodman's napalm strike causes the aliens to merge into an enormous amoeba-like creature, which reabsorbs the aliens in the cave. As it prepares to divide, the team drives under the organism, finds what looks like its rectal hole, and Harry (intending to settle a score for the insect incident) pumps a firehose of shampoo into the beast, causing it to explode. Governor Lewis declares Ira, Harry, Wayne and Allison heroes, making Wayne a fully credentialed firefighter while Ira and Allison skip the festivities for romance in the fire truck. Later, Harry, Ira and Wayne are shown chasing the flying alien from earlier and promoting Head & Shoulders for both hair care and fighting aliens.

Kyle Gass, Sarah Silverman, Richard Moll, Tom Davis, Jerry Trainor, Miriam Flynn, Caroline Reitman, Steven Gilborn and John Cho have smaller roles.

The film's music score was composed by John Powell, conducted by Gavin Greenaway, and performed by the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra. The soundtrack to Evolution was released on June 12, 2001 and is available on Varse Sarabande.

Soundtrack references:[2][3]

Evolution received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 43%, based on 134 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Director Reitman tries to remake Ghostbusters, but his efforts are largely unsuccessful because the movie has too many comedic misfires."[4] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 40 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[5]

Evolution was made into an animated series called Alienators: Evolution Continues, which ran on Fox Kids from 2001 to 2002.

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Evolution (2001 film) - Wikipedia

What is Evolution – explanation and definitions

By Heather Scoville

The Theory of Evolution is a scientific theory that essentially states species change over time. There are many different ways species change, but most of them are based on the idea of Natural Selection. The Theory of Evolution through Natural Selection was the first scientific theory that put together evidence of change through time as well as a mechanism for how it happens.

The idea that traits are passed down from parents to offspring has been around since the ancient Greek philosophers' time. In the middle 1700s, Carolus Linnaeus came up with his taxonomic naming system, which grouped like species together and implied there was an evolutionary connection between species within the same group.

The late 1700s saw the first theories that species changed over time. Scientists like the Comte de Buffon and Charles Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, both proposed that species changed over time, but neither man could explain how or why they changed.

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They also kept their ideas under wraps due to how controversial the thoughts were compared to accepted religious views at the time.

John Baptiste Lamarck, a student of the Comte de Buffon, was the first to publicly state species changed over time. However, part of his theory was incorrect. Lamarck proposed that acquired traits were passed down to offspring. Georges Cuvier was able to prove that part of the theory incorrect, but he also had evidence that there were once living species that had evolved and gone extinct.

Cuvier believed in catastrophism, meaning these changes and extinctions in nature happened suddenly and violently. James Hutton and Charles Lyell countered Cuvier's argument with the idea of uniformitarianism. This theory said changes happen slowly and accumulate over time.

Sometimes called "survival of the fittest," Natural Selection was most famously explained by Charles Darwin in his book On the Origin of Species. In the book, Darwin proposed that individuals with traits most suitable to their environments lived long enough to reproduce and passed down those desirable traits to their offspring. If an individual had less than favorable traits, they would die and not pass on those traits. Over time, only the "fittest" traits of the species survived. Eventually, after enough time passed, these small adaptations would add up to create new species.

Darwin was not the only person to come up with this idea at that time. Alfred Russel Wallace also had evidence and came to the same conclusions as Darwin around the same time. They collaborated for a short time and jointly presented their findings. Armed with evidence from all over the world due to their various travels, Darwin and Wallace received favorable responses in the scientific community about their ideas. The partnership ended when Darwin published his book.

One very important part of the Theory of Evolution through Natural Selection is the understanding that individuals cannot evolve; they can only adapt to their environments. Those adaptations add up over time and eventually the entire species has evolved from what it was like earlier. This can lead to new species forming and sometimes extinction of older species.

There are many pieces of evidence that support the Theory of Evolution. Darwin relied on the similar anatomies of species to link them. He also had some fossil evidence that showed slight changes in the body structure of the species over time, often leading to vestigial structures. Of course, the fossil record is incomplete and has "missing links." With today's technology, there are many other types of evidence for evolution. This includes similarities in the embryos of different species, the same DNA sequences found across all species, and an understanding of how DNA mutations work in microevolution. More fossil evidence has also been found since Darwin's time, although there are still many gaps in the fossil record.

Today, the Theory of Evolution is often portrayed in the media as a controversial subject. Primate evolution and the idea that humans evolved from monkeys has been a major point of friction between scientific and religious communities. Politicians and court decisions have debated whether or not schools should teach evolution or if they should also teach alternate points of view like Intelligent Design or Creationism.

The State of Tennessee v. Scopes, or the Scopes "Monkey" Trial, was a famous court battle over teaching evolution in the classroom. In 1925, a substitute teacher named John Scopes was arrested for illegally teaching evolution in a Tennessee science class. This was the first major court battle over evolution, and it brought attention to a formerly taboo subject.

The Theory of Evolution is often seen as the main overarching theme that ties all topics of Biology together. It includes Genetics, Population Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, and Embryology, among others. While the Theory has itself evolved and expanded over time, the principles laid out by Darwin in the 1800s still hold true today.

For definitions of evolution-related terms, see our glossary.

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What is Evolution - explanation and definitions

Evolution – Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokmon encyclopedia

From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokmon encyclopedia.

Evolution (Japanese: evolution) is a process in which a Pokmon changes into a different species of Pokmon. This change is not merely physical, however, as Pokmon of a higher evolutionary stage have different (and usually more powerful) base stats than their predecessors, may have different moves that can be learned, and sometimes change their types, though usually at least one of the types of the previous form is preserved. Other statistics, such as Nature and EVs, as well as shininess, are preserved. With respect to real-world phenomena, Pokmon Evolution is more similar to metamorphosis than evolution. Evolution also appears to be a mostly independent phenomena from the aging process for most species, though Baby Pokmon need to evolve to their next stage in order to breed.

Professor Elm and Professor Rowan are the leading experts in Pokmon Evolution. According to the latter's research, over 90% of all Pokmon are connected to at least one other through Evolution (this is true only if Legendary Pokmon are excluded.) Rowan is currently investigating whether Evolution is a form of maturity in Pokmon, and looking at the implications this process has on Legendary Pokmon, which don't evolve.

An evolution family is a group of Pokmon who will all, if bred with Ditto or a Pokmon in the same Egg Group, make a Pokmon Egg that will hatch into the same Pokmon, excluding baby Pokmon. This also means that the most basic form has the potential to become any of the rest of the family, although it will ultimately be able to follow only one evolutionary path.

Pokmon can be divided into different evolutionary stages, based on where they appear in their evolution family. All Pokmon fall into one of four groups: baby Pokmon, unevolved Pokmon, first-evolution Pokmon, and second-evolution Pokmon. These groups are also the basis for the TCG's grouping of Baby Pokmon, Basic Pokmon, Stage 1 Pokmon, and Stage 2 Pokmon, respectively.

Due to the fact that no evolution family contains both a baby Pokmon and a second-evolution Pokmon, many regard baby Pokmon as the most basic form, while moving their evolved counterparts one level higher. For example, originally, Pikachu was regarded as an unevolved Pokmon, however, with the release of Pichu in Generation II, many now consider it to be more on par with Pokmon like Charmeleon, though its TCG classification remains the same.

By far the most common type of evolution family, these families are based in a Pokmon that will only ever evolve once in its development. About one third of all Pokmon that would later get a baby form were part of this kind of evolution family before their baby form was revealed. An example of this type of evolution family is below.

Perhaps the most well-known types of evolution families are those that feature two separate evolutionary events in the Pokmon's development. Indeed, this type of evolution family is what all of the starter Pokmon in the core series are a part of (excluding the starter Pikachu in Pokmon Yellow, as Pichu did not yet exist and it could not be evolved into Raichu; and Eevee, which could only be taken by Blue), as well as all pseudo-legendary Pokmon. An example of this type of evolution family is below.

The least common type of evolution family is that in which no evolutionary event takes place, meaning that it is made up of only one member. Many of the Pokmon that have no evolutionary relatives are Legendary and Mythical Pokmon. However, there are still 75 other Pokmon that do not evolve.

Not belonging to an evolutionary family is not indicative of strength, or a lack thereof. Some Pokmon, such as Heracross and Skarmory, are comparable to fully evolved Pokmon while others, like Delibird and Luvdisc, are more comparable to unevolved Pokmon. Often this indicates a Pokmon's possibility to be eligible for future new evolutions or pre-evolutions.

Several families, while also one- and two-evolution families, are also branch evolution families. What this means is that there is a split in the evolutionary line at some point so that even though two Pokmon of the same species evolve the same amount of times, they can become one of two or more entirely different creatures. Eevee is the best-known example of this, evolving eight different ways depending on the method used. An example of this type of evolution family is below.

A major difference between the final forms of an evolution family with a branch in evolution is in the way that their base stats line up. For example, Kirlia can evolve into both Gardevoir and Gallade, which both have 518 total base stats. However, Gallade's base stat in Attack is 125 and its base stat in Special Attack is 65. The reverse is true for Gardevoir, whose Special Attack is 125 and whose Attack is 65. This is true of many opposing evolutions, with one focusing in one specific stat, the other focusing in a separate stat, and both having the same total stats. This is especially obvious in the Eeveelutions, who each have exactly the same base stats, though organized differently.

A listing of the stat focuses is below.

The various triggers for a Pokmon's evolution are almost as varied as the Pokmon themselves, and some Pokmon have a unique evolution method. The most common of them is Evolution by leveling up at or above a certain level. Other methods include the following:

Additionally, holding an Everstone prevents a Pokmon from evolving, as well as surprising a Pokmon via the B Button. The latter method is known as an "Evolution cancel".

Pokmon that get knocked out during a battle will evolve at the end of that battle if its requirements have been met. However, before Generation VI, losing a battle would make Pokmon not evolve even if the conditions have been met.

Pokmon that can evolve into more than one Pokmon will usually have the ways in which the evolution is activated being slightly similar, such as having both being initiated by evolutionary stone or by trading while holding an item. Closely-related Pokmon, such as Nidoran and Nidoran, will also have very similar, if not identical, evolution methods.

Some Pokmon have different evolutions depending on their gender. For example, only female Combee can evolve into Vespiquen; male Combee cannot evolve at all. Meanwhile, all Snorunt can evolve into Glalie, but females ones have the option of evolving into Froslass instead. This instance occurs in a similar way with Kirlia, albeit with males having split evolution instead.

Also, there have been situations in which the current party must be configured in a specific manner for some Pokmon to evolve. So far, only three Pokmon need to have these special requirements. Mantyke will evolve into Mantine if leveled up with a Remoraid in the player's party. Nincada will evolve into Ninjask when it reaches level 20. However, if there happens to be an empty space in the player's party (and a spare Pok Ball in Generation IV onward), a Shedinja will also appear in the party. Pancham evolves into Pangoro if its level is 32 or higher and there is a Dark-type Pokmon in the player's party.

Some Pokmon evolve in other unique ways. If one trades a Karrablast for a Shelmet, they will evolve into Escavalier and Accelgor, respectively, though neither will evolve if one of them holds an Everstone. When Inkay reaches level 30, the player must hold the 3DS upside-down for it to evolve into Malamar. Also introduced was a weather-based evolution: Sliggoo will evolve into Goodra beginning at level 50 only if it is raining in the area that the player is in. Finally, Sylveon can only be obtained by leveling up an Eevee that knows any Fairy-type moves and has at least two hearts of affection in Pokmon-Amie or Pokmon Refresh.

Some missions Hey You, Pikachu! involve Pikachu interacting with other Pokmon in certain ways to cause their evolution. In Caring for Caterpie, the player and Pikachu supervise a group of Caterpie, who will evolve into Metapod and then Butterfree if treated well. In Field Trip, Pikachu can water wild Oddish and Gloom, causing them to evolve into Gloom and Vileplume, respectively.

In Pokmon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness, while evolution typically works as normal in the main series, Shadow Pokmon are incapable of evolving until they are purified and return to normal. In Pokmon XD: Gale of Dakrness, the player's Eevee is incapable of evolving into Espeon or Umbreon through normal methods, because the game does not have a Time mechanic. However, early in the game, the player is given their choice of evolution item to evolve it, including the Sun and Moon Shards, Key Items that will evolve Eevee into Espeon or Umbreon respectively after it levels up.

In Pokmon Conquest, because the mechanics of levels, experience, and friendship do not exist, Pokmon typically evolve once they reach a certain link threshold with their partnered Warrior or Warlord. Pokmon that normally evolve via high friendship in the main series games, such as Golbat, instead evolve after reaching a certain link percentage, usually between 60 and 70 percent. Pokmon that normally evolve at a set level instead evolve when a certain stat reaches a specific value. For example, Spheal evolves when its HP has reached a value of 138, which is partially determined by the link with its Warrior. Warriors with Pokmon that require an evolutionary stone to evolve must equip themselves with that item and then perform an action that causes their link to improve, such as completing a battle.

In Pokmon Pinball and Pokmon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire, the player can evolve Pokmon they caught in Catch 'Em Mode in a separate mode called Evolution Mode (EVO Mode in Pinball RS). In this mode the player selects an evolution-capable Pokmon in their possession, then guide their ball towards three symbols representative of their method of evolution in the main games, such as EX for Level evolution, or a Link Cable for Trade evolution. If the player collects the three symbols in time, they can bring their ball to the Center Hole to evolve their Pokmon, awarding them with their Pokdex entry and points.

In the Mystery Dungeon series, evolution is restricted until reaching the location where evolution is taking place. Evolution is typically done in a ritual held in several locations across the Pokmon world, including Luminous Cave, the Luminous Spring, or the Tree of Life. However, starting in Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness, the player character and their partner may not evolve until they complete an additional scenario. Pokmon who evolve through unusual methods require an additional item to act as a catalyst.

In Pokmon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity forward, enemy Pokmon may evolve after defeating a member of the player's party. In Super Mystery Dungeon, the player character and their partner evolve into their final forms several times throughout the story. In addition, connectable Pokmon that exist as NPCs in this game or previous games will refuse evolution. However, because all Pokmon can be recruited separately though the Connection Orb, the player can still access their respective evolved forms in alternate ways.

In Pokmon Snap, the player can interact with Pokmon in certain ways that will make them evolve.

In Pokmon GO, the player can evolve Pokmon by spending Candy. The Candy cost for evolution varies between Pokmon species, ranging from 12 (to evolve Caterpie into Metapod) to 400 (to evolve Magikarp into Gyarados).

Each evolutionary family has their own kind of Candy. Candy can be obtained by catching or hatching Pokmon of that evolutionary family. The player can also obtain 1 Candy for its evolutionary family by permanently transferring it to Professor Willow.

The form Eevee normally evolves into seems to be random. However, the player can nickname their Eevee after one of the Eevee brothers in order to guarantee what the end result of the evolution will be.

In the anime, Evolution happens in much the same way as it does in the games; though level-based evolutions and trade-based evolutions do not occur using those methods, there are similarities in the way they come about. For example, Misty's Poliwhirl evolved into Politoed because it found Ash's King's Rock and was holding it when Misty sent it out, while in the games it is required that Poliwhirl be traded while holding the King's Rock for the evolution to take place (It should be noted that Poliwhirl had been through a machine in connection with it being healed at the Pokmon Center, while holding the item). When a Beedrill attacked Ash's Metapod, it caused a crack to appear on its shell, which Butterfree came out of.

Additionally, a difference can be seen in the fact that Pokmon evolve during a battle, as opposed to after it. Pokmon may also evolve when they are needed to, for an extra boost of power or gaining new abilities, instead of after a set amount of training, such as when Ash's Charmeleon evolved into Charizard. In addition, Pokmon can sometimes choose not to evolve, even if they evolve by a 'natural' method such as leveling up. This was shown when Ash's Bulbasaur refused to evolve during an evolution festival for all Bulbasaur to evolve in Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden. It appears that Evolution has emotional implications for Pokmon - some Pokmon, such as Team Rocket's Meowth, dislike their evolved forms, while others such as Ash's Pikachu simply want to prove they can be powerful without evolving. Conversely, when Pokmon do evolve, this can often be linked with an experience that causes them to mature emotionally or deal with an emotional issue, such as when the Poochyena in A Bite to Remember evolved, or the Paras in The Problem With Paras. Poochyena, for some reason, had an aversion to using the move Bite, while Paras was extremely timid and weak in battle. Both of them evolved shortly after overcoming these issues.

When a Pokmon begins to evolve, it will be enveloped by a brightly-colored light while slowly changing form; in the Original, Advanced, and Diamond&Pearl series, the light is simply white in color while in the Black and White and XY series, the light is blue in color.

For a list of all evolutions that Pokmon belonging to the main cast have undergone, see List of anime Pokmon by evolution.

Evolution in the Pokmon Trading Card Game is very similar in some aspects to its counterpart in the core series. However, it differs mostly in the fact that there are no different methods needed to evolve a Pokmon, but instead, all Pokmon evolve simply by placing the next stage on top of a Pokmon in play that it evolves into.

Pokmon cannot be evolved on the first turn of the game or on the first turn they come into play. They also cannot be evolved if on the same turn they were previously evolved or devolved.

There are four different stages of evolution in the TCG, Baby Pokmon, Basic Pokmon, Stage 1 Pokmon, and Stage 2 Pokmon. Of these, only Baby and Basic Pokmon may be placed onto the Bench during the setup phase and during play; Stage 1 and Stage 2 Pokmon are considered to be evolution cards and therefore unable to be played except on top of their corresponding pre-evolved forms. The stage of evolution is indicated in a conspicuous place on each and every Pokmon card, though the placement differs among the four generations of cards.

Within the deck and discard pile, only Stage 1 and Stage 2 cards are considered to be "evolution cards" for the purpose of a Trainer card or Pokmon Power which allows them to be searched for. In play, a Basic Pokmon card can be considered an evolution card if it is evolved from its Baby stage.

A Baby Pokmon is much the same in the TCG as it is in the core series of games. In fact, as with baby Pokmon released beyond Generation II, it is not even necessary for a Pokmon to even go through this stage of their evolutionary line, as the Pokmon can just start from their basic form. Baby Pokmon are among the weakest in the TCG, most often having 30 HP, as well as one of two special Pok-Bodys: one prevents all damage done to the Baby Pokmon while it is Asleep (Baby Pokmon with this Pok-Body also usually have an attack that changes their status to Asleep), and the other forces a Pokmon attempting to attack the Baby Pokmon to flip a coin, the attack doing nothing if that coin ends up tails.

A Basic Pokmon is the most basic of Pokmon cards, as can be deduced from its name. Commonly basic Pokmon will have low HP, a common rarity, and low damage and Energy costs. These cards can be placed directly into play without another Pokmon card needing to be in play first. Pokmon that evolve from a Pokmon released in a later generation, such as Electabuzz or Pikachu, always are basic Pokmon, despite being the second Pokmon in their own evolutionary lines. Baby Pokmon, Shining Pokmon, Pokmon , Pokemon SP, and Pokmon-EX are always Basic, and the latter four cannot evolve.

A Stage 1 Pokmon are the first kind of evolution card, being able to be evolved from a Basic Pokmon. Stage 1 cards are most commonly uncommon in rarity. Stage 1 Pokmon are also able to be Dark Pokmon and Light Pokmon.

A Stage 2 Pokmon is the highest of evolution cards, commonly rare or holographic in rarity, and can only, in normal conditions, be evolved from a Stage 1 Pokmon. Stage 2 Pokmon are also able to be Dark Pokmon and Light Pokmon.

M Pokmon-EX cards were introduced in XY expansion and introduce the Mega Evolution mechanic featured in Pokmon X and Y. They are identified by a stylized graphic on the card name. M Pokmon-EX can only be played by Mega Evolving from basic Pokmon-EX. Doing so ends a players Turn immediately. Other than this, M Pokmon-EX share the same rules and design as regular Pokmon-EX and evolving Pokmon, with the addition of boosted Hit Points and more powerful Attacks.

A Pokmon card that is in the player's hand must say specifically that it evolves from a Pokmon card that is in play on the player's side. For example, Dark Blastoise states on the card "Evolves from Dark Wartortle". This means that any card named Dark Wartortle may be evolved into Dark Blastoise. However, a card simply named Wartortle cannot. Likewise, Pokmon such as Rhyhorn cannot be evolved into a Pokmon that says on it "Evolves from Team Magma's Rhyhorn".

However, Pokmon cards from different sets may evolve into one another. For example, Dark Crobat can evolve from either Dark Golbat of the Team Rocket set or Dark Golbat of the EX Team Rocket Returns set. So long as the card names match precisely both to (here Dark Crobat) and from (here Dark Golbat), the evolution is legal. This rule, of course, can be circumvented by certain means, such as Pokmon Powers and Trainer cards, however, this is not common.

Evolution in Pokmon, for most species, is more akin to metamorphosis than to actual evolution. This is because real life evolution happens to a population rather than to individuals, and happens over much larger time scales than in the Pokmon world. In the Pokmon Adventures manga, it is mentioned that Pokmon Evolution is an entirely separate phenomenon from the normal process of evolution, and is a mysterious ability exclusive to Pokmon that is still not fully understood. In Pokmon Super Mystery Dungeon, it is described in the health class at the school in Serene Village as when a Pokmon's body rapidly grows larger with many other changes bringing a Pokmon closer to being an adult, being described akin to puberty.

Link:

Evolution - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokmon encyclopedia

History of Evolution | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The word "evolution" in its broadest sense refers to change or growth that occurs in a particular order. Although this broad version of the term would include astronomical evolution and the evolution of computer design, this article focuses on the evolution of biological organisms. That use of the term dates back to the ancient Greeks, but today the word is more often used to refer to Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. This theory is sometimes crudely referred to as the theory of "survival of the fittest." It was proposed by CharlesDarwin in On the Origin of Species in 1859 and, independently, by Alfred Wallace in 1858although Wallace, unlike Darwin, said the human soul is not the product of evolution.

Greek and medieval references to "evolution" use it as a descriptive term for a state of nature, in which everything in nature has a certain order or purpose. This is a teleological view of nature. For example, Aristotle classified all living organisms hierarchically in his great scala naturae or Great Chain of Being, with plants at the bottom, moving through lesser animals, and on to humans at the pinnacle of creation, each becoming progressively more perfect in form. It was the medieval philosophers, such as Augustine, who began to incorporate teleological views of nature with religion: God is the designer of all creatures, and everything has a purpose and a place as ordained by Him.

In current times, to some, the terms "evolution" and "God" may look like unlikely bed fellows (see the discussion on teleology). This is due primarily to today's rejection by biologists of a teleological view of evolution in favor of a more mechanistic one. The process of rejection is commonly considered to have begun with Descartes and to have culminated in Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection.

Fundamental to natural selection is the idea of change by common descent. This implies that all living organisms are related to each other; for any two species, if we look back far enough we will find that they are descended from a common ancestor. This is a radically different view than Aristotles Great Chain of Being, in which each species is formed individually with its own purpose and place in nature and where no species evolves into a new species. Evolution by natural selection is a purely mechanistic theory of change that does not appeal to any sense of purpose or a designer. There is no foresight or purpose in nature, and there is no implication that one species is more perfect than another. There is only change driven by selection pressures from the environment. Although the modern theory of biological evolution by natural selection is well accepted among professional biologists, there is still controversy about whether natural selection selects for fit genes or fit organisms or fit species.

Evolution by natural selection is a theory about the process of change. Although Darwin's original theory did not specify that genes account for an organism's heritable traits, that is now universally accepted among modern evolutionists. In a given population, natural selection occurs when genetically-based traits that promote survival in one's environment are passed onto future generations and become more frequent in later generations. Organisms develop different survival and reproduction enhancing traits in response to their different environments (with abundance or shortage of food, presence or absence of predators, and so forth) and, given enough time and environmental changes, these small changes can accumulate to form a whole new species. Thus for Darwin there is no sharp distinction between a new variation and a new species. This theory accounts for the diversity of Earth's organisms better than theological design theories or competing scientific theories such as Lamarck's theory that an organism can pass on to its offspringcharacteristics that it acquired during its lifetime.

Evolution by natural selection works on three principles: variation (within a given generation there will be variation in traits, some that aid survival and reproduction and some that dont, and some that have a genetic basis and some that dont); competition (there will be limited resources that individuals must compete for, and traits that aid survival and reproduction will help in competition); and heritability (only traits that aid survival and reproduction and have a genetic basis can passed onto future generations).

Evolution is not so much a modern discovery as some of its advocates would have us believe. It made its appearance early in Greek philosophy, and maintained its position more or less, with the most diverse modifications, and frequently confused with the idea of emanation, until the close of ancient thought. The Greeks had, it is true, no term exactly equivalent to " evolution"; but when Thales asserts that all things originated from water; when Anaximenes calls air the principle of all things, regarding the subsequent process as a thinning or thickening, they must have considered individual beings and the phenomenal world as, a result of evolution, even if they did not carry the process out in detail. Anaximander is often regarded as a precursor of the modem theory of development. He deduces living beings, in a gradual development, from moisture under the influence of warmth, and suggests the view that men originated from animals of another sort, since if they had come into existence as human beings, needing fostering care for a long time, they would not have been able to maintain their existence. In Empedocles, as in Epicurus and Lucretius, who follow in Hs footsteps, there are rudimentary suggestions of the Darwinian theory in its broader sense; and here too, as with Darwin, the mechanical principle comes in; the process is adapted to a certain end by a sort of natural selection, without regarding nature as deliberately forming its results for these ends.

If the mechanical view is to be found in these philosophers, the teleological occurs in Heraclitus, who conceives the process as a rational development, in accordance with the Logos and names steps of the process, as from igneous air to water, and thence to earth. The Stoics followed Heraclitus in the main lines of their physics. The primal principle is, as with him, igneous air. only that this is named God by them with much greater definiteness. The Godhead has life in itself, and develops into the universe, differentiating primarily into two kinds of elements the finer or active, and the coarser or passive. Formation or development goes on continuously, under the impulse of the formative principle, by whatever name it is known, until all is once more dissolved by the ekpyrosis into the fundamental principle, and the whole process begins over again. Their conception of the process as analogous to the development of the seed finds special expression in their term of logos spermatikos. In one point the Stoics differ essentially from Heraclitus. With them the whole process is accomplished according to certain ends indwelling in the Godhead, which is a provident, careful intelligence, while no providence is assumed in Heraclitus.

Empedocles asserts definitely that the sphairos, as the full reconciliation of opposites, is opposed, as the superior, to the individual beings brought into existence by hatred, which are then once more united by love to the primal essence, the interchange of world-periods thus continuing indefinitely. Development is to be found also in the atomistic philosopher Democritus; in a purely mechanical manner without any purpose, bodies come into existence out of atoms, and ultimately entire worlds appear and disappear from and to eternity. Like his predecessors, Deinocritus, deduces organic beings from what is inorganic-moist earth or slime.

Development, as well as the process of becoming, in general, was denied by the Eleatic philosophers. Their doctrine, diametrically opposed to the older thoroughgoing evolutionism, had its influence in determining the acceptance of unchangeable ideas, or forms, by Plato and Aristotle. Though Plato reproduces the doctrine of Heraclitus as to the flux of all things in the phenomenal world, he denies any continuous change in the world of ideas. Change is permanent only in so far as the eternal forms stamp themselves upon individual objects. Though this, as a rule, takes place but imperfectly, the stubborn mass is so far affected that all works out as far as possible for the best. The demiurge willed that all should become as far as possible like himself; and so the world finally becomes beautiful and perfect. Here we have a development, though the principle which has the most real existence does not change; the forms, or archetypal ideas, remain eternally what they are.

In Aristotle also the forms are the real existences, working in matter but eternally remaining the same, at once the motive cause and the effectual end of all things. Here the idea of evolution is clearer than in Plato, especially for the physical world, which is wholly dominated by purpose. The transition from lifeless to living matter is a gradual one, so that the dividing-line between them is scarcely perceptible. Next to lifeless matter comes the vegetable kingdom, which seems, compared with the inorganic, to have life, but appears lifeless compared with the organic. The transition from plants to animals is again a gradual one. The lowest organisms originate from the primeval slime, or from animal differentiation; there is a continual progression from simple, undeveloped types to the higher and more perfect. As the highest stage, the end and aim of the whole process, man appears; all lower forms are merely unsuccessful attempts to produce him. The ape is a transitional stage between man and other viviparous animals. If development has so important a work in Aristotle's physics, it is not less important in his metaphysics. The whole transition from potentiality to actuality (from dynamis toentelecheia) is nothing but a transition from the lower to the higher, everything striving to assimilate itself to the absolutely perfect, to the Divine. Thus Aristotle, like Plato, regards the entire order of the universe as a sort of deification. But the part played in the development by the Godhead, the absolutely immaterial form, is less than that of the forms which operate in matter, since, being already everything,, it is incapable of becoming anything else. Thus Aristotle, despite his evolutionistic notions, does not take the view of a thoroughgoing evolutionist as regards the universe; nor do the Neoplatonists, whose highest principle remains wholly unchanged, though all things emanate from it.

The idea of evolution was not particularly dominant in patristic and scholastic theology and philosophy, both on account of the dualism which runs through them as an echo of Plato and Aristotle, and on account of the generally accepted Christian theory of creation. However, evolution is not generally denied; and with Augustine (De civitate dei, xv. 1) it is taken as the basis for a philosophy of history. Erigena and some of his followers seem to teach a sort of evolution. The issue of finite beings from God is called analysis or resolution in contrast to the reverse or deification the return to God, who once more assimilates all things. God himself, although denominated the beginning, middle, and end, all in all remains unmixed in his own essence, transcendent though immanent in the world. The teaching of. Nicholas of Cusa is similar to Erigena's, though a certain amount of Pythagoreanism comes in here. The world exhibits explicitly what the Godhead implicitly contains; the world is an animated, ordered whole, in which God is everywhere present. Since God embraces all things in himself, he unites all opposites: he is the complicatio omnium contradictoriorum. The idea of evolution thus appears in Nicholas in a rather pantheistic form, but it is not developed.

In spite of some obscurities in his conception of the world Giordano Bruno is a little clearer. According to him God is the immanent first cause in the universe; there is no difference between matter and form; matter, which includes in itself forms and ends, is the source of all becoming and of all actuality. The infinite ether which fills infinite space conceals within itself the nucleus of all things, and they proceed from it according to determinate laws, yet in a teleological manner. Thus the worlds originate not by an arbitrary act, but by an inner necessity of the divine nature. They are natura naturata, as distinguished from the operative nature of God, natitra naturans, which is present in all thin-S as the being- of all that is, the beauty of all that is fair. As in the Stoic teaching, with which Bruno's philosophy has much in common, the conception of evolution comes out clearly both for physics and metaphysics.

Leibniz attempted to reconcile the mechanical-physical and the teleological views, after Descartes, in his Principia philosophitce, excluding all purpose, had explained nature both lifeless and living, as mere mechanism. It is right, however, to point out that Descartes had a metaphysics above his physics, in which the conception of God took an important place, and that thus the mechanical notion of evolution did not really include everything. In Leibnitz the principles of mechanics and physics are dependent upon the direction of a supreme intelligence, without which they would be inexplicable to us. Only by such a preliminary assumption are we able to recognize that one ordered thing follows upon another continuously. It is in this sense that the law of continuity is to be understood, which is of such great importance in Leibnitz. At bottom it is the same as the law of ordered development. The genera of all beings follow continuously one upon another, and between the main classes, as between animals and vegetables, there must be a continuous sequence of intermediate beings. Here again, however, evolution is not taught in its most thorough form, since the divine monad, of God, does not come into the world but transcends it.

Among the German philosophers of the eighteenth century Herder must be mentioned first of the pioneers of modern evolutionism. He lays down the doctrine of a continuous development in the unity of nature from inorganic to organic, from the stone to the plant, from the plant to the animal, and from the animal to man. As nature develops according to fixed laws and natural conditions, so does history, which is only a continuation of the process of nature. Both nature and history labor to educate man in perfect humanity; but as this is seldom attained, a future life is suggested. Lessing had dwelt on the education of the human race as a development to the higher and more perfect. It is only recently that the significance of Herder, in regard to the conception and treatment of historic development, has been adequately recognized. Goethe also followed out the idea of evolution in his zoological and botanical investigations, with his theory of the metamorphosis of plants and his endeavor to discover unity in different organisms.

Kant is also often mentioned as having been an early teacher of the modern theory of descent. It is true he considers the analogy of the forms which he finds in various classes of organisms a ground for supposing that they may have come originally from a common source. He calls the hypothesis that specifically different being have originated one from the other "a daring adventure of the reason." But he entertains the thought that in a later epoch "an orang-outang or a chimpanzee may develop the organs which serve for walking, grasping objects, and speaking-in short, that lie may evolve the structure of man, with an organ for the use of reason, which shall gradually develop itself by social culture." Here, indeed, important ideas of Darwin were anticipated; but Kant's critical system was such that development could have no predominant place in it.

The idea of evolution came out more strongly in his German idealistic successors, especially in Schelling, who regarded nature as a preliminary stage to mind, and the process of physical development as continuing in history. The unconscious productions of nature are only unsuccessful attempts to reflect itself; lifeless nature is an immature intelligence, so that in its phenomena an intelligent character appears only unconsciously. Its highest aim, that, of becoming an object to itself, is only attained in the highest and last reflection-in man, or in what we call reason, through which for the first time nature returns perfectly upon itself. All stages of nature are connected by a common life, and show in their development a conclusive unity. The course of history as a whole must be conceived as offering a gradually progressive revelation of the Absolute. For this he names three periods-that of fate, that of nature, and that of providence, of which we are now in the second. Schelling's followers carried the idea of development somewhat further than their master. This is true especially of Oken, who conceives natural science as the science of the eternal transformation of God into the world, of the dissolution of the Absolute into plurality, and of its continuous further operation in this plurality. The development is continued through the vegetable and animal kingdoms up to man, who in his art and science and polity completely establishes the will of nature. Oken, it is true, conceived man as the sole object of all animal development, so that the lower stages are only abortive attempts to produce him-a theory afterward controverted by Ernst von Baer and Cuvier, the former of whom, standing somewhat in opposition to Darwin, is of great interest to the student of the history of the theory of evolution.

Some evolutionistic ideas are found in Krause and Schleiermacher; but Hegel, with his absolute idealism, is a more notable representative of them. In his system philosophy is the science of the Absolute, of the absolute reason developing or unfolding itself. Reason develops itself first in the abstract element of thought, then expresses itself externally in nature, and finally returns from this externalization into itself in mind. As Heraclitus had taught eternal becoming, so Hegel, who avowedly accepted all the propositions of the Ephesian philosopher in his logic, taught eternal proceeding. The difference between the Greek and the German was that the former believed in the flux of matter, of fire transmuting itself by degrees into all things, and in nature as the sole existence, outside of which there was nothing; while the latter conceived the abstract idea or reason as that which really is or becomes, and nature as only a necessary but transient phase in the process of development. With Heraclitus evolution meant the return of all things into the primal principle followed by a new world-development; with Hegel it was an eternal process of thought, giving no answer to the question as to the end of historical development.

While Heraclitus had laid down his doctrine of eternal becoming rather by intuition than on the ground of experience, and the entire evolutionary process of Hegel had been expressly conceived as based on pure thought, Darwin's and Wallace's epoch-making doctrine rested upon a vast mass of ascertained facts. He was, of course, not the first to lay down the origin of species one from another as a formal doctrine. Besides those predecessors of his to whom allusion has already been made, two others may be mentioned here: his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, who emphasized organic variability; and still more Lamarck, who denied the immutability of species and forms, and claimed to have demonstrated by observation the gradual development of the animal kingdom. What is new in Charles Darwin is not his theory of descent, but its confirmation by the theory of natural selection and the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence. Thus a result is brought about which corresponds as far as possible to a rational end in a purely mechanical process, without any cooperation of teleological principles, without any innate tendency in the organisms to proceed to a higher stage. This theory postulates in the later organisms deviations from the earlier ones; and that these deviations, in so far as they are improvements, perpetuate themselves and become generic marks of differentiation. This, however, imports a difficulty, since the origin of the first of these deviations is inexplicable. The differentia of mankind, whom Darwin, led by the force of analogy, deduces from a species of apes, consists in intellect and moral qualities, but comes into existence only by degrees. The moral sensibilities develop from the original social impulse innate in man; this impulse is an effort to secure not so much individual happiness as the general welfare.

It would be impossible to name here all those who, in different countries, have followed in Darwin's footsteps, first in the biological field and then in those of psychology, ethics, sociology, and religion. They have carried his teaching further in several directions, modifying it to some extent and making it fruitful, while positivism has not seldom come into alliance with it. In Germany Ernst Haeckel must be mentioned with his biogenetic law, according to which the development of the individual is an epitome of the history of the race, and with his less securely grounded notion of the world-ether as a creative deity. In France Alfred Fouillee worked out a theory of idea-forces, a combination of Platonic idealism with English (though not specifically Darwinian) evolutionism. Marie-Jean Guyau understood by evolution a life led according to the fundamental law that the most intensive life is also the most extensive. He develops his ethics altogether from the facts of the social existence of mankind, and his religion is a universal sociomorphism, the feeling of the unity of man with the entire cosmos.

The most careful and thorough development of the whole system took place in England. For a long time it was represented principally by the work of Herbert Spencer, who had come out for the principle of evolution even before the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species. He carries the idea through the whole range of philosophy in his great System of Synthetic Philosophy and undertakes to show that development is the highest law of all nature, not merely of the organic. As the foundation of ill that exists, though itself unknowable and only revealing itself in material and mental forms, he places a power, the Absolute, of which we have but an indefinite conception. The individual processes of the world of phenomena are classed under the head of evolution, or extension of movement, with which integration of matter, union into a single whole, is connected, and dissolution or absorption of movement, which includes disintegration of matter, the breaking of connection. Both processes go on simultaneously, and include the history of every existence which we can perceive. In the course of their development the organisms incorporate matter with themselves; the plant grows by taking into itself elements which have previously existed in the form of gases, and the animal by assimilating elements found in plants and in other animals. The same sort of integration is observed in social organisms, as when nomadic families unite into a tribe, or subjects under a prince, and princes under a king. In like manner integration is evident in the development of language, of art, and of science, especially philosophy. But as the individuals unite into a whole, a strongly marked differentiation goes on at the same time, as in the distinction between the surface and the interior of the earth, or between various climates. Natural selection is not considered necessary to account for varying species, but gradual conditions of life create them. The aim of the development is to show a condition of perfect balance in the whole; when this is attained, the development, in virtue of the continuous operation of external powers, passes into dissolution. Those epochs of development and of dissolution follow alternately upon each other. This view of Spencer suggests the hodos ano and hodos kato of Heraclitus, and his flowing back of individual things into the primal principle.

Similar principles are carried out not only for organic phenomena but also for mental and social; and on the basis of the theory of evolution a remarkable combination of intuitionism and empiricism is achieved. In his principles of sociology Spencer lays down the laws of hyperorganic evolution, and gives the various stages of human customs and especially of religious ideas, deducing all religion much too one-sidedly from ancestor-worship. The belief in an immortal " second self " is explained by such phenomena as shadows and echoes. The notion of gods is suppose to arise from the idea of a ghostly life after death. In his Principles of Ethics he attempts a similar compromise between intuitionism and empiricism, deducing the consciousness of duty from innumerable accumulated experiences. The compelling element in moral actions, originally arising from fear of religious, civil, or social punishment, disappears with the development of true morality. There is no permanent opposition between egoism and altruism, but the latter develops simultaneously with the former.

Spencer's ethical principles were fruitfully modified, especially by Sir Leslie Stephen and S. Alexander, though with constant adherence to the idea of development. While the doctrine of evolution in Huxley and Tyndall is associated with agnosticism, and thus freed from all connection with metaphysics, as indeed was the case with Spencer, in spite of his recognition of the Absolute as the necessary basis for religion and for thought, in another direction an attempt was made to combine evolutionism closely with a metaphysics in which the idea of God was prominent. Thus the evolution theory of Clifford and Romanes led them to a thoroughgoing monism, and that of J. M. F. Schiller to pluralism. According to the last-named a personal deity, limited in power, exists side by side with a multitude of intellectual beings, who existed before the formation of the world in a chaotic state as absolutely isolated individuals. The process of world formation begins with the decision of the divine Spirit to bring a harmony of the cosmos out of these many existences. Though Spencer's influence in philosophical development was not so great in Germany as in England, the idea of development has continued in recent years to exert no little power. Space forbids more than a mention of Lotze's teleological idealism; Von Harttmann's absolute monism, in which the goal of the teleological development of the universe is the reversion of the will into not-willing; Wundt's metaphysics of the will, according to which the world is a development, an eternal becoming, in which nature is a preliminary stage to mind; and Nietzsche's individualism, the final point of which is the development of the superman.

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History of Evolution | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy