Plastic In Sediment, Antarctica Ice Core, Alfred Wallace

A few interesting readings:

1) Sedimentation Shifted - How rivers move sediment along their course to the sea is an important aspect of sedimentology research. Grain size, shape, and density, all affect how currents move sediment, and where and in what proportions sand, silt, and mud particles come to be deposited. Now there is a new kid on the block: plastic. Catherine Russell has written a fascinating article diving deep into experimental work on how plastic impacts sediment transport. The work she describes has important implications for our understanding of plastic pollution in rivers, and the role plastic particles plays in enhancing erosion rates and sediment redistribution in riverbeds. 

2) Antarctica: 1.2-Million-Year-Old Ice- Scientists use gases trapped in old ice to measure ancient atmospheric composition and estimate past climatic conditions. A long running drilling program in Antarctica had so far recovered 800,000 year old ice. That record has been recently broken. Scientists have reached the very bedrock of the Antarctica continent. The oldest ice at the very bottom is 1.2 million years old. This is the longest continuous record of our climate that we have so far.  It hold much valuable information on climate fluctuations through the Pleistocene and Holocene. This article is a press release of the University of Bern. 

3) Beyond Evolution: Alfred Russel Wallace’s critique of the 19th century world- Alfred Russel Wallace is the co-discover of evolution through natural selection along with Charles Darwin. He was a brilliant naturalist and made foundational contributions to natural history. But he also was very sympathetic to the plight of local people suffering under colonialism and the environmental degradation the race to strip the land of resources was causing. Marshall A. summarizes nicely Wallace's observations on the impact of environmental damage, both in his native Wales and also during his travels in the far away Malay archipelago. 

Let me take this opportunity to share again this lovingly crafted documentary on the life and work of Alfred Wallace. It is made as a paper-puppet animation, produced by Flora Litchman and Sharon Shattuck and narrated by George Beccaloni of the  Natural History Museum London and Andrew Berry of Harvard University.

 

What a fine example of science outreach. 

Quote: Alfred Wallace On Human Driven Extinction

He writes in The Malay Archipelago (1869):

It seems sad that on one hand such exquisite creatures should live out their lives and exhibit their charms only in these wild, inhospitable regions, doomed for ages yet to come to hopeless barbarism; while on the other hand, should civilized man ever reach these distant lands,  and bring moral, intellectual, and physical light into the recesses of these virgin forests, we may be sure that he will so disturb the nicely-balanced relations of organic and inorganic nature as to cause the disappearance, and finally extinction, of these very beings whose wonderful structure and beauty he alone is fitted to appreciate and enjoy. This consideration must surely tell us that all living things were not made for man. 

Via - The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography In An Age Of Extinction.

This was apparently a refutation of the argument made by the Duke of Argyll, that beauty in nature is evidence of God's handiwork. Wallace though was also clearly worried that European expansion and demand for natural resources would put these ecosystems at grave risk.

You can read The Malay Archipelago at Wallace Online.

Not Just a Puppet! The Animated Life Of Alfred Russel Wallace

Have you seen this documentary?

The Animated Life Of A.R. Wallace.

Produced by Flora Litchman and Sharon Shattuck and narrated by George Beccaloni of the  Natural History Museum London and Andrew Berry of Harvard University, it celebrates the life and work of Alfred Russell Wallace who along with Charles Darwin discovered the principles of evolution through natural selection in the mid 1800's. Wallace also made pioneering contributions to the field of Biogeography.

A fine example of creative science outreach using paper puppet animation. Beautifully produced and narrated.

Biogeography And Teaching Evolution

Joshua Rosenau of the National Center for Science Education, Oakland, CA, USA has a wonderful essay in Evolution: Education and Outreach on how observations of the bio-geographic distribution of species helped Darwin and Wallace to work out independently their theories of evolution through natural selection.

He suggests that many of  today' students who are often reluctant to accept evolution because they see differences between species as unbridgeable gaps can overcome this obstacle by observing the actual patterns of differences between closely related species living amongst them.

From the article:

The greatest challenge many students face in understanding evolution is what Wallace faced in 1846: they haven’t seen the sort of diversity that calls for explanation in terms of evolution. The world most students encounter seems to contain organisms in discrete categories: squirrels and rabbits, robins and sparrows, grass and daisies, oaks and pines. They are unlikely to notice that two ladybird beetles actually represent different species or that there are several species of grass in their lawn, let alone to recognize that there are two local species of chipmunk which can only be distinguished by dissection or DNA analysis. What diversity they notice represents groups that are quite distinct, with differences so large that it is impossible to imagine how their members could share a common ancestry.

As a result, students today, much like Darwin in 1835, tend to see species as distinct entities. Presenting students with a similar experience of the often subtle differences between species can similarly shake this misconception. When they realize how low the barriers can be between different species, they can place lessons on speciation in a more accurate context. Rather than imagining that speciation means turning lions into tigers, or bears into cows, or fish into humans, they will see that speciation involves a subtle divergence in the evolutionary trajectories taken by populations. Because the Galápagos mockingbirds were still early in their divergence, Darwin was able to recognize the process. Students today can learn similar lessons by examining the subtle differences between species on neighboring islands. The Evolution and Nature of Science Institute has a lesson plan in which students compare lizards in the Canary Islands (http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/island.html), while Understanding Evolution offers a lesson plan looking at Anolis lizard biogeography in the Caribbean (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/lessons/anolis/teacher_directions.html).

Very relevant advice but applicable only to those students who are willing to examine the evidence with an open mind. People indoctrinated with a fundamentalist ideology are unlikely to be impressed by two very similar species of beetles in their backyard. .

By the way this journal,  Evolution: Education and Outreach is now open access.

So dip into it.

An Account Of Natural Selection By A Victorian Gentleman

Who wrote this...Darwin or Wallace?

There is a law universal in nature, tending to render every reproductive being the best possible suited to its condition that its kind, or organized matter, is susceptible of, which appears intended to model the physical and mental or instinctive powers to their highest perfection and to continue them so. This law sustains the lion in his strength, the hare in her swiftness, and the fox in his wiles. As nature, in all her modifications of life, has a power of increase far beyond what is needed to supply the place of what falls by Time's decay, those individuals who possess not the requisite strength, swiftness, hardihood, or cunning, fall prematurely without reproducing—either a prey to their natural devourers, or sinking under disease, generally induced by want of nourishment, their place being occupied by the more perfect of their own kind, who are pressing on the means of subsistence . . .

There is more beauty and unity of design in this continual balancing of life to circumstance, and greater conformity to those dispositions of nature which are manifest to us, than in total destruction and new creation . . . [The] progeny of the same parents, under great differences of circumstance, might, in several generations, even become distinct species, incapable of co-reproduction.

The answer is neither.