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Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > General
EMBRYOS AND ANCESTORS by G. R. DE BEER. PREFACE: TEN years ago I
published a book under the title Embryology and Evolution, in which
I made an attempt to show that after rejecting the theory of
recapitulation, a much better synthesis could be made of our
knowledge of embryonic development and evolutionary descent,
opening up new fields for observation and co-ordination of studies
in embryology, genetics, and evolution. This work has for some
little time been out of print, and I have yielded to the demands of
my friends to produce it again. During the intervening years a
great deal of new evidence has become available, and these fresh
data have fitted into place in my scheme like pieces of a puzzle,
for I have seen no reason to alter the plan of my former book in
the slightest degree. The present book is my previous one brought
up to date and enlarged. I have recently been engaged in a study of
the bearings of embryology on homology, taxonomy, and other special
aspects of zoology. My views on these matters have been published
in Evolution Essays presented to Professor E. S. Goodrich, edited
by myself, and in The New Systematics, edited by J. S. Huxley. I
have therefore not felt called upon to repeat them here, except in
so far as they bear directly on the problem of the relations
between embryology and evolution. It has been very encouraging to
me to note the lively interest in these problems shown in recent
years. The first necessity in Biology will always be further
observation and experiment but as Dr. Woodger aptly points out,
progress in thought is necessary as well. Outworn theories are not
only dull in them selves, but they are actually harmful in
thwarting the framing of newworking hypotheses which take account
of recent pro gress made in the various experimental branches of
Biology. Such an outworn theory I believe Haeckels theory of
recapitulation to be. I lay no claims to proficiency in
metaphysics, and I have no doubt that many of my expressions will
appear sinful to my philosophical friends. But I am aware of many
of the dangers, and when I say that paedomorphosis does this, that,
or the other I am merely saving time and space, and not endowing an
abstract concept with the powers of a subject of a transitive verb.
I should like to acknowledge my debt to M. Jean Rostand who
translated my previous book into French. Few exercises are as
helpful for testing the soundness of ones deductions and
conclusions as the expression of them in another language. I wish
likewise to record my indebtedness to Dr. J. S. Huxley, Professor
W. Garstang, and Professor J. B. S. Haldane for their helpful
criticism, and to Professor R. A. Fisher for very kindly reading
the proofs. April 1940. G. R. DE B. Contents include: List of
Illustrations . . . . ix I. Stages of Development and Stages of
Evolution i II. Ontogeny . . . . . .10 III. Speeds of the Processes
of Development . . 15 IV. Phylogeny . . . . . .22 V. Heterochrony
and Phylogeny . . .27 VI. Caenogcnesis . . . . .32 VII. Deviation .
. . . . .38 VIII. Neoteny . . . . . .46 IX. Vestigial Structures
due to Reduction . . 58 X. Adult Variation . . . . .62 XI.
Vestigial Structures due to Retardation . . 64 XM. Hypermorphosis .
. . . .65 XIII. Acceleration . . . . .71 XIV. Paedomorphosis and
Gerontomorphosis . . 78 XV. Repetition ...... 90 XVI. Conclusions .
. . . . .96 XVII. Bibliography . . . . - 99 Index . . . . . .106
The noteworthy findings and innovative methods of predicting
projectile trajectory, introduced in my books Exterior Ballistics:
A New Approach (EBNA), Xlibris, 2010; and Exterior Ballistics with
Applications (EBA3e), Xlibris, third edition, December 2011,
require a methodical approach and further development. As result,
the amateurs and professionals interested in exterior ballistics of
firearms, and especially in long-range shooting with small arms,
have a new book, Exterior Ballistics: The Remarkable Methods
(EBRM), that aims to enrich the foundations of modern exterior
ballistics and to lessen the complexity of physics and mathematics
techniques in use. Exterior Ballistics: The Remarkable Methods is a
book that combines and develops further the methods introduced in
EBA3e, EBNA, and in the Exterior Ballistics of Small Arms (EBSA,
Xlibris 2009). The foundations of the book are mainly the findings
and the innovative ballistics methods presented in EBA3e and EBNA.
The remarkable methods of exterior ballistics presented in this new
book include: The methods of determining the function of resistance
G(v) of a given bullet (i=1) using range tables, or the
experimental data measurements of three or four coordinates at the
points of projectile impact. The model of "Tangent Law of
Trajectory Refraction" and the related set of formulas that we use
to study the trajectories of projectiles in nonstandard atmosphere.
Series expansion method and the techniques of (second to sixth
order) parabolas we employ to predict with great accuracy the
projectile trajectory. The exceptional Siacci's methods that we
apply as well for the projectile trajectory in nonstandard
atmosphere and in inclined shooting combined with the tangent law
of trajectory refraction. It is important to note that using the
similarity laws of fluid dynamics we have obtained the "tangent law
of projectile refraction," which represents a progress with respect
to "Newton-Snell's law" on projectile refraction. For better
understanding of the information presented in the book, the reader
should refer to my three preceding books on exterior ballistics,
already published by Xlibris, although most of the material is
self-contained and clear enough to be accessed and assimilated by a
wide range of readers. The system of units used in the book is the
International System (SI). For readers that are unfamiliar with the
SI system it is not difficult to become accustomed and use the
materials presented in the book to benefit from the simple
illustrations, exercises, and PC programs that, at the same time,
give answers to many problems encountered in practice. My studies
and writing work in exterior ballistics intend to find new and
simple mathematical models and methods to predict the elements of
the projectile trajectory. I believe that I have achieved some good
results, which need to be further developed. George Klimi, PhD New
York, December 2012 [email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]
The information overload produced by the printing press and the new
forms of the structuring of knowledge are echoed in fictional
works. The essays assembled in this book study the textualization
of problematic forms of knowledge in medieval and early modern
Spanish literature. Literary Works like the Libro buen amor, La
Lozana Andaluza, or the Guzman de Alfarache are read against the
backdrop of scientific developments of their times.
An Introduction to LOGIC and SCIENTIFIC METHOD by MORRIS R. COHEN.
Originallu published in 1934. PREFACE: Though formal logic has in
recent times been the object of radi cal and spirited attacks from
many and diverse quarters, it con tinues, and will probably long
continue, to be one of the most fre quently given courses in
colleges and universities here and abroad. Nor need this be
surprising when we reflect that the most serious of the charges
against formal logic, those against the syllogism, are as old as
Aristotle, who seems to have been fully aware of them. But while
the realm of logic seems perfectly safe against the attacks from
without, there is a good deal of unhappy confusion within. Though
the content of almost all logic books follows even in many of the
illustrations the standard set by Aristotles Organon terms,
propositions, syllogisms and allied forms of inference, scientific
method, probability and fallacies there is a bewildering Babel of
tongues as to what logic is about. The different schools, the tradi
tional, the linguistic, the psychological, the epistemological, and
the mathematical, speak different languages, and each regards the
other as not really dealing with logic at all. No task is perhaps
so thankless, or invites so much abuse from all quarters, as that
of the mediator between hostile points of view. Nor is the
traditional distrust of the peacemaker in the intellectual realm
difficult to appreciate, since he so often substitutes an unclear
and inconsistent amalgam for points of view which at least have the
merit of a certain clarity. And yet no task is so essential,
especially for the beginner, when it is undertaken with the
objective of ad justing andsupplementing the claims of the
contending parties, and when it is accompanied by a refusal to
sacrifice clarity and rigor in thought. In so far as an elementary
text permits such a thing, the present text seeks to bring some
order into the confusion of tongues con cerning the subject matter
of logic. But the resolution of the con flicts between various
schools which it effects appears in the selec tion and presentation
of material, and not in extensive polemics against any school. The
book has been written with the conviction that logic is the
autonomous science o the objective though formal conditions of
valid inference. At the same time, its authors believe that the
aridity which is not always unjustly attributed to the study of
logic testifies to the unimaginative way logical principles have
been taught and misused. The present text aims to combine sound
logical doctrine with sound pedagogy, and to provide illus trative
material suggestive of the role of logic in every department of
thought. A text that would find a place for the realistic formalism
of Aristotle, the scientific penetration of Peirce, the pedagogical
soundness of Dewey, and the mathematical rigor of Russell this was
the ideal constantly present to the authors of this book. However
inadequately this ideal is embodied in the present text, the
embodiment is not devoid of positive doctrine, so presented that at
least partial justice is done to supplementary approaches to logic.
1. The traditional view of logic as the science of valid inference
has been consistently maintained, against all attempts to confuse
logic with psychology, where by the latter is meant the systematic
study of how the mind works. Logic, as thescience of the weight of
evidence in all fields, cannot be identified with the special
science of psychology. For such a special science can establish its
results only by using criteria of validity employed in other fields
as well...
Exploring the intersection of art, science and religion, "Seeking
Truth: Living with Doubt" considers that all three are paths to the
same end. Attacking not only the unyielding smugness of
evolutionary biologists but also the uncompromising surety of
Fundamentalist figureheads (in both the Christian and Islamic
faiths), author Steven Fortney and Marshall Onellion take the
reader on a path that disavows all such certainties and considers
the thought-provoking question; What does it mean to live with
doubt? Far from leaving questions unanswered, instead they tackle
such questions as proof versus faith, the impossibility of absolute
understanding, and how a combination of art, science and religion
can lead to a transcendence of that which we cannot know. In so
doing, they expose the dangers of "certainty," be it in religion,
science or any other ideology that claims to offer absolute truth.
"Seeking Truth: Living with Doubt" has been endorsed by theologians
(Arthur Dewey, Professor of Theology, Xavier University a Jesuit
University], Ohio, USA), biologists (Clark Lindgren, Grinnell
College, Iowa, USA), and physicists (Narendra Kumar, Director of
the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India), by Christians,
Jews, Hindus and Buddhists. It will appeal to those interested in
the two channels of truth seeking: transcencence (also called
religion) and the physical world (also called science). The book
interconnects many science topics, including cosmology,
neurobiology and evolution, to religion and the arts. It also
proposes some unorthodox ideas, including the equivalence of the
Christian concept of Grace and the Buddhist concept of Emptiness,
and that what a religious devout person does in prayer is identical
to what a writer does during the creative process.
EMERGENT EVOLUTION- THE GIFFORD LECTURES DELIVERED IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS IN THE YEAR 1922 by C. LLOYD MORGAN.
Originally published in 1923. PREFACE: HALF a century ago, as years
run, a student was called on to take the chair at a dinner in
connection with the Royal School of Mines. Members of the staff
were present. And the fortunate youth was honoured by the support
of Professor Huxley. Which of the lines of science you have
followed has chiefly engaged your interest Following up the thread
of my reply, he drew from me the confession that an interest in
philosophy, and in the general scheme of things, lay deeper than my
interest in the practical applications of science to what then
purported to be my bread-and butter training. With sympathetic
kindliness that soon dispelled my fear of him he led me to speak
more freely, to tell him how this came about, what J had read, and
so on. That such a man should care to know what Berkeley and Hume
had done for me what I had got from Descartes Discourse how I was
just then embrangled in difficulties over Spinoza filled me with
glad surprise. His comments were so ripe and they were made to help
me Whatever else you may do, he said, keep that light burning. But
remember that biology has supplied a new and powerful illuminant.
Then speeches began. His parting words were When you have reached
the goal of your course, why not come and spend a year with us at
South Kensington So when I had gained the diploma of which so
little direct use was to be made, and when my need of the
illuminant, and my lack of intimate acquaintance with the facts on
which the new lamp shed light, had been duly impressed on me during
a visit to North America andBrazil, I followed his advice, attended
his lectures, and worked in his laboratory. On one of the memorable
occasions when he beckoned me to come to his private room he spoke
of St. George Mivart s Genesis of Species. I had asked him some
questions thereon a few days before to which he was then too busy
to reply and he gave me this opportunity of repeating them. Mivart
had said If then such innate powers must be attributed to chemical
atoms, to mineral species, to gemmules, and to physiological units,
it is only reasonable to attribute such to each individual organism
p. 260, I asked on what grounds this line of approach was
unreasonable for even then there was lurking within me some touch
of Pelagian heresy in matters evolutionary. Far from snub bing a
youthful heretic he dealt kindly with him. The question, he said,
was open to discussion but he thought Mivarts position was based on
considerations other than scientific. Any analogy between the
growth of a crystal and the development of an organism was of very
doubtful validity. Yes, Sir 1 I said, save in this that both invite
us to distinguish between an internal factor and the incidence of
external conditions He then asked what I under stood by innate
powers, saying that for Mivart they were the substantial forms of
scholastic tradition. I ventured to suggest that the School men and
their modern disciples were trying to explain what men of science
must perhaps just accept on the evidence. And I asked whether for
an innate power in the organism one might substitute what he had
taught us to call an internal metamorphic tendency which must be as
distinctly recognised as that of an internal conservative tendency
H. E. ii. p. 116. Ofcourse you may so long as you regard this
merely as an ex pression of certain facts at present unexplained. n
I then asked whether it was in this sense one should accept his
statement that nature does make leaps ii. pp. 77, 97 and, if this
were so, whether the difference on which Mivart laid so much stress
that between the mental capacities of animals and of men might not
be regarded as a natural leap in evolutionary progress. This was
the point to which I was leading up...
The need for a scientifically literate citizenry, one that is able
to think critically and engage productively in the engineering
design process, has never been greater. By raising engineering
design to the same level as scientific inquiry the Next Generation
Science Standards' (NGSS) have signaled their commitment to the
integration of engineering design into the fabric of science
education. This call has raised many critical questions...How well
do these new standards represent what actually engineers do? Where
do the deep connections among science and engineering practices
lie? To what extent can (or even should) science and engineering
practices co-exist in formal and informal educational spaces? Which
of the core science concepts are best to leverage in the pursuit of
coherent and compelling integration of engineering practices? What
science important content may be pushed aside? This book, tackles
many of these tough questions head on. All of the contributing
authors consider the same core question: Given the rapidly changing
landscape of science education, including the elevated status of
engineering design, what are the best approaches to the effective
integration of the science and engineering practices? They answered
with rich descriptions of pioneering approaches, critical insights,
and useful practical examples of how embodying a culture of
interdisciplinarity and innovation can fuel the development of a
scientifically literate citizenry . This collection of work builds
traversable bridges across diverse research communities and begins
to break down long standing disciplinary silos that have
historically often hamstrung well-meaning efforts to bring research
and practice from science and engineering together in meaningful
and lasting ways.
"A Handbook of Tricuspid And Pulmonary Valve Disease" contains a
detailed description of the diseases of these two valves. A
detailed description of Ebstein's Anomaly Of Tricuspid vale is
highlight of this book. Etiology, pathogenesis and hemodynamics of
diseases of both valves have been dealt in simple and
comprehensible manner. Special effort has been made to explain the
clinical features (Symptoms and signs) of disease. Probably the
clinical features is the forgotten art in the newer text books.
However, the author has taken a special interest to include a
detailed description of clinical features. The treatment section
includes description about the various interventions (catheter
based as well as surgical) and it also includes the ACC / AHA
guidelines. Like his previous two handbooks (A handbook of
Rheumatic Fever and A Handbook of Aortic valve Disease), this book
also has extensive description of all aspects of the disease. A
small chapter about 'Straight Back Syndrome' has also been included
in this book. All in all, the book promises to be a great reference
book for Aortic Valve disease and is worth having it on shelf for
easy reading. The point wise and concise writing has made this book
specially useful for students and exam going students
Text extracted from opening pages of book: The Collector's
Hand-Book ON POTTERY af PORCELAIN HV WILLIAM CHAFFERS REVISED AN1*
CONSIDERABLY AUGMENTED BY FREDERICK LITCHFIELD The Collector's
Hand-Book OK flarfts anli Konoramg on POTTERY ftP PORCELAIN Of the
Renaissance and Modern Periods SELECTED FROM HIS LARGER WORK (
EIGHTH EDITION) KNTITI. KO 41 fHarfas anto fHcmagrams on )
Israel is not just another nation. The history of Israel is not
merely a collection of coincidences. God is not finished with the
Jews. This tiny nation that is perpetually ensnared in conflict and
persecution still holds a key place in God's purpose for mankind
and has not been replaced by the Christian Church. The Tapestry of
Israel explores a number of trends or "threads" that make up the
history of this ancient nation. These threads prove Israel's modern
relevance and demand a response to the Jews' increasing need for
support as the pressure mounts to exchange the Holy Land for the
illusion of peace. Christians will learn that the Jews are still
God's chosen people, even today, and that heavenly intervention and
miracles are common occurrences in modern-day Israel. Corrupt
theology and deceptive theories are exposed Discover how Satan
seeks to rob Israel of her covenant with God and bring the
destruction of Israel through anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Learn
what the Christian Church's responsibility is in its support of
Israel and what the supportive Christian should pray on behalf of
Israel.
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