National Security: Post 2

While reading part one of National Security by Sagarin and Taylor, I thought that the way that the book shaped itself from interdisciplinary discussion is interesting in itself.  It struck me as odd that the norm among academics is to refrain from discussion among peers in different fields of study. I feel that a topic as complex as national security should be discussed between varieties of people because the diversity of ideas is important for combating risks that could potentially come from anywhere.

The book continues with the famous, and notorious, 9/11 example about the airports having relaxed security leading up to the fateful day. Taylor, however, points to the repetitious, and synonymous security tactics, rather than the relaxed attitude of the airport, as the problem allowing the attacks. This led into our class discussions because Taylor argued that organisms have developed a vast array of different mechanisms to combat the same challenges because they work from what they have. By increasing the diversity in the way they combat a disease, for instance, they are able to protect themselves from the disease evolving to wipe out life as a whole.

In order to combat the ability of terrorists to expose the repetitious procedures that our security constantly follows, I would argue that our military and other security systems adopt multiple procedures and implement them randomly on a day to day basis. That way, infiltrating a system would be much more difficult because an invader would have to prepare for a multitude of different tactics to circumvent the procedures and would have no way of knowing which procedures were being used before actually going through the security process. This would be detrimental for organized crime, which relies on precise tactics and plans to obtain what they want.

Week 2: Life Ascending: Discussing the Origin of Life

No one person is exactly sure about the origin of life and how living organisms came to be on earth.  However, one of the major existing ideas about how life evolved on earth is explained though the primordial soup theory.  The idea of primordial soup states that the earth’s chemically reduced atmosphere allowed for simple organic compounds to accumulate in a “soup” (like the ocean) and eventually create complex polymers.  It is thorough these complex polymers that living organism were developed.  Interestingly, Lane stated that this hypothesis is perfect from the view of a molecular biologist because this hypothesis provides an explanation for the idea of replicators such as genes.  These genes made of DNA and RNA can copy themselves and then be passed down to the next generation.  These passed down traits can then be acted on by natural selection and evolution can occur.   Although the argument for the primordial soup theory is valid through the context of genetics, Lane states that this idea does not make proper connections in terms of thermodynamics.  In chemical reactions and interactions, molecules are constantly moving, reacting, or repulsing against other molecules around it.  Therefore, the theory of primordial soup in terms of thermodynamics is disconnected because it is unreasonable for molecules to simply sit in a soup and not react.  As Lane stated,  “..all life is sustained by a ‘main reaction’ of a similar type: a chemical reaction that wants to happen, and releases energy that can be used to power all the side-reactions that make up metabolism.”   Without chemical reactions there is nothing present to drive the formation of complex polymers such as the DNA and RNA needed to drive life.  Remarkably, it is this idea of thermodynamics that leads many, including Lane, to believe that the origin of life originated oceanic hydrothermal vents.  The superheated and charged minerals/gases as well as alkaline conditions, allowed for sulphur bacteria to extract hydrogen and attach it to carbon dioxide to create organic matter.  This reaction then allowed for the bacteria to flourish and establish the basis of life.  

I found this chapter very interesting because it showed various theories of life from a multitude of perspectives that I had learned about before.  I thought it was very interesting that Lane chose to start his book with the idea of how life must have first evolved because that might be a controversial subject to bring up (especially in the very beginning of a book).  However,  I also think beginning his book discussing how life first evolved is a unique way to bring readers in and intrigue them to discover even more about how evolution has influenced life on earth.   I am excited to see how this theory of the origin of life connects with the evolution of DNA in the next chapter.

Week 1: Your Inner Fish

I chose Your Inner Fish because I think it will be very interesting to look at the way humans are today through an entirely evolutionary perspective that is compared to those of other species. Throughout my schooling I have always been taught that there are similarities between species in our development our DNA and the way our bones look and organs work, however, I have never fully understood why or how this occurred. I am hoping this book will help me look at our bodies in comparison to those of fossils, ancient creatures, and other species alive today in order to really open up my eyes to an entirely new way of looking at the evolution of humans. Neil Shubin, the author, is an anatomy professor as well as a paleontologist. Anatomy is one of my favorite science disciplines to study and because of this, I think the book will truly captivate my interests and will help clarify the subject as a whole. I am excited to read this book because I hope it will help me grasp and fully understand the similarities between humans, our ancestors, and other species. Not only the similarities of our physical features but also those regarding our DNA, fundamental development, and the links the species all still share in today's modern world. I am very eager to read and make these connections that I would not usually observe or understand without the knowledge from this text.

Week 1- Why I Choose Life Ascending Logan Yang

The things that drew me to Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution was that one of the chapters if titled death and that another was titled consciousness. I have turned it over in my head a few times and I never viewed death as a product of evolution but then I realized that a large portion of what we have studied is based off the fact that generations come and go and this obviously means that they have to die. But the fact that death is a constant factor that allows evolution to occur would suggest to me that evolution is the product of death and not the other way around. I am interested to see how Nick Lane contextualizes death as a product instead of a driving force.

Consciousness also caught me off guard because evolution has created fantastic life forms that fill in different niches across the globe but only a handful have consciousness and if we talk in sheer numbers they are greatly outnumbered. Humans may the dominant mammal species with a population over six billion, but insects and bacteria dominate the numbers game. So how does such a specialized trait constitute one of the great inventions of evolution? Are we talking about evolution from an anthropocentric view? Does the sense of self mark some threshold that I personally am unaware of? Regardless of how impressive it is as an adaptation I am curious to see how it ties in with broad inventions such as death, the origin of life, the complex cell, and movement.
The rest of the topics should prove to be interesting but they did not draw my attention like the last two did, but nonetheless I am looking forward to reading how hot blood can stand as an achievement outside of a mammalian/anthropocentric view as bacteria, plants, and cold blooded animals have developed traits just as impressive in their own light. 

That said reading through the introduction I get the vibes that Lane did write the book with the general public in mind and that this book does have an human centered almost guided direction as he states that he will examine "our own deaths and prospects for immortality", which makes my hackles raise as it sounds like evolution is a journey of ascension despite his insistence that it is driven with no goal in mind. So I look forward to reading this book and hope that the chapters will included reasons as to why outside of humanity these inventions are hallmarks of evolution.

Life Ascending - Week 1: A New Perspective on Evolution

           We have all learned about evolution and how it impacts the change of living organisms throughout time.  Majority of the time evolution and its impacts are consistently taught through descriptions of how evolution has impacted and effected various organisms throughout the history of life.   However,  Life Ascending takes a different approach in it's presentation of evolutionary thought.  Rather then describing how evolution has impacted the history of life, author Nick Lane uses the history of life to recreate the history of evolution.  Each chapter of this book concentrates on specific aspect of life that then extensivly expands on that subject to explain the history of evolution.  Just some examples of the major topics include DNA, sex, sight, and the cell complex, among many others.   I am excited to read and learn more about evolution from Life Ascending because it takes on evolution from a perspective I have never thought to look at before.  It has never occurred to me that major "inventions" of evolution could be manipulated to reconstruct the the history of evolution itself.  In the introduction, Lane stresses that interconnection of evolution and life is what has made our world so beautiful and complex today.  It through the study of these complexities that I will be able to gain a new and unique understanding of evolution.

Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution by Nick Lane - Week 1: My Thought about the Book

For the reading assignment I chose to read Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution by Nick Lane. The main reason I chose this book was because the first thought I had upon hearing about the book was that it must be like the two past books I've read for my biology class. The format is what mainly attracted me to the book; each chapter talking about a completely new evolutionary invention but still linking them together - I couldn't pass it up, I love this format ever since the first book of Integrative Biology I. In addition to this, it attracted me to see how Lane summarized the entire history of evolution in ten chapters. The ten evolutions are:

1. The Origin of Life
2. DNA
3. Photosynthesis
4. The Complex Cell
5. Sex
6. Movement
7. Sight
8. Hot Blood
9. Consciousness
10. Death

By reading this book I hope to simply gain a further understanding of evolution in general. But I am most looking forward to learning how all of these vital things we take for granted came about. The chapters of "Movement", "Sight", "Consciousness" and "Death" just sound so interesting and I cannot wait to read them. 

While doing research about the book and the author I came upon the following interesting facts:

• Nick Lane is a British Biochemist, who holds the position of honorary reader and is the first Provost's Venture Research Fellow at University College London.
• He has written two other books: Oxygen: The molecules that made the world, and  Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life.
• Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution won the 2010 Royal Society Prize for Science Books. 

An evolutionary argument against a psuedo-scientific fad

New diet fads seem to crop up every couple of years or so. I'm sure you can remember a few: the low-carb diet, the Atkins diet, South-Beach diet, the Zone diet, the Raw diet, etc.... Each of these diets have their perks, but ultimately fail (in my opinion) when compared with simply eating your fruits and vegetables, exercising, and not eating too much in general. I chose to read Paleofantasy, by Marlene Zuk, because it allows me to take a look at the latest dietary fad--the Paleo-diet--from the perspective of an evolutionary biologist. Also, I am familiar with some of Zuk's scientific writing, and am interested to see how her style changes when writing for the public.

Basically, proponents of the paleo-diet argue that modern humans are fatter and sicker than our pre-agriculture ancestors because we are eating foods that are unsuitable to our evolutionary history. They argue that our dietary requirements evolved 200,000 years ago with the dawn of humans, and that our modern diets stray away from these requirements. If we could go back to eating what our ancestors ate, we would be more in line with what we are adapted to digest and use for energy, and many of the world's health problems will go away. On first glimpse, this might sound logical. After all, evolution can have a powerful affect on a species' optimal diet. But with a closer reading, and a little biology, Zuk shows how this argument is pure fantasy.

She argues that humans didn't just stop evolving after we emerged 200,000 years ago, and that to make a diet that is based on what our ancestors ate is discounting any evolution that has occurred in humans since then. For example, the Paleo-diet says that we shouldn't eat milk and gluten because our ancestors couldn't digest them. But, as Zuk argues, humans have drank cow's milk and harvested wheat for thousands of years, and in this time span, many of us have become adapted to eat it.

I chose this book because I have heard friends and acquaintances discuss the Paleo-diet, with most of them advocating it. I look forward to using an informed evolutionary perspective to discount the psuedo-scientific foundation of this latest dietary fad.

Natural Security -Week 1

I chose this book because I'm interested in learning how evolutionary biologists are trying to improve national security and  help change public policy, with their background. I think this topic is very relevant today because of rapid globalization the technology we have.
One of the authors, Terence Taylor worked for the British Army and the UN and investigated the Iraqi biological weapons, and the other, Raphael Sagarin, is a marine ecologist and works on environmental policy. I am looking forward to see how they bring their own experiences into this book.
Natural Security is about "global terrorism, infectious diseases, and natural disasters," and that also somewhat reminds me of the Cobra Event book that I read and enjoyed in high school and made me want to learn more about the field of epidemiology. I am also an international studies major, so world politics and cultures (along with evolution of course!) are what I find to be very fascinating. And I want to see how the author ties in evolutionary biology with that.

Paleofantasy Post #1

Upon first hearing about Paleofantasy, I thought that it was a book about diet and nutrition (the popular "Paleo Diet" came to mind) that was going to explain how the way our bodies have evolved should influence our diets. It does, in a way, but by dis-affirming how diets based on the way "our ancestors ate" still fit in today's society.It instead shows that we should base our dietary means on the fact that we are NOT the same as our prehistoric ancestors. At least that is what I got from the first couple of pages. We have evolved and should adjust according. 

In addition to debunking and correcting the caveman diet fantasy, the author, Marlene Zuk, covers many other topics such as gender stereotypes and the paleo family. I believe that these subjects are important to set straight because they are such a large part of societal belief. People are misinformed, I included, and I applaud Zuk for finding evidence and reason to explain the truth behind these claims. I hope that this book will be not only interesting, but also reveal how the study of evolution can be applied to ideals that we encounter every day as well as explain where the future of our species is headed. 

Week 1- Paleofantasy

Marlene Zuk’s “Paleofantasy” captured my attention because of its focus on the evolution of human beings, and this stood out to me as a novel concept in comparison to learning about evolution in light of other animals and species. Zuk is an evolutionary biologist and behavioral ecologist who has also written a number of additional works. This book is laid out well with ten chapters, many of them focusing on what the “paleofantasy” in different domains such as food, exercise and family actually entails. I was fascinated by Zuk’s argument that “we are not biologically the same as our common ancestors” and that the changes that are occurring in people’s diets and lifestyles now are not necessarily a bad thing. I found it interesting that in the introduction she mentioned that it is human nature to see the past better than it actually was and raise it to a higher standard. The trend however does seem to be that with the increase in technology and advancements, we are deviating from a more natural diet and active lifestyle. I am very interested in reading this book and learning more about Zuk’s ideas about these issues, and whether she sees these trends as mere trade-offs in response to other changes. I also look forward to learning more about the idea of a paleofantasy and about how humans have evolved over time. 

Your Inner Fish- Week 1

I chose the book, Your Inner Fish, because I thought it would be interesting to see how particular species, we would not think would have anything in common, are in fact, very closely related. Neil Shubin describes and characterizes the different organs of the human body by tracing them back millions of years ago, looking closely at the various evolutionary changes that have taken place. Shubin is able to depict that many species like those of fish, worms, and bacteria have certain similarities with humans. He does this by examining fossils and DNA. 

By reading this book, I am hoping to learn more about the molecular, developmental, and structural homologies between the many organisms that will be mentioned. I am really excited to learn more about characteristics that we have in common with other species. I am also looking forward to learning about how certain body parts evolved the way they did. I think the most interesting part of reading this book will be understanding why we have so many similarities with some organisms that, phenotypically, look nothing like us. 

I really like how the eleven chapters of the book are organized. Shubin will describe the anatomy of the body and the evolutionary aspects throughout the whole book while in the last chapter, The Meaning of It All, I am thinking he will tie in why everything is related the way it is. I also thought it was very interesting how the author, Neil Shubin, teaches as a medical school anatomy professor. I feel like by having this background, the way the book is written will be even more fascinating! 

Choosing Natural Security

The reasons for me choosing this book had a lot to do with Doctor Johnson's description of it on the first day, she mentioned that it linked evolutionary thinking to military/governmental type ideas. I personally am always interested in military type information and thinking, and learning about how the government could possible take advantage of evolutionary thought also sparked my interest, hopefully they will learn a lot and I will too!
After reading the summary my interest grew even more because it specifically targets security problems that we commonly can relate to, such as "global security". For Americans ,especially after things such as 9/11 which I was horrified of living only 30 mins away from ground zero in NYC, or the movie theater shootings, or any other horrible terrorism attempts; learning from evolution to better help improve possible safety precautions is something that could be greatly needed. Another great use for this that the summary had mentioned was helping to fight infectious diseases and natural disasters. In class we had already talked about infectious diseases/viruses and how hard they can be to truly figure out a cure for, for example HIV, since the bacteria/virus itself is constantly changing and evolving to better its own defenses and counteract our attempts to stop it.
Overall, I feel like this book is going to be very interesting to see how it ties all of these concepts together, as well as informing me of any new or further improvements to look forward to in the future. At the very least I expect it to help me get a grasp on evolution as a whole better than before, and either way I cannot wait for it to get here in the mail already!!

My Curiosity of Natural Security: A Darwinian Approach to a Dangerous World

 

Edited by Ralphael D. Sagarin and Terence Taylor

I became curious of the book Natural Security because I think the book’s premise falls under two topics I find interesting and care a lot about. After 9/11, my household, as well as many spread throughout the United States of America, had a new found patriotism. I have always been interested to know why our military acts the way it does and if there is any way for me to tie my interest in biology to make sense of what is happening in the political sphere. The book appears to be based on the idea that our struggle for limited resources is similar to that of plants and animals and that we can use the other organism’s struggles as models for competition and the military then in turn uses this to create strategy.

Week 1: Paleofantasy

I chose to read Paleofantasy because the name and the summary really intrigued me. The author, Marlene Zuk, is an American evolutionary biologist and behavioral ecologist and currently works as a biology professor at the University of California, Riverside. The summary talked about how we should be emulating how our ancestors lived and there is scientific research to prove it. Zuk brings up evidence that we are not biologically the same as our ancestors since the speed of evolution is quicker than what we previously thought. With these thoughts, I'm really excited to hear the different theories especially ones that contradict the notion that we need to eat more naturally like our ancestors.

From reading this book, I hope to learn and hear about how we as humans are still evolving and the evidence that supports that because while thinking about it, it doesn't make sense why we would stop evolving and so I wonder how that assumption started to take off. This lead to people examining and observing our behavior now and relating it back to our ancestors when really it isn't that simple. We are all still changing and evolving and so is it really necessary for us to revert back to our old habits of eating as cavemen? I know of friends who have tried different diets including the paleo diet and so learning more about it gives me greater knowledge about these types of diets.
After reading this book, I want to know if diets like the Paleo diet are as useful as we think they are.

Because I want to understand our society's behavior and thinking from an EEB perspective .

I chose Natural Security because I want to become a "jack of all trades" who has the skills and acumen to perform the duties of a trustworthy liaison between the  scientific and the lay society.

Over the last year I have realized that it is very challenging for "hard science" scientists and "social science" scientists to come together and develop a work that represents and satisfies both disciplines accurately.  I have noticed that the more emotionally charged an issue is, the higher the number of ideological and moral discrepancies among the disciplines become. Usually, the two parties develop different views about what the cause of the issue was, what the best way to handle and advise the general public about the issue is, and what the most efficient way to maintain surveillance of the issue before it turns into conflict will be.

In this country, one of the touchiest subjects is National Security and Defense Against Terrorism so I am eager to read how "paleobiologists, anthropologists, psychologists, ecologists, and national security experts" used the concepts we are learning in class right now to interpret and predict human behavior regarding national security assessment and surveillance and public policy implementation and ensuing reactions.

Renamed: Hayley's first post - Life Ascending

Testing....1...2...3...

It's time to start blogging!

Summaries of the books!

Wondering what books we're reading this semester?
(all summaries below are adapted from reviews at amazon.com)

Your Inner Fish, Neil Shubin
Why do we look the way we do? Neil Shubin, the paleontologist and professor of anatomy who co-discovered Tiktaalik, the “fish with hands,” tells the story of our bodies as you've never heard it before. By examining fossils and DNA, he shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our heads are organized like long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genomes look and function like those of worms and bacteria. 

Life Ascending, Nick Lane
Where does DNA come from? What is consciousness? How did the eye evolve? Drawing on a treasure trove of new scientific knowledge, Nick Lane expertly reconstructs evolution’s history by describing its ten greatest inventions—from sex and warmth to death—resulting in a stunning account of nature’s ingenuity.

Natural Security, edited by Raphael Sagarin and Terence Taylor
Arms races among invertebrates, intelligence gathering by the immune system and alarm calls by marmots are but a few of nature's security strategies that have been tested and modified over billions of years. This provocative book applies lessons from nature to our own toughest security problems – from global terrorism to the rise of infectious disease to natural disasters. 

Paleofantasy, Marlene Zuk
We evolved to eat berries rather than bagels, to live in mud huts rather than condos, to sprint barefoot rather than play football—or did we? Are our bodies and brains truly at odds with modern life?  Popular theories about how our ancestors lived—and why we should emulate them—are often based on speculation, not scientific evidence. From debunking the caveman diet to unraveling gender stereotypes, Zuk delivers an engrossing analysis of widespread paleofantasies.