Evolution, Morphology and Exobiology

Some years ago I was sitting under a tree and gazing at the sky. I was unfocusing my eyes trying to bring my 'floaters', the detritus we see slowly sinking, but in reality riing, in the ey. In doing so I became aware of a kind of boil in my field of vision. I did a further alteration of my focus and there appeared across the entire field of vision tiny slivers of flashing light, minuscule compared to Floaters. In fact what I observe are so small that I cannot resolve them; their you can only observe the light refracting in their wake. From that I have deduced they are little flagellants, but either in or one the eye, I can't determine. A curious note: When …

Being natural hermaphrodites seems to work well for earthworms, but most other natural animal species NORMALLY have male and female in separate bodies. Is having male and female in separate bodies a practical reproductive plan for humans, mammals, birds and etc? In Man's various cultures, this separate male and female setup seems to have been the cause of a lot of social inequalities since man first picked up a stone and cast it. One such sex inequality invented by Man has been "ladies first". What are the pros and cons of having a species set up by nature as hermaphrodites as opposed to having a species divided with separate male and female individuals? …

Hello, I've had an idea, and I'd like to know what the problems are. The body is capable of initiating the Krebs cycle, i.e. energy generation via 3 metabolic pathways. Glycolysis (glucose → pyruvate) Beta oxidation (lipid → AcetylCOA) And via the degradation of amino acids (most notably Alanine, Serine, Glycine) via transamination. I'd like to focus on the latter. Why can't we give diabetics lots of these amino acids and Alanine aminotransferase capsules or something similar. I know that the body uses glucose a lot, especially for the brain, as it's still the main source of energy, but can we engage a forced functioning of energy formation …

Today any scientist or person with a minimum of general knowledge in astronomy knows that there is more than one type of star in the universe. Using the example of our star, the Sun, we know that it is a type G2 star (yellow dwarf) and has a luminous magnitude V (standard). But we assume that this is not the only type of star, below I will show a brief summary of the different types of stars that are out there: Spectral Type O: Temperature: 30,000°K - 50,000ºK Color blue. Luminosity: Very high. Mass: Large. Examples: Rigel, Zeta Orionis. Spectral Type B: Temperature: 10,000°K - 30,000°K Color: Blue/White. Lum…

Exploring New Horizons: Ammonia as a Potential Substitute for Water in the Nutrition of Living Beings In the expansive and intricate realm of astrobiology and space exploration, the quest for life beyond our planet stands as a paramount and captivating pursuit. We confront foundational inquiries regarding the plausibility of life existing on other worlds and the methodologies we might employ to discern its presence, should it indeed exist. Among the pivotal factors underpinning life as we understand it lies the existence of liquid water—a universal solvent that facilitates an extensive array of fundamental biological processes. The pursuit of extraterrestrial …

Exploring the Possibilities of Fluorocarbon-Based Life: A Comprehensive Scientific Approach Introduction Life as we know it on Earth is based on carbon compounds, which has led to the hypothesis that carbon is fundamental to the chemistry of life. However, in extraterrestrial environments where carbon could be scarce, the question arises: could life based on other elements exist? An intriguing option is fluorocarbons, compounds that contain fluorine and carbon and have unique chemical properties. This article explores in detail the potential of fluorocarbons as precursors to life and examines the scientific evidence supporting this possibility. …

Did large cats get larger over the course of evolution or did the small cats get smaller?

I've just heard Richard Dawkins saying that one individual (a zillion years ago) had 2 children. One is the ancestor of baboons, the other the ancestor of humans. Would all the subsequent evolution of the 2 species have to be descended from literally that one single creature? Or could it have been several such creatures, even hundreds, who all had 2 such children each? Cheerz GIAN🙂XXX

Whilst there are various theories on why cooperation emerges in nature, these all remain to varying degrees unsatisfactory and certainly not capable of full generalisation, as per Darwin's theory for competition. Has there been any historic consideration of the quantum nature of food? As a generality food comes in quanta in the wild - individual fruits, clumps of grass, individual prey, etc. When population pressure increases and competition becomes intense for a limited supply of food, could this quantised nature of food be a generalised reason for the emergence of cooperation? Consider scenario. 100 monkeys descend on a tree with 90 fruit. Only 90 mo…

https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/blue-eyed-humans-have-a-single-common-ancestor The most interesting question this study raises is asked at the end of the article: how did humanity go from zero blue eyes 10,000 YA to now 20-40% of European countries? What was the selective advantage(s)? Aesthetics? Better night vision?

Please watch this video before joining in the discussion. Assuming you watched the video or you already know something about eukaryotic protists like slime molds, than the following photos should at the very least be a topic of discussion. This is a photograph taken from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on December 17, 2017. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona Now after seeing the video on top, do you believe there could be some argument that this could be an example of a cellular protist aggregation on a very large scale on the surface of Mars? If you look closely at the photograph you will be able to see evidence of the aggregation …

As I understand it, Jack Horner has been doing experiments reactivating dormant genes in chickens with the hope of creating a kind of neodinosaur. I guess this has been going on for several years. I had heard he had some early successes (e.g., getting the chicken to grow teeth, etc.) but there were also some hurdles. I haven't been able to find anything about this work recently. Has anyone heard or read anything about this research? Will chickensaurus stalk the land anytime soon? Thanks in advance.

We have oceans, land and an atmosphere, is it any surprise that we have things swimming in the water, walking on the land and flying in the air? I mean the design of a wing comes from the aerodynamics of the air, wasn't it inevitable wings ended up the way they did? I mean there is light, we end up with eyes, there is sound, we end up with ears, what else was going to happen?

The first living creature could not have come into being by random chance. It is impossible. A first living creature would have to have had at least 100,000 amino acids in a particular sequence. This is extremely generous. The smallest free-living thing has over 1,300,000 base pairs. I also have not included having over 500 million other atoms in it. The odds against a sequence of 100,000 amino acids (20 types, 39 counting handedness) coming to be by random chance is (10 to the 160,000 power) to 1. That could never have happened anywhere in the universe over the supposed 13.7 billion years of its existence. It actually is impossible because no concentration of that …

I have had a dilemma for years. See my science teacher said that a living organism has to have a number of things to be alive. Stuff like reproduction, and homeostasis. But a mule does not reproduce so, does that make it not living? I would think that anything that has a sort of consciousness is living. But a virus has no consciousness of any sort (We can talk about that later in this topic, after the basics are done). So, what is a living organism? Well, anything with a system of sorts is living. Let me explain. An atom is very complicated and It uses electrons which reproduce photons (We are getting somewhere). Electrons also bind atoms together, and this can happen unt…

Does anyone know about Rupert Sheldrake theory of morphic resonance? I think there is truth behind it, and it challenges aspects of Neo-Darwinanism.

Is anyone aware of any documentaries about competition for mates in animals? Specifically, I'm interested in the male side of the competition. So anything that deals with males competing from females, whether that's displays or this or that or battle.

Both predators and prey commonly camouflage by blending with a background using shapes, colors, and textures. It is relatively easy to do when the background is busy, more difficult when it is barren. This seahorse pretends to be a part of or a growth on an underwater cable.

Had the other Homos like Neandertals or Erectus's who lived as recent as like 100 - 200 K years ago ever developed languages ? And if yes how did we know ?

I laugh at you, when i posted about depression being more than chemical imbalance some elistists laughed at me and put my post to trash. While when i asked supernerd said what it would be. Lol even APA didn't held this hypothesis ever, you are uneducated... You don't let anyone post here and if someone posts who you don't respect they get censored... Icreading evidence is showing that depression is much more and mental disorders being evolutionary functional... But pharmas spread lies about ADs (they make most of all corporations and fake trials and were convicted of all possible crimes) - geez think little critically... But academia is not place for smart ppl. 160IQ…

Before creatures had eyes & ears like when they were @ the level of worms and these things........or before that They didnt have eyes or even any kind of simple light sensors...............how did they know that these an electro magnetic wave that can give them good and usefull Info about their environment ? So they went and developed and evolved eyes for themselves ? before they could hear anything how did they know that there is a physical air wave that also can give them Information about their surroundings ? So they went and evolved in a way to be able to sense that wave ? How did they knew …

Zuerst: ich bin kein Kreationist noch glaube ich an den mystischen Einfluss einer wie auch immer gearteten Gottheit auf den evolutionären Prozess. Aber ich glaube an die Wissenschaft, den gesunden Menschenverstand und an die universelle Macht der Symmetrie. Die Frage, die mich beschäftigt ist: Wie wahrscheinlich ist es, dass eine beliebige Genmutation zum Vorteil und nicht zum Nachteil des jeweiligen Individuums gerät und sich dann über Generationen als evolutionärer Vorteil herausstellt? 1. Sonstiges Wahrscheinlichkeitshürde: es braucht sehr viele Versuche, bis eine Mutation sich tatsächlich als Fortpflanzungsvorteil herausstellt. Viel höher ist die Chanc…

Something I've been playing around with for quite some time. The mechanisms conventional science use are not something I've trialed (or had access to), and whilst they're interesting and may be applicable in certain clinical settings, probably aren't going to be responsible for some neuroplastic revolution. But it's refreshing to listen to the concepts of neuroplasticity being explored (Brian Greene is also a very entertaining host). I've long since contended the end result of optimal neuroplastic intervention could be, optimal human behavioural impulse control - a behavioural and societal revolution. Kind of explored the beginnings of this m…

Hi a Red bud tree (Cercis canadensis), see the small branch growing 'northeast' in the center of the image ? Well, it is not a branch. It is a worm. Hyper identical color an appearance to the branches, walking like an 'inchworm' Never seen that model. Has to be a 2023.

Why do this kingdom have the highest number of known species, even on estimates? I know that the kingdom bacteria (and with archaea forming "monera") alone is considered the most abundant in terms of individuals and distribution around the world but I also thought that this kingdom will have the greatest diversity. I actually event thought that plants also outnumbers animals in terms of species but apparently I was wrong. So what makes the kingdom Animalia so diverse compared to other kingdoms? This question actually popped out of my head when I searched why animals have the greatest number of species, on which the articles that showed up only describes th…