evolutionary computation in bioinformatics
Archaeology, Language, and History: Essays on Culture and
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Terrell, John Edward, PUBLISHER: Praeger, Ever since Darwin, the world has been struggling with the mystery of human diversity. As the historian Peter Bowler has written, "an evolutionary interpretation of the history of life on the earth must inevitably extend itself to include the origins of the human race." But this has proved to be a difficult and controversial task. Understanding human origins means accounting not only for the obvious differences between people and cultures around the world, but also for the unity of Homo sapiens as a single biological species. As Stephen Jay Gould has said, "flexibility is the hallmark of human evolution." Because so much of who we are is learned rather than genetically predetermined, a satisfactory understanding of human evolution--to use old parlance--must account both for the human body and the human soul. At any single moment of time, it is always possible to find instances where people seem to live in their own world, speak in their own distinctive ways, and have their own exclusive cultural traits and practices. Over the course of time, however, it is not so easy to find places where these dimensions of our diversity stay together. The essays in this collection show why we must stop thinking that "race," language, and culture go together, and why we should be wary of the commonsense beliefs that human races exist and that people who speak different languages come from fundamentally different biological lineages.
Methodology, Theory, and Knowledge in the Managerial and
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Geisler, Eliezer / Rogers, Everett M., PUBLISHER: Quorum Books, Geisler argues that the over-reliance on co-variation techniques and statistical methods, instead of process approach and in-depth analysis, produces meaningless knowledge in the managerial and organizational sciences, and indeed throughout all the social sciences. He offers instead a new and different approach, based on the notion of what he calls "dynamic morphologies"--an "architecture of slicing complex phenomena." This way it is possible to explain many inconsistencies in research findings, and to find a cohesive, systematic outlook on research, research design, and knowledge creation. Intellectually challenging and following in the footsteps of Kuhn, Argyris, and Popper, Geisler's approach is frankly revolutionary in research design and contains its own notions, terms, and nomenclature. A provocative discussion for academics and others well trained in the organizational, managerial, and social sciences. Geisler's dynamic morphologies provide a means to research complex phenomena and gain knowledge about them. They are composed of a chain of events, combined logically and temporally, and a method by which this process is studied. Geisler also contends that knowledge in the organizational and managerial sciences is only viable when it describes and explains the complex, higher-order phenomena. Therefore, theory building and research in these fields must be linked to higher-order constructs and the phenomena that they attempt to explain. This is the central notion of "amplitude" that Geisler introduces and describes. His book also criticizes the evolutionary epistemology view of knowledge creation and contends that knowledge in all of these fields of study in general is notevolutionary, but instead, cumulative and expansive.
The Extremes of the Bell Curve: Excellent and Poor School
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Maccabe, James H., PUBLISHER: Psychology Press, David Hamilton is a leader in the American institutionalist school of heterodox economics that emerged after WWII. This volume includes 25 articles written by Hamilton over a period of nearly half a century. In these articles he examines the philosophical foundations and practical problems of economics. The result of this is a unique institutionalist view of how economies evolve and how economics itself has evolved with them. Hamilton applies insight gained from his study of culture to send the message that human actions situated in culture determine our economic situation. David Hamilton has advanced heterodox economics by replacing intellectual concepts from orthodox economics that hinder us with concepts that help us. In particular, Hamilton has helped replace equilibrium with evolution, make-believe with reality, ideological distortion of government with practical use of government, the economy as a product of natural law with the economy as a product of human law and, last, he has helped us replace the entrepreneur as a hero with the entrepreneur as a real person. These articles provide an alternative to the self-adjusting market. They provide an explanation of how the interaction of cultural patterns and technology determine the evolutionary path of the economic development of a nation. This is not a simple materialist depiction of economic history as some Marxists have advocated, instead Hamilton treats technology and culture as endogenous forces, embedded and inseparable from each other and therefore, economic development. This volume will be of most interest and value to professional economists and graduate students who are looking for an in-depth explanation of the origins and significance of institutional economics.
H.G. Bronn, Ernst Haeckel, and the Origins of German
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Gliboff, Sander, PUBLISHER: MIT Press (MA), The German translation of Darwin's "The Origin of Species" appeared in , just months after the original, thanks to Heinrich Georg Bronn, a distinguished German paleontologist whose work in some ways paralleled Darwin's. Bronn's version of the book (with his own notes and commentary appended) did much to determine how Darwin's theory was understood and applied by German biologists, for the translation process involved more than the mere substitution of German words for English. In this book, Sander Gliboff tells the story of how "The Origin of Species" came to be translated into German, how it served Bronn's purposes as well as Darwin's, and how it challenged German scholars to think in new ways about morphology, systematics, paleontology, and other biological disciplines. Gliboff traces Bronn's influence on German Darwinism through the early career of Ernst Haeckel, Darwin's most famous nineteenth-century proponent and popularizer in Germany, who learned his Darwinism from the Bronn translation. Gliboff argues, contrary to most interpretations, that the German authors were not attempting to "tame" Darwin or assimilate him to outmoded systems of romantic "Naturphilosophie." Rather, Bronn and Haeckel were participants in Darwin's project of revolutionizing biology. We should not, Gliboff cautions, read pre-Darwinian meanings into Bronn's and Haeckel's Darwinian words. Gliboff describes interpretive problems faced by Bronn and Haeckel that range from the verbal (how to express Darwin's ideas in the existing German technical vocabulary) to the conceptual. One of these conceptual problems, the origins of novel variation and the proper balance between creativity and constraint in evolution, emerges as crucial. Specialists in evolutionary biology today, Gliboff points out, continue to grapple with comparable questions--continuing a larger process of translation and interpretation of Darwin's work.
Inside the Beagle with Charles Darwin
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: MacDonald, Fiona / Bergin, Mark, PUBLISHER: Enchanted Lion Books, In the "Inside... series, history and discovery, architecture and engineering combine to bring the past to life in a unique and fascinating way. Filled with full-color, cut-away illustrations, picture strips, photographs and informative text, each volume takes us "inside," either a structure or a city, a natural phenomenon or an idea. This "inside look" provides a novel way of learning about history and culture. Climb aboard the "Beagle and embark upon a fascinating ship and an amazing journey of discovery with the young naturalist, Charles Darwin, who has yet to become the "father of evolutionary biology." In these pages, you will meet Darwin at the age of 22. You also will encounter his ship, the "Beagle, through detailed cut-away illustrations, showing compartments, living quarters, service areas, rigging and equipment. Moreover, you will learn about a sailor's day aboard the "Beagle, from what he ate to the navigation equipment he used to how he worked the rigging. And you will travel upriver with Darwin to a tropical rainforest, where you will encounter Indians and Condors. Then, as Darwin explores Cape Horn and Terria Del Fuego, you will learn about the lives of the Indians, as well as about famines, cannibals and matricide. You also will travel to the Pampas and the Andes, to Santiago and the Galapagos Islands, where you will learn about volcanoes, craters, and the natural history of reptiles, great tortoises, fish, insects and birds. From there you will travel to New Zealand, Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, St. Helena, and finally home with Darwin to England. In addition to its informative text and numerous detailed spreads, Inside the "Beagle with Charles Darwinalso covers Darwin's major findings during the voyage, his conclusions, and the period after the voyage. A section of voyage facts, a glossary and an index also are included, making this book an excellent resource as well as a good read.