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Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (37684)	6/22/2013 2:28:03 AM
From: RMF	2 Recommendations Recommended By 2MAR$ Solon Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 69300

Life is an artifact of intelligence but evolution is just "tale spinning". So WHO designed this big MESS? Because that's what life is. We see creatures on this planet flourish and then essentially disappear and then new creatures appear. Did some supreme intelligence somewhere decide to just pick this little planet way out in the boondocks of some little insignificant galaxy and decide to come up with a very complex and convoluted PLAN? And what WAS the PLAN anyway? It probably didn't involve "humans" unless this intelligence had a VERY long time frame. So maybe humans are just another of the creatures meant to flourish and then disappear?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (37684)	6/22/2013 11:16:45 AM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

Two Books on the Cambrian Explosion (Meyers is a little late to the party, but they always are riding the coatails) sandwalk.blogspot.com ( and do note all the free & stimulating discussion below on site ,unlike ENumbskulls.org & dissenters are welcome always) sandwalk.blogspot.com I finished reading The Cambrian Explosion: The Construction of Animal Biodiversity by Douglas Erwin and James Valentine. It's a wonderful book. It brings you up to date on the fossil record, dating issues, evolutionary developmental biology, climate change, and molecular phylogeny. The book offers a reasonable evolutionary explanation for the apparent rapid diversification of animal groups during the Cambrian (about 530 million years ago). The important point is covered in a paper by Erwin et al. (2011). It shows that the main animal groups probably split gradually over a period of tens of millions of years before the "explosion" became visible in the fossil record [see The Cambrian Conundrum: Fossils vs Genes]. The authors show that the molecular data indicates an earlier divergence and trace fossils are consistent with that data. The other book is about to be published. It's called Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design and the author is an expert paleontologist and evolutionary biologist named Stephen Meyer. It certainly sounds exciting if you read the announcement on Evolution News & Views (sic) [ Coming in June, a Game-Changing New Book: Darwin's Doubt, by Stephen Meyer]. We've been keeping something from you, dear readers, but now it can be told. The evolution debate is about to undergo a paradigm shift.... Here is a sweeping account, stunningly illustrated with gorgeous color photos, of the frontiers of the scientific critique of Darwinism and the case for ID. Exacting and thorough, yet remarkably accessible to the thoughtful lay reader, Darwin's Doubt introduces us to the challenges to Darwinism based on the study of combinatorial inflation, protein science, population genetics, developmental biology, epigenetic information, and more. Meyer explains how post-Darwinian alternatives and adaptions of Darwin's theory -- including self-organizational models, evo-devo, neutral or nonadaptive evolution, natural genetic engineering, and others -- fall short as well. He demonstrates that the weaknesses of orthodox evolutionary theory, when flipped over head-to-foot, are precisely the positive indications that point most persuasively to intelligent design. Evolutionary biologists studying gene regulatory networks and fossil discontinuity, among other fields, have come tantalizingly close to reaching this conclusion themselves. The Cambrian event, fundamentally, represents an information explosion, the first but not the last in the history of life. As no book has done before, Darwin's Doubt spells out the implications of this fact. Dr. Meyer stands on the verge of turning the evolution debate in an entirely new direction, compelling critics of the theory of intelligent design, at last, to respond substantively and in detail. The book will be a game-changer, for science and culture alike. It would not be fair to criticize Meyer's book before we get a chance to read it. It will be fun to see how the science compares with that in the book by Erwin and Valentine. I'm really looking forward to reading about the Intelligent Design Theory that explains all of the scientific data. I'm especially curious about why the designer did the deed 530 million years ago and why everything since then looks so much like evolution. I'm sure that's going to be covered. We can be practically certain that a paradigm-shifting book like this isn't just going to be several hundred pages of evolution bashing.

To: Brumar89 who wrote (37684)	6/22/2013 11:32:06 AM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

So you have two books out now on the Cambrian Explosion, the one by this pretensious arrogant pimple Stephen Meyers from your Disco.org & the one by Doug Erwin & Valentine The Cambrian Explosion: The Construction of Animal Biodiversity Douglas Erwin is a paleobiologist, Curator of Paleozoic Invertebrates at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and Chair of the Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute, a brilliant fellow. So it might be an little interesting summer project to compare Doug Erwin & Valentine side-by-side with this arrogant opportunist Stephen Meyer, well, “interesting” in a Bambi Meets Two Godzillas sort of amusing sense . ID'ers set themselves up for another big disappointment, distorting facts they always are found attempting in every case, even the title of the book is a loaded inaccuracy.

To: Brumar89 who wrote (37684)	6/22/2013 11:39:20 AM
From: 2MAR$	1 Recommendation Recommended By Playing With Profits Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

If you really want to know what caused the Cambrian explosion, I can give you the short answer. Not intelligent design; that doesn’t even make sense. What it was was an entirely new set of revolutionary environmental changes, in particular the bioturbation revolution caused by the evolution of worms that released buried nutrients, and the steadily increasing oxygen content of the atmosphere & seas that allowed those nutrients to fuel growth; ecological competition, or a kind of arms race, that gave a distinct selective advantage to novelties that allowed species to occupy new niches; and the evolution of developmental mechanisms that enabled multicellular organisms to generate new morphotypes readily. People should read the real books if they want to know more, and ignore the uninformed babble the charlatans of the DI will try to sell the uniformed .

To: Brumar89 who wrote (37684)	6/22/2013 12:19:37 PM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

The Great Oxygenation Event, the Cambrian explosion, why was there a “Life’ explosion 500mya? blogs.unimelb.edu.au What caused the ‘great oxygenation event, the Cambrian Explosion, believed to be the biggest evolution of new species in Earth’s history? ( Hint: It wasn't intelligent Design ) The theories that go with this question are diverse and continue to grow. The ‘Age of Chemistry’, the Precambrian, heralded in the new era, a time of hard bodied, aerobic organisms and a plethora of diversity. So, what are the factors that conjured up these new ripples of life? Well, as with all evolutionary changes, it was a multitude of ecological factors that allowed this big bang of life to occur. From geological movements such as the break up of the super continent Rodinia, to global glaciations, to the development of genetic potential, life was able to take advantage of the abundant oxygen. Yet, it is the change in the chemistry of planet Earth that is behind these opportunities for life. There is believed to be numerous simultaneous reactions that occurred. One reaction was the result of a rapid decline in atmospheric methane. Why did the methane levels drop? One angle, supported by the journal Nature, reports that the nickel, that existed within the primordial seas, was closely correlated to the emergence of oxygen producing organisms due to its use by methanogen organisms. The dominant organisms before the great oxygenation were the methanogens, single celled organisms that produced methane as a byproduct of metabolism. Large quantities of methane prevented oxygen from building up in the atmosphere, as the gas reacts with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water. These organisms utilized nickel present in the ocean, gobbling it up in vast quantities. There were 400 x greater amounts of nickel in the oceans 4.6 BYA, than there are presently, and by 2.5 BYA, this quantity had halved. As this nutrient declined, the methanogens also declined, and hence the methane in the atmosphere plummeted. This allowed the photosynthesizing organisms, cyanobacteria, to proliferate allowing the push towards oxygen based life on plant earth. And hence, began the Cambrian explosion. Another explanation for the great oxygenation of the atmosphere by scientist Gaillard (2011) is major geographic upheaval at the end of the Archaen era (2.5BYA). Falling sea levels, and a profoundly changing landscape saw the geographic repositioning and emergence of continents and an increase in sub aerial volcanism. These volcanoes released vast quantities of magmatic volatiles found in the magma, specifically carbon dioxide, sulphur and chlorine. These volatiles entered the atmosphere rather than the ocean, and were released at a significantly lower pressure. The oxidation of sulphur was affected by this change in pressure and produced a decrease in hydrogen sulphide and an increase in sulphur dioxide. This change of state saw the increase of dissolution sulphate in the oceans, of which fed the sulphate- reducing cyanobacteria and encouraged the proliferation of atmospheric oxygen. The changes in the chemistry of the ocean that enabled complex life forms to gradually develop hard shells and skeletons, created the first ‘animals’, the Edicarans and the Vendians. Veer Images These are just some of the potential ecological processes that gave rise to life, and most likely are part of a large story of change and evolution. Paleo- ecology is a fascinating way to look at the world, and help us understand how changes in the composition of the ocean and atmosphere can affect life on the planet, in the past and into the future. http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/4852/… http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v47… ps. Click on the top artwork for a clear image. meme

To: Brumar89 who wrote (37684)	6/22/2013 12:32:59 PM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

Atmospheric oxygenation caused by a change in volcanic degassing pressure leading to the precambrian era nature.com The Precambrian history of our planet is marked by two major events: a pulse of continental crust formation at the end of the Archaean eon and a weak oxygenation of the atmosphere (the Great Oxidation Event) that followed, at 2.45?billion years ago * From Nature.com, that ranks 2150 in the US , a very trafficked site for those that care to have knowledge Around two and a half billion years ago (following the end of the Archaean eon), the atmosphere turned from anoxic to weakly oxic in what is known as the Great Oxidation Event. Using a model of volcanic degassing, Gaillard et al. demonstrate that a preceding period of continental crust formation may have been the trigger. They propose that as continents emerged and volcanoes became increasingly subaerial rather than submarine, magmatic volatiles were degassed at lower pressures, leading to a progressive oxidation of the gases released. This shift to a release of sulphur as sulphur dioxide rather than as hydrogen sulphide could then have fed marine sulphate reduction and the eventual oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere. The Precambrian history of our planet is marked by two major events: a pulse of continental crust formation at the end of the Archaean eon and a weak oxygenation of the atmosphere (the Great Oxidation Event) that followed, at 2.45?billion years ago. This oxygenation has been linked to the emergence of oxygenic cyanobacteria 1, 2 and to changes in the compositions of volcanic gases 3, 4, but not to the composition of erupting lavas—geochemical constraints indicate that the oxidation state of basalts and their mantle sources has remained constant since 3.5?billion years ago 5, 6. Here we propose that a decrease in the average pressure of volcanic degassing changed the oxidation state of sulphur in volcanic gases, initiating the modern biogeochemical sulphur cycle and triggering atmospheric oxygenation. Using thermodynamic calculations simulating gas–melt equilibria in erupting magmas, we suggest that mostly submarine Archaean volcanoes produced gases with SO2/H2S?<?1 and low sulphur content. Emergence of the continents due to a global decrease in sea level and growth of the continental crust in the late Archaean then led to widespread subaerial volcanism, which in turn yielded gases much richer in sulphur and dominated by SO2. Dissolution of sulphur in sea water and the onset of sulphate reduction processes could then oxidize the atmosphere.

To: Brumar89 who wrote (37684)	6/22/2013 12:58:18 PM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

No one's denying the Cambrian explosion dum dum, the real question is what do you know about pre Cambrian developement of multi cellular life & the great oxygen event leading up to it ? New multicelled life created new biological niches while other metabolisms adapted to early earth conditions died off in the transition. Its so simple really, you don't even need an Intelligent designer to explain it to you if you know the current theories of evolution, which is gone far beyond Darwin.

To: Brumar89 who wrote (37684)	6/22/2013 1:00:31 PM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 69300

Great Oxidation Event: More oxygen through multicellularity mediadesk.uzh.ch The appearance of free oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere led to the Great Oxidation Event. This was triggered by cyanobacteria producing the oxygen which developed into multicellular forms as early as 2.3 billion years ago. As evolutionary biologists from the Universities of Zurich and Gothenburg have shown, this multicellularity was linked to the rise in oxygen and thus played a significant role for life on Earth as it is today. Cyanobacteria belong to the Earth’s oldest organisms. They are still present today in oceans and waters and even in hot springs. By producing oxygen and evolving into multicellular forms, they played a key role in the emergence of organisms that breathe oxygen. This has, now, been demonstrated by a team of scientists under the supervision and instruction of evolutionary biologists from the University of Zurich. According to their studies, cyanobacteria developed multicellularity around one billion years earlier than eukaryotes – cells with one true nucleus. At almost the same time as multicellular cyanobacteria appeared, a process of oxygenation began in the oceans and in the Earth’s atmosphere. Multicellularity as early as 2.3 billion years ago The scientists analyzed the phylogenies of living cyanobacteria and combined their findings with data from fossil records for cyanobacteria. According to the results recorded by Bettina Schirrmeister and her colleagues, multicellular cyanobacteria emerged much earlier than previously assumed. «Multicellularity developed relatively early in the history of cyanobacteria, more than 2.3 billion years ago», Schirrmeister explains in her doctoral thesis, written at the University of Zurich. Link between multicellularity and the Great Oxidation EventAccording to the scientists, multicellularity developed shortly before the rise in levels of free oxygen in the oceans and in the atmosphere. This accumulation of free oxygen is referred to as the Great Oxidation Event, and is seen as the most significant climate event in the Earth’s history. Based on their data, Schirrmeister and her doctoral supervisor Homayoun Bagheri believe that there is a link between the emergence of multicellularity and the event. According to Bagheri, multicellular life forms often have a more efficient metabolism than unicellular forms. The researchers are thus proposing the theory that the newly developed multicellularity of the cyanobacteria played a role in triggering the Great Oxidation Event. (jpg, 519 KB) Nostochopis: multicellular cyanobacterium with algae-like growth (picture: UZH) meme (jpg, 488 KB) Multicellular cyanobacterium (picture: UZH) Cyanobacteria occupied free niches The increased production of oxygen set the Earth’s original atmosphere off balance. Because oxygen was poisonous for large numbers of anaerobic organisms, many anaerobic types of bacteria were eliminated, opening up ecological ‘niches’. The researchers have determined the existence of many new types of multicellular cyanobacteria subsequent to the fundamental climatic event, and are deducing that these occupied the newly developed habitats. «Morphological changes in microorganisms such as bacteria were able to impact the environment fundamentally and to an extent scarcely imaginable», concludes Schirrmeister. Literature:Bettina E. Schirrmeister, Jurriaan M. de Vos, Alexandre Antonelli, Homayoun C. Bagheri. Evolution of multicellularity coincided with increased diversification of cyanobacteria and the Great Oxidation Event. PNAS Early Edition. January 14, 2013. doi: 10:1072/pnas.1209927110/-/DCSupplemental Great Oxidation EventThe Great Oxidation Event refers to a period around 2.3 billion years ago. It was no longer possible for newly created oxygen to be captured in chemical compounds. Instead, it started to accumulate as oxygen in the oceans and in the atmosphere. Previously, in the Earth’s early atmosphere, there were only traces of free oxygen. All life was based exclusively on anaerobic processes – chemical reactions that did not require oxygen. With the emergence of cyanobacteria that oxidized water with the help of light and produced oxygen as a by-product, the conditions for life on Earth gradually began to transform.