Darwin's Ideas Research Articles

Combating plant diseases—the Darwin connection

Although Darwin knew of plant diseases, he did not study them as part of his analysis of natural selection. Effective plant disease control has only been developed after his death. This article explores the relevance of Darwin's ideas to three problem areas with respect to diseases caused by fungi: emergence of new diseases, loss of disease resistance bred into plants and development of fungicide resistance. Darwin's concept of change through natural or artificial selection relied on selection of many small changes, but subsequent genetic research has shown that change can also occur through large steps. Appearance of new diseases can involve gene duplication, transfer or recombination, but all evidence points to both host plant resistance and fungicide susceptibility being overcome through point mutations. Because the population size of diseases such as rusts and powdery and downy mildews is so large, all possible point mutations are likely to occur daily, even during moderate epidemics. Overcoming control measures therefore reflects the overall fitness of these mutants, and much resource effort is being directed towards assessment of their fitness, both in the presence and in the absence of selection. While recent developments in comparative genomics have caused some revision of Darwin's ideas, experience in managing plant disease control measures clearly demonstrates the relevance of concepts he introduced 150 years ago. It also reveals the remarkable speed and the practical impact of adaptation in wild microorganism populations to changes in their environment, and the difficulty of stopping or delaying such adaptation.

Survival and Evolutionary Stability of the Kelly Rule

This chapter gives an overview of current research in evolutionary finance. We mainly focus on the survival and stability properties of investment strategies associated with the Kelly rule. Our approach to the study of the wealth dynamics of investment strategies is inspired by Darwinian ideas on selection and mutation. The goal of this research is to develop an evolutionary framework for practical investment advice.

“A Great Complication of Circumstances” – Darwin and the Economy of Nature

In 1749, Linnaeus presided over the dissertation "Oeconomia Naturae," which argued that each creature plays an important and particular role in nature's economy. This phrase should be familiar to readers of Darwin, for he claims in the Origin that "all organic beings are striving, it may be said, to seize on each place in the economy of nature." Many scholars have discussed the influence of political economy on Darwin's ideas. In this paper, I take a different tack, showing that Darwin's idea of an economy of nature stemmed from the views of earlier naturalists like Linnaeus and Lyell. I argue, in the first section of the paper, that Linnaeus' idea of oeconomia naturae is derived from the idea of the animal economy, and that his idea of politia naturae is an extension of the idea of a politia civitatis. In the second part, I explore the use of the concept of stations in the work of De Candolle and Lyell - the precursor to Darwin's concept of places. I show in the third part of the paper that the idea of places in an economy of nature is employed by Darwin at many key points in his thinking: his discussion of the Galapagos birds, his reading of Malthus, etc. Finally, in the last section, I demonstrate that the idea of a place in nature's economy is essential to Darwin's account of divergence. To tell his famous story of divergence and adaptation, Darwin needed the economy of nature.

Dancing to Darwin

I have been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to work with Mark Baldwin, the artistic director of Rambert Dance Company, on the creation of a novel contemporary dance piece to celebrate the life and work of Charles Darwin in his bicentennial year. The original idea came from Stephen Keynes, Chairman of the Charles Darwin Trust and one of Charles Darwin's great grandsons, and it is he who introduced me to Mark. The Comedy of Change is a collaborative project that combines my knowledge of evolution and animal behaviour with my research on the cognitive capacities of corvids (the crows and jays) and my passion for dance. I have always been fascinated by the showy displays of clever birds and their extravagant dances but this opportunity has inspired me to think in new ways. As the Scientific Advisor of Rambert Dance Company's Creative Team, my role has been to distill Darwinian ideas about evolution into key principles that inform and inspire movement, energy and musicality. It has also resulted in a film, ‘Bird Tango’, which can now be viewed on Cambridge University's website as part of their 800th anniversary campaign (http://www.800.cam.ac.uk).Working with Mark, who happens to share my love of birds and dance, not to mention shoes and sports cars, has been tremendously rewarding. It is a huge honour and pleasure to be part of his exciting project in which exuberant courtship displays are combined with nature's elaborate use of camouflage, enhanced with music and design by some of the best contemporary artists in Rambert Dance Company Creative Team, composer Julian Anderson, visual artist Kadir Attia and taxidermist and costume designer Georg Meyer-Weil.In rehearsal with Mark Baldwin at the Rambert Studio in tango embrace. For me, tango is the dance of the shoes. (Photo: Kevin Hull, Cambridge Ideas.)View Large Image | View Hi-Res Image | Download PowerPoint SlideDarwin and dance? For me the connection is clear, thanks to the birds, with their dazzling visual and acoustic displays. Steve Pinker referred to the songbirds as “Charlie Parker with feathers” but some male birds have dancing skills that rival even the most impressive of professional dancers. The styles of dance they perform vary enormously. The male Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) lives in Cuba, and perhaps it comes as no surprise that, tiny though he is, when he dances he creates the gorgeous swirls of salsa, sparkling like an iridescent sapphire. By contrast, male Blue Manakins (Chiroxiphia caudata) can be found in the forests of Argentina, where they can spend 90% of their waking day dancing an ‘avian tango’ in which an expert leader and an apprentice follower perform a male double act. As only top-notch dancers get to mate, they are a powerful illustration of ‘Darwinian principles’.Even more remarkable perhaps, are the Birds of Paradise, of which there are 42 species on the island of New Guinea alone. My favourite is the six-plumed Bird of Paradise (Parotia sexpennis). The idea of camouflage really comes to the fore — one minute they are concealed in the forest undergrowth, but when they dance they reveal their true colours; they jete across the stage, and then make the most amazing head and neck isolation movements. They have an inflatable ‘tutu’ which they use to great effect when wooing the ladies, who watch the performance with a critical eye. Despite their similarities in plumage, males vary greatly in their dancing skills, and time really matters because, just like the Blue Manakins, it takes years of experience to become the principal male.It is these three principles — namely how the natural world can conceal and yet reveal, of how individuals vary because they are both similar yet different, and of how the future becomes the past — that allow females to be so particular in their choice of males, leading to increasingly elaborate and exaggerated dancing displays. That is the nature of change — and why it can be so comical.The Comedy of Change will premier at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth on 16–19 September, and at Sadler's Wells in London on 3–7 November 2009 (further details can be found at http://www.rambert.org.uk/comedy_of_change/tour_dates).

Grey Seals Red in Tooth and Claw: How Darwin Helps Model Their Population

Abstract Grey seals in Britain are a conservation success, brought back from the brink of extinction by protection in the early 20th century. The public love them. Fishermen hate them. The resurgence of the “grey guzzlers” threatens their livelihood, they say. Len Thomas shows how Charles Darwin's ideas are used to determine seal numbers and population dynamics. Surprisingly, Darwin's theories have also influenced the statistical tools that are used.

Getting to Darwin: Obstacles to Accepting Evolution by Natural Selection

Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is central to modern biology, but is resisted by many people. This paper discusses the major psychological obstacles to accepting Darwin’s theory. Cognitive obstacles to adopting evolution by natural selection include conceptual difficulties, methodological issues, and coherence problems that derive from the intuitiveness of alternative theories. The main emotional obstacles to accepting evolution are its apparent conflict with valued beliefs about God, souls, and morality. We draw on the philosophy of science and on a psychological theory of cognitive and emotional belief revision to make suggestions about what can be done to improve acceptance of Darwinian ideas.

Darwin and microbiology

This year marks the two-hundredth anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the one-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. Darwin's ideas have influenced biology ever since, but his impact on microbiology is less well appreciated.

Charles Darwin's Reception in Germany and What Followed

Charles Darwin's Reception in Germany and What Followed

Darwin's beautiful contrivances: evolutionary and functional evidence for floral adaptation

Although not 'a professed botanist', Charles Darwin made seminal contributions to understanding of floral and inflorescence function while seeking evidence of adaptation by natural selection. This review considers the legacy of Darwin's ideas from three perspectives. First, we examine the process of floral and inflorescence adaptation by surveying studies of phenotypic selection, heritability and selection responses. Despite widespread phenotypic and genetic capacity for natural selection, only one-third of estimates indicate phenotypic selection. Second, we evaluate experimental studies of floral and inflorescence function and find that they usually demonstrate that reproductive traits represent adaptations. Finally, we consider the role of adaptation in floral diversification. Despite different diversification modes (coevolution, divergent use of the same pollen vector, pollinator shifts), evidence of pollination ecotypes and phylogenetic patterns suggests that adaptation commonly contributes to floral diversity. Thus, this review reveals a contrast between the inconsistent occurrence of phenotypic selection and convincing experimental and comparative evidence that floral traits are adaptations. Rather than rejecting Darwin's hypotheses about floral evolution, this contrast suggests that the tempo of creative selection varies, with strong, consistent selection during episodes of diversification, but relatively weak and inconsistent selection during longer, 'normal' periods of relative phenotypic stasis.

Charles Darwin’s Beagle Voyage, Fossil Vertebrate Succession, and “The Gradual Birth & Death of Species”

The prevailing view among historians of science holds that Charles Darwin became a convinced transmutationist only in the early spring of 1837, after his Beagle collections had been examined by expert British naturalists. With respect to the fossil vertebrate evidence, some historians believe that Darwin was incapable of seeing or understanding the transmutationist implications of his specimens without the help of Richard Owen. There is ample evidence, however, that he clearly recognized the similarities between several of the fossil vertebrates he collected and some of the extant fauna of South America before he returned to Britain. These comparisons, recorded in his correspondence, his diary and his notebooks during the voyage, were instances of a phenomenon that he later called the "law of the succession of types." Moreover, on the Beagle, he was following a geological research agenda outlined in the second volume of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, which implies that paleontological data alone could provide an insight into the laws which govern the appearance of new species. Since Darwin claims in On the Origin of Species that fossil vertebrate succession was one of the key lines of evidence that led him to question the fixity of species, it seems certain that he was seriously contemplating transmutation during the Beagle voyage. If so, historians of science need to reconsider both the role of Britain's expert naturalists and the importance of the fossil vertebrate evidence in the development of Darwin's ideas on transmutation.

Person, Grace and God. By Philip A. Rolnick

Pp. x, 270 , Eerdmans , Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge, U.K. , 2007 , $28.00 . This book, which is part of the Sacra Doctrina series, which aims to be ‘Christian Theology for a Post-Modern Age’, gives the reader an excellent and comprehensive picture of the state of the question concerning the nature of persons, both human and divine. All the familiar names are there, and so if any scholar is suffering from memory lapses about just what it was that Hugh of St Victor, Boethius or St Thomas Aquinas had to say on the subject of the person, they need look no further than this excellent volume and its index. There are moderns too who have had an impact on the subject, such as Emmanuel Levinas, whose presence in English-speaking scholarship is a relative novelty. And then there is the newcomer par excellence of whom all theologians must now take note – Richard Dawkins. All credit is due to Rolnick, who, undaunted by science and its jargon, gives us a whole chapter dedicated to considering the concept of person in the light of Darwin and the neo-Darwinians. The second chapter, entitled ‘Darwin's Problems, Neo-Darwinian Solutions, and Jesus's Love Commands’ (pp 63–90) essentially tries to rescue the concept of altruism from the Darwinian idea of the survival of the fittest and Dawkins's ‘selfish gene’. All this is admirable, and indeed essential, if one is to argue, as the whole tenor of this book does, that being a person means being in relation to others, the very opposite of selfishness. However, one feels sad that one has to make the case for altruism at all, and one would like to think that the simple fact of the life of Christ has rendered all arguments about altruism obsolete. But Rolnick's way is the way of dialogue with the world, rather than proclamation to it. Perhaps there is no other way in this post-modern world of ours in which the writings of Darwin are given the respect formerly only given to Holy Writ. Whichever way, this is a finely written, wide-ranging book, for which students of the subject will be truly grateful.

The Act or Process of Dying Out: The Importance of Darwinian Extinction in Argentine Culture

The spread of Darwinian ideas by the late nineteenth century in Argentina transformed the intellectual elites' notion of progress and civilization. While before Darwin, union, harmony, and assimilation were the ideas most commonly associated with the civilizatory process; variation, struggle, and divergence dominated the post-Darwin discussion. More importantly, unlike in Europe, in Argentina the theory not only triggered interest in the process of speciation, but also its relationship with extinction. Extinction became the benchmark of progress, and the sign of success for the nation. If the country was civilizing itself, the "natural" elimination of inferior individuals, unfit for the struggle for existence, had to be proved and displayed. The origin of modernity was here associated with the existence of evolutionary waste that revealed the work of natural selection on behalf of national improvement.

Beyond nature versus culture: a response to comments

I am grateful to the three correspondents for thoughtful and supportive comments onmy paper.I detect considerable convergence in our views on both the promise and thedifficulty of an adequate integration of Darwinian ideas into social science. I will notrespond here point by point, since the commentaries raise deep, open questions thatwouldrequireatleastanotherfullarticletoaddress.NordoIwishtoburdenthereaderwith repetition of points already made in the main article. Instead, I would like toconclude briefly by pointing out some key ways in which the problems that evolution-ary social scientists face are actually very similar to the problems that evolutionarybiological scientists face.That is,the difficulties which strike us in applying somethingas simple as the theory of evolution to something as complex as human social life arein fact the very same difficulties which we encounter when applying that same theoryto something as complex as organic life more generally. This point may help to bringsocial and biological researchers together. It is not that the one faces complexities anddifficultiesof adifferentorderthantheotherfaces;rather,bothfacegreatcomplexities,and the challenges in the two cases are often parallel.

How did the bat get its wings?

The question of how bats evolved wings highly adapted for powered flight from limbs equally well adapted for walking has been a topic of fascination for centuries. In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin proposed how divergent limb morphologies evolved through "successive slight modifications" of a conserved pattern, stating "there will be little or no tendency to alter the original pattern" and that "The bones of a webbed foot might have all its bones, or certain bones, lengthened and the membrane connecting them increased so as to serve as a wing". One hypothesis fitting well with Darwin's ideas and with comparative molecular data is that divergence in form arises primarily from changes in the dynamics of gene expression during development. We are testing this hypothesis using a functional genetic approach comparing limb morphogenesis between mouse and bat. We initially focused on Prx1, a homeobox gene required for developing limb skeleton elongation. A limb‐specific Prx1 enhancer was identified using a LacZ reporter assay in transgenic mice. The endogenous limb enhancer of the mouse Prx1 gene was then replaced with that of the bat by gene targeting in mouse ES cells. Targeted mice express the mouse Prx1 gene under the control of the bat limb enhancer, develop forelimbs that are significantly, albeit slightly, lengthened and display elevated levels of Prx1 mRNA in limb bones during development.

The anatomist: a true story of Gray's Anatomy

The anatomist: a true story of Gray's Anatomy

The Darwinian Eye

Endless Forms . Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts. Diana Donald and Jane Munro, Curators . Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT. 12 February-3 May, 2009. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. 16 June-4 October, 2009. www.darwinendlessforms.org Endless Forms . Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts. Diana Donald and Jane Munro, Eds. . Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2009. 358 pp. $75, £40. ISBN 9780300148268. This exhibit explores the wide range of interplay between Darwin's ideas and the visual culture of the 19th century.

MESMERISTS AND OTHER MEDDLERS: SOCIAL DARWINISM, DEGENERATION, AND EUGENICS INTRILBY

About two-thirds of the waythrough George Du Maurier'sTrilby(1894), a novel that entranced the reading public with its descriptions of Bohemian Paris and mesmerism, there is a seventeen-page digression onThe Origin of Species. This rumination is sparked by the fact that Little Billee is “reading Mr. Darwin's immortal book for the third time” while he contemplates proposing to the parson's daughter, Alice (180; pt. 5). Ultimately, he cannot bring himself to do so because Alice believes, among other Bible stories, that “[t]he world was made in six days. It is just six thousand years old,” a view debunked inThe Originby Darwin's depiction of the gradual evolution of species over vast periods of time (174; pt. 5). While the controversy elicited in the second half of the nineteenth century by Darwin's theory of natural selection continues today, the question remains: what is this debate doing in a novel about expatriate artists and the woman they love? I read this seeming digression from the sentimental and sensational plot of the novel as a cue to the importance of Darwinian ideas to readingTrilby. In this article, I trace Du Maurier's engagement inTrilbyand in his cartoons with various permutations of Social Darwinism, notably degeneration (especially its relationship to class), society's moral and cultural evolution, and eugenics. I argue that the novelist negotiates between Darwin and his interpreters as he resists collectivism, or state intervention in questions of social welfare, in favor of individual liberty in matters of sexual selection.

Narrating Descent: Popular Science, Evolutionary Theory and Gender Politics

This article examines a narrative dilemma that popular texts on evolution face. On the one hand, popular science tends to privilege linear and culturally familiar narrative structures, as previous studies of popularization have often emphasized. On the other hand, however, the Darwinian idea of natural selection resists linear narration, as narrative theorist H. Porter Abbott has argued. This resistance arises from the fact that evolution by natural selection lacks proper narrative entities and narrative events and that it relies on two parallel narrative levels, the levels of species and organism. This paper explores how two popular science books on evolution negotiate this narrative dilemma by introducing a third narrative level. Both texts appropriate characteristics from the narrative levels of species and organism and project them on molecular and minute scales by portraying evolution as a micro-narrative that takes place in chromosomes, genes, cells and microscopic details of human organs. While this textual strategy produces a coherent and compelling narrative that for the most part succeeds in masking the structural gap between the narrative levels of species and organism, it also risks naturalizing cultural imagery. In particular, this micro-narrative tends to represent popular gender ideologies as biological truths embedded in molecular processes within our bodies.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Darwin

![Figure][1] CREDITS (TOP TO BOTTOM): A. KONINGS; M. LOSOS The diversification and speciation of living organisms are the broad theme for this special section, continuing our celebration of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. The five Reviews in this section present multiple views on research on diversification at scales ranging from the macroevolutionary to the molecular. Benton (p. [728][2]) examines the extents to which biotic and abiotic factors have shaped species diversity in the fossil record. Gavrilets and Losos (p. 732) use theoretical predictions and empirical data to identify general patterns in the temporal, spatial, and genetic/morphological properties of adaptive radiation. Schluter (p. [737][3]) reviews how research on ecological speciation has shifted in focus from morphological evolution to reproductive isolation, tracing the links between Darwin's ideas and current thinking. Fraser et al. (p. [741][4]) discuss the contentious area of microbial species formation. Finally, using examples from studies of genes and mutations involved in evolutionary change, Stern and Orgogozo (p. 746) illustrate how developmental biology and evolutionary theory might combine to reveal new predictive principles of genetic evolution. The special section is accompanied by evolutionary coverage in all other sections of the magazine. The News section features the second in our series of monthly “origins” essays, on the origins of art and symbolic behavior. The Commentary section includes reviews of new evolutionary books. Science Careers carries a feature on researchers in the museum world, who play a vital role in evolutionary research. In Reports, Krug et al. (p. [767][5]) reveal the legacy of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction for the subsequent diversification of bivalves [see the accompanying Perspective by Crame (p. [720][6])]. With a focus on conservation, Carnaval et al. (p. [785][7]) model spatially explicit evolutionary processes in endemic tree-frog species in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (the biodiversity hotspot that inspired Darwin during his South American landfall). Forbes et al. (p. 776) reveal how a recent host shift of the fly Rhagoletis pomonella , a model for sympatric speciation, has led to incipient speciation in a parasitoid wasp that attacks the fly. Rowland and Emlen (p. 773) show facultative male trimorphism in dung beetles, a hitherto unsuspected level of intraspecific variation. Tang and Presgraves (p. [779][8]) report a cellular and molecular mechanism of hybrid sterility, which has a key role in speciation in Drosophila . And in Science Express, there is an echo of another of Darwin's central interests: Anderson et al. show that a melanism mutation has been selected for in gray wolves, most likely after a hybridization event with domestic dogs. This is a sample, not a survey. Research on speciation and diversification is itself expanding and diversifying. Evolutionary topics have been covered more frequently in Science in the first decade of the 21st century than in any previous one (and an order of magnitude more than in the years of the Modern Synthesis in the mid-20th century). This reflects not only the continuing efforts to understand and document the selective forces leading to speciation, but also how genetic research is homing in on the molecular and cellular mechanisms that enable diversification to occur. Darwin, we hope, would be thrilled. [1]: pending:yes [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1157719 [3]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1160006 [4]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1159388 [5]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1164905 [6]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1169410 [7]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1166955 [8]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1169123

We Are All Intellectual Descendants of Charles Darwin

Like most biology teachers, I spend much of my introductory biology course talking about evolution. Some of the discussion is explicit and traditional--for example, how Charles Darwin's father paid for Charles' adventure aboard the Beagle; the Beagle's stop in the Galapagos Islands; Darwin's work at Down House (Figures 1, 2); Darwin being outed by Alfred Russel Wallace; and the publication and impact of Darwin's masterpiece, On the Origin of Species. I then talk about some of the evidence for evolution, and repeatedly return to those ideas throughout the rest of the term. During the last week of classes, we talk about animal behavior, and I discuss kin selection. Although I've taught introductory courses for almost three decades, I still get excited about how, in this and several other instances, evolution explains what would otherwise be seemingly isolated, inexplicable facts. Without fail, my blood pressure goes up, I become more animated, and I finally end the class--not by plan, but simply in appreciation and excitement--with something like That ... is ... so ... cool. It's hard to disagree with Daniel Dennett's claim that Darwin's idea is the best idea ever. (Dennett, 1996). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Although I greatly admire what Darwin did, I'm not among those who deify him. He was lucky to have rich parents, who gave him a remarkably privileged life characterized by servants, financial security, and never having to work. Like all of us, Darwin also had some quirks, and in his later years, Darwin became a virtual recluse. He never visited his daughter Anne's grave (he also skipped her funeral), nor did he attend the funerals of those to whom he owed so much (e.g., Charles Lyell). Most people have attributed some of these behaviors to Darwin's poor health. Darwin was lucky that his inherited riches accommodated the extravagances of such a privileged, isolated life. Regardless, however, there is no denying what Darwin accomplished. [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] The other big ideas of Darwin's time--those of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud come to mind--have now faded, and are seldom mentioned. In contrast, Darwin's idea about evolution by natural selection--despite 150 years of intense scientific scrutiny and even stronger religious resistance--continues to define and point the way to answers for many of the central questions of modern biology. Evolution by natural selection unifies the study of biology; without evolution, biology is little more than lists of definitions, isolated (albeit interesting) facts, and an occasional dissected frog. With this issue, The American Biology Teacher pauses to acknowledge the impact of Charles Darwin on our profession and society. This is quite a task, for Darwin's impact is hard to overestimate. Indeed, Darwin himself has become a large, thriving industry, and Darwin's image and name appear throughout society (Figure 3). Darwin's popularity persists despite the fact that Darwin's idea, like some other great ideas in science, questions one of our most defining traits--namely, our self-ascribed importance. Whereas geologists have taught us how little time our species has inhabited our ancient Earth, and astronomers have shown us the tiny place of our planet in the cosmos, Darwin has taught us that we share a long, incredible heritage with other organisms, and that we aren't nearly as special (and certainly not god-like) as many people would like to believe. …