Natural Genesis Research Articles

Clay and iron oxide pigments in the history of painting

Clay minerals and iron oxides are intimately related in the process of their natural formation. Their mineralogical composition and physical properties correspond to the physical–chemical conditions of weathering, sedimentation and alteration processes by means of which these minerals are associated giving different types of laterites, ferrolites, ochres, and coloured clays and soils. Very early in human history, these and other clay materials were adopted as mineral pigments. Their structural and mineralogical features are directly related with their natural genesis and provenance and help us in the study of historical painting techniques and materials. This paper gives general information about geological sources and their characteristics, the literary evidence of use of different forms of earthy pigments on historical paintings, about analytical methods suitable in their identification within the ground and colour layers of the painting, and handling with the samples of works of art. The examples focused preferentially on the period of European mediaeval and baroque painting.

Genes, genesis, and God: values and their origins in natural and human history

Holmes Rolston challenges the sociobiological orthodoxy that would naturalize science, ethics, and religion. The book argues that genetic processes are not blind, selfish, and contingent, and that nature is therefore not value-free. The author examines the emergence of complex biodiversity through evolutionary history. Especially remarkable in this narrative is the genesis of human beings with their capacities for science, ethics, and religion. A major conceptual task of the book is to relate cultural genesis to natural genesis. There is also a general account of how values are created and transmitted in both natural and human cultural history. The book is written by one of the most well-respected figures in the philosophy of biology and religion.

Chemistry and the Origin of Life

AbstractThe natural genesis of life on Earth is a hypothesis of evolutionary science; it is the task of synthetic organic chemistry to test this hypothesis experimentally. The aim of an experimental aetiological chemistry is not primarily to delineate the pathways along which our (‘natural’) life on Earth could have originated, but to provide decisive experimental evidence, through the realization of model systems (‘artificial chemical life’), that life can arise as a result of the organization of organic matter.

Probabilistic assessment of travel times in groundwater modeling

A Monte Carlo approach is described for the quantification of uncertainty on travel time estimates. A real (non synthetic) and exhaustive data set of natural genesis is used for reference. Using an approach based on binary indicators, constraint interval data are easily accommodated in the modeling process. It is shown how the incorporation of imprecise data can reduce drastically the uncertainty in the estimates. It is also shown that unrealistic results are obtained when a deterministic modeling is carried out using a kriging estimate of the transmissivity field. Problems related with using sequential indicator simulation for the generation of fields incorporating constraint interval data are discussed. The final results consists of 95% probability intervals of arrival times at selected control planes reflecting the original uncertainty on the transmissivity maps.

Genesis and Natural History of IS-mediated Transposons

The natural genesis of IS1-mediated transposons containing the genetic determinant cat for chloramphenicol resistance is documented. First, the small plasmid pBR325 containing the cat gene served as a target in IS1-mediated transpositional cointegration with the genome of bacteriophage P1, which was the source of the IS1. From the resulting pBR325:P1 plasmids, pBR325::IS1 segregants were isolated. Upon growth of a phage lambda derivative in the presence of this plasmid, rare plaque-forming lambda Cmr specialized transducing phages were formed. In each of six independent lambda Cmr isolates studied, the cat gene was carried between flanking IS1 elements. In one case, these IS1 elements were in the same orientation; in the other five cases, they were in opposite orientation. All of these IS1-cat-IS1 structures transposed as units to the genome of phage P1-15, pointing to stable maintenance of the transposon. However, appropriate selection allowed us to follow the decay of these transposons. Models to explain the genesis of transposons with directly and inversely repeated IS elements are discussed, as well as the evolutionary implications of these mechanisms.

The natural genesis

The natural genesis Get access Notes and Queries, Volume s6-IX, Issue 210, 5 January 1884, Pages 19–20, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/s6-IX.210.19d Published: 05 January 1884