Year: 2022

DEFINITION. “Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype." (AKA: Differential survival = death: some survive (briefly enough to breed) and some die early; reproduction of the survivors; due to a bell curve of differential talents). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection View in LinkedIn

DEFINITION. “Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype." (AKA: Differential survival = death: some survive (briefly enough to breed) and some die early; reproduction of the survivors; due to a bell curve of differential talents). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection View in LinkedIn

ORDERLY SELECTION. “Natural selection can be defined as the process by which random evolutionary changes are selected for by nature in a consistent, orderly, non-random way.” Contemplate slowly. https://lnkd.in/dMpUKUA View in LinkedIn

KEY PRECONDITIONS. “Four general conditions necessary for natural selection to occur are:" "A. More organisms are born than can survive." "B. Organisms vary in their characteristics, even within a species." "C. Variation is inherited." "D. Differences in reproduction and survival are due to variation among organisms.” https://lnkd.in/dF6cSQH View in LinkedIn

MOBILE GENETIC ELEMENTS, non-coding RNAs, viral origins of regulatory elements, epigenetics, Viruses, and new ways of thinking about evolution have occupied this blog for some weeks, as part of a new synthesis of molecular biology that is underway by great thinkers. Now it is time to turn to another cornerstone in modern biology that needs a review, namely Mendelian inheritance. A precondition of natural selection. View in LinkedIn

THE MODERN SYNTHESIS of evolutionary ideas in step with new research findings covers many revisions of past thinking. Interestingly, Mendelian inheritance is not one of these topics that have been revised, despite the fact we know of many examples of non-Mendelian inheritance, with reasonable hypotheses proposed to explain them. View in LinkedIn

THE EXCEPTIONS to Mendelian inheritance are perhaps as interesting as the many mechanisms that are upheld by Mendelian laws. These exceptions once again illustrate that nature is the master of innovation, and the subtlety and daring of the alternative mechanisms could barely be imagined a priori. View in LinkedIn

GREGOR MENDEL's work on heredity has endured 156 years, despite his Christian views and disbelief in Darwin. He was also a gentleman scientist, like many of the day, working outside traditional science funding institutions. Despite the fact that nothing was known at the time about DNA, chromosomes, genes or meiosis, his rigorous observations have largely stood the test of time. Inconsistencies of his laws have been identified and explained by modern research. View in LinkedIn

GREGOR MENDEL. "There is no greater legend in the history of science than that of the experiments of Gregor Mendel. Three moments in this legend are extraordinary: first, how in the 1860s, Mendel discovered the laws governing the inheritance of individual characters; second, how the scientific world failed to recognise the monumental importance of these findings during his life-time; and third, the remarkable ‘rediscovery’ in 1900 of what later came to be called Mendelism." https://lnkd.in/dKsN9QF View in LinkedIn

MENDEL THE NATURALIST. "During his childhood he worked as a gardener, and as a young man attended the Olmutz Philosophical Institute. In 1843 he entered an Augustinian monastery in Brunn, Czechoslovakia. Soon afterward, his natural interest in science and specifically hereditary science led him to start experiments with the pea plant. Mendel's attraction for scientific research was based on his love of nature in general. He was not only interested in plants, but also in meteorology and theories of evolution." https://lnkd.in/dfsvaCA View in LinkedIn