Discus the theme of the incompatibility of happiness and truth in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Aldous Huxley’s skilful characterisation and creation of an apparent utopia are used effectively to explore the theme of the incompatibility of happiness and truth. Set in the World State of AF 632, or 2540 AD, using our calendar, everyone is content with his or her life. However, the World State is actually a dystopia with many dark secrets. One of these secrets is that although every citizen believes himself to be happy, he has been genetically engineered to think so and is a government ploy to maintain “social stability”.
Summary of “Why Evolution is true” By: Jerry A. Coyne What is evolution; chapter I explains Darwin’s theory of evolution, which applies to all species, new species are descended from earlier forms. This means that organisms with similar characteristics are likely to have shared a common ancestor sometime in the past. The more traits shared by organisms, the closer their evolutionary relationship. This principle of “common descent” explains why anthropologists are interested in studying nonhuman animals, particularly primates (the mammalian order that includes monkeys, apes, and humans), with whom humans share the closest common ancestor. Some of our important human characteristics, such as a spinal cord encased in a bony vertebral column, and the concentration of nerve cells in a brain, are part of our vertebrate heritage, established in a common ancestor over 600 million years ago.
MULTIPLE CHOICE 1. b 2. c 3. b 4. a 5. a SHORT ANSWER 1. A biologist would concentrate on homologous features, since they originated in a shared ancestor. 2. The animal evolved from an ancestor in which that structure was functional. 3.
_________________________ ____ 2. Darwin was the first scientist to use binomial nomenclature. _________________________ ____ 3. The American black bear (Ursus americanaus) and the Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) belong to different genera. _________________________ ____ 4.
Our Ancestors—Looks at some famous hominid fossils and the information they have given us about early bipedal life. Discussion Questions • • • • • • • What conditions are necessary to create life? What
Directed Reading 13.1 Section: The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection In the space provided, write the letter of the term or phrase that best completes each statement or best answers each question. ______ 1. Some individuals of a population or species are better suited to a. evolve than other individuals. b. survive and reproduce. c. become extinct.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies By: Jared Diamond World History AP Journal Entries And Reaction Paper August 12, 2015 Summary: Chapter 1 - “Up to the Starting Line” The first chapter begins with the origins of the human species. Jared Diamond believes in the concept of evolution and therefore, analyzes, what he calls, our three closest relatives: the gorilla, the common chimpanzee, and the pygmy chimpanzee. Fossils show us that 4 million years ago we achieved an upright position through evolution. It is also reported that our body and relative brain size began to grow at the same time that stone tools became common, which was about 2.5 million years ago. About half a million years ago human fossils diverged from the Homo erectus in their enlarged, rounder, and less angular skulls.
If Neanderthals ever walk the earth again, the primordial ooze from which they will rise is an emulsion of oil, water, and DNA capture beads engineered in the laboratory of 454 Life Sciences in Branford, Connecticut. Over the past 4 years those beads have been gathering tiny fragments of DNA from samples of dissolved organic materials, including pieces of Neanderthal bone. Genetic sequences have given paleoanthropologists a new line of evidence for testing ideas about the biology of our closest extinct relative. The first studies of Neanderthal DNA focused on the genetic sequences of mitochondria, the microscopic organelles that convert food to energy within cells. In 2005, however, 454 began a collaborative project with the Max Planck Institute
In Genome, Ridley wanted to give insight about the human genome and how life really worked. Ridley thought of knowledge to be a blessing and not a curse (3). Though A Heartbreaking Works of Staggering Genius did not talk about the human genome, it discussed a story and let the reader view life from Egger’s perception. Though most of the narrations were depressing, Eggers really wanted to give the audience knowledge about the truth of life. In one of his observations, Eggers stated that everyone “feeds” off of each other every day until there is nothing left but a heartless body (425).
Intelligent design contradicts the idea of the common descents. Intelligent design suggests that many organise were created at the beginning of time by a creator (God) or a supernatural intervention. By this it means all living organism could survive automatically in its surroundings. William Paley, a scientist argued in his book that god did design life on earth but there are many people and scientist who believe that this was made up to keep the people believing in god. The scientific research information which is know doesn’t really have any strong evidence to back up either of these two theories, but there has been a lot more scientific research done on the common decent from which it has given us a broad rage of information about evolution.