Throughout the book, we see Coyne's assertion of why evolution is true backed up by multiple sources of evidence (ex: vestiges, fossils, coevolution, experiments, etc.). However, it may be advantageous to discuss the technology that has helped gather the evidence used to support evolution.
Explain how one of the pieces of evidence that Coyne uses could be found through utilization of modern technology or scientific techniques (e.g. PCR). Be sure to compare older methods to these more current techniques and how modern techniques aid scientists in gathering more or better data. Note that modern technology does not need to be strictly scientific equipment, but can also include any piece of technology that is used in the modern world that was not available during the age of Darwin.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think a lot of people overlook the fact that humans are now able to traverse around the world better than they were able to before. Aside from microscopes and other modern technology, transportation and camping equipment have allowed scientists to go to places they couldn’t have gone to. By going to these places that they were not able to before, scientists were able to make important scientific discoveries that help support evolution.
ReplyDeleteI’m willing to bet that scientists in the past dreamed about going to Antarctica to find new scientific discoveries, but weren’t able to mainly because the pole is too cold to survive in. Not only that, but old ships were not guaranteed to accurately land where they were suppose to, especially with primitive compasses that might not have worked and incomplete sea charts. Some would even agree that the global wind patterns would lead the explorers lost at sea since the wind moves east instead of south near Antarctica (Campbell 1157).
Now, modern equipment, such as heavy jackets, tents, helicopters, and the like, have allowed explorers to find fossils out in the Antarctic region. For example, Coyne describes how scientists went to Antarctica to find marsupial fossils to back up the theory of convergent evolution (95). Excavating would not have been just a days worth, but possibly a couple of weeks, and maybe years. The scientists had to live on the ice shelf to find this discovery.
And with regards to transportation, obviously the explorers did not want to trudge all across the continent just to find fossils that were not even guaranteed to be there. I’m assuming that they drove or flew across the continent, considering that William Zinsmeister’s exploration took place in 1982.
Thematically, this response relates to the theme science, technology, and society. With today’s technology, scientists are able to explore even the harshest terrains like the Arctics and the deserts to make scientific finds that support scientific theories. In this case, evolution is supported by the fossils found in these previously unexplored places.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think that even in the prompt Ray brings up a great point about technological improvements not necessarily being solely "scientific equipment," and Henry's observations on transportation are very accurate. Under the theme of Science and Technology another very basic advance has been proved priceless in putting together evidence of evolution: communication.
ReplyDeleteAs the authors of "Impact of Advances in Computing and Communications Technologies on Chemical Science and Technology:
Report of a Workshop" observe, "The combination of computation with large-scale databases enables analysis of the prodigious volumes of data coming from today's experiments and simulations. However, when these enabling technologies are coupled with new capabilities in communications, an opportunity is created that can revolutionize not only the scope but also the process of scientific investigation" (Chemical Sciences Roundtable, National Research Council, 125). Evolution is never proved through the experiments of one scientist. Because of the nature of the topic, evolutionary research requires an accumulation of knowledge and the synthesis data analysis from many different tests. For example, as Coyne discusses in the very first chapter, Darwin's initial observations had to be reinforced by future fossil findings in order to make sense of all the data together and form a stronger case for evolution. In our modern forms of communication, it is much easier for a scientist to access a colleague that has worked in similar fields to analyze collective data or to find the implications of one search based on previous findings. Such everyday methods as telephone, e-mail, and internet databases provide scientists with these benefits.