SUBJECTS OF INTEREST Back to Interests


        Here is a "short" list of things that have interested me lately.  As I have mentioned, I have started my web site without putting everything in it that I wanted.  As time passes I shall add some of these subjects listed below.  The list itself changes frequently as I find new things that are absolutely fascinating.

  1. Vomeronasal Gland: Flehmen
  2. Genital line or raphe and unusual urethral openings; ck Aborigines
  3. Genital mutilation and circumcision—males and females
  4. Vertebrate Eye: capabilities in various groups—color vision, resolution, etc.;indep. Evol.
  5. Function of apocrine glands and hair
  6. Hermaphroditism
  7. Effects of domestication (smaller brained cats?) Is man domesticated?
  8. Dwarfism—selective factors; re: H. floresiensis
  9. H. floresiensis
  10. Human evolution
  11. Check out Waypath.com
  12. Armadillos—quadruplets and leprosy
  13. Dry fly vs. Wet Fly fishing and the curious prevalence of arrogance and status.
  14. Why sex?
  15. Parking Lot Blackbird
  16. Roots—Uses and Structure
  17. Cannibalism
  18. Race
  19. Punctuated equilibrium
  20. Ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny
  21. Crystals
  22. Geologic time—time comparisons
  23. Consciousness
  24. Scales and Feathers
  25. Origin of Flight==insects reptiles==dif lines, birds, bats; flightless birds RATITES
  26. Hominid evolution
  27. Brooding
  28. Death Feigning
  29. “Cainism”
  30. R, K selection
  31. Squiding
  32. Convergent evolution (e.g. Vertebrate locomotion, Moloch horridus and phrynosoma.
  33. ETS?  Convergent evol.
  34. Biomechanics
  35. Endosymbiiosis
  36. Haiku
  37. Genealogy
  38. Mary Renault
  39. Zelazney
  40. Origin of Jaws
  41. Vestigial structures
  42. Useful knots
  43. Carnivory and Intelligence
  44. Evolution of stars/of matter
  45. Life’s inevitability-carbon’s characteristics and the composition of the universe…
  46. Walking Sticks
  47. Extinction
  48. Hibernatiion Adaptation to Diving
  49. Gay attributes and mannerisms—acquired or innate?
  50. Out of Africa
  51. The Neandertal Enigma
  52. Nature/nurture
  53. Mimicry—Mullerian and Batesian
  54. ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE
  55.   Innate behavior: examples: 1. Some behaviors are more innate than others.  E.g. Food getting vs. food processing—“open and closed behavioral systems.”
  56.  Neoteny and Paedogenesis.
  57.  Why is man naked?
  58. Cattle pens—extreme example of overpopulation in a small area.  Close quarters breed disease which is countered by antibiotics (which also allows them to put on weight faster?); the faster they are processed the greater the income and the less chance of disease?  Use hormones…
  59.  What are the primary problems facing mankind?  Use this for class?
  60. Chimeras
  61. Extinction—ideas, examples; Pleistocene—include H. florensiensis
  62. Parrot Distribution –not just New world?
  63. Lamarck, Lyell, Malthus, Sedgewick, Hutton, Cuvier, T.H. Huxley, Hooker--biographies
  64. Monotremes
  65. Brownian Movement
  66. Taxonomic Rules
  67. Sympatric speciation
  68. Chagas’ Disease and Darwin
  69. Genocide—Tasmania, examples from history?
  70. Dung Beetles…elephants and dinosaurs; an example of that evolutionary idea of serependipity??
  71. Introduced species…examples
  72. Island Biogeography
  73. When did Darwin become convinced of “Transmutation?” check his biography p. 213, 214
  74. In relation to Darwin’s “conversion” see Herschell’s  “mysteries of mysteries,” and Charles Babbage’s “Ninth Bridgewater,’ and the idea of God not performing everyday miracles for new species, but put the laws into effect.
  75. God—“His” nature revealed by physical processes, astronomy, cosmology, man’s nature, evolution, etc. (cf Anthropic principle).
  76. Complexity: is it inevitable in an overall sense in evolution?  Examples exist, of course, of organisms becoming less complex—but isn’t the overall tendency towards complexity?
  77. Barnacles, etc. and the diminuative males…related to why gender?
  78. Instincts—in humans and animals, compare; cf: Sociobiology
  79. Anabat—recorder for bats, interfacing with computer; applicable to birds?
  80. Brain functioning—chemical nature of memory
  81. French History –how many Napoleons?
  82. America’s changing ethnicity.
  83. Biography on Wallace (the Socialist Darwin).
  84. Biography on Bates
  85. Biography on Robert Brown
  86. Biography on Lyell
  87. Scarlett Fever—etiology—has it become less virulent?
  88. Rain coming down in “waves” like ripples expanding outwards in a pond; what causes this?
  89. Death Feigning
  90. Taron (Burma) Asia’s only pygmies
  91. Dreams: their nature, etc., theories; why often forgotten?
  92. Prior conceptions and their affect upon new discoveries:  We are already convinced that something is true, and thus all of our observations are filtered through this bias and colors all of our conclusions. C.f. Stephen J. Gould and many others.
  93. The Selfish Gene
  94. Intelligent Design--an old idea recently popularized. 
  95. Transposons--the implications
  96. Cannibalism and the widespread existence of genetic resistance to prions acquired by this practice!  Defleur analyzed remains of Neandertal's cannibalism in France. Perhaps funeral cannibalism. Suggests they were not so primitive.  Also Anasazi bones show evidence of cannibalism.  Over thirty plus sites--see Turner. Martar, U of Okl, found in human coprolite at possible butcher site human myoglobin--the smoking gun for cannibalism.
  97. Scalping, head hunting...origins?  Did European man really introduce this to the Indians?  No!
  98. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Heming
  99. Survival of surnames as compared to x and y chromosomes.
  100. San--South Africa
  101. Genetics of the X and Y Chromosomes.
  102. Bananas--no sex for 10,000 years?
  103. Genetically modified foods and other organisms--pros and cons.
  104. Earliest Americans--refer to Polynesians with links to SA indians.
  105. Population Bottle neck and human evolution (check out volcanic explosion in Indonesia 70,000 yrs ago).
  106. Ever notice the "chunky" nature of existence?  Food, environment, experiences...things occur in discrete units.
  107. Biofilms
  108. Japanese sword making
  109. The origin of "watered steel" and/or Damascus Steel.
  110. Japanese sword masters
  111. Check out: Kokinshu
  112. Japanese poets: Saikaku, Saigyo.