|
|
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.
- Vomeronasal Gland: Flehmen
- Genital line or raphe and unusual urethral openings;
ck Aborigines
- Genital mutilation and circumcision—males and
females
- Vertebrate Eye: capabilities in various groups—color
vision, resolution, etc.;indep. Evol.
- Function of apocrine glands and hair
- Hermaphroditism
- Effects of domestication (smaller brained cats?) Is
man domesticated?
- Dwarfism—selective factors; re: H. floresiensis
- H. floresiensis
- Human evolution
- Check out Waypath.com
- Armadillos—quadruplets and leprosy
- Dry fly vs. Wet Fly fishing and the curious
prevalence of arrogance and status.
- Why sex?
- Parking Lot Blackbird
- Roots—Uses and Structure
- Cannibalism
- Race
- Punctuated equilibrium
- Ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny
- Crystals
- Geologic time—time comparisons
- Consciousness
- Scales and Feathers
- Origin of Flight==insects reptiles==dif lines,
birds, bats; flightless birds RATITES
- Hominid evolution
- Brooding
- Death Feigning
- “Cainism”
- R, K selection
- Squiding
- Convergent evolution
(e.g. Vertebrate locomotion, Moloch horridus and phrynosoma.
- ETS? Convergent evol.
- Biomechanics
- Endosymbiiosis
- Haiku
- Genealogy
- Mary Renault
- Zelazney
- Origin of Jaws
- Vestigial structures
- Useful knots
- Carnivory and Intelligence
- Evolution of stars/of matter
- Life’s inevitability-carbon’s characteristics and
the composition of the universe…
- Walking Sticks
- Extinction
- Hibernatiion Adaptation to Diving
- Gay attributes and mannerisms—acquired or innate?
- Out of Africa
- The Neandertal Enigma
- Nature/nurture
- Mimicry—Mullerian and Batesian
- ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE
- Innate behavior: examples: 1. Some behaviors are
more innate than others. E.g. Food getting vs. food processing—“open and
closed behavioral systems.”
- Neoteny and Paedogenesis.
- Why is man naked?
- 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…
- What are the primary problems facing mankind? Use
this for class?
- Chimeras
- Extinction—ideas, examples; Pleistocene—include H.
florensiensis
- Parrot Distribution –not just New world?
- Lamarck, Lyell, Malthus, Sedgewick, Hutton, Cuvier,
T.H. Huxley, Hooker--biographies
- Monotremes
- Brownian Movement
- Taxonomic Rules
- Sympatric speciation
- Chagas’ Disease and Darwin
- Genocide—Tasmania, examples from history?
- Dung Beetles…elephants and dinosaurs; an example of
that evolutionary idea of serependipity??
- Introduced species…examples
- Island Biogeography
- When did Darwin become convinced of “Transmutation?”
check his biography p. 213, 214
- 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.
- God—“His” nature revealed by physical processes,
astronomy, cosmology, man’s nature, evolution, etc. (cf Anthropic
principle).
- 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?
- Barnacles, etc. and the diminuative males…related to
why gender?
- Instincts—in humans and animals, compare; cf:
Sociobiology
- Anabat—recorder for bats, interfacing with computer;
applicable to birds?
- Brain functioning—chemical nature of memory
- French History –how many Napoleons?
- America’s changing ethnicity.
- Biography on Wallace (the Socialist Darwin).
- Biography on Bates
- Biography on Robert Brown
- Biography on Lyell
- Scarlett Fever—etiology—has it become less virulent?
- Rain coming down in “waves” like ripples expanding
outwards in a pond; what causes this?
- Death Feigning
- Taron (Burma) Asia’s only pygmies
- Dreams: their nature, etc., theories; why often
forgotten?
- 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.
- The Selfish Gene
- Intelligent Design--an old idea recently
popularized.
- Transposons--the implications
- 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.
- Scalping, head hunting...origins? Did European
man really introduce this to the Indians? No!
- Thomas Jefferson and Sally Heming
- Survival of surnames as compared to x and y
chromosomes.
- San--South Africa
- Genetics of the X and Y Chromosomes.
- Bananas--no sex for 10,000 years?
- Genetically modified foods and other organisms--pros
and cons.
- Earliest Americans--refer to Polynesians with links
to SA indians.
- Population Bottle neck and human evolution (check
out volcanic explosion in Indonesia 70,000 yrs ago).
- Ever notice the "chunky" nature of existence?
Food, environment, experiences...things occur in discrete units.
- Biofilms
- Japanese sword making
- The origin of "watered steel" and/or Damascus Steel.
- Japanese sword masters
- Check out: Kokinshu
- Japanese poets: Saikaku, Saigyo.
|
|
|