Evolution In The Dark

This book provides fascinating insights into the development and genetics of evolutionary processes on the basis of animals living in the dark, such as the Astyanax cave fish. Biologically functionless traits show high variability, which results from neutral deleterious mutations no longer being eliminated by natural selection, which normally acts to preserve functional capability. These negative mutations accumulate until the traits they are responsible for become rudimentary or even lost. The random genetic basis of regressive evolution is in accordance with Nei’s Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution, which applies to the molecular level. Such processes are particularly conspicuous in species living in constant darkness, where, for example in Astyanax, all traits depending on the exposure to light, like eyes, pigmentation, visually triggered aggressive behaviour, negative phototaxis, and several peripheral outcomes of circadian rhythmicity, are useless and diminish. In compensation constructive traits like taste, olfaction or the lateral line senses are improved by selection and do not show variability. Regressive and constructive traits inherit independently, proving that the rudimentation process is not driven by pleiotropic linkage between them. All these traits are subject to mosaic evolution and exhibit unproportional epistatic gene effects, which play an important role in evolutionary adaptation and improvement. Offering valuable evolutionary insights and supplemented by a wealth of illustrations, this book will appeal to evolutionary and developmental biologists alike.

How organisms come to possess adaptive traits is a fundamental question for evolutionary biology. Although it is almost impossible to demonstrate evolution in the laboratory, this issue can be approached by using an unusual organism, “Dark-fly”: Drosophila melanogaster kept in complete darkness for 57 years through 1,400 generations, which corresponds to 28,000 years in terms of human generations. Has Dark-fly adapted to an environment of total darkness? If so, what is the molecular nature of the adaptation? In Evolution in the Dark, the remarkable findings from the Dark-fly project performed at Kyoto University are presented. It was found that Dark-fly did not have poor eyesight, but rather exhibited higher phototaxis ability and displayed lengthened bristles on the head that function as tactile receptors. Circadian rhythms were weakened but still retained in Dark-fly. With recent progress in genome science enabling researchers to perform whole genome sequencing for Dark-fly, a large number of mutations were identified including genes encoding a light receptor, olfactory receptors, and enzymes involved in neural development. The Dark-fly project is a simple but very long-term experiment. Combined with advanced techniques in genetics and genomics, it is a valuable tool for understanding the molecular nature of adaptive evolution.

In a world of technological revelations and human genius, organized religions continue to hold on to the element of faith. There are many religious questions that are satisfactorily answered in science, yet conveniently ignored by the faithful. Amidst the numerous scientific breakthroughs of the 21st Century, some still see science as the opposite of religion, even when the evidence is convincing that the two are complementary. Evolution of Darkness invites its readers to step out of the box to consider a few ideas on the dogmas that dominate religious thoughts and influences. On Christmas Eve 2012, I was invited to a candle lighting ceremony when it struck me that the Darkness we were driving out sat at the center of the flames we were holding in our hands. In other words, the Darkness in the center of the candle was responsible for the flame that provided the light in the room. This discovery enhanced my perception that the Darkness we see is the color of the energy that permeates the cosmos. Evolution of Darkness contends that this energy is intelligent and is the only authority capable of creating and sustaining this universe we live in. Every aspect of life, whether animate or inanimate, represents an expression of the Evolution of Darkness. The only legitimate expression of the God of creation is Darkness/Energy. Everything from electromagnetism to righteousness and faith are attributes of Dark Energy. From a realistic perspective, the Creator of this violent system is not a morally good God, but a God who has created a system that satisfies His needs. Everything we see around us is necessary and creates the perfect balance for the constant operation of the universe.

A thrilling showdown brings the Dark Matter trilogy to a satsifying close. Shay is trapped at the Multiverse compound while looking for the real Callie, and an unforgiving Kai is her best chance at outsmarting Alex and saving countless lives. Shay has left Kai once again by following Alex to his Multiverse compound. Her goal is to find the real Callie, but Shay discovers that the younger girl has no memory of her past. Their hope is to leave the community. While Shay pretends to be a devoted follower, Alex makes his own plans to use Shay to spread the epidemic he caused with his dark matter experiments. The survivors will be only the most worthy humans--those who evolve special abilities. The opportunistic Freja further poisons Kai's memories of his girlfriend. Angry and hurt, Kai doubles down on his mission to reveal that his former stepfather is behind the epidemic, but he has little luck convincing the authorities--until it's almost too late to save Shay from a fate worse than death.

Building on the esoteric information first revealed in Land of Osiris, this exciting book presents more of Abd'El Hakim's oral traditions, with radical new interpretations of how religion evolved in prehistoric and dynastic Khemit, or Egypt. * Have popular modern religions developed out of practices in ancient Egypt? * Did religion in Egypt represent only a shadow of the spiritual practices of prehistoric people? * Have the Western Mystery Schools such as the Rosicrucian Order evolved from these ancient systems? * Author Mehler explores the teachings of the King Akhenaten and the real Moses, the true identity of the Hyksos, and Akhenaten’s connections to The Exodus, Judaism and the Rosicrucian Order. Here for the first time in the West, are the spiritual teachings of the ancient Khemitians, the foundation for the coming new cycle of consciousness—The Awakening; more.

In the current resurgence of interest in the biological basis of animal behavior and social organization, the ideas and questions pursued by Charles Darwin remain fresh and insightful. This is especially true of The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Darwin's second most important work. This edition is a facsimile reprint of the first printing of the first edition (1871), not previously available in paperback. The work is divided into two parts. Part One marshals behavioral and morphological evidence to argue that humans evolved from other animals. Darwin shoes that human mental and emotional capacities, far from making human beings unique, are evidence of an animal origin and evolutionary development. Part Two is an extended discussion of the differences between the sexes of many species and how they arose as a result of selection. Here Darwin lays the foundation for much contemporary research by arguing that many characteristics of animals have evolved not in response to the selective pressures exerted by their physical and biological environment, but rather to confer an advantage in sexual competition. These two themes are drawn together in two final chapters on the role of sexual selection in humans. In their Introduction, Professors Bonner and May discuss the place of The Descent in its own time and relation to current work in biology and other disciplines.

Astronaut Ron Garan shares incredible insights garnered from his life of exploration to build a positive future for all humanity.Humanity, along with all life on Earth, faces a crisis that threatens our very survival; resolving it will require a giant evolutionary leap in our consciousness. In Floating in Darkness: A Journey of Evolution, Ron Garan sees the crisis coming while on an extraordinary journey through war and peace, conflict and love -- through literal outer space and inner space.Ron shows us how to find purpose and make sense out of our divisive culture, how to become a "white blood cell" in a growing immune response to heal our world. In Floating in Darkness, he shows us how to build a restorative and positive future for all.

This “superb history” of artificial light traces the evolution of society—“invariably fascinating and often original . . . [it] amply lives up to its title” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). In Brilliant, Jane Brox explores humankind’s ever-changing relationship to artificial light, from the stone lamps of the Pleistocene to the LEDs embedded in fabrics of the future. More than a survey of technological development, this sweeping history reveals how artificial light changed our world, and how those social and cultural changes in turn led to the pursuit of more ways of spreading, maintaining, and controlling light. Brox plumbs the class implications of light—who had it, who didn’t—through the centuries when crude lamps and tallow candles constricted waking hours. She identifies the pursuit of whale oil as the first time the need for light thrust us toward an environmental tipping point. Only decades later, gas street lights opened up the evening hours to leisure, which changed the ways we live and sleep and the world’s ecosystems. Edison’s bulbs produced a light that seemed to its users all but divorced from human effort or cost. And yet, as Brox’s informative portrait of our current grid system shows, the cost is ever with us. Brilliant is infused with human voices, startling insights, and timely questions about how our future lives will be shaped by light