Analogy vs. Homology - Theory of Evolution

Analogy vs. Homology - Theory of Evolution There are many types of evidence that support the Theory of Evolution. These pieces of evidence range from the minute molecular level of DNA similarities all the way up through similarities within the anatomical structure of organisms. When Charles Darwin first proposed his idea of natural selection, he used mostly evidence based on anatomical features of organisms he studied. Two different ways these similarities in anatomical structures can be classified is as either analogous structures or homologous structures. While both of these categories have to do with how similar body parts of different organisms are used and structured, only one is actually an indication of a common ancestor somewhere in the past. Analogy Analogy, or analogous structures, is actually the one that does not indicate there is a recent common ancestor between two organisms. Even though the anatomical structures being studied look similar and maybe even perform the same functions, they are actually a product of convergent evolution. Just because they look and act alike does not mean they are related closely on the tree of life. Convergent evolution is when two unrelated species undergo several changes and adaptations to become more similar. Usually, these two species live in similar climates and environments in different parts of the world that favor the same adaptations. The analogous features then help that species survive in the environment. One example of analogous structures is the wings of bats, flying insects, and birds. All three organisms use their wings to fly, but bats are actually mammals and not related to birds or flying insects. In fact, birds are more closely related to dinosaurs than they are to bats or flying insects. Birds, flying insects, and bats all adapted to their niches in their environments by developing wings. However, their wings are not indicative of a close evolutionary relationship. Another example is the fins on a shark and a dolphin. Sharks are classified within the fish family while dolphins are mammals. However, both live in similar environments in the ocean where fins are favorable adaptations for animals that need to swim and move in the water. If they are traced back far enough on the tree of life, eventually there will be a common ancestor for the two, but it would not be considered a recent common ancestor and therefore the fins of a shark and a dolphin are considered to be analogous structures. Homology The other classification of similar anatomical structures is called homology. In homology, the homologous structures did, in fact, evolve from a recent common ancestor. Organisms with homologous structures are more closely related to each other on the tree of life than those with analogous structures. However, they are still closely related to a recent common ancestor and have most likely undergone divergent evolution. Divergent evolution is where closely related species become less similar in structure and function due to the adaptations they acquire during the natural selection process. Migration to new climates, competition for niches with other species, and even microevolutionary changes like DNA mutations can contribute to divergent evolution. An example of homology is the tailbone in humans with the tails of cats and dogs. While our coccyx or tailbone has become a vestigial structure, cats and dogs still have their tails intact. We may no longer have a visible tail, but the structure of the coccyx and the supporting bones are very similar to the tailbones of our household pets. Plants can also have homology. The prickly spines on a cactus and the leaves on an oak tree look very dissimilar, but they are actually homologous structures. They even have very different functions. While cactus spines are primarily for protection and to prevent water loss in its hot and dry environment, the oak tree does not have those adaptations. Both structures do contribute to photosynthesis of their respective plants, however, so not all of the most recent common ancestor’s functions have been lost. Oftentimes, organisms with homologous structures actually look very different from each other when compared to how close some species with analogous structures look to each other.

Caryl Churchill Essays - Caryl Churchill, Postmodern Theatre

Caryl Churchill Essays - Caryl Churchill, Postmodern Theatre Caryl Churchill Caryl Churchill is one of England's most premier females, modern playwrights. She has strived throughout her career as theatrical personality to make the world question roles, stereotypes and issues that are dealt with everyday, such as violence and political and sexual oppression. Not only has she been a strong force on the stage, but has also had strong influences with radio and television. Overall, this woman can simply be summarized to be a fascinating personality. Especially in a time where women did not have the same rights as women nowadays, we can safely infer that her feats represent her determination as a playwright as well as an actor. Churchill was born in London on September 3, 1938. She lived in England until the age of ten when her family moved to Canada. There she attended Trafalgar School in Montreal until 1955. At this time she moved back to England to attend Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. This is the key place where her career began. While studying English at Oxford she took an interest in theater. Actually, she wrote her first three plays while at the university. When her career in theater and performance started at Oxford she had begun the first phase in her career. She was very focused on sounds and voice. In fact, her first three plays, Downstairs (1958), You've No Need to be Frightened (1959), and Having a Wonderful Time (1959) were all extremely focused on sound. This fact might have been propelled by her career as a radio playwright. For the next ten years she concentrated her energy mainly on radio plays, starting off with The Ants, which she herself, thought of it as a TV play, but my agent Margaret Ramsey sensibly sent it to radio. During the time of her writing for theater and her sounds phase, she was looking outward, investigating new places for her to take her art. She wrote a few stage plays during her radio phase, but none were produced. She re-wrote some of her radio plays and, this time, eight of them were produced between the years of 1962 and 1973. She then slowly made here transition from her radio career into acting and writing television plays. She became very unsatisfied with it very quickly, commenting that Televisionattracts me very much lessIt has the attraction of large audiences and being the ordinary peoples' medium and not being the sort of effete cultural thing that no one ever pays any attention to anyway. But as an actual medium, as a physical thing that happens, I don't find it anything as exciting as acting on a stage. Gradually, Churchill's reputation would become comparable to that of the Royal Court, a rather well-known producing company. She became the first female resident dramatist, and later helped with the Young Writer's Group program. During her time at the Royal Court she wrote many plays, still focusing a great deal on sound and voice. At the same time that she held her position of resident dramatist for the Royal Court, she also worked at other theatres and with other groups. She founded the Theatre Writers Group, now known as the Theatre Writers Union, and had works produced by Joint Stock Theatre Group and Monstrous Regiment. From then on in her career, Caryl Churchill would both write as well as act in many plays challenging society in many different ways such as racial discrimination, sexual discrimination, and more. These plays challenge not only the thoughts and practices of the past and of her present, but also that the reputations of history be regarded as sealed records not amenable to change in the present. In other words, she was trying to say that anything done in the past cannot be changed in any way, because the damage has already been done. The next move that Churchill made in her career was to attack the ideas of gender in her society. In her plays, Churchill somehow manages to cross-gender the characters of the play, creating humorous scenes. One critic exclaimed, By mismatching the performers with their stage roles, Churchill underscores the artificiality and conventionality of the characters' sex roles. A clever theatrical idea thus serves a dramatic purpose, and

Three technologies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Three technologies - Essay Example It creates a collective working environment by maintaining shared documents and information. The technology also enables group members to monitor project management functions including assignments, time management, problem solving, and documentation. Secondly, e-mail is the most simplified means of communication which can enhance group interaction irrespective of the geographical location. According to my opinion, e-mail is the best means to build up effective relations, teamwork, and leadership. People enjoy freedom of expression while using internet because it does not have any external constrains to limit the freedom of speech. Via e-mail members can create strong interpersonal relationship along with their knowledge sharing, private file sharing, and video sharing. Finally, I would suggest the technology of video conference as the effective means of conversational interaction. It is the advanced form of telecommunication groupware that can enable visual collaboration from different locations to facilitate a group project and decision making. Furthermore, it can provide a sense of face-to-face interaction and will have a positive impact on the group’s productivity, performance and total

EQUITY & PROPERTY LAW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

EQUITY & PROPERTY LAW - Essay Example When equity developed as a parallel system to the common law, it was considered innovative by acknowledging â€Å"new† rights where common law failed to provide â€Å"justice†2. The intrinsic nature of this innovative system lay in the judicial â€Å"discretion† referred to by Lord Hoffman in Co-operative Insurance Society Limited v Argyll Stores Holdings Limited3. From a historical perspective, equity developed as a result of inflexibility of common law and â€Å"wiped away the tears of the common law†4. However, this exercise of judicial discretion led to an uneasy relationship with the common law. The clash was resolved in favour of equity and resulted in equity prevailing in the event of a conflict, which is now statutorily enshrined in section 49 of the Supreme Court Act 1981. Moreover, if we firstly consider Bill and Muriel’s position, if Charles had orally agreed for them to acquire proprietary interests in the Property, then Section 2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 (the 1989 Act) provides that â€Å"a contract for the sale or other disposition of an interest in land can only be made in writing and only by incorporating all the terms, which the parties have expressly agreed in one document or, where the contracts have been exchanged, in each†. The essence of Section 2 is the requirement that the contract must be in writing and contain all the terms expressly agreed to and be signed by both parties. If the rules are not complied with, there will be no contract. In the past, failure to comply with the written requirements was remedied by equity when there had been part performance of a contract. Whilst there is no express provision in the 1989 Act specifically abolishing part performance, there has been an assumption that the doctrine is no longer applicable as section 2 clearly renders oral contracts void. Therefore, at common law, any oral

Innocent Commission Essay Example for Free

Innocent Commission Essay It is better to let a thousand guilty individuals go free than to let one innocent person suffer (Volokh, 1997). The rationale behind this statement is that nobody can put a price in the life and liberty of a person. Wrongful conviction of an innocent man destroys his whole life and family. While the innocent is suffering the punishment for something that he did not do, the guilty is enjoying the freedom that the innocent man deserved but has been deprived of. The Criminal Justice System provides that in criminal cases, the burden of proof required to convict a person is proof beyond reasonable doubt and this burden lies in the State. This means that if there is so much of an iota of doubt in the innocence or guilt of a person then the State has no choice but to let the accused go because it has not fully satisfied its burden. Wrongful conviction is caused by several factors such as improper forensics, false conviction and other unfortunate incidents. Improper or unvalidated forensics is one of the biggest causes of wrongful conviction in the United States. Before DNA testing was available, many individuals were sent to prison on the basis of the eyewitness testimonies which are not one hundred percent accurate. The discovery of DNA analysis in the 80s greatly helped in ruling out and identifying innocent from guilty persons. Aside from DNA testing, other forensics tests are used to verify completely the identity of the victim and the accused such as tests to compare bite marks, shoe prints, firearms, hair microscopy and many more. Some of these may not be fully subjected to rigid evaluation and there may be a tendency for these tests to be handled incorrectly or presented vaguely in trial which in turn may lead to a wrongful conviction (Innocence Project, N. d.). Innocent individuals also get convicted based on false confessions not only from them but from acclaimed eye witnesses as well. In some cases, the accused, even though innocent says some incriminating statements that sooner or later lead to their conviction. There are many reasons why innocent people confess to crimes they did not commit. Some of them are just coerced or under duress when they made that statement. Studies show that some confessions are influenced by the mental state of the person. For instance, confession from minors are often unreliable given the fact that they are not fully aware of the repercussions of their actions and they can easily be persuaded. Children under legal age can seem to be quite vulnerable that some law enforcers seem to take advantage of this kind of situation(Innocence Project, 2003). When a crime happens and the victim files a charge, he becomes a witness for the State and in turn, the government will do everything they can to overturn the burden and get the bad guy out of the street. It is a good thing that the State is there to protect its people, however, it becomes a bad thing when the prosecution oversteps some boundaries in order to secure a conviction regardless of the guilt or innocence of the accused. The Criminal Justice System should be given credit for their hard work solving crimes and capturing the guilty. The police and other fellow law enforcers are reliable and trust worthy but as rewarding as the job is, there can be a few bad apples in the department and as sad as it is to admit, these incidences cause people to lose faith in the government (Innocence Project, 2003). Helping the victims get justice for what happened to them and putting guilty people in jail are both remarkable acts but helping an innocent person escape the punishment he does not deserve also has its own equal reward. References Innocence Project. N. d.   Understand `the Causes. Retrieved June 3, 2009, from http://www.innocenceproject.org/about/Contact-Us.php Innocence Project. 2003. North Carolina Actual Innocence Commission.Retrieved June 3, 2009, from http://www.innocenceproject.org/docs/NC_Innocence_Commission_Mission.html Volokh, A. 1997. n Guilty Men. University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Retrieved June 3, 2009, from http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/guilty.htm

Michael Moore´s Bowling For Columbine Essay -- Film Movies

Michael Moore ´s Bowling For Columbine Bowling For Columbine is a well-directed documentary that informs people about gun violence in America. Michael Moore is successful in showing that America has been going through many gun tragedies; and portrays the sense that America’s problems are out of control. He conveys this through informative facts, images, and comparisons. Throughout the film Michael Moore throws many cold facts on the screen that makes it obvious that the strong nation of America is unruly. One of the facts that stand out the most is the number of deaths caused by guns in America per year. In comparison to the other countries, America has an outstanding of 11,127 gun related deaths a year. This is ten times more than all the countries together that are mentioned in the documentary. With this extreme comparison it shows that there is something in America that is making people turn on their fellow man and shoot them in the head. On April 19, 1999 two boys Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, went to school and killed 12 students and one teacher. Michael Moore does not really need to go further than just stating these few words to show how incredibly devastating this day was. How have the social standards reduced themselves to a world where two high school students feel that they have the right to bring firearms to school and open fire? O ne is reminded of an old saying, â€Å"like father like son.† The American government can be seen as the father to all the ...

How the earth was made Essay

1. According to the church, the age of the earth was 6,000 years old. 2. James Hutton discovered that the earth was much older from the tilted rocks because he knew these rocks was once laid down horizontally on the sea floor and were buried under great depth to be crystalized. Then they were tilted on end by great earth forces and then eroded away. The rocks were then deposited on top. He understood it had to take millions of years for this process to happen. 3. Lord Kelvin calculated the earth to be around 20 million years old from the law of thermodynamics. 4. Arthur Holmes used radioactive particles of uranium in the attempt to accurate date the planet. He used radiometric dating which changed the concept of how old the earth is. 5. The accepted age is the Earth is 4.5 billion years. 6. The source of most water on the Earth was extraterrestrial. It was asteroids that were filled with water that crashed on the Earth that we get our water from. 7. Granite rocks started to form the continents 3.4 billion years ago 8. Granite rocks have a much lower density than basalt. 9. The stromatolites is a single cell organism that lives off sunlight and it would fill the air with oxygen making life on earth possible. 10. Alfred Weneger was a German weather scientist and proposed that the continents had been joined together. 11. It made an extrapolation of the rocks. I was hard to believe to have a larger continent be pushed through the ocean floor and his theory was considered wrong. 12. On either side of the plates in Iceland in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, it is expanding the size of the Atlantic Ocean. Also the Fisher Eruptions in Iceland mark the path of the deep plate boundary all around the island. It is also pushing America and Europe a part. 13. The rate of continental drift is 2.5cm per year. 14. The name of the first super continent formed 1 billion years ago is Rodina 15. 700 million years ago, Rodina position was blocking the currents  that brought warm water from the equator to the poles. Without this heat, the polar region froze. The ice reflect the sun’s ray from the earth and the snowball effect occurred. 16. Beneath the ice the future continent was in turmoil. Vast volcanic eruptions split Rodina a part. 17. The fossils in the Burgess Shale indicate that 500 million years ago life exploded with staggering diversity and complexity. 18. The formation of the ozone layer lead to life because it freed life forms from the oceans. The ozone layer was a UV shield for these life forms. 19. 300 million years ago in the carboniferous period, the earth was covered with wetlands. Freshwater swamps are said to cover the earth during this time. 20. Coal came from millions of years of accumulated plant matter. It came from the way wet water lands decompose. Oil and gas came from the remains of dead microorganisms. 21. The Permian Extinction 250 million years ago that 95% of species perished was caused by mass volcanic eruptions all over the Earth. 22. The new super continent that formed after mass volcanic eruptions was called Pangea. It existed 240 million years ago. 23. A new upsurge in volcanic activity spilt a part the great super continent Pangea. 24. Diamonds are the high pressure form of carbon. They are found in the mouths of ancient volcanoes. 25. 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs vanished. 26. The finding of iridium indicates that dinosaurs became extinct from a tremendous hit from a meteor on Earth. 27. The asteroid that hit the planet and caused the mass extinction of the dinosaurs was 100 miles across. 28. Evidence the gives validity to plate tectonics found in the Alps is the Matterhorn which is made up of two continents. 29. Plates tectonics and erosion contribute the a mountain height 30. The two opposing forces that contribute to the formation of the Grand Canyon is the Colorado River and the uprising plateau. 31. The grand freezing was triggered when the overflowing volcanoes in Panama created the land bridge joined the North to South America. This altered global coastal currents. 32. Two pieces of evidence that glaciers covered the earth are: the scores of tiny parallel lines marked in bedrock and the way rocks were position in the New York area. 33. 200 million years from now, a new super continent will be formed. 34. 2 billion years from now, the atmosphere and oceans will be stripped away. Leaving earth as a bone dry barren dessert.