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Topic: Dawkins Excerpt: A Devil's Chaplain (Read 656 times) |
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Kharin
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In heaven all the interesting people are missing.
  
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Dawkins Excerpt: A Devil's Chaplain
« on: 2003-02-10 08:20:18 » |
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http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,6761,891049,00.html
"My dear Wallace... I do not think you understand what I mean by the non-blending of certain varieties. It does not refer to fertility; an instance will explain. I crossed the Painted Lady and Purple sweetpeas, which are very differently coloured varieties, and got, even out of the same pod, both varieties perfect but none intermediate. Something of this kind I should think must occur at least with your butterflies & the three forms of Lythrum; tho' these cases are in appearance so wonderful, I do not know that they are really more so than every female in the world producing distinct male and female offspring...
Believe me, yours very sincerely Ch. Darwin"
Here Darwin comes closer to anticipating Mendel than in the passage quoted by Fisher, and he even mentions his own Mendel-like experiments on sweet peas. I am extremely grateful to Dr Seymour J Garte of New York University, who found this letter by chance in a volume of correspondence between Darwin and Wallace in the British Library in London, immediately recognised its significance and sent a copy to me."
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rhinoceros
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My point is ...
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Re:Dawkins Excerpt: A Devil's Chaplain
« Reply #1 on: 2003-02-10 15:42:58 » |
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[kharin]
http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,6761,891049,00.html
<snip>
[rhinoceros]
An intersting article by Dawkins. Besides the non-blending of varieties which Darwin had forseen, the part about how the memetic (cultural) factors of sexual selection can be responsible for genetic differences between peoples of different regions was also an interestng idea.
Going back to the the genetic factors of sexual selection, did you know that gorilla's erect penis is only 1.5 inches and there seem to be good reasons for that?
The (Im)moral Animal
A Quick & Dirty Guide to Evolutionary Psychology & the Nature of Human Nature
By Frank Miele
http://www.skeptic.com/04.1.miele-immoral.html
Human Mating Systems and Sexual Selection
Is there any evidence for any of the forms of mate competition in humans?
http://www.lifesciences.napier.ac.uk/courses/modules/BI22201/L14.HTM
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