CHARLES DARWIN, FUTURE & THE SCIENCE OF EVOLUTION

Today, The Winsors and The Grandma have met one of the most important scientist of all time, Charles Darwin, who contributed to the science of evolution.

Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.

Darwin's theory of evolutionary selection holds that variation within species occurs randomly and that the survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that organism's ability to adapt to its environment. He set these theories forth in his book The Origin of Species (1859).

More information: Charles Darwin, The Great Genius Of The Evolution

Before the visit, the family has studied some English grammar with the Future Simple (Will/Won't), and they have talked about Tarot and the art of divination and cartomancy. They have also talked about how to build the future of countries and communities with the example of France, and two French spoken singers -Edith Piaf and Céline Dion.

Finally, they have talked about the figure of the sibyl from the ancient Greece to our days with the examples of The Song of Sibyl, the liturgical drama and a Gregorian chant, the lyrics of which comprise a prophecy describing the Apocalypse, that was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, and the character of Professor Sybill Trewlaney in Harry Potter's saga.

More information: Future Simple

More information: The Tarot. Card Reading, Divination & Cartomancy

More information: The Song Of Sibyl, Ancient Mediterranean Culture

More information: Sybill Trelawney, Prophecies Since Ancient Times

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809-19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution.

His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted, and considered a foundational concept in science.

In a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.

Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and he was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey.

Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the educated public had accepted evolution as a fact. However, many favoured competing explanations which gave only a minor role to natural selection, and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution.

Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.

Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead, he helped to investigate marine invertebrates. Studies at the University of Cambridge (Christ's College) encouraged his passion for natural science.

More information: Live Science

His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell's conception of gradual geological change, and publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular author.

Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin began detailed investigations, and in 1838 conceived his theory of natural selection.

Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research and his geological work had priority.

He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay that described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication of both of their theories.

Darwin's work established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. In 1871 he examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).

His research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his final book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Actions of Worms (1881), he examined earthworms and their effect on soil.

The publication of Darwin's theory brought into the open Charles Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection, the culmination of more than twenty years of work.

Thoughts on the possibility of transmutation of species which he recorded in 1836 towards the end of his five-year voyage on the Beagle were followed on his return by findings and work which led him to conceive of his theory in September 1838.

He gave priority to his career as a geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell's uniformitarian ideas, and to publication of the findings from the voyage as well as his journal of the voyage, but he discussed his evolutionary ideas with several naturalists and carried out extensive research on his hobby of evolutionary work.

He was writing up his theory in 1858 when he received an essay from Alfred Russel Wallace who was in Borneo, describing Wallace's own theory of natural selection, prompting immediate joint publication of extracts from Darwin's 1844 essay together with Wallace's paper as On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection in a presentation to the Linnaean Society on 1 July 1858.

This attracted little notice, but spurred Darwin to write an abstract of his work which was published in 1859 as his book On the Origin of Species.

 

 More information: Tree Hugger

Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype.

It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations.

 

Charles Darwin popularised the term natural selection, contrasting it with artificial selection, which in his view is intentional, whereas natural selection is not. Variation exists within all populations of organisms. This occurs partly because random mutations arise in the genome of an individual organism, and their offspring can inherit such mutations. Throughout the lives of the individuals, their genomes interact with their environments to cause variations in traits.

The environment of a genome includes the molecular biology in the cell, other cells, other individuals, populations, species, as well as the abiotic environment. Because individuals with certain variants of the trait tend to survive and reproduce more than individuals with other less successful variants, the population evolves. Other factors affecting reproductive success include sexual selection, now often included in natural selection, and fecundity selection.

Natural selection acts on the phenotype, the characteristics of the organism which actually interact with the environment, but the genetic (heritable) basis of any phenotype that gives that phenotype a reproductive advantage may become more common in a population.

Over time, this process can result in populations that specialise for particular ecological niches (microevolution) and may eventually result in speciation (the emergence of new species, macroevolution). In other words, natural selection is a key process in the evolution of a population.

Natural selection is a cornerstone of modern biology. The concept, published by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in a joint presentation of papers in 1858, was elaborated in Darwin's influential 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

He described natural selection as analogous to artificial selection, a process by which animals and plants with traits considered desirable by human breeders are systematically favoured for reproduction.

The concept of natural selection originally developed in the absence of a valid theory of heredity; at the time of Darwin's writing, science had yet to develop modern theories of genetics.

The union of traditional Darwinian evolution with subsequent discoveries in classical genetics formed the modern synthesis of the mid-20th century. The addition of molecular genetics has led to evolutionary developmental biology, which explains evolution at the molecular level. While genotypes can slowly change by random genetic drift, natural selection remains the primary explanation for adaptive evolution.

More information: The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

 

 
A scientific man ought to have no wishes,

no affections, a mere heart of stone.

Charles Darwin

THE SCIENCE & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS IN LONDON

Today, The Winsors and The Grandma have had a free day. They have decided to visit two of the most important museums in London, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.

The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and today is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually.

Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Science Museum does not charge visitors for admission, although visitors are asked for a donation if they are able. Temporary exhibitions may incur an admission fee. It is part of the Science Museum Group, having merged with the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester in 2012.

The museum was founded in 1857 under Bennet Woodcroft from the collection of the Royal Society of Arts and surplus items from the Great Exhibition as part of the South Kensington Museum, together with what is now the Victoria and Albert Museum. It included a collection of machinery which became the Museum of Patents in 1858, and the Patent Office Museum in 1863. This collection contained many of the most famous exhibits of what is now the Science Museum.

In 1883, the contents of the Patent Office Museum were transferred to the South Kensington Museum. In 1885, the Science Collections were renamed the Science Museum and in 1893 a separate director was appointed. The Art Collections were renamed the Art Museum, which eventually became the Victoria and Albert Museum.

When Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone for the new building for the Art Museum, she stipulated that the museum be renamed after herself and her late husband. This was initially applied to the whole museum, but when that new building finally opened ten years later, the title was confined to the Art Collections and the Science Collections had to be divorced from it.

On 26 June 1909, the Science Museum, as an independent entity, came into existence.

The Science Museum's present quarters, designed by Sir Richard Allison, were opened to the public in stages over the period 1919–28. This building was known as the East Block, construction of which began in 1913 and temporarily halted by World War I. As the name suggests it was intended to be the first building of a much larger project, which was never realized.

However, the Museum buildings were expanded over the following years; a pioneering Children's Gallery with interactive exhibits opened in 1931, the Centre Block was completed in 1961-3, the infill of the East Block and the construction of the Lower & Upper Wellcome Galleries in 1980, and the construction of the Wellcome Wing in 2000 result in the Museum now extending to Queen's Gate.

More information: Science Museum

The Science Museum now holds a collection of over 300,000 items, including such famous items as Stephenson's Rocket, Puffing Billy (the oldest surviving steam locomotive), the first jet engine, the Apollo 10 command module, a reconstruction of Francis Crick and James Watson's model of DNA, some of the earliest remaining steam engines, a working example of Charles Babbage's Difference engine, the first prototype of the 10,000-year Clock of the Long Now, and documentation of the first typewriter. It also contains hundreds of interactive exhibits.

At the front of the museum to the east is Exhibition Road. Immediately to the south is Museum Lane and the Natural History Museum. To the rear is Queen's Gate and to the north is Imperial College.

More information: Visit London

 

For me too, the periodic table was a passion...

As a boy, I stood in front of the display for hours,

thinking how wonderful it was that each of those metal foils

and jars of gas had its own distinct personality.

[Referring to the periodic table display in the Science Museum, 

London, with element samples in bottles].

Freeman Dyson

The Natural History Museum in London is a natural history museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history.

It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road.

The Museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology and zoology.

The Museum is a centre of research specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Charles Darwin.

The Museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture -sometimes dubbed a cathedral of nature -both exemplified by the large Diplodocus cast that dominated the vaulted central hall before it was replaced in 2017 with the skeleton of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling. 

The Natural History Museum Library contains extensive books, journals, manuscripts, and artwork collections linked to the work and research of the scientific departments; access to the library is by appointment only.

The Museum is recognised as the pre-eminent centre of natural history and research of related fields in the world.

More information: Natural History Museum

Although commonly referred to as the Natural History Museum, it was officially known as British Museum (Natural History) until 1992, despite legal separation from the British Museum itself in 1963. Originating from collections within the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened by 1881 and later incorporated the Geological Museum. The Darwin Centre is a more recent addition, partly designed as a modern facility for storing the valuable collections.

Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum does not charge an admission fee. The museum is an exempt charity and a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is a patron of the museum. There are approximately 850 staff at the museum. The two largest strategic groups are the Public Engagement Group and Science Group.

More information: Charles Darwin, the Genius of the Evolution

More information: The Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin's Paradise

More information: The Jones Visit the Charles Darwin's Foundation

More information: Lonesome George, the last Chelonoidis Abingdonii

 

A scientific man ought to have no wishes,

no affections, -a mere heart of stone.

Charles Darwin

CHARLES DARWIN, EVOLUTION & NATURAL SELECTION

Charles Darwin

On a day like today in 1858, Charles Darwin first published his theory of evolution through natural selection in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory and The Grandma wants to talk about it.

Because of it is an interesting theme that needs lots of information, The Grandma has received the amazing visit of one of her closest friends, Joseph de Ca'th Lon, who is an expert in Archaeology, Anthropology and Astronomy and a great follower of Charles Darwin's life and works.

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809-19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution.

His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted, and considered a foundational concept in science.

In a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.

Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and he was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey.

Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the educated public had accepted evolution as a fact. However, many favoured competing explanations which gave only a minor role to natural selection, and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution.

More information: Live Science

Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.

Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead, he helped to investigate marine invertebrates. Studies at the University of Cambridge (Christ's College) encouraged his passion for natural science.

His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell's conception of gradual geological change, and publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular author.

Charles Darwin

Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin began detailed investigations, and in 1838 conceived his theory of natural selection.

Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research and his geological work had priority.

He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay that described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication of both of their theories.

Darwin's work established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. In 1871 he examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).

His research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his final book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Actions of Worms (1881), he examined earthworms and their effect on soil.

The publication of Darwin's theory brought into the open Charles Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection, the culmination of more than twenty years of work.

More information: Tree Hugger

Thoughts on the possibility of transmutation of species which he recorded in 1836 towards the end of his five-year voyage on the Beagle were followed on his return by findings and work which led him to conceive of his theory in September 1838.

He gave priority to his career as a geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell's uniformitarian ideas, and to publication of the findings from the voyage as well as his journal of the voyage, but he discussed his evolutionary ideas with several naturalists and carried out extensive research on his hobby of evolutionary work.

He was writing up his theory in 1858 when he received an essay from Alfred Russel Wallace who was in Borneo, describing Wallace's own theory of natural selection, prompting immediate joint publication of extracts from Darwin's 1844 essay together with Wallace's paper as On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection in a presentation to the Linnaean Society on 1 July 1858.

Charles Darwin

This attracted little notice, but spurred Darwin to write an abstract of his work which was published in 1859 as his book On the Origin of Species.

Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype.

It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations.

Charles Darwin popularised the term natural selection, contrasting it with artificial selection, which in his view is intentional, whereas natural selection is not. Variation exists within all populations of organisms. This occurs partly because random mutations arise in the genome of an individual organism, and their offspring can inherit such mutations. Throughout the lives of the individuals, their genomes interact with their environments to cause variations in traits.

The environment of a genome includes the molecular biology in the cell, other cells, other individuals, populations, species, as well as the abiotic environment. Because individuals with certain variants of the trait tend to survive and reproduce more than individuals with other less successful variants, the population evolves. Other factors affecting reproductive success include sexual selection, now often included in natural selection, and fecundity selection.

Natural selection acts on the phenotype, the characteristics of the organism which actually interact with the environment, but the genetic (heritable) basis of any phenotype that gives that phenotype a reproductive advantage may become more common in a population.

More info: Charles Darwin & The Origin of Species by Keith A. Francis

Over time, this process can result in populations that specialise for particular ecological niches (microevolution) and may eventually result in speciation (the emergence of new species, macroevolution). In other words, natural selection is a key process in the evolution of a population.

Natural selection is a cornerstone of modern biology. The concept, published by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in a joint presentation of papers in 1858, was elaborated in Darwin's influential 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

He described natural selection as analogous to artificial selection, a process by which animals and plants with traits considered desirable by human breeders are systematically favoured for reproduction.

The concept of natural selection originally developed in the absence of a valid theory of heredity; at the time of Darwin's writing, science had yet to develop modern theories of genetics.

The union of traditional Darwinian evolution with subsequent discoveries in classical genetics formed the modern synthesis of the mid-20th century. The addition of molecular genetics has led to evolutionary developmental biology, which explains evolution at the molecular level. While genotypes can slowly change by random genetic drift, natural selection remains the primary explanation for adaptive evolution.

More information: The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

A scientific man ought to have no wishes,

no affections, a mere heart of stone.

Charles Darwin

THE SCIENCE & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS IN LONDON

Joseph de Ca'th Lon is waiting for The Stones

I am Joseph de Ca'th Lon. I am 55. I was born in Switzerland, an amazing beautiful country situated in the confluence of western, central, and southern Europe. It is a federal republic composed of 26 cantons, with federal authorities seated in Bern.

Nowadays, I live in Terrassa, Barcelona. I speak seven languages Romansh, Italian, French and German that I learnt in my native country thanks to my work as a banker in the Swiss National Bank; Catalan and Spanish that I learnt thanks to live in Terrassa after my retirement and English because of my work.

I love Archaeology and Astronomy. They are my life and my great passion. I also like diving, trekking and looking at sky.

I have got few but excellent friends. I am a shy person who prefers staying at home reading. I met The Grandma in Saint-Tropez (France) where we enjoyed our money and our prestigious social position every summer. Some years later, she arrived to Switzerland to open a bank account in my bank office. She was looking for someone to trust on. She did not want to invest her money to earn more, she only wanted to have her money safe and secure.

We are good friends. At the beginning, we had different points of view but we have changed. We are that that we live.

More information: Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Swiss Personality

Today, The Grandma has asked me to travel to London to visit the Science Museum in the afternoon and the Natural History Museum at night with her new family, The Stones. I have accepted. She has told me she was going to delay a little because she wanted to do business alone in the City. It is a post Brexit age and we are under a pandemic situation. The stock exchanges are going down and this is a good moment to invest. Remember! There are always people who take beneficts from disasters. It is sad but it is true.

I am here, waiting for the arrival of The Stones firstly, and The Grandma later. The Grandma has explained me that this morning, they have been studying some English before preparing their visit to the Museum. They have been creating a transport guide to arrive to South Kensington using prepositions of time and they have checked the tube map while The Grandma has been reading Occitan poetry while she was waiting for being attended in the Bank of England.

Welcome to these wonderful museums. I hope you like them.

More information: Prepositions of Place

More information: The Tube

The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and today is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually.

Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Science Museum does not charge visitors for admission, although visitors are asked for a donation if they are able. Temporary exhibitions may incur an admission fee. It is part of the Science Museum Group, having merged with the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester in 2012.

The museum was founded in 1857 under Bennet Woodcroft from the collection of the Royal Society of Arts and surplus items from the Great Exhibition as part of the South Kensington Museum, together with what is now the Victoria and Albert Museum. It included a collection of machinery which became the Museum of Patents in 1858, and the Patent Office Museum in 1863. This collection contained many of the most famous exhibits of what is now the Science Museum.

In 1883, the contents of the Patent Office Museum were transferred to the South Kensington Museum. In 1885, the Science Collections were renamed the Science Museum and in 1893 a separate director was appointed. The Art Collections were renamed the Art Museum, which eventually became the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Carlos Stone, our parachuter, with the Apollo 10

When Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone for the new building for the Art Museum, she stipulated that the museum be renamed after herself and her late husband. This was initially applied to the whole museum, but when that new building finally opened ten years later, the title was confined to the Art Collections and the Science Collections had to be divorced from it.

On 26 June 1909 the Science Museum, as an independent entity, came into existence.

The Science Museum's present quarters, designed by Sir Richard Allison, were opened to the public in stages over the period 1919–28. This building was known as the East Block, construction of which began in 1913 and temporarily halted by World War I. As the name suggests it was intended to be the first building of a much larger project, which was never realized.

However, the Museum buildings were expanded over the following years; a pioneering Children's Gallery with interactive exhibits opened in 1931, the Centre Block was completed in 1961-3, the infill of the East Block and the construction of the Lower & Upper Wellcome Galleries in 1980, and the construction of the Wellcome Wing in 2000 result in the Museum now extending to Queen's Gate.

More information: Science Museum

The Science Museum now holds a collection of over 300,000 items, including such famous items as Stephenson's Rocket, Puffing Billy (the oldest surviving steam locomotive), the first jet engine, the Apollo 10 command module, a reconstruction of Francis Crick and James Watson's model of DNA, some of the earliest remaining steam engines, a working example of Charles Babbage's Difference engine, the first prototype of the 10,000-year Clock of the Long Now, and documentation of the first typewriter. It also contains hundreds of interactive exhibits.

At the front of the museum to the east is Exhibition Road. Immediately to the south is Museum Lane and the Natural History Museum. To the rear is Queen's Gate and to the north is Imperial College.

During the visit to The Science Museum, Àngels Stone has been a little distracted. She has met an interesting man, Ivan, from Japan, and it seems that it could be the beginning of a great friendship.

More information: Visit London

For me too, the periodic table was a passion...

As a boy, I stood in front of the display for hours,

thinking how wonderful it was that each of those metal foils

and jars of gas had its own distinct personality.

[Referring to the periodic table display in the Science Museum, 

London, with element samples in bottles]

Freeman Dyson

The Natural History Museum in London is a natural history museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history.

It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road.

The Museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology and zoology.

With the Diplodocus, National History Museum

The Museum is a centre of research specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Charles Darwin.

The Museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture -sometimes dubbed a cathedral of nature -both exemplified by the large Diplodocus cast that dominated the vaulted central hall before it was replaced in 2017 with the skeleton of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling. 

The Natural History Museum Library contains extensive books, journals, manuscripts, and artwork collections linked to the work and research of the scientific departments; access to the library is by appointment only.

The Museum is recognised as the pre-eminent centre of natural history and research of related fields in the world.

More information: Natural History Museum

Although commonly referred to as the Natural History Museum, it was officially known as British Museum (Natural History) until 1992, despite legal separation from the British Museum itself in 1963. Originating from collections within the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened by 1881 and later incorporated the Geological Museum. The Darwin Centre is a more recent addition, partly designed as a modern facility for storing the valuable collections.

Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum does not charge an admission fee. The museum is an exempt charity and a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is a patron of the museum. There are approximately 850 staff at the museum. The two largest strategic groups are the Public Engagement Group and Science Group.

More information: Charles Darwin, the Genius of the Evolution

More information: The Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin's Paradise

More information: The Jones Visit the Charles Darwin's Foundation

More information: Lonesome George, the last Chelonoidis Abingdonii

A scientific man ought to have no wishes,

no affections, -a mere heart of stone.

Charles Darwin

COMMUNICATION, BASE OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS (III)

Non Verbal Communication

Today, The Grandma has returned to Gavà to continue her course about communication. They have been talking about Nonverbal communication (NVC) one of the most interesting aspects of communication.

Knowing and understanding nonverbal communication is a good chance to be a good communicator and a good receiver. Although it seems nonverbal communication is something new related with communication, it is really something deeply joined to the human condition. Charles Darwin, the great scientist, wrote an interesting book about nonverbal communication in human and animals that is totally modern and useful in our days.

Nonverbal communication describes the processes of conveying a type of information in a form of non-linguistic representations.

Examples of nonverbal communication include haptic communication, chronemic communication, gestures, body language, facial expressions, eye contact etc.

More information: ThoughtCo

Nonverbal communication also relates to the intent of a message. Examples of intent are voluntary, intentional movements like shaking a hand or winking, as well as involuntary, such as sweating.

Speech also contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, e.g. rhythm, intonation, tempo, and stress. It affects communication most at the subconscious level and establishes trust. Likewise, written texts include nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, the spatial arrangement of words and the use of emoticons to convey emotion.

Non Verbal Communication

Nonverbal communication demonstrates one of Paul Watzlawick's laws: you cannot not communicate. Once proximity has formed awareness, living creatures begin interpreting any signals received.

Some of the functions of nonverbal communication in humans are to complement and illustrate, to reinforce and emphasize, to replace and substitute, to control and regulate, and to contradict the denotative message.

Nonverbal cues are heavily relied on to express communication and to interpret others' communication and can replace or substitute verbal messages.

However, non-verbal communication is ambiguous. When verbal messages contradict non-verbal messages, observation of non-verbal behaviour is relied on to judge another's attitudes and feelings, rather than assuming the truth of the verbal message alone.

More information: Skills You Need

 
There are several reasons as to why non-verbal communication plays a vital role in communication:

Non-verbal communication is omnipresent. They are included in every single communication act. To have total communication, all non-verbal channels such as the body, face, voice, appearance, touch, distance, timing, and other environmental forces must be engaged during face-to-face interaction.

Written communication can also have non-verbal attributes. E-mails and web chats allow an individual's the option to change text font colours, stationary, emoticons, and capitalization in order to capture non-verbal cues into a verbal medium.

Non-verbal behaviours are multifunctional. Many different non-verbal channels are engaged at the same time in communication acts and allow the chance for simultaneous messages to be sent and received.

Non-verbal behaviours may form a universal language system. Smiling, crying, pointing, caressing, and glaring are non-verbal behaviours that are used and understood by people regardless of nationality. Such non-verbal signals allow the most basic form of communication when verbal communication is not effective due to language barriers.

More information: Very Well Mind

Nonverbal communication (NVC) is the nonlinguistic transmission of information through visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic (physical) channels.

Nonverbal communication is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, posture, and the distance between two individuals. This form of communication is characterized by multiple channels and scholars argue that nonverbal communication can convey more meaning than verbal communication.

Non Verbal Communication

Some scholars state that most people trust forms of nonverbal communication over verbal communication.

The study of nonverbal communication started in 1872 with the publication of The Expressions of the Emotions in Men and Animals by Charles Darwin.

Charles Darwin started to study nonverbal communication as he noticed the interactions between animals and realized they also communicated by gestures and expressions.

For the first time, nonverbal communication was studied and its relevance questioned. It includes the use of visual cues such as body language (kinesics), distance (proxemics) and physical environments/appearance, of voice (paralanguage) and of touch (haptics). It can also include the use of time (chronemics) and eye contact and the actions of looking while talking and listening, frequency of glances, patterns of fixation, pupil dilation, and blink rate (oculesics).

The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by C. Darwin

Just as speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, rate, pitch, loudness, and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation, and stress, so written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the physical layout of a page.

However, much of the study of nonverbal communication has focused on interaction between individuals, where it can be classified into three principal areas: environmental conditions where communication takes place, physical characteristics of the communicators, and behaviors of communicators during interaction.

Nonverbal communication involves the conscious and unconscious processes of encoding and decoding.

Encoding is the act of generating information such as facial expressions, gestures, and postures. Encoding information utilizes signals which we may think to be universal.

Decoding is the interpretation of information from received sensations given by the encoder. Decoding information utilizes knowledge one may have of certain received sensations. For example, refer to the picture provided above. The encoder holds up two fingers and the decoder may know from previous experience that this means two.

More information: Help Guide

The Nonverbal encoding sequence includes facial expressions, gestures, posture, tone of voice, tactile stimulation such as touch, and body movements, like when someone moves closer to communicate or steps away due to spatial boundaries. The Decoding processes involves the use of received sensations combined with previous experience with understanding the meaning of communications with others.

Culture plays an important role in nonverbal communication, and it is one aspect that helps to influence how learning activities are organized. In many Indigenous American Communities, for example, there is often an emphasis on nonverbal communication, which acts as a valued means by which children learn.

In this sense, learning is not dependent on verbal communication; rather, it is nonverbal communication which serves as a primary means of not only organizing interpersonal interactions, but also conveying cultural values, and children learn how to participate in this system from a young age.

More information: The Balance Careers

When you have a nonverbal conversation with a total stranger,

then he can't cover himself with words, 

he can't create a wall.

Marina Abramovic

GREGOR MENDEL, 'VERSUCHE ÜBER PLFLANZENHYBRIDEN'

Gregor Mendel

Today, The Grandma was preparing her salad when se has realized it has got some peas. She doesn't like peas but, suddenly, she has remembered Gregor Johann Mendel, the Austrian scientist who experimented with peas and established many of the rules of heredity, rules that we know as the laws of Mendelian inheritance, the origin of DNA studies.

The Grandma has decided to search in Internet more information about Gregor Mendel and his rules who was born on a day like today in 1822.

Gregor Johann Mendel (20 July 1822-6 January 1884) was a scientist, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brno, Margraviate of Moravia.

Mendel was born in a German-speaking family in the Silesian part of the Austrian Empire, today's Czech Republic, and gained posthumous recognition as the founder of the modern science of genetics. Though farmers had known for millennia that crossbreeding of animals and plants could favor certain desirable traits, Mendel's pea plant experiments conducted between 1856 and 1863 established many of the rules of heredity, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance.

Mendel worked with seven characteristics of pea plants: plant height, pod shape and color, seed shape and color, and flower position and color.

More information: BBC

Taking seed color as an example, Mendel showed that when a true-breeding yellow pea and a true-breeding green pea were cross-bred their offspring always produced yellow seeds. However, in the next generation, the green peas reappeared at a ratio of 1 green to 3 yellow. To explain this phenomenon, Mendel coined the terms recessive and dominant in reference to certain traits. 

In the preceding example, the green trait, which seems to have vanished in the first filial generation, is recessive and the yellow is dominant. He published his work in 1866, demonstrating the actions of invisible factors, now called genes, in predictably determining the traits of an organism.

Gregor Mendel

The profound significance of Mendel's work was not recognized until the turn of the 20th century, more than three decades later, with the rediscovery of his laws.

Erich von Tschermak, Hugo de Vries, Carl Correns and William Jasper Spillman independently verified several of Mendel's experimental findings, ushering in the modern age of genetics.

Mendel was born into a German-speaking family in Hynčice, Heinzendorf bei Odrau in German, at the Moravian-Silesian border, Austrian Empire, now a part of the Czech Republic.

He was the son of Anton and Rosine Mendel and had one older sister, Veronika, and one younger, Theresia. They lived and worked on a farm which had been owned by the Mendel family for at least 130 years, the house where Mendel was born is now a museum devoted to Mendel.

During his childhood, Mendel worked as a gardener and studied beekeeping. As a young man, he attended gymnasium in Opava, called Troppau in German. He had to take four months off during his gymnasium studies due to illness. From 1840 to 1843, he studied practical and theoretical philosophy and physics at the Philosophical Institute of the University of Olomouc, taking another year off because of illness. He also struggled financially to pay for his studies, and Theresia gave him her dowry. Later he helped support her three sons, two of whom became doctors.

More info: How Mendel's pea plants helped us understand genetics

He became a friar in part because it enabled him to obtain an education without having to pay for it himself. As the son of a struggling farmer, the monastic life, in his words, spared him the perpetual anxiety about a means of livelihood. He was given the name Gregor, Řehoř in Czech, when he joined the Augustinian friars.

When Mendel entered the Faculty of Philosophy, the Department of Natural History and Agriculture was headed by Johann Karl Nestler who conducted extensive research of hereditary traits of plants and animals, especially sheep. 

Gregor Mendel

Upon recommendation of his physics teacher Friedrich Franz, Mendel entered the Augustinian St Thomas's Abbey in Brno, called Brünn in German, and began his training as a priest.

Born Johann Mendel, he took the name Gregor upon entering religious life. Mendel worked as a substitute high school teacher. In 1850, he failed the oral part, the last of three parts, of his exams to become a certified high school teacher.

In 1851, he was sent to the University of Vienna to study under the sponsorship of Abbot C. F. Napp so that he could get more formal education. At Vienna, his professor of physics was Christian Doppler. Mendel returned to his abbey in 1853 as a teacher, principally of physics. In 1856, he took the exam to become a certified teacher and again failed the oral part. In 1867, he replaced Napp as abbot of the monastery.

After he was elevated as abbot in 1868, his scientific work largely ended, as Mendel became overburdened with administrative responsibilities, especially a dispute with the civil government over its attempt to impose special taxes on religious institutions.

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Mendel died on 6 January 1884, at the age of 61, in Brno, Moravia, Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic, from chronic nephritis. Czech composer Leoš Janáček played the organ at his funeral. After his death, the succeeding abbot burned all papers in Mendel's collection, to mark an end to the disputes over taxation.

Gregor Mendel, who is known as the father of modern genetics, was inspired by both his professors at the Palacký University, Olomouc, Friedrich Franz and Johann Karl Nestler, and his colleagues at the monastery, such as Franz Diebl, to study variation in plants.

In 1854, Napp authorized Mendel to carry out a study in the monastery's 2 hectares experimental garden, which was originally planted by Napp in 1830. Unlike Nestler, who studied hereditary traits in sheep, Mendel used the common edible pea and started his experiments in 1856.

Gregor Mendel with fellow Monks, 1848

After initial experiments with pea plants, Mendel settled on studying seven traits that seemed to be inherited independently of other traits: seed shape, flower color, seed coat tint, pod shape, unripe pod color, flower location, and plant height.

He first focused on seed shape, which was either angular or round. Between 1856 and 1863 Mendel cultivated and tested some 28,000 plants, the majority of which were pea plants (Pisum sativum). This study showed that, when true-breeding different varieties were crossed to each other, in the second generation, one in four pea plants had purebred recessive traits, two out of four were hybrids, and one out of four were purebred dominant.

His experiments led him to make two generalizations, the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment, which later came to be known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance.

More information: The Human Genome

Mendel presented his paper, Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden, Experiments on Plant Hybridization, at two meetings of the Natural History Society of Brno in Moravia on 8 February and 8 March 1865. It generated a few favorable reports in local newspapers, but was ignored by the scientific community.

When Mendel's paper was published in 1866 in Verhandlungen des naturforschenden Vereines in Brünn, it was seen as essentially about hybridization rather than inheritance, had little impact, and was only cited about three times over the next thirty-five years. His paper was criticized at the time, but is now considered a seminal work.

Notably, Charles Darwin was not aware of Mendel's paper, and it is envisaged that if he had been aware of it, genetics as it exists now might have taken hold much earlier. Mendel's scientific biography thus provides an example of the failure of obscure, highly original innovators to receive the attention they deserve.

Mendel began his studies on heredity using mice. He was at St. Thomas's Abbey but his bishop did not like one of his friars studying animal sex, so Mendel switched to plants. Mendel also bred bees in a bee house that was built for him, using bee hives that he designed. He also studied astronomy and meteorology, founding the Austrian Meteorological Society in 1865. The majority of his published works was related to meteorology.

Gregor Mendel's Peas

Mendel also experimented with hawkweed (Hieracium) and honeybees. He published a report on his work with hawkweed, a group of plants of great interest to scientists at the time because of their diversity. 

However, the results of Mendel's inheritance study in hawkweeds was unlike his results for peas; the first generation was very variable and many of their offspring were identical to the maternal parent. In his correspondence with Carl Nägeli he discussed his results but was unable to explain them. It was not appreciated until the end of the nineteen century that many hawkweed species were apomictic, producing most of their seeds through an asexual process.

More information: Science Learning Hub

None of his results on bees survived, except for a passing mention in the reports of Moravian Apiculture Society. All that is known definitely is that he used Cyprian and Carniolan bees, which were particularly aggressive to the annoyance of other monks and visitors of the monastery such that he was asked to get rid of them. Mendel, on the other hand, was fond of his bees, and referred to them as my dearest little animals.

He also described novel plant species, and these are denoted with the botanical author abbreviation Mendel.

During Mendel's lifetime, most biologists held the idea that all characteristics were passed to the next generation through blending inheritance, in which the traits from each parent are averaged. Instances of this phenomenon are now explained by the action of multiple genes with quantitative effects.

Charles Darwin tried unsuccessfully to explain inheritance through a theory of pangenesis. It was not until the early 20th century that the importance of Mendel's ideas was realized.

In the end, the two approaches were combined, especially by work conducted by R. A. Fisher as early as 1918. The combination, in the 1930s and 1940s, of Mendelian genetics with Darwin's theory of natural selection resulted in the modern synthesis of evolutionary biology.

More information: Nature

The value and utility of any experiment are determined 

by the fitness of the material to the purpose for which it is used,

and thus in the case before us it cannot be immaterial

what plants are subjected to experiment and in what manner

such experiment is conducted.

Gregor Mendel