Skip to main content

Origin of Species - Chapter 3

Struggle for Existence

I have been re-reading Darwin's book, and I notice that I am reading it from a completely different viewpoint. My first read, like many of you, was as a biology undergraduate student reading a required text. Now I find that I am reading this from the view of a biology educator. Chapter 3 had several topics slap me in the face, and I have to share these topics. All of these topics are the main focus of our basic biology texts and I found Project WILD activities that addressed these subjects

  1. Coevolution - Darwin does not call it this name, but this is what our textbooks call it. He discusses the relationship between mistletoe and apple trees, and then seed dispersal.
  2. Exponential growth - again, not called so by Darwin, but we have all studied this and factors which control populations. He discusses the condor as example of this phenomenon.
  3. Predator-Prey relationships - "Quick Frozen Critters" comes to mind with the rabbits and coyotes.
  4. Competition for space - "Oh, Deer" is the obvious activity for this one.
  5. Succession - with his discussion of the primary and secondary succession (and he does not call it this) as he discusses the regrowth of areas deforested in the United States, specifically the Indian mound growth in the southern United States.
  6. Competition for food and residence - "Habitat Lap Sit" exemplifies this discussion. Darwin discusses this from a seed/plant point of view, but it applies across the board.

I'll keep reading this one, as it is my bedside book (and it really can put you down for the night!).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reverend Guppy's Aquarium

by Philip Dodd This is a delightful book which gives us the origins of product names. One of my many "I heard it on NPR" books, this one has not disappointed this reader. I am halfway through the books and have loved learning the origin of the name "Jacuzzi" and "frisbee." Part of this is because I love WORDS and LANGUAGE. The other part is the beauty of invention. I'll have it for swap in October at our book swap session.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Blooding

by Joseph Wambaugh While Wambaugh usually writes fiction, he broke from his mold and wrote this nonfiction book about DNA evidence. He wrote about the FIRST time DNA was used to exonerate a suspect, and also how DNA was used (in the same case) to convict a suspect. The book is a good tale of how the British government obtained blood from all men in a certain area of Britain (which would never happen in the USA) to use the new technology provided by Sir Alec John Jeffreys. Jeffreys's research had only been used once prior to this case, and that was to determine a citizenship issue. Being a police/crime writer, Wambaugh does get bogged down in the case work and the investigators, but read on - the science is good. I find copies of this book at every used book store I enter - and I buy them to place in the school library. And then read "Pointing from the Grave" by Samantha Weinberg - you'll be glad you did.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Canon

by Natalie Angier Natalie Angier is the author of Woman, and a science writer for the New York Times. Her most recent book discusses science literacy for the nation. She has interviewed numerous scientists and quotes them throughout the book making statements like: "...studying the Kreb's cycle and Linnaean classifications...whips the joy of doing science right out of most people..." "...science is not a collection of rigid dogmas, and what we call scientific truth is constantly being revised..." "...if you must buy a microscope, then get a dissecting microscope... to look at the simple things like a feather..." "...part of critical thinking is to understand that science doesn't deal with absolutes..." "...many teachers who don't have a deep appreciation of science present it as a set of facts...missing the idea of critical thinking..." Natalie approaches many science topics in this book - from astronomy to molecular biolog...
Post a Comment
Read more