Toppy

I wanted to see if animal cloning was considered sexual or asexual reproduction, and came across this article. It still makes me feel sad, and I wish each one of them would have been given a different name as well.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080424-AP-clones.html

Sexual vs. Asexual Reproduction:

an article I came across in reading of Evolution

http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=597

Dandelions are asexual, I am finding they are reproducing very fast! especially after it rains.

Another article I came across as well, that I want to read more of…. so I link it here to remind me:)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/07/0709_sexorigin.html

Three photos

A first seeing of a dandelion this year.

A pot of flowers

A gargoyle, who reminds me of Shadow:)

Cosmic Evolution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_evolution

Cosmic evolution is the scientific study of universal change. It is an intellectual framework that offers a grand synthesis of the many varied changes in the assembly and composition of radiation, matter, and life throughout the history of the universe. While engaging the time-honored queries of who we are and whence we came, this interdisciplinary subject attempts to unify the sciences within the entirety of natural history—a single broad scientific narrative of a possible origin and evolution of all material things, from an inferred big bang to humankind. (Closely related subjects include epic of evolution, big history, and astrobiology).

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot

Eliot did not have space exploration in mind (the lines were written in 1942), but the sentiment poetically captures one of the most important reasons we explore space. NASA’s exploration of the universe, and that of other nations, reveals humanity’s place in nature in the broadest possible sense. That view of ourselves has changed dramatically over the last century. One hundred years ago most astronomers considered the universe to be about 3600 light years in extent, less than a billion years old, and with our solar system near its center. Astronomers today have seen objects 13 billion light years away in a universe 13.7 billion years old containing hundreds of billions of galaxies. We are peripherally located in one of those galaxies, known as the Milky Way.

“Nothing, however, has been more revolutionary than the idea that this entire universe is in a state of constant change, as planets, stars and galaxies are born and die. This story of the life of the universe, and our place in it, is known as cosmic evolution. Although the idea has roots in the 19th century, and was occasionally invoked in the first half of the 20th century by astronomers such as George Ellery Hale, it really came into its own only in the Space Age.”

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/122994main_whywe13_3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nasa.gov/lb/mission_pages/exploration/whyweexplore/Why_We_13.html&h=217&w=320&sz=30&hl=en&start=10&um=1&tbnid=QOQXv6P0KfncVM:&tbnh=80&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3DCosmic%2Bevolution%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1B3RNFA_enCA234CA235%26sa%3DN

Gargoyles/Galapagos/Evolution

Sometimes when I see the ways ones come to this site, a search makes me curious as to what it is. One of these I saw today was Moon Galapagos, creatures of the night, so I looked it up thinking I would see gargoyles,

http://www.skepticworld.com/hidden-mysteries/gargoyles.asp

but found this instead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal%C3%A1pagos_Islands

Isabela looks a touch like a sea horse to me,

and I wish to read more about what is written in this below…

The islands are famed for their vast number of endemic species and the studies by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle that contributed to the inception of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.

which is leading me to these other links :) I am loving reading about these things.

http://www.conservapedia.com/Evolution

In regards to the history of the theory of evolution, although Darwin is most well known regarding the beginnings of the evolutionary position, evolutionary ideas were taught by the ancient Greeks as early as the 7th century B.C.^[18] The concept of naturalistic evolution differs from the concept of theistic evolution in that it states God does not guide the posited process of macroevolution.^[19]

http://www.conservapedia.com/Theistic_Evolution

Theistic evolution, one form of Old Earth Creationism, has been defined in more than one way:

• Theistic evolution (or “evolutionary creation”) is the view that evolution occurred, but was planned and guided by God ^[1]
• The belief that God planned and created the universe in such a way that life would come into being without any further supernatural intervention

Sometimes it is not a specific theory of how life originally came into being, or how new species of life arose, but is merely:

• the belief that creationism can be compatible with the theory of evolution.^[2][3][4]

http://www.conservapedia.com/Macroevolution

Macroevolution is the theory that natural selection can, given enough time, lead to the creation of new clades which are groups of organisms consisting of a single common ancestor and all the descendants of that ancestor. Macroevolution also requires a large number of beneficial mutations. The scientific data regarding mutations causing the significant changes necessary for macroevolution is extremely damaging to the macroevolutionary position.[1][2]

Paper Lanterns

So beautiful, and can be sun powered too :)