Honeybees, Communicative Order, and the Collapse of Ecosystems

The paper examines the sudden disappearance in the United States of millions of honeybees in managed bee colonies. The major research undertaken in the U.S. concentrates on finding the pathogens responsible. This paper suggests an alternative avenue of research a) that as a result of global warming there is a disjunction between bees pollinating cycles and the life cycle of plants b) that understanding changes in “timing cycles” as a result of global warming is the key to understanding the disappearance of the bees. It notes that Gregory Bateson argued that any condition of ecosystem collapse would be characterized first by a collapse in its communicative order rather, than from changed physical states. The collapse of bee colonies and demise of other pollinators is a seeming confirmation of Gregory Bateson argument. Honeybees are ‘go betweens’ in ecosystemic order. It also argues that an appropriate topology of timing cycles and their recursions would enable better visual comprehension of the heterarchical ‘pattern which connects’, in Bateson’s phrase, and prompt awareness of possible catastrophe in human food supplies.

The Case of Paul Kammerer: Evolution and Experimentation in the Early 20th Century

To some, a misguided Lamarckian and a fraud, to others a martyr in the fight against Darwinism, the Viennese zoologist Paul Kammerer (1880–1926) remains one of the most controversial scientists of the early 20th century. Here his work is reconsidered in light of turn-of-the-century problems in evolutionary theory and experimental methodology, as seen from Kammerer’s perspective in Vienna. Kammerer emerges not as an opponent of Darwinism, but as one would-be modernizer of the 19th-century theory, which had included a role for the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Kammerer attempted a synthesis of Darwinism with genetics and the chromosome theory, while retaining the modifying effects of the environment as the main source of favorable variation, and he developed his program of experimentation to support it. Kammerer never had a regular university position, but worked at a private experimental laboratory, with sidelines as a teacher and a popular writer and lecturer. On the lecture circuit he held forth on the significance of his science for understanding and furthering cultural evolution and he satisfied his passion for the arts and performance. In his dual career as researcher and popularizer, he did not always follow academic convention. In the contentious and rapidly changing fields of heredity and evolution, some of his stances and practices, as well as his outsider status and part-Jewish background, aroused suspicion and set the stage for the scandal that ended his career and prompted his suicide.     

Parent-offspring conflict and the evolution of infant-directed song

We present a theory of the origin and evolution of infant-directed song, a form of music found in many cultures. After examining the ancestral ecology of parent-infant relations, we propose that infant-directed song arose in an evolutionary arms race between parents and infants, stemming from the dynamics of parent-offspring conflict. We describe testable predictions that follow from this theory, consider some existing evidence for them, and entertain the possibility that infant-directed song could form the basis for the development of other, more complex forms of music.     

SURVIVAL RATES OF SEA OTTER PUPS IN ALASKA AND CALIFORNIA

Adult female sea otters ( Enhydra lutris ) were instrumented with implanted radio-transmitters in Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska, and survival rates were estimated for their dependent pups. Overall, 94 of 141 (67%) of the pups studied survived to a minimum age of 120 d and were assumed to have successfully weaned. Survival of pups in six cohorts ranged from 53% to 88%. The mean interval between successive visual observations was 12.5 d. For these calculations, the assumption was made that pups were successfully weaned if they accompanied mothers for at least 120 d. Estimated survival rates were different when this assumption was changed to either 90 d or 150 d (73% and 52%, respectively).
Females were palpated for pregnancy when instrumented. Of 19 believed to be pregnant, 17 were subsequently seen with young pups giving a detection rate for births of 89.5%. When the above observed survival rate of pups was adjusted for undetected births, the estimated overall survival rate for the study population was 60% (120 d minimum dependency).
Survival rates of pups in PWS and a population at Kodiak Archipelago (KOD) (Monson and DeGange 1995) were compared with that of pups in the population in California (CA, four studies). These data did not support the hypothesis that survival rates were lower in California (CA: 103/160, P_surv. 0.64; PWS: 94/141, P_surv. = 0.67; KOD: 19/23, P_surv. = 0.83; pairwise comparisons, X², P > 0.05). Comparison of pup survival rates among studies was hindered by small sample sizes, methodological differences, and lack of detail about assumptions underlying estimates.     

Trypanosoma cruzi: the T-cell dependence of the primary immune response and the effects of depletion of T cells and Ig-bearing cells on immunological memory

The effects of T-cell depletion on primary infection with Trypanosoma cruzi and on immunological memory to this parasite were studied in a syngeneic mouse system. Exacerbation of T. cruzi infections occurred in thymectomized, irradiated, bone marrow-reconstituted (TX) C57BL/6J mice compared to sham thymectomized, irradiated, bone marrow-reconstituted (STX) mice. Reconstitution of TX mice with thymocytes restored the resistance to a level equivalent to that of STX mice. Immunological memory against T. cruzi present in spleen cells in mice recovered from T. cruzi infections could be ablated by treatment with rabbit anti-brain-associated theta serum but not with rabbit anti-mouse immunoglobulin serum prior to adoptive transfer of immune spleen cells into TX mice. These experiments suggest that modulation of the primary immune response and memory against T. cruzi depends largely on the thymus-derived lymphocyte. The possible implications of this T-cell regulation on previously reported effector mechanisms againt this parasite are discussed.     

Differential regulation of high-affinity agonist binding to muscarinic sites in the rat heart, cerebellum, and cerebral cortex

The muscarinic agonist [3H]cismethyldioxolane ([3H]CD) was used to characterize the effects of regulators upon high-affinity agonist binding sites of the rat heart, cerebral cortex and cerebellum. Comparative studies with sodium ions (Na+), magnesium ions (Mg++), N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) and the guanine nucleotide Gpp(NH)p revealed tissue-specific effects. Mg++ preferentially enhanced while Gpp(NH)p and NEM reduced high-affinity [3H]CD binding in the heart and cerebellum. By comparison NEM enhanced high-affinity agonist binding in the cerebral cortex while Gpp(NH)p and Mg++ had little or no effect. Kinetic studies support an allosteric mechanism for these effects and provide further evidence for muscarinic receptor subtypes in mammalian tissues.     

Prevention of prostaglandin E2-induced desensitization of rat ovarian cyclic AMP response by concanavalin A

Prolonged exposure (> 6 h) of cultured granulosa cells to Prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂; 1 μg/ml) led to a near-total loss of the cyclic AMP response to subsequent addition of fresh hormone. Pre-treatment of the cells with concanavalin A (ConA; 2.0 μg/ml) for 1 h blocked the desensitizing action of PGE₂, so that the decline in the response was reduced by 60% with the hormone at high concentration (1.0 μg/ml); a full response was preserved at submaximal concentration of PGE₂ (0.1 – 0.3μg/ml). Other lectins (succinyl Con a, peanut agglutinin and, to a lesser extent, phytohemagglutinin and wheat germ agglutinin) had a stabilizing effect similar to that of Con A. Addition of alpha-methyl-mannoside either with Con A or various times following the addition of Con A to the cells prevented the protective effect of Con A. Concomitant treatment with colchicine or cytochalasin B abolished the ability of Con A to prevent PGE₂-induced desensitization.     

Response to vocal music in Angelman syndrome contrasts with Prader-Willi syndrome

Parent-offspring conflict—conflict over resource distribution within families due to differences in genetic relatedness—is the biological foundation for many psychological phenomena. In genomic imprinting disorders, parent-specific genetic expression is altered, causing imbalances in behaviors influenced by parental investment. We use this natural experiment to test the theory that parent-offspring conflict contributed to the evolution of vocal music by moderating infant demands for parental attention. Individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome, a genomic imprinting disorder resulting from increased relative maternal genetic contribution, show enhanced relaxation responses to song, consistent with reduced demand for parental investment (Mehr, Kotler, Howard, Haig, & Krasnow, 2017, Psychological Science). We report the necessary complementary pattern here: individuals with Angelman syndrome, a genomic imprinting disorder resulting from increased relative paternal genetic contribution, demonstrate a relatively reduced relaxation response to song, suggesting increased demand for parental attention. These results support the extension of genetic conflict theories to psychological resources like parental attention.     

Dragons in Distress: Naturalists as Bioactivists in the Campaign to Save the American Alligator

This article explores the scientific and environmental activism of a group of naturalists who not only studied but also advocated on behalf of an unlikely organism: the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). A large, toothy reptile that once inhabited wetlands across much of the southeastern United States, the alligator had long been reviled as a fearsome predator and pursued as a valuable commodity. At the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, a small group of naturalists began to note its precipitous decline and to issue calls for its protection. Initially they tended to do so working individually, largely within the pages of scientific and governmental publications devoted to the species. By the middle of the twentieth century, however, as habitat destruction joined commodification to further threaten the alligator, naturalists banded together with state officials, conservationists, and other wildlife enthusiasts to form the American Alligator Council. That organization not only promoted research on the alligator but also secured local, state, and federal protection of the increasingly beleaguered species, thereby snatching it from the jaws of impending extinction. The naturalists examined in this article were not only producers and purveyors of knowledge, then; they were also bioactivists, biologists with a strong political agenda who firmly embraced the practice of engaging in the public sphere.     

Threads that Guide or Ties that Bind: William Kirby and the Essentialism Story

Nineteenth-century British entomologist William Kirby is best known for his generic division of bees based on tongues and his vigorous defence of natural theology. Focusing on these aspects of Kirby’s work has lead many current scholars to characterise Kirby as an “essentialist.” As a result of this characterisation, many important aspects of his work, Monographia Apum Angliæ (1802) have been over-looked or misunderstood. Kirby’s religious devotion, for example, have lead some scholars to assume Kirby used the term “type” for connecting an ontological assumption about essences with a creationist assumption about species fixity, which I argue conceals a variety of ways Kirby employed the term. Also, Kirby frequently cautioned against organising a classification system exclusively by what he called “analytic reasoning,” a style of reasoning 20th century scholars often associate with Aristotelian logic of division. I argue that Kirby’s critique of analytic reasoning brought the virtues of his own methodological agenda into sharp relief. Kirby used familiar metaphors in the natural history literature – Ariadne’s thread, the Eleusinian mysteries, and Bacon’s bee and spider metaphors – to emphasise the virtues of building tradition and cooperation in the goals and methodological practices of 19th century British naturalists.