Life Sciences Commons^™

Are Animals Capable Of Using Human Language?, Shiree Karim, Elyse C. Tancini

CAFE Symposium 2024

A study focusing on animals' capability to learn and use human language for communication, understanding the process of language acquisition, the history and evolution of language, alongside findings from experiments involving gorillas, bonobos, parrots and horses.

The North ‘Helicoptering’ Into The South: A Meta-Analysis Of Parachute Science In Ecological Field Studies, Alexandros Economou-Garcia

Student Publications

Science is increasingly collaborative, but scientists from the Global North (GN) often fail to collaborate with local scientists or to build local scientific capacity when conducting research in the Global South (GS). This practice is known as “parachute science” or “helicopter science”. In addition to ethical concerns, this practice is problematic in the field of ecology because it may reduce the likelihood that the research will inform local resource management and science policy. I hypothesized that, because research has become increasingly collaborative, there would be a decline in parachute science over time. In addition, I hypothesized that papers that included …

Leonardo And The Whale, Kay Etheridge

Biology Faculty Publications

Around 1480, when he was 28 years old, Leonardo da Vinci recorded what may have been a seminal event in his life. In writing of his travels to view nature he recounted an experience in a cave in the Tuscan countryside:

Having wandered for some distance among overhanging rocks, I can to the entrance of a great cavern... [and after some hesitation I entered] drawn by a desire to see whether there might be any marvelous thing within..."

[excerpt]

Wolves Are Wild: A Collection Of Narratives About Rescued Wolves And Wolfdogs, Molly G. Vorhaus

Student Publications

Breeders across the country are creating wolfdogs by breeding dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) with wolves (Canis lupus) for a large profit. This project is a response to the growing exotic pet trade of wolves and wolfdogs. Through this project, I hope to bring awareness to the issues associated with these animals being raised in captivity. Recent research has shown that raising a wolf or wolfdog in captivity can lead to various negative psychological and physical effects on the animal, and can cause potential problems for humans as well. This practice is embedded in the concept of humans wanting to own …

Profound Impacts And Benefits Of Near-Death Experiences, Abigail D. Reitz

Student Publications

In his 1975 book, Life After Life, Dr. Raymond A. Moody coined the term “near-death experience (NDE)” as an umbrella term to describe the personal experiences and sensations that occur during an altered state of consciousness on the threshold of death. While controversy arises over the highly subjective nature of near-death experiences and the empirical research surrounding them, NDEs are usually marked by similar sensations and certainly have one thing in common: they often have profound, positive impacts on affected individuals that change their outlooks moving forward. Birk Engmann comments on the impact of NDEs in Near-Death Experiences: Heavenly Insight …

Lens On Habitat Destruction: A Photo Essay In Double Exposure, Bethany Holtz

Student Publications

Human greed and ignorance bulldoze through nature, leaving behind scarred landscapes and broken ecosystems. Within the world’s aquatic environments, human actions have irreversibly fragmented and shattered habitats of countless animals. Voiceless, these displaced animals suffer largely in silence—their stories untold and invisible. Using my lens to expose their cries, my photography uncovers the narrative of habitat destruction.

In this photo essay, I juxtapose the pristine and degraded habitats of five threatened aquatic species using double exposure techniques, a method where two disconnected images are merged to create one unified work. By balancing light, opacity, color, and transparency, I focus attention …

The History And Influence Of Maria Sibylla Merian's Bird-Eating Tarantula: Circulating Images And The Production Of Natural Knowledge, Kay Etheridge

Biology Faculty Publications

Chapter Summary: A 2009 exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum on the confluence of science and the visual arts included a plate from a nineteenth-century encyclopedia owned by Charles Darwin showing a tarantula poised over a dead bird (figure 3.1).1 The genesis of this startling scene was a work by Maria Sibylla Merian (German, 1647–1717), and the history of this image says much about how knowledge of the New World was obtained, and how it was transmitted to the studies and private libraries of Europe, and from there into popular works like Darwin’s encyclopedia. It is unlikely that Merian ever imagined …

The Biology Of Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, Kay Etheridge

Biology Faculty Publications

Book Description: This facsimile of one of the most beautiful books of natural history ever created contains sixty magnificent illustrations showing exotic insects, with the original descriptions. The reissue is the same size as the original and is enriched with an illustrated introduction about the life, work and significance of Maria Sibylla Merian, and a new scientific description of all the insects, animals and plants.

The life and work of this German woman who moved to the Netherlands has been the subject of international research by botanists, entomologists and historians concerned with the history of science, art, religion and economics. …

Our Gendered Food Chain, Jasmine T. Colahan

SURGE

Over the past four decades, the number of women-operated farms has nearly doubled. Including both primary and secondary operators, one million women make up thirty percent of all U.S. farmers.

Headlines such as “Females Take the Reins,” “Meet the New face of Agriculture,” “Old McDonald Might Be a Lady” demonstrate this gender shift. And, it is true in my life too. As I worked on the Painted Turtle Farm this summer, the majority of my role models, co-workers, and mentors working in agriculture, whether rural or urban, were primarily women. [excerpt]

Conserving Our Cultural Heritage: The Role Of Fungi In Biodeterioration, Hanna Szczepanowska, A. R. Cavaliere

Biology Faculty Publications

The objects of cultural heritage are composed of varied materials which can be affected by diverse microbial communities. The study of these complex and heterogeneous assemblies of materials and microorganisms require an inter- and multi-disciplinary approach. Development of a strategy towards prevention, mitigation of biodeterioration and removal of microorganisms, especially fungi begins with the understanding of the materials' fabric, assessment of causes behind the biodeterioration, and the context in which it occurs.

Three aspects of biodeterioration of cultural heritage are discussed: 1) the multitude of bio-agents' on cultural heritage materials, 2) fungal interaction with substrates, and 3) prevention and conservation …

Maria Sibylla Merian's Frogs, Kay Etheridge

Biology Faculty Publications

Maria Sibylla Merian (German, 1647-1717) is best known for her magnificent 1705 publication, Metamorphosis insectorum surinamensium, although she published earlier works on insect metamorphosis. Merian wrote the text and painted all of the illustrations for her books, and for the early volumes she produced most of the engravings. Contemporary scholarship has focused primarily on Merian's detailed images of lepidopteran and host plant life cycles, but Merian's Surinam album also portrays anuram metamorphosis, including the first European depiction of Pipa pipa.

5. Social Darwinism Reconsidered, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section XV: Biology and the Rise of the Social Sciences

Although the contemporary reaction to the implications of evolution was generally one of long-term optimism, an antithetical reaction did exist. Seen in stark terms, evolutionary theories were depressing to those who, on religious or humanitarian grounds, found the reduction of life to an irrational and brutal struggle for existence disturbing and provocative. There was, however, an important body of thought which accepted Darwin's findings without embracing the social or ethical implications of Social Darwinism. Many who studied Darwin came to the conclusion that it was possible to concede that man is an animal, but an animal capable of moral and …

2. The Impact Of Darwinism On Religion, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section XV: Biology and the Rise of the Social Sciences

The tremendous impact of evolution upon Western religious thought resulted in large part from the sweeping implications of the theory itself, which challenged the basic tenets of traditional dogma. It is difficult to understand the nature and intensity of the controversy that developed, however, if it is not understood that the challenge was given additional weight by the ascendency of science in the nineteenth century. In considering the influence of Darwin's findings on religion, as on other areas of thought, it should be kept in mind that the theory of evolution was presented to a world that was observing a …

1. Charles Darwin And Organic Evolution, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section XV: Biology and the Rise of the Social Sciences

Evolution was not a new idea. The Greeks speculated on it. In the century before Darwin many different evolutionary theories were proposed, among them notable efforts by Buffon, Lamarck, and Goethe. Their common thread was the concept that the succession of biological changes in geological time represented a fact, if not a natural law. The stumbling block was for all of them, as it had been for Cuvier, the concept of fixed species, which clashed with the vision of a distant past populated with races of plants and animals now extinct. It became evident that the idea of fixed species …

4. Social Darwinism, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section XV: Biology and the Rise of the Social Sciences

The singular impact of Darwin in fields other than biology can be attributed largely to one man, Herbert Spencer (1820- 1903). It was Spencer, not Darwin, who coined the expression "survival of the fittest." Although neglected today except by historians of the nineteenth century thought, Spencer's influence on his own time was so great that Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was able to wonder if "any writer of English except Darwin has done so much to affect our whole way of thinking about the universe." Herbert Spencer was born into a traditionally nonconformist English family of modest means. He refused a …