Life Sciences Commons^™

Betting & Hierarchy In Paleontology, Leonard Finkelman

Faculty Publications

In his Rock, Bone, and Ruin: An Optimist’s Guide to the Historical Sciences, Adrian Currie argues that historical scientists should be optimistic about success in reconstructing the past on the basis of future research. This optimism follows in part from examples of success in paleontology. I argue that paleontologists’ success in these cases is underwritten by the hierarchical nature of biological information: extinct organisms have extant analogues at various levels of taxonomic, ecological, and physiological hierarchies, and paleontologists are adept at exploiting analogies within one informational hierarchy to infer information in another. On this account, fossils serve the role …

Crossed Tracks: Mesolimulus, Archaeopteryx, And The Nature Of Fossils, Leonard Finkelman

Faculty Publications

Organisms leave a variety of traces in the fossil record. Among these traces, vertebrate and invertebrate paleontologists conventionally recognize a distinction between the remains of an organism’s phenotype (body fossils) and the remains of an organism’s life activities (trace fossils). The same convention recognizes body fossils as biological structures and trace fossils as geological objects. This convention explains some curious practices in the classification, as with the distinction between taxa for trace fossils and for tracemakers. I consider the distinction between “parallel taxonomies,” or parataxonomies, which privileges some kinds of fossil taxa as “natural” and others as “artificial.” The motivations …

In Place: May 25, 2018, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

In PLACE is a newsletter designed to keep the Linfield College community apprised of information related to PLACE activities, as well as ways to bring the program into classes. Included in this issue:

• Spotlight On: PLACE's Upcoming Theme, Revolutions
• Announcing: PLACE Fellows, 2018-2019
• Last Week in PLACE

In Place: April 16, 2018, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

In PLACE is a newsletter designed to keep the Linfield College community apprised of information related to PLACE activities, as well as ways to bring the program into classes. Included in this issue:

• Spotlight On: The Politicization of Science, P. II
• Upcoming Events
• PLACE in the News

In Place: March 12, 2018, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

In PLACE is a newsletter designed to keep the Linfield College community apprised of information related to PLACE activities, as well as ways to bring the program into classes. Included in this issue:

• Spotlight On: Leadership and the Liberal Arts Skills Development Series
• Upcoming Events
• The Last Weeks in PLACE

De-Extinction And The Conception Of Species, Leonard Finkelman

Faculty Publications

Developments in genetic engineering may soon allow biologists to clone organisms from extinct species. The process, dubbed “de-extinction,” has been publicized as a means to bring extinct species back to life. For theorists and philosophers of biology, the process also suggests a thought experiment for the ongoing “species problem”: given a species concept, would a clone be classified in the extinct species? Previous analyses have answered this question in the context of specific de-extinction technologies or particular species concepts. The thought experiment is given more comprehensive treatment here. Given the products of three de-extinction technologies, twenty-two species concepts are “tested” …

From Big Ag To Campus Cafeterias: Intersections Of Food-Supply Networks As Technical Communication Pedagogy, Jessie Lynn Richards, Joshua Lenart, David Sumner, Douglas Christensen

Faculty Publications

This article presents a pedagogical approach to teaching technical and professional writing with an eye toward cultivating awareness and generating informed research among undergraduate students about food production and its various, intricate networks between Big Ag and campus cafeterias. Our pedagogy, influenced by interdisciplinary content, is designed to teach students to differentiate between food processes—such as production versus distribution and consumption—by viewing these networks as communicative practices rather than as inevitable chains or simple functions of one another. Our approach encourages students to locate and analyze differences between interdependent, but seemingly disparate pathways and to make visible communicative intersections that …

In Place: November 27, 2017, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

In PLACE is a newsletter designed to keep the Linfield College community apprised of information related to PLACE activities, as well as ways to bring the program into classes. Included in this issue:

• Spotlight On: "What's the Big Idea"
• Upcoming Events
• PLACE in the News

In Place: November 6, 2017, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

In PLACE is a newsletter designed to keep the Linfield College community apprised of information related to PLACE activities, as well as ways to bring the program into classes. Included in this issue:

• Spotlight On: PLACE Sponsored Events
• Upcoming Events
• PLACE in the News

In Place: October 11, 2017, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

In PLACE is a newsletter designed to keep the Linfield College community apprised of information related to PLACE activities, as well as ways to bring the program into classes. Included in this issue:

• A Message to Faculty
• Spotlight On: Jonathan Rauch & Cheryl Harris
• Upcoming Events
• PLACE in the News
• Last Week in PLACE

In Place: September 24, 2017, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

In PLACE is a newsletter designed to keep the Linfield College community apprised of information related to PLACE activities, as well as ways to bring the program into classes. Included in this issue:

• PLACE: What's In It for Faculty?
• PLACE: What's In It for Students?
• PLACE in the News
• Last Week in PLACE

In Place: September 8, 2017, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

In PLACE is a newsletter designed to keep the Linfield College community apprised of information related to PLACE activities, as well as ways to bring the program into classes. Included in this issue:

• PLACE and What's the Big Idea?
• Spotlight On: The First Year Experience
• Our PLACE Theme in the News

Student Fellows 2017-2018, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document provides biographies of PLACE student fellows at Linfield College for 2017-2018.

Faculty Fellows 2017-2018, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document provides biographies of PLACE faculty fellows at Linfield College for 2017-2018.

The Digital Citizen, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document explains the PLACE theme at Linfield College for 2017-2018 (The Digital Society: The Digital Citizen).

Place Events 2016-2017, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document describes PLACE events at Linfield College for 2016-2017.

The Extinction And De-Extinction Of Species, Helena Siipi, Leonard Finkelman

Faculty Publications

In this paper, we discuss the following four alternative ways of understanding the outcomes of resurrection biology (also known as de-extinction). Implications of each of the ways are discussed with respect to concepts of species and extinction. (1) Replication: animals created by resurrection biology do not belong to the original species but are copies of it. The view is compatible with finality of extinction as well as with certain biological and ecological species concepts. (2) Re-creation: animals created are members of the original species but, despite their existence, the species remains extinct. The view is incompatible with all …

The Digital Society, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document explains the PLACE theme at Linfield College for 2016-2018 (The Digital Society).

Place Events 2015-2016, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document describes PLACE events at Linfield College for 2015-2016.

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Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds Documents

This advertisement shows the type of hiking materials that were popular before the advent of plastics and polymers. In her book Not Just Trees, Dr. Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds writes about the texture of the cloth and materials she used during fieldwork on Saddleback Mountain in her early research with Dr. James A. Macnab at Linfield College. Dirks-Edmunds, a 1937 graduate of Linfield, graduated from the University of Illinois in 1941; she returned to teach in the Biology department at Linfield from 1941-1974.

Student Fellows 2015-2016, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document provides biographies of PLACE student fellows at Linfield College for 2015-2016.

Faculty Fellows 2015-2016, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document provides biographies of PLACE faculty fellows at Linfield College for 2015-2016.

Air, Water, Earth, And Fire: The Ancient Elements On A Changing Planet, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document explains the PLACE theme at Linfield College for 2015-2016 (Air, Water, Earth, and Fire: The Ancient Elements on a Changing Planet).

Place Events Spring 2015, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document describes PLACE events at Linfield College for spring 2015.

Place Events Fall 2014, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document describes PLACE events at Linfield College for fall 2014.

How Do We Know? Paths To Wisdom, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document explains the PLACE theme at Linfield College for 2014-2015 (How Do We Know? Paths to Wisdom).

Place Events Spring 2014, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document describes PLACE events at Linfield College for spring 2014.

Place Events Spring 2014 Highlights, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document summarizes highlights of PLACE events at Linfield College for spring 2014.

Faculty Fellows 2013-2014, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document provides biographies of PLACE faculty fellows at Linfield College for 2013-2014.

Place Related Courses 2013-2014, Place

PLACE Historical Documents

This document includes a complete list of all the related courses for the PLACE program at Linfield College from 2013-2014.