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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 29. Extraterrestrial Entertainment: Are We Being Monitored By Alien Beings?, Charles H. Smith
Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 29. Extraterrestrial Entertainment: Are We Being Monitored By Alien Beings?, Charles H. Smith
Faculty/Staff Personal Papers
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823−1913) was an early advocate for the rational assessment of likelihood of extraterrestrial life. Current efforts to evaluate the situation have ranged from the heavily self-indulgent to the more objective, and it is still often difficult to decide just how much of the information we are receiving on the subject is dependable. An attempt is made here to cut through the haze and reduce the matter to elementals.
Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 25. Wallace And The 'Physical Environment'., Charles H. Smith
Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 25. Wallace And The 'Physical Environment'., Charles H. Smith
Faculty/Staff Personal Papers
Alfred Russel Wallace’s natural selection essay of 1858 has been held to frame a greater role for the physical environment in forcing selection regimes than we find in Darwin’s writings, but here that verdict is challenged by a re-examination of both the essay itself, and period usage of the term ‘physical.’
Wallace And Incipient Structures: A World Of "More Recondite" Influences, Charles H. Smith
Wallace And Incipient Structures: A World Of "More Recondite" Influences, Charles H. Smith
DLPS Faculty Publications
Alfred Russel Wallace is well-known for his co-discovery of the principle of natural selection. Natural selection is usually considered a process, but it is not clear that Wallace regarded it in exactly these terms. In fact he more likely thought of the relationships involved as representing what we would now term a “state space,” a negative feedback loop wherein populations are maintained at healthy levels through elimination of the unfit. Both before and after the advent of natural selection Wallace clung to the idea that “more recondite forces” were shaping the nature and direction of evolution; this is especially evident …
Profiles In Science For Science Librarians: "What Lives Where, And Why": Alfred Russel Wallace, And The Field Of Biogeography, Charles H. Smith
Profiles In Science For Science Librarians: "What Lives Where, And Why": Alfred Russel Wallace, And The Field Of Biogeography, Charles H. Smith
DLPS Faculty Publications
Biogeography, the study of animal and plant distribution, has a history extending back to at least the eighteenth century. But it was not until the work of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the mid-nineteenth century that it really came into its own as a science. Darwin’s importance notwithstanding, it was really Wallace who put the field on the map, and many of today’s research threads can be traced back to his influence. This article provides a summary review of Wallace’s life and work and biogeography as a field of study, including Wallace’s role in its development.