Darwin Was Right About How Evolution Can Affect Whole Group

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Darwin Was Right About How Evolution Can Affect Whole Group

Worker ants of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your fertility. The highly specialized worker castes in ants represent the pinnacle of social organization in the insect world. As in any society, however, ant colonies are filled with internal strife and conflict. So what binds them together? More than 150 years ago, Charles Darwin had an idea and now he's been proven right.

Evolutionary biologists at McGill University have discovered molecular signals that can maintain social harmony in ants by putting constraints on their fertility. Dr. Ehab Abouheif, of McGill's Department of Biology, and post-doctoral researcher, Dr. Abderrahman Khila, have discovered how evolution has tinkered with the genes of colonizing insects like ants to keep them from fighting amongst themselves over who gets to reproduce.

"We've discovered a really elegant developmental mechanism, which we call 'reproductive constraint,' that challenges the classic paradigm that behaviour, such as policing, is the only way to enforce harmony and squash selfish behaviour in ant societies," said Abouheif, McGill's Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Developmental Biology.

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@Sabz5150,

...the difference is we are not ants. We are homo sapiens and as such, have the ability to piss and moan if we do not get what we want. So, we continue to hammer and chip away at those that govern us until they relent and give in. In the end, you better remember - freedom without discipline always results in anarchy.

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@socalgolfguy,

socalgolfguy;62562 wrote:

...the difference is we are not ants. We are homo sapiens and as such, have the ability to piss and moan if we do not get what we want. So, we continue to hammer and chip away at those that govern us until they relent and give in. In the end, you better remember - freedom without discipline always results in anarchy.

Discipline without freedom always results in fascism.

The former gave us this country, the latter threatens to take it from us.

And why, exactly, are you bringing this up in a topic concerning evolutionary biology?

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@Sabz5150,

I bring it up in every conversation.

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@Sabz5150,

Apparently the thread is evolving:rollinglaugh:

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@socalgolfguy,

socalgolfguy;62602 wrote:

I bring it up in every conversation.

Your purpose for threadjacking being... what, precisely?

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@Musky Hunter,

Musky Hunter;62612 wrote:

Apparently the thread is evolving:rollinglaugh:

And I'm gonna throw a little natural selection in the mix.

This environment isn't exactly friendly to threadjacking.

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@Sabz5150,

Sabz5150;62615 wrote:

And I'm gonna throw a little natural selection in the mix.

This environment isn't exactly friendly to threadjacking.

Now yer talking :thumbup:

intelligent design Very Happy

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@Musky Hunter,

Musky Hunter;62635 wrote:

Now yer talking :thumbup:

intelligent design

If it were ID, it wouldn't have to be done... the thread would have been formed perfectly from the beginning.

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@Sabz5150,

Sabz5150;62636 wrote:

If it were ID, it wouldn't have to be done... the thread would have been formed perfectly from the beginning.

Part of the concept of intelligent design is for the originator of a thread to have the the ability to allow the free will of the participants in the thread while at the same time reserving the right to tweek the direction that the thread moves in. Smile

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@Musky Hunter,

Musky Hunter;62642 wrote:

Part of the concept of intelligent design is for the originator of a thread to have the the ability to allow the free will of the participants in the thread while at the same time reserving the right to tweek the direction that the thread moves in.

But said thread did not arrive on the scene fully formed, which is the main concept of ID.

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@Sabz5150,

Sabz5150;62643 wrote:

But said thread did not arrive on the scene fully formed, which is the main concept of ID.

Only some versions of ID use that model as the "main concept". Others believe that the originator of a thread does best to set the thread in motion and then allow it to develop within certain constraints using the free will of the participants as part of the developing process. Obviously the designer reserves the right to direct the process when necessary. In this version of ID the designer is much more involved in the process and, I would argue, that the main concept of this form of ID is in the relationship that the designer has with the developing thread and its participants.

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@Musky Hunter,

Musky Hunter;62644 wrote:

Only some versions of ID use that model as the "main concept". Others believe that the originator of a thread does best to set the thread in motion and then allow it to develop within certain constraints using the free will of the participants as part of the developing process. Obviously the designer reserves the right to direct the process when necessary. In this version of ID the designer is much more involved in the process and, I would argue, that the main concept of this form of ID is in the relationship that the designer has with the developing thread and its participants.

The designer of a thread holds no more sway than its participants. Case in point: Go to a thread you created and delete or alter somebody else's post. The only thing a designer could do at that point is to watch the thread develop, powerless to influence its direction any more than anyone else participating... effectively, the designer becomes impotent.

The designer is then forced to watch its creation evolve in a direction all its own, even if that is one which goes completely against the original intent, as this thread shows.

Also, exactly how many versions of ID are there and how is this one any more valid than the others?

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Darwin Was Right About How Evolution Can Affect Whole Group

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