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As a prelude to Part XXXVIII I am making a disclaimer that, first of all, I am not a COVID-19 expert, nor do I pretend to be.  I am more of a reporter with a science background (especially in the field of biology with 41 years of teaching junior high, high school, and college). I …

Continue reading “Part XXXVIII: Hope for the World”

To my past readers, my apologizes for the long period of inactivity, a bevy of late summer and fall activities (mostly outdoor) including tons of yard work, ongoing garage cleaning and organizing, designing, building, and modifying a ramp for our failing dog who requires nearly constant attention, extensive dental work for some of us, and …

Continue reading “Part XXXVII: A Lingering World Problem; COVID-19”

Since Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin were contemporaries and both contributed immensely to biology, the question naturally arises, were they acquainted with each other’s work? One source I read begins with the assertion “read no further if you want a definite answer to this question.” However, the author concludes that “the unsolved mystery, therefore, remains: …

Continue reading “Part XXXVI: Gregor Mendel & Charles Darwin”

Conflict between science and religion exists today in areas where moral values are at stake. Reproductive freedom for women, contra­ception, abortion, euthanasia,umbilical cord cell research, and genetic engineering are the result of science and technology which have progressed more rapidly than social and religious acceptance. This raises the question of whether theology can or should …

Continue reading “Part XXXV: Science and Religion (conclusion)”

In essay part XXXIII we learned some of the history of science and religion and differences between them. We learned that, among other things, religion predates science and that they differ in purpose in our lives. In the present essay Gould briefly discusses his two greatest Victorian heroes, Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley and how …

Continue reading “Part XXXIV: Science and Religion (continued)”

History & differences       Although modern science began in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (and some scholars would claim the late fifthteenth century), the precursors of science go back to ancient Greece and Rome. However, not until a new method of inquiry relying on empirical analysis based on careful observation and data collection which replaced …

Continue reading “Part XXXIII: Science and Religion”

Originally I intended for my next several essays to treat the historical controversial battle between science and religion but changed my mind to return to the subject of viruses for obvious reasons.  Let’s review some basic viral facts.  First of all, viruses are composed of just two kinds of organic molecules, an outer protein coat …

Continue reading “Part XXXII: Viruses revisited with special emphasis on COVID19”

As I begin to write my third series of Essays on Science for the Common Good in the third week of March 2020, We-the entire human race are right in the midst of disastrous cataclysmic events that none of us has ever witnessed before. Schools are closing, entire businesses and industries are failing, stock markets …

Continue reading “Part XXXI: A Brief Reprieve”

Did Darwin read Mendel?  David Galton Read no further if you want a definite answer to this question. It is a sort of detective story with clues scattered around. The circumstances surrounding the question however are so interesting since they involve two of the most important scientific publications of the 19th century. The truly ground-breaking …

Continue reading “Part XXX Did Darwin read Mendel.”

The following essay was adapted from an article by Crystal Jeter One set of alleles is responsible–for determining each trait, and there are only 2 different alleles (dominant and recessive) for each gene. By way of explanation, alleles are different forms of a gene (and usually expressed by, say A & a). After learning about simple …

Continue reading “Part XXIX: Five Misconceptions of Genetics”