#Ernst Mayr

[laquimeradegupta]

¿SÍNTESIS INACABADA? Y TANTO

Este es un libro fundamental para entender cómo se ha construido la moderna teoría de la evolución, la génesis de la síntesis evolutiva durante la década de los años cuarenta y qué puntos fuertes y débiles tiene esta explicación. Estamos ante un enorme libro de historia de la ciencia del siglo XX.

En concreto, Niles Eldredge, analizando tres grandes obras de tres de los biólogos evolutivos implicados en estas síntesis evolutiva, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ernst Mayr, George G. Simpson, indaga en la capacidad explicativa de estas visiones de la evolución de los nuevos procesos evolutivos conocidos y en las debilidades.

Dobzhansky, en su Genetics and the origin of the species de 1937, establece una teoría de la evolución donde la selección puede actuar en diversos niveles. Al menos, reconocer los individuos y los grupos de individuos (poblaciones) como dos niveles jerárquicos y, al reconocer la especie como una entidad real, que existe, y no como una división arbitraria realizada por los humanos en su afán clasificatorio, reconoce implícitamente su influencia en la evolución. Dobzhansky se basa en el modelo de picos adaptativos de Sewall Wright, adaptándolo a su visión genética de la evolución: las especies, como entidades reales, son picos adaptativos en el paisaje evolutivo. Son conjuntos de genes óptimos. En principio, según Dobzhansky, todas las combinaciones de genes serían posibles, pero solo existirían las combinaciones adecuadas (de máxima eficacia). Lo que Wright ve como picos adaptativos, Dobzhansky ve especies. Pero, podríamos preguntarnos: si las especies son picos adaptativos, y por tanto los valles son zonas deletéreas o, al menos, no tan óptimas ¿Cómo atraviesan las especies los valles? En definitiva ¿Cómo es posible la evolución con esta concepción? Dobzchansky es consciente de esta paradoja y llega a la misma conclusión que llegaría Simpson siete años más tarde: las especies que transitan los valles adaptativos son raras, con tamaños poblacionales pequeños y tasas de evolución muy altas. Es la noción de “Evolución cuántica” de Simpson y constituye una alternativa explicativa al registro fósil al gradualismo filético darwinista y al “Monstruo prometedor” del genetista Richard Goldschmidt. Para terminar, Dobzhansky reconocer dos piedras en el zapato de su concepción evolutiva (y mostrando una gran honestidad intelectual): Las especies de reproducción asexual que no respetaría el principio del aislamiento reproductivo en la especie ya que, las que lo hacen obligatoriamente, son individuos eternos que no van a compartir genes con otros individuos (a excepción del todos los procariotas, donde el mismo concepto de especie pierde sentido), y la poliploidía en plantas que, reconocía, era un evento de especiación instantanea.

Por su parte, Ernst Mayr, en su Systematic and the origin of species de 1942, reconoce la existencia real de las especies porque existe lo que el denomina “discontinuidades insalvables” entre las mismas; algo que nos permite diferenciar unas de otras y que, también, incluye las diferencias que impiden que las poblaciones de una u otra especie se mezclen (aislamiento reproductivo). Pero Mayr desarrolla el concepto de especie de otra forma, distinta a la de Dobzkhansky. Si este último pensaba que eran picos adaptativos, es decir, que podían existir algo así como “especie potenciales” que todavía no se han explorado y que las poblaciones actuales, en un futuro, pudieran acceder a esas combinaciones genéticas, Mayr alcanza lo que Eldredge denomina “concepto dinámico de especie”. La historia evolutiva de una especie no es más que, esa especie, recorriendo y explorando paisajes adaptativos. Podemos imaginar a las especies como un grupo de lombrices de tierra que parten de un mismo orígen y que van perforando el suelo. Al principio, todas van juntas (antecesor común), pero luego cada una sigue su camino, explora el terreno y hace túneles a placer. Podríamos seguir con la analogía y pensar que, la distancia entre los túneles es análoga a la diferencia morfológica entre especies. Así, tendríamos especies más similares entre sí, que otras (variabilidad interespecífica) ¿Cómo se mantiene y se genera esta variabilidad? Mayr concibe 5 estadios de la especiación: I) la homogeneidad de la población (estadio inicial), II) variabilidad geográfica, III) especiación o elevada variabilidad geográfica, IV) expansión de la nueva especie, sin entrecruzamiento con la “antigua”, V) puede darse el caso de la fusión de las zonas geográficas de las especies nueva y vieja y que, estas, hibriden, o no. Y, Mayr, piensa en 2 factores de establecimiento del proceso de especiación y en 2 clases de mecanismos de aislamiento. Los procesos detrás de la especiación son de dos tipos: I) los que producen o eliminan las discontinuidades, y II) los que producen o impiden la divergencia entre las especies. Pueden ser factores adaptativos, es decir, selección, o no adaptativos. Y dos mecanismos de aislamiento reproductivo que contribuyen a mantener la especie nueva separada de la vieja: I) la restricción de la dispersión al azar de los genes (las parejas ya no se forman al azar porque hay una barrera geográfica), II) Restricción del apareamiento al azar y la reducción de la fertilidad al azar y fenómenos relacionados (mecanismos de reconocimiento divergentes y menor cuota de descendientes en los híbridos que resultan en un aislamiento reproductivo). Así, Mayr extrapola la evolución de las poblaciones a la macroevolución. Es reduccionista en este aspecto.

Por último, Simpson, en su Tempo and mode in evolution, en la edición primera de 1944, expone al igual que Sewall Wright, que la evolución de las especies se guía hacia zonas de óptimos adaptativos. Pero, las especies no “viajan” de forma directa hacia esos “espacios adaptativos”, si no que tienen formas distintas de acercarse: algunas lo hacen gradual y constantemente, otras se acercan cada vez más rápido, en otros casos existen enjambres de óptimos cercanos y las especies se subdividen en poblaciones que se acercan a cada uno de estos ótimos, etc. Pero, quizá, la distinción más importante que hace Simpson es lo que el denomino megaevolución y que distingue de la microevolución y de la macroevolución. Para Simpson, la megaevolución corresponde a los niveles más altos de la taxonomía cuya aparición en el registro fósil y las diferencias entre ellos son repentinas y demasiado grandes como para ser explicados por simple extrapolación de la genética de poblaciones. Las familias, los géneros o las especies forman parte de la macroevolución, una simple extrapolación de los cambios genéticos poblacionales hacia niveles próximos de la taxonomía. Así, postula Simpson, tasas altas de evolución han tenido que ser responsables de la evolución de los niveles más altos de filogenia y busca soporte empírico a que esto ha tenido que ser así porque, extrapolando las tasas de cambio genético en zarigüeyas actuales y las tasas de cambio morfológico obtenidas en el cretácico de sus ancestros conocidos, resulta que, para cubrir el espacio morfológico y genético entre los reptiles mamiferoides y la actual zarigüeyas se habrían necesitado más de 600 millones de años (más de seis veces el tiempo realmente usado). Simpson reconoce Tres modos evolutivos: I) la especiación, II) la evolución filética y III) la evolución cuántica. Todas las especies tienen una “zona adaptativa” u óptimo en sentido wrightiano. Así, la especiación es la diferenciación dentro de la misma zona adaptativa y puede ocurrir de dos formas: o bien diferentes poblaciones encuentran diferentes subóptimos dentro de la zona adaptativa y eso se estabilice mediante alguna forma de aislamiento,o bien, puede ocurrir lo contrario, que dos especies comiencen a solapar sus óptimos adaptativos. Por su parte, la evolución filética es el desplazamiento de la propia zona adaptativa (por ejemplo, porque el medio cambia) y el desplazamiento sincronizado del óptimo poblacional. Por último, la evolución cuántica es el paso de una población, de una zona adaptativa a otra, a través de movimientos rápidos del óptimo poblacional, de altas tasas de cambio y mucha extinción de subpoblaciones.

Entonces ¿Qué es la moderna síntesis evolutiva? Mayr lo expresó sucintamente en 1980: “la evolución gradual puede ser explicada sobre la base de pequeños cambios genéticos (mutaciones) y la recombinación, y el ordenamiento de esta variación genética mediante la selección natural; y los fenómenos evolutivos observados, particularmente los procesos de macroevolución y especiación, pueden ser explicados de una manera que es compatible con los mecanismos genéticos conocidos”.

MÁS INFORMACIÓN

La reseña la publiqué originalmente en el Canal de Telegram Libros y reseñas. En este canal podéis encontrar una versión portable del libro, además de otras lecturas interesantes

[explorerbiogen]

Evolución Biológica ¿Cuáles son las principales causas de la variabilidad genética y el cambio evolutivo?

¿Qué tienen que ver la teoría de la evolución planteada por Darwin y Wallace y las leyes de Mendel? Bueno, en realidad, aunque estos personajes jamás se conocieron dado que las Leyes planteadas por Mendel se dieron a conocer hasta principios del siglo XX, la comunidad científica se las arregló para conjugar la teoría de la evolución de Darwin y Wallace con las Leyes de la herencia, de tal modo…

[histsciart]

Green Sea Turtle

Chelonia mydas. SciArt from Bilder-Atlas zur wissenschaftlich-populären Naturgeschichte der Wirbelthiere (1867).

View more in the Biodiversity Heritage Library with thanks to the Ernst Mayr Library of the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology for digitizing.

[gessner-aldrovandi-et-amici]

Queen triggerfish (old wife) from Marcus Elesier Bloch’s Ichthyologie ou, Histoire naturelle des poissons. Berlin 1796.

Source: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library (online via Biodiversity Heritage Library: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/26748).

[monkeyssalad-blog]

n206_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library Via Flickr: Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences. Edinburgh [etc.] :Published for the proprietor [etc.],1835-1840. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33665627

[amateurvoltaire]

When you get publicly slapped by 4 surrealist poets because you insulted a guy's historical crush

(translation and context under the cut)

Gallantly Defending Robespierre’s Honour

In the conservative daily paper, Le Gaulois, on March 3, 1923, the journalist and man of letters, Wieland Mayr, expressed his pleasure: there would not be, he wrote, a "vile apotheosis" for "that holy scoundrel" Robespierre. On the other hand, Mathiez had the Surrealists with him. Following the article in Le Gaulois, Robert Desnos (1), accompanied by Paul Éluard (2), Max Ernst (3), and André Breton (4), summoned Mayr in a café and publicly slapped him for insulting the memory of "the Incorruptible."

Why did Mayr get Slapped?

In short: studying history in the 1920s was a messy business, especially when it came to the French Revolution….

To explain why Mayr ended up getting slapped, please allow me to briefly dive into the French Revolution's historiography during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Keep in mind, that this is a grossly oversimplified version.

Before 1848, it was pretty standard for French republicans to proudly see themselves as inheritors of Robespierre’s legacy. (If you’ve ever wondered why in Les Misérables, Enjolras’ character is very much channeling Robespierre and Saint-Just, here’s your answer!) However, things start to change with the Second Republic.

In 1847, Jules Michelet brought back the negative portrayal of Robespierre as a tyrannical "priest" and leader of a new cult. This narrative helped fuel an increasing dislike for Robespierre, with radicals like Auguste Blanqui arguing that the real revolutionaries were the atheistic Hébertists, not the Robespierrists.

Jump to the Third Republic, and the negative sentiment towards Robespierre was only getting stronger, driven by voices like Hippolyte Taine, who painted Robespierre as a mediocre figure, overwhelmed by his role. This trend was politically motivated, aiming to reshape the Revolution's legacy to align with the Third Republic's secular values. Obviously, Robespierre, the "fanatic pontiff" of the Supreme Being, didn’t quite fit this revised narrative and was made out to be the villain. Alphonse Aulard (a historian willing to stretch the truth to make his point) continued pushing Danton as the face of secular republicanism. Albert Mathiez, one of Aulard’s students, was not having any of it and strongly disagreed with his mentor’s approach.

The general disdain for Robespierre began to shift after World War I. One reason was that people could better appreciate the actions of the Revolutionary Government after experiencing the repression during the war themselves. Albert Mathiez and his colleagues were actively working to change Robespierre's tarnished image. With tensions high, it's no wonder Mayr ended up being publicly slapped by a bunch of poets who were defending the Incorruptible's honour!

Notes

Robert Desnos (1900-1945) was a French poet deeply associated with the Surrealist movement, known for his revolutionary contributions to both poetry and resistance during World War II.

Paul Éluard (1895-1952) was a French poet and one of the founding members of the Surrealist movement, celebrated for his lyrical and passionate writings on love and liberty.

Max Ernst (1891-1976) was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet, a pioneering figure in the Dada and Surrealist movements known for his inventive use of collage and exploration of the unconscious.

André Breton (1896-1966) was a French writer, poet, and anti-fascist, best known as the principal founder and leading theorist of Surrealism, promoting the liberation of the human mind.

Source: The text in the picture comes from Robespierre and the Social Republic by Albert Mathiez

[opera-ghosts]

Bella Paalen as Fricka; Vienna, 1919

Bella Paalen was born as Isabella (Izabella) Pollak in Pásztó, Komitat Nógrád, in Austro-Hungarian Hungary on December 9, 1881. She was the oldest of the three children of a Jewish couple – Laura Pollak neé Jamnitz, and Ernst Pollak. Ernst was initially a factory director, and later a representative for commercial trade agencies. The Pollaks lived in the Austro-Hungarian capital and Imperial Residence city of Vienna.

Isabella Pollak studied voice at the Conservatory of the Society of Friends of Music. Her voice teacher was a prominent interpreter of Richard Wagner’s operas: Rosa Papier. Her son Bernhard Paumgartner became head of the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

In the autumn of 1905, Isabella Pollak, whose stage name was Bella Paalen, was employed as an alto (alto voice) in Graz. In its 1905/06 season the Graz Opera House was able to achieve brilliant successes under its artistic director Alfred Cavarn.

A sensational highlight was the Austrian premiere of the opera Salome by Richard Strauss in the presence of the director of the Vienna Court Opera Gustav Mahler. Mahler had been unable to produce it himself because of censorship by the Viennese court.

In Graz, the Vienna Court Opera singer Jenny Korb, a soprano, sang the title role of »Salome«. Bella PAALEN was heard in the small alto part of »The Page of Herodias«.

On December 3, 1906, Bella Paalen sang the alto solo in Gustav Mahler’s 3rd Symphony for the first time in the Graz Opera House: an orchestral concert conducted by the composer himself. Gustav Mahler was so impressed by Bella PAALEN that he engaged the 25-year-old contralto at the Vienna Court Opera on September 1, 1907.

Bella Paalen was part of the ensemble of the Vienna Court (and later Vienna State) Opera for three decades. She sang the alto parts »Fricka«, »Erda«, »Grimgerde« and »Norn« in The Ring of the Nibelung opera cycle, »Magdalena« in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, »Brangäne« in Tristan and Isolde and »Ortrud« in Lohengrin – all by Richard Wagner, as well as »Klytämnestra« in Elektra and »Annina« in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss along with other roles, mostly small alto parts.

»Annina« was Bella Paalen’s star role at the Court/State Opera: 173 performances between 1911 and 1937. The famous bass singer Richard Mayr also shone in Der Rosenkavalier as »Ochs von Lerchenau«.

Mayr’s birthplace, Salzburg, has a memorial for this. What has been forgotten, however, is that Bella PAALEN was part of the Mayr family’s circle of friends.

After the end of WWI, in 1919, Bella Paalen made her first summer vacation in the Salzburg spa Hofgastein. She was one of the prominent spa guests who participated in charity events and gave recitals every now and then. Bernhard Paumgartner, the son of her singing teacher Rosa Papier, had been director of the Mozarteum in Salzburg since 1917 and he acted as her piano accompanist on one occasion.

In 1920 Bella Paalen’s parents, Ernst and Laura Pollak bought house no. 34 in Hofgastein, called the »Haidenhäusl«. Her parents both died in 1935. Her father first, then soon afterwards her mother during a performance of the opera Lohengrin at the Vienna State Opera, which caused a sensation because Bella PAALEN broke off her performance as »Ortrud« when she learned about her death:… Miss Bella Paalen’s mother, who was well into her seventies, has always been the most attentive fan of her daughter, who is not only one of the most popular members of the [opera company], but also the one who has been here for the longest, namely since 1907. The elderly Frau Paalen wasn’t only nervous, she suffered from a serious heart condition that had made her daughter very anxious when the old lady attended the opera … Kleine Volks-Zeitung, May 19, 1935

Bella Paalen inherited her parents’ house in Hofgastein. Her younger brother, the artist Benedict Fred Dolbin, emigrated to the USA in October 1935. Her youngest brother Otto Friedrich Pollak had died in the First World War as a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army.

It has been said that Bella Paalen was honored with the title »Austrian Chamber Singer« in 1933, but that isn’t correct. In fact she only received the title in September 1937 when she was 56 years old and already »retired«.

Bella Paalen was 52 years old when she first appeared in a small alto role at the Salzburg Festival in 1934: as »First Maid« in the opera Elektra. In the 1936 summer festival she had the small role as »Manuela« (the maid of Juan Lopez) in the Hugo Wolf opera Der Corregidor.

The festival audience was able to see and hear Bella Paalen again in the summer of 1937, lastly on August 22nd, as »First Maid« in the opera Elektra – with only a few appearances that hardly received any attention in the reviews.

Bella Paalen made her last glamorous appearance at the Vienna State Opera as »Marthe« in Charles Gounod’s opera Margarethe on July 6, 1937. Irene Harand’s philosemitic magazine Gerechtigkeit [Justice] reported:… The last two performances of the current opera year took place in front of a sold out house; this extraordinary public interest was not only aroused by the guest performances of Elisabeth Rethberg and Ezio Pinza, but also in the farewell to an artist whose whole life and all her strength were dedicated to our company for thirty years … The drastic Marthe was Bella Paalen, to whom the audience gave a roaring farewell with frenetic applause; and when she bowed for the last time, it was certainly not only she who had tears in her eye. Ks. Gerechtigkeit, July 15, 1937

What went unmentioned, however, was that Bella PAALEN, who had retired, was Jewish and had not converted to Christianity to further her career. Not coincidentally the reasons why she had been honored only so late in her career remained obscure:Bella Paalen, who retired at the end of the previous season, was awarded the title of Austrian Chamber Singer. Even if this honor came a little late, it will please everyone who is indebted to the artist for great experiences over countless years. Ks. Gerechtigkeit, September 16, 1937

Despite her retirement, the artist was unable to quit her thirty year career so quickly. In the annals of the Vienna State Opera it is recorded that Bella Paalen had two more appearances: as »Palmatica, Countess Nowalska« in Millöcker’s Bettelstudent on October 11, 1937 and as »Filipjewna« in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin on March 11, 1938.

Bella Paalen, who lived in the 1st district, probably left National Socialist Vienna only after the »Reichskristallnacht« pogroms of November 1938. At least it is on record that the 57 year old singer arrived in New York as a »Hebrew« on the transatlantic liner Hansa on January 13, 1939.

Bella Paalen didn’t have any engagements as a singer after her arrival in New York. She was however very successful as a voice teacher. In the 1950s she sold her house in Hofgastein and lived temporarily in Vienna. Her last address was in New York City – on 85th St. in Jackson Heights Queens.

Bella Paalen died at age 83 in the Elmhurst Hospital, Queens New York, on July 28, 1964. Her urn was placed in the Vienna Central Cemetery grave of her parents on December 3, 1964.

[linyarguilera]

Biólogos do Neodarwinismo

THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY

Foi um geneticista e evolucionista ucraniano, que chegou a dar aula na universidade de são Paulo (USP-Brasil), e recebeu o título de doutor honroris.

Quando em 1920 a 1935, matemáticos e experimentalistas começaram a estudar a fundo as recombinações genéticas do Darwinismo com a genética de Mendel, ele acabou por envolver-se com a pesquisa.

Ele estudou as Drosoplhila pseudoobscura , a mosca da fruta, em que observou a variedade genética das mesmas conforme os anos, e os meses, e percebeu que 40% nasciam na primavera, e 60% no verão e apresentando outros genes.

Comparando com diferentes gerações, ele percebeu variações genéticas conforme o mês, e chegou a conclusão do isolamento reprodutivo pós-zigótico, em que sabemos que o cruzamento de espécies diferentes pode até gerar hibrídos, no entanto não férteis, tendo então contribuído para o conceito de especiação.

O cientista além de defensor do Darwinismo, também contribuiu com os livros "Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937)", "The Biology of Ultimate Concern (1967)" e por fim "Genetics the Evolutionary Process(1970)", além de 400 "papers" sobre o assunto.

STEBBINS

Dr. G. Ledyard Stebbins Jr foi um biólogo, e dos principais botânicos do século XX, além de geneticista, estudou fósseis, e a história da evolução dos organismos somada a teoria de Charles Darwin, e contribuiu para com o Darwinismo.

Em 1950 escreveu o livro "Variation and Evolution in Plants", e no seu livro demonstrou um conhecimento enciclopédico de estudos botânicos, de fósseis a cromossomos, ao fornecer um argumento detalhado de que as plantas estavam sujeitas aos mesmos processos de evolução que os animais, uma ideia de que ainda hoje os biólogos tomam como um dado fatídico.

ERNST MAYR

Foi um biólogo alemão, assim como Darwin foi obrigado a entrar para o curso de medicina, no entanto sua grande paixão era a biologia, sobretudo o campo da Ornitologia.

Ele contribuiu para a divulgação do neodarwinismo, elaborou e conceituou espécie biológica, e também percebeu que a variação de espécimes advinha de migrações geográficas.

FRANCISCO AYALA

Biólogo um pouco controverso mas contribuiu com a junção entre o neordarwinismo e a religião, além do mais foi um crítico dos ideais sobre designer inteligente divino.

GEORGE GAYLORD SIMPSON

Foi um biólogo e paleontólogo estadunidense, seus estudos contribuíram para o entendimento de especiação por meio de migrações intercontinentais dos animais, além de compreensão da evolução de mamíferos na Era Mesozóica.

SEWALL WRIGHT

Foi um geneticista americano, estudou o cruzamento entre porcos, e ergueu as bases matemáticas para o entendimento de genética de populações, bem como se comportam por isolamento.

Tais biólogos foram parte da atividade da minha disciplina de História e Filosofia do Conhecimento Biológico, acabei por perder as referências biográficas, mas achei interessante para compartilhar.

[queering-ecology]

Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire Chapter 2 : Enemy of the Species by Ladelle McWhorter (part 2)

Origin of the Species Concept

Important Names: Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon- late eighteenth century by naturalist credited with coining the scientific term ‘species’

Ernst Mayr-one of the ‘greatest evolutionary biologists of the twentieth century’, a philosopher and historian of the biological sciences and was deeply interested in the ‘history of the concept of species’ and in species evolution.

Linnaeus—Carl von Linne- an eighteen-century Swedish naturalist who developed the system of classification of being into genera and species still used in modern form today. Believed in the existence of real species in the Platonic sense—devised taxonomy to delineate them (76).

--

Ernst Mayr asserted there were three fundamental meanings of the word ‘species’ in relation to the natural world.

“the Platonic understanding of species as unchanging types. Individuals, […] are more or less imperfect instantiations of a type; their imperfections account for the differences among individuals of the same species” [76]

“the concepts of species taxa, like all universal or class concepts, are abstractions derived from our experience of a number of seemingly similar individuals” [77]

Both are unsatisfactory, according to Mayr—“species are groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups” (1992, 17)(77)

Mayr credited Buffon with the idea that species can be distinguished empirically by reference to their infertility or lack thereof. According to Buffon, “two classes of living entity can be considered distinct species if cross-breeding either (1) is impossible, (2) is sterile, or (3) produces offspring who are themselves sterile” (77). Mayr and other geneticists believed that “crucial to the evolution of life, namely that species compromise distinct gene pools, species are genetic populations” (78).

“This is the understanding of species most of us were taught in schools; it is the one to which we implicitly appeal when arguing sexual diversity is of benefit to the human species [what we were not taught] is how controversial this conception of species was and still is” (78).

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 18, 2023

Internally generated time in the rodent hippocampus is logarithmically compressed. Cao, R., Bladon, J. H., Charczynski, S. J., Hasselmo, M. E., & Howard, M. W. (2022).eELife, 11, e75353.

Reasoning about mental states under uncertainty. Cho, I., Kamkar, N., & Hosseini-Kamkar, N. (2022). PLOS ONE, 17(11), e0277356.

Flexible integration of continuous sensory evidence in perceptual estimation tasks. Esnaola-Acebes, J. M., Roxin, A., & Wimmer, K. (2022). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(45), e2214441119.

Systematic reduction of the dimensionality of natural scenes allows accurate predictions of retinal ganglion cell spike outputs. Freedland, J., & Rieke, F. (2022). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(46), e2121744119.

Nucleus accumbens dopamine tracks aversive stimulus duration and prediction but not value or prediction error. Goedhoop, J. N., van den Boom, B. J., Robke, R., Veen, F., Fellinger, L., van Elzelingen, W., … Willuhn, I. (2022).eELife, 11, e82711.

Visual experience has opposing influences on the quality of stimulus representation in adult primary visual cortex. Jeon, B. B., Fuchs, T., Chase, S. M., & Kuhlman, S. J. (2022). eLife, 11, e80361.

The role of conjunctive representations in prioritizing and selecting planned actions. Kikumoto, A., Mayr, U., & Badre, D. (2022). eLife, 11, e80153.

Reward expectation extinction restructures and degrades CA1 spatial maps through loss of a dopaminergic reward proximity signal. Krishnan, S., Heer, C., Cherian, C., & Sheffield, M. E. J. (2022). Nature Communications, 13(1), 6662.

Adult newborn granule cells confer emotional state–dependent adaptability in memory retrieval. Lei, B., Kang, B., Lin, W., Chen, H., Hao, Y., Ma, J., … Zhong, Y. (2022). Science Advances, 8(45).

Long-range GABAergic projections contribute to cortical feedback control of sensory processing. Mazo, C., Nissant, A., Saha, S., Peroni, E., Lledo, P.-M., & Lepousez, G. (2022). Nature Communications, 13, 6879.

Neural dynamics of causal inference in the macaque frontoparietal circuit. Qi, G., Fang, W., Li, S., Li, J., & Wang, L. (2022). eLife, 11, e76145.

Recalibrating vision-for-action requires years after sight restoration from congenital cataracts. Senna, I., Piller, S., Ben-Zion, I., & Ernst, M. O. (2022). eLife, 11, e78734.

Sampling motion trajectories during hippocampal theta sequences. Ujfalussy, B. B., & Orbán, G. (2022). eLife, 11, e74058.

An opioid-gated thalamoaccumbal circuit for the suppression of reward seeking in mice. Vollmer, K. M., Green, L. M., Grant, R. I., Winston, K. T., Doncheck, E. M., Bowen, C. W., … Otis, J. M. (2022). Nature Communications, 13, 6865.

[jedivoodoochile]

"En 1907 se compró una cámara fotográfica Brownie, pero aunque la conservó toda su vida nunca le sacó partido, ni siquiera para fotografiar la colección de armas que había heredado de su padre, y que le atraía sinceramente, como todo lo relacionado con las charreteras. También tuvo un fonógrafo, pero lo abandonó cuando oyó una grabación de su propia voz, «un graznido ronco», y su risa, «un áspero cacareo» (S. de Camp. 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕. Valdemar. 1992)."

Teodoro Gómez. 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕. 𝑳𝒂 𝑨𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈í𝒂. Grupo Océano. 2006.

Imagen: Harvard University's Ernst Mayr Library.

[gerotoc]

That's is the best book I read in the last years. Perhaps as significant to my career as a scientist as 'Development of Biological Thinking' from Ernst Mayr or 'The Emergency of Life' from Pier Luisi. I'm a paleontologist, but, the evolution of cognition and human mind are very curious topic. Starting in 2020 with a discussion about the end of Persona 5 Royal, I developed a hyperfixation in the topics about free will, conscious will and human agency. This drive me back to phylosophy and late to psicological and neurological researchs. I can say, it has been a very fun and excitant travel and give me the volation (XD) to writting about.

[histsciart]

Happy Feathursday!

Resplendent quetzals (Pharomachrus mocinno) are the emerald jewels of the Central American forests. Often considered one of the most beautiful birds in the world, these iridescent bright green quetzals were revered in Aztec and Mayan cultures. They are the national animal of Guatemala, and a male with its iconic tail feathers appears on the Guatemalan flag.

SciArt by John Gould and William Hart for Gould's Monograph of the Trogonidae, or Family of Trogons, Pt. 3 (1875). View more in the Biodiversity Heritage Library with thanks to the Ernst Mayr Library of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology for digitizing.

[gessner-aldrovandi-et-amici]

Zebra shark from Marcus Elesier Bloch’s Ichthyologie ou, Histoire naturelle des poissons. Berlin 1796.

Source: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library (online via Biodiversity Heritage Library: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/26748).

[monkeyssalad-blog]

n196_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library Via Flickr: Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences. Edinburgh [etc.] :Published for the proprietor [etc.],1835-1840. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33665617

[cleverwordsandotherstuffilike]

Animals with backbones, the vertebrates, come in four basic styles: smooth (amphibians), hairy (mammals), scaly (reptiles, fish), or feathered (birds). While the first three body coverings have their virtues, nothing competes with feathers for sheer diversity of form and function. They can be downy soft or stiff as battens, barbed, fringed, fused, flattened, or simple unadorned quills They range from bristles smaller than a pencil point to the thirty-five-foot breeding plumes of the Ongadori, an ornamental Japanese fowl. Feathers can conceal or attract. They can be vibrantly colored without using pigment. They can store water or repel it. They can snap, whistle, hum, vibrate, boom, and whine. They’re a near-perfect airfoil and the lightest, most efficient insulation ever discovered. …

Natural scientists from Aristotle to Ernst Mayr have marveled at the complexity of feather design and utility, analyzing everything from growth patterns to aerodynamics to the genes that code their proteins. Alfred Russel Wallace called feathers ‘the masterpiece of nature…the perfectest venture imaginable,’ and Charles Darwin devoted nearly four chapters to them in Descent of Man, his second great treatise on evolution.