Journal and Proceedings of
The Royal Society of New South Wales
Volume 120 Parts 1 and 2 [Issued September, 1987]
CONTENTS
| AUTHORS & TITLES | PAGES |
| 25th Anniversary of the New England Branch of the Royal Society of New South Wales: a Symposium on "Biological Evolution" | |
| Stanton, R.L., [Introduction] | 1 |
| Craig, D.P., Science: The Private and Public Faces | 3-8 |
| Campbell, K.S.W., Evolution Evolving | 9-19 |
| Crozier, R.H., Selection: Adaptation and Evolution | 21-37 |
| Miklos, George L. Gabor, Molecular Facts and Evolutionary Theory | 39-48 |
| Inagural Poggendorff Memorial Lecture | |
| McDonald, D.G., Walter Poggendorff – Pioneer Plant Breeder | 49-55 |
v. 120 pts 1-2, p.1
25th Anniversary of the New England Branch of the Royal Society of New South Wales: a Symposium on "Biological Evolution": Introduction
R. L. Stanton
To mark the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the establishment of the New England Branch of the Society, and the occasion of the re-opening of the Society's Library within the Dixson Library of the University of New England, a symposium on "Biological Evolution" was held in the Department of Physics, University of New England, during the day on Monday, 24th March, 1986. This was followed in the evening by the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Lecture.
The symposium was led off by Professor K.S.W. Campbell, FAA, of the Australian National University, who gave a general introduction to the principles of biological evolution, and then went on to show how the mechanisms of evolutionary change may themselves have evolved over time. His talk, "Evolution Evolving", was designed to introduce the layman to some of the more recent ideas in evolutionary biology, and showed that the emerging picture is not one of stately progression, but rather one of great bursts of change and diversification followed by episodes of extinction of varying severity.
Associate Professor R.H. Crozier of the Evolutionary Biology Laboratory, University of New South Wales then spoke on "Selection, adaptation and evolution", examining evolutionary trends from the point of view of population genetics and -adaptive evolution".
This was followed by a contribution from Dr. C.L.G. Miklos of the School of Population Biology, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, entitled "Molecular facts and evolutionary theory". As had Professors Campbell and Crozier, Dr. Miklos introduced his subject to the layman, and then went on to discuss ways in which DNA may be manipulated, the ways in which genomic components control the morphology of organisms, and aspects of molecular embryology and the role of these in biological evolution.
In the evening, Professor D. P. Craig, FAA, FRS, of the Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University and Honorary Member of the Society, gave a very thoughtful and topical Twentyfifth Anniversary Lecture on "Science: its private and its public face".
v. 120 pts 1-2, pp.3-8
Science: The Private and the Public Faces
D. P. Craig
Abstract. Science as an activity and an enterprise is seen differently by practitioners, who are the scientists themselves, and by those outside. The differences in perception are nowhere greater than in the views taken of fundamental research. Is it the jewel in the science crown, and the kernel from which grow advances in the physical conditions of our lives, or is it a selfindulgent hobby of a few pampered intellectuals?
Examples abound to show that the forward movement through the applications of science always depends in the beginning on fundamental research. Progress from that start rests on cooperative effort by pure and applied scientists. The laboratory and the marketplace both act as stimuli.
It is a singular fact that there is little understanding that the training of scientists in research methods is mainly through their participation, as students, in programs of pure research in universities. We rely on such research to produce trained research workers as well as new science. These are the men and women who will carry forward new technologies in Australian industry and elsewhere.
v. 120 pts 1-2, p.9-19
Evolution Evolving
K. S. W. Campbell
There is no Abstract: see the full text hereExtract: By the time he wrote the Origin of Species, Darwin had reached at least four main conclusions from his palaeontological studies:
- Most fossils represented the hard parts (skeletons) of species that are not now found living – that is, a large number of species had become extinct.
- Most fossils could be seen to have features in common with species that are still living – for example, skeletons that were obviously similar in many respects to those of modern reptiles could be found extending back in the record for some considerable time.
- Overall it was possible to recognise a progression of complexity in organisms through geological time.
- Although organisms from one period were different from, but related to, organisms from preceding and succeeding periods, it was not possible to find the graded sequences of organisms he had predicted.
... From this he concluded something quite different from what might have been expected – not that his idea of gradual transitions between species might be incorrect, but rather that the geological record was incomplete.
... It is clear from this and his previous statements that he introduced a serious confusion because he did not distinguish between the concept of evolution as descent with modification on the one hand, and the means by which this modification was thought to have taken place – namely, natural selection on the other.
... For the next forty years or so there was little effort on the part of palaeontologists to follow up this problem of continuously evolving sequences. This seems to have been the result of two factors: geologists were convinced that the record was so bad that such changes could not be found and it was useless searching for them; and many palaeontologists, while accepting that evolution had occurred, could not accept the idea that natural selection by itself could produce the changes observed.
... The rediscovery of Mendel's genetics, and the great expansion of evolutionary thinking in the first thirty years of this century produced little impact on palaeontology, but during this period the concepts took shape that have dominated evolutionary thinking almost up till the present. These are known collectively as Neo-Darwinism or the Synthetic Theory.
.. by the mid-1950's there were three groups of evolutionists differing in their views of the course of evolution and the mechanisms that controlled it:
- Neo-Darwinists who thought that change was gradual, perhaps a little faster here and a little slower there; that the apparent jumps between major groups were the result of imperfections in the fossil record; and that direction and rate were the result of natural selection, acting on phenotypes that differed slightly as the result of small mutations.
- Simpsonians who were essentially Neo-Darwinists but who considered that not all change was gradual – some was very rapid and took place under special environmental conditions.
- Internalists who thought that change was very variable; that the jumps between major groups were real; and that direction and rate were at least in part the result of some internal factor as yet undiscovered.
... The conflict between these three groups remains to be resolved ...
... Numerous contributions to the resolution of the conflict have been made, and obviously they come from a variety of quarters. The subsequent papers in this symposium deal with biological contributions, and I will now discuss three quite different palaeontological approaches, all of which relate to metazoan organisms.
v. 120 pts 1-2, pp.21-37
Selection, Adaptation and Evolution
R.H. Crozier
Initial Paragraphs:
Nothing in biology makes any sense except in the light of evolution. (Dobzhansky, 1973)
In a way, evolution proceeds like a tinkerer who, during millions of years, has slowly modified his products, retouching, cutting, lengthening, using all opportunities to transform and create. Jacob (1983)
ON THE SHOULDERS OF A GIANT
As Dobzhansky (1973) so rightly stressed, the realization of evolution forms the very core of modern biology. We are used to understanding how good "design" of organisms comes about through evolution, but sometimes forget that design flaws are also understandable as arising the same way. As Jacob stresses, the processes of evolution work with what has gone before rather than producing new organisms afresh when faced with new niches or other evolutionary opportunities. Dawkins (1982) notes two examples of poor design whose origins are readily understandable in evolutionary terms: the contorted faces of flatfish, and the long detour taken by the recurrent laryngeal nerve in a giraffe's neck. It is no wonder, even leaving aside the evidence from natural and experimental populations, that scientists abandoned special creation of any kind as a general explanation for the living world.
| Full Text here | Return to Top |
v. 120 pts 1-2, pp.39-48
Molecular Facts and Evolutionary Theory
George L. Gabor Miklos
Intitial Paragraphs: Evolutionary biology has had a fascinating recent history. It was realized more than a century ago that the way of approaching many evolutionary problems lay in studies of morphology. However, as pointed out by Bateson in 1922, "discussions of evolution came to an end primarily because no progress was being made. Morphology having been explored in the minutest corners, we turned elsewhere. We became geneticists in the conviction that there at least must evolutionary wisdom be found." At the same time, while it was clear that morphology must have its bases in embryology, it was instead the mathematically oriented theory of neo-Darwinism that rose to prominence over the next half century. This theory is essentially an amalgam of Mendelian genetics and classical Darwinian selection, firmly based on changes in gene frequencies at particular loci. In the late 1960s, it began to be evaluated at a crude molecular level using gel electrophoresis techniques that allowed the examination of polymorphisms at many enzyme coding loci.
In the mid 1970s the technological advances of genetic engineering ushered in an entirely new era of molecular biology. The molecular biologist became the successor to the pure geneticist, and the focus switched back to the molecular analysis of development. The molecular biology of recombinant DNA revolutionized the previous concepts of genome organization and function and led to a reappraisal of the importance of neo-Darwinism. Present day studies of molecular evolution or molecular population genetics are largely the application of recombinant DNA technologies to traditional evolutionary problems, namely the origin, type and extent of genetic variation in populations. or the determination of phylogenies. However, the application of this technology to eukaryotic genomes has spawned so many surprises. that traditional notions of how evolution works have had to be substantially re-evaluated.
| Full Text here | Return to Top |
v. 120 pts 1-2, pp.49-55
Walter Poggendorff—Pioneer Plant Breeder
[Inaugural Poggendorff Memorial Lecture]
D.G. McDonald
INTRODUCTION
... Though he concentrated on rice, Walter Poggendorff was no stranger to an awesome range of other crops that came within his breeding portfolio. ... the advice given to him in Head Office as he was leaving to take up his position of Assistant Plant Breeder at Yanco was to "go and cross up everything you can lay your hands on", advice which he took to heart. Few plant breeders could lay claim to having contributed in such widely diverse species as rice, peaches, apricots, grapes and rock melons.
Plant breeding as a science was still in its infancy when he began his work in 1928. Looking back from our present position, less than 60 years down the track, the implications of his statement that "Only one variety of rice, of the many thousands in existence, is known to have been deliberately bred by man...." (Poggendorff, 1937) is difficult to comprehend. Walter Poggendorff literally was a pioneer in Australian plant breeding.
| Full Text here | Return to Top |