Evolution, cultural

During the past 2 Ma, there was a profound impact of the glaciations and related climatic and sea-level changes on the evolution, culture, and dispersal of Man and its civilisation. 

Energy theorists of cultural evolution are concerned with the whole sweep of cultural evolution, from prehistoric hunters and gatherers to modern industrial societies. This global, secular perspective is useful in assessing the relevance of ideas advanced to account for short periods of time in the histoi y of particular societies. Those who propose an energy theoi-y of cultural evolution emphasize the problem of causality-whether or not the amount of energy a... 

Wince, L. T. (19S9). The Evolution of Culture. New York McGraw-Hill. 

Sec also Carnot, Nicolas Leonard Sadi Clausins, Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Culture and Energy Usage Ethical and Moral Aspects of Energy Use Gibbs, Jonah Willard Industiy and Business, History of Energy Use and Joule, James Prescott Kinetic Energy, Historical Evolution of the Use of Mayer, Julius Robert von Refining, History of Thomson, William Watt, James. 

Algal blooms in fresh water ponds occasionally poison livestock and waterfowl. Axenic cultures of Anabaena flos-aquae NRC 44-1 were shown to produce the toxic principle (5) which can be present in the algae and in the water of mature cultures (6). The discovery of the toxin was fortuitous in the sense that AChR agonists do not have a (known) constructive function in the algae evolution of the synthetic pathway was likely a by-product of metabolic pathways in the algae. The compound became evident only through its toxic effects on other organisms. 

In summary, then, conjugation is a natural process representing the early stages in a true sexually reproduetive proeess. Transformation involving autolysis of the culture with loss of genetic material, and transduetion arising out of an infective process, are seeondary processes whieh are not known to occur in eukaryotes nevertheless, they must have taken their part in microbial evolution. 

Directed evolution relies on the analysis of large numbers of clones to enable the discovery of rare variants with unproved function. In order to analyze these large libraries, methods of screening or selection have been developed, many of which use specialized equipment or automation. These range from the use of multichannel pipettes, all the way up to robotics, depending on the level of investment [59]. Specialized robotic systems are available to perform tasks such as colony picking, cell culture, protein purification, and cell-based assays. 

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