Marina Alfano
Mr. Ippolito
Current Event 13
5/29/17
Gorman, James. "Challenging Mainstream Thought About Beauty’s Big Hand in Evolution."The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 May 2017. Web. 29 May 2017.
Manu Prakash, a physicist at Stanford proposed an interesting question that took many by surprise. “Why is there so much beauty?, and, “Why is there any beauty at all?”. These questions puzzled many and some began to wonder if their questions about beauty could be answered by science. Richard O. Prum, a Yale ornithologist (someone who studies birds) and evolutionary biologist offers a fragment of the answer in his book. However he only writes about one kind of beauty, whether or not the other gender is attractive kind of beauty. Yet he didn’t explain the appeal of how water moves when rocks are thrown into it or why the night sky is aesthetically pleasing. Dr. Prum is trying to revive something that Charles Darwin once studied, one that still sounds somewhat far reaching. The idea is that when the birds are choosing mates, they do so on a completely aesthetic driven level. Animals perceive a kind of beauty that Dr. Prum defines as “co-evolved attraction” meaning they desire a certain beauty such as bright feathers and their desires change the course of evolution. The mainstream view is often that animals choose mates because of their genes or health however in actuality mating is much more subjective than that. Dr. Prum wants evolutionary biologists to re evaluate their thinkings but he also wants to inform the public with a clear message about evolution. Wanting to pick your own mate, was not something that humans started in fact most animals practiced this long before humans existed. Darwin famously proposed one of the main factors of evolution to be natural selection more specifically, survival of the fittest. Even though the fittest of a species will live longer, they still must mate to produce further generations. So not only would you have to stay alive until you are able to mate, but you also have to choose a mate and that mate has to choose you. This process is called sexual selection and it plays a large role in evolution. If a female bird prefers males with long tails, then she will mate with long tailed males and produce offspring with long tails and then those offspring will produce more long tailed birds. The author explained Darwin's thinkings saying “Darwin contended that selection-based mate choice was different from natural selection because the females were often making decisions based on what looked good — on beauty, as they perceived it — and not on survival or some objective quality like speed or strength.” Some evolutionary biologists believed that honest signaling, the determination of genetic fitness due to observing the phenotypes on an animal. “You can’t explain a peacock’s tale with honest signaling,” Dr. Hill said. Although some may say Dr. Prums book is scientifically disappointing, others argue that it is a revolutionary idea and it follows what Darwin believed.
Even though many people accept the theory of evolution, now people are trying to perfect it and it is still a topic that is widely debated. Most scientists believe that since we can see beauty creatures, that means it must be adaptive or a sign of qualities that are adaptive. Dr. Prum is doing what most scientists do, he is questioning what many believe and seeing if he can prove them wrong. He thinks that since animals have aesthetic preferences and they make choices based off those preferences, then beauty will inevitably appear. He is still searching for the full answer to his question, yet at least he knows a partial answer to the question, “Why are birds beautiful?”. He says “Birds are beautiful because they are beautiful to themselves.”
This article was well written, because it wasn’t bias towards one side. The author not only included Dr. Prums argument, but they also included a few of the opposing arguments and included quotes from both sides. Even though this piece proposes many unanswered questions, the author doesn’t overwhelm the reader and they leave the reader wondering just the right amount. Reading this made me want to research deeper into the subject, but it didn’t make me confused. I think that the article could have been slightly less lengthy because it took longer than most articles to read and sometimes it got repetitive. In order to appeal to people looking for a quick read, the author could have shortened the article by several paragraphs. Overall, I would recommend that you read this article because it is fascinating how something that seemed to be so concrete, like evolution, could still be argued today.
Catherine Faville
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippilito
Bio H
Current event 14
I read my fellow classmate Marina’s analysis on the article “ challenging mainstream thought about beauty's big hand in Evolution” written by James Gorman. Marina starts off by proposing the question along with her personal opinions about the question being asked, this showed me the reader that the writer had a actual interest in this particular topic. She also did a really good job at questioning the writers opinions on beauty, she also did a really good job at explaining the science behind certain types of beauty, such as, “co-evolved attraction.”
However she could have done a better job at going into depth of why this topic is being researched and how they discovered and tested these new discoveries. She added a lot of the opinion of the writer instead of putting down more personal thoughts and opinions of the matter, it felt more like a summary of the article rather than opinions being tested.
Reading this article opened my eyes to the wonders of the world, and as to why and how the Earth was born. It questioned and tested already known facts about evolution and put it into this new theory of how beauty had a great effect on the well known theory of evolution. It opened my eyes that new theories can be discovered at any time, considering we were never there ourselves to experience evolution, so we can discover the truth at any time.
Jess Wagner
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
Biology H
Current Event #1
I read Marina Alfano’s review on the article, “Challenging Mainstream Thought about Beauty’s Big Hand in Evolution” by James Gorman. In Marina’s review I noticed some things that she did really well throughout the explanation. First, Marinal did a really nice job introducing right from the beginning the physicist, Manu Prakash the most important person who came up with the questions about beauty. She did a really good job with engaging the readers by starting out with a question, for example in the beginning of it she cited, “Why is there so much beauty?” It got the readers intrigued and interested into her writing and it stood out to the audience, who were left wondering if that question was going to be answered. Also, she did a good job with introducing Charles Darwin and his theory about “survival of the fittest”, this gave more context and showed her effort and work she put in to include him and his studies. She did a good job explaining things that might have needed clarification to some people. For example when she talks about “convolved attraction” sh gives a brief definition of what that means which makes it easier for the readers to understand what she’s saying.
Throughout her review, I did notice a couple of places where she could use improvement. The first sight of improvement was when she was talking about the way female birds perceive males, she states, “females were often making decisions based off of what looked good,” I think it could have been more effective to go into more depth on the reasons why females only had an interest on looks rather than personalities, especially with a certain species. Another place where she could have just added in a little more evidence or records was when she wrote, “people are trying to perfect it and it is still a topic that is widely debated.” It would have been interesting to know where is was being debated and what their points were in discussion, if she could find any.
In conclusion, reading this review educated me on the minds of birds and evolution. It strung all of the known evidence of nature and studies and put it together to talk about another topic, beauty and how it had such a great impact on these creatures. It spoke out about how it affected a whole other environment and the evolution of that. It informed me on the many theories and studies being done and discovered. It is interesting how we can discover something before out time and realize that it is changing everyday and evolving. I chose this article because I saw the topic of beauty in a question and it was questioning the relevance of it and I thought it would be interesting. This will change my perception on science and the understanding of theories, collecting data, and investigation.