|
|
Reception od Darwin in biology
Richter, Jiří ; Markoš, Anton (advisor) ; Flegr, Jaroslav (referee)
Reception of Darwin in biology conveys a story of evolutionary biology with emphasis on the divergent reception of Charles Darwin's theories by biologists in the past 150 years. Given the influence of Darwin's thought, a unique tradition has emerged in the scientific field. Every fifty years starting from the publishing of The Origin of Species, scientists gather to celebrate Charles Darwin as a thinker and a person. An immense amount of literature on Darwin and evolutionary biology has been produced by authors and publishers worldwide, thus the recurring commemorative events provide a fine start to the historical survey of Darwinism and are used as such in Reception of Darwin in biology.
|
|
|
Thematic Unit "Development of Nature" in the Context of Biology Curriculum and Requierements of the Framework Education Programme for Grammar Schools
Šlechtová, Anna ; Rajsiglová, Jiřina (advisor) ; Markoš, Anton (referee)
The submitted work constitutes an elaboration of a thematic unit "Development of nature" designed for grammar schools in both expert and methodical aspect. Resulting outputs are a web presentation, two short educational films and two elaborated tutorial programmes based on E - U - R model of teaching in the theoretical framework of constructivism. For better understanding and orientation in the curriculum, the look into the past is divided into four zooms: 1) in the scale of milliards, it includes the period from the origin of the Earth until the present; 2) in the scale of millions, it brings closer the Fanerozoicum; 3) in the scale of hundreds of thousands years, it covers the Qarternary era; 4) in the scale of thousands, it corresponds to the Holocene. Elaboration of this thematic unit is tied together with the ongoing school reform. It takes into account the incorporation of Geology educational field into the Framework Education Programme for Grammar Schools and works with key competencies.
|
|
|
Darwin's Ontology (The Consequences of Reciprocity)
Ostdiek, Gerald Robert ; Koubová, Alice (advisor) ; Markoš, Anton (referee) ; Hvorecký, Juraj (referee)
This essay follows a path laid down by the collaboration of Charles Darwin with Chauncey Wright, so as to explore the niche subsequently developed by Wright's closest friends, especially William James and Charles Peirce. Charles Darwin offered us no definition of life, and certainly no definition of being; he seems never to have been particularly interested in either his theological studies or any of the philosophy that happened his way. However by definition, he did operate by means of - and through the agency therein - a specific ontological set. His was one wherein the quickening of life is reciprocal becoming. Despite the obvious efficacy and élan this set has offered and vast libraries devoted to the man, Darwin's Ontology remains woefully under studied. And yet Darwin did specifically engage Wright to develop philosophical considerations of his science, a study which came to demand a redefinition of thinking itself, of sapience, and of the consequences of rationality which include the various constructions we call science and religion, knowing and believing, culture and self, but also cause and effect, existence and being, and more. We will follow the various streams of influence and chart some of the confluences therein, primarily through the immediate encounter of Wright with Darwin, and then on to...
|
|
| |
|
|
Refractive index gradient in the cubozoan eye: gene expression analysis
Jonášová, Kristýna ; Kozmík, Zbyněk (advisor) ; Markoš, Anton (referee)
Lenses are spread through animal kingdom as an improvement of different eye types. Despite conservation of some key regulators and shared use of photopigment opsin, eyes and their lenses develop by variable mechanisms impeaching their monophyletic origin. Tripedalia cystophora (T. c), a cubozoan jellyfish, is an emerging new model for studying eye evolution. The presence of advanced lens-containing eyes (firstly incident within metazoans in this phylum of Cnidaria), the two types of lesser eyes, the use of pax gene and vertebrate type of phototransduction cascade for eye establishment make this jellyfish an useful tool for comparing eye development and different evolutionary strategies. We focused on the lenses of T.c. and studied formation of their refractive index gradient to reveal its mechanism. Using new antibodies raised against J1 and J2 crystallins (proteins of the T. c. lens), TEM and histology we found that graded refractive index is of protein origin and formed by unequal accumulation of proteins (particularly J1 and J2 crystallins) in different layers of the lens. We have shown that J1 crystallin occurs also in the lesser eyes (ocelli) suggesting how the lens mass can evolved. The synthesis of J2 crystallin in lens development has been examined. Furthermore we have prepared J2 crystallin fused...
|
|
|
Signalization in the ontogeny of bacterial colonies
Čepl, Jaroslav ; Markoš, Anton (advisor) ; Kuthan, Martin (referee)
Bacterial bodies (colonies) can develop complex patterns of color and structure. These patterns may arise as a result of both colony-autonomous processes (self-patterning) and environmental influences, including those generated by neighbor bodies. We have studied the interplay of intra-colony signaling (self-patterning) and inter-colony influences in related clones of Serratia rubidaea on rich media. We show that the mutual influencing of colonies, present in a common morphospace, is communicated by at least two putative signals. A model accounting for some aspects of colony morphogenesis and inter-colony interactions is proposed. Key words bacteria; Serratia sp.; airborne signals; colony morphogenesis
|
|
|
Symbiosis as a model for a new biology
Lhotský, Josef ; Markoš, Anton (advisor) ; Černý, Robert (referee)
Contemporary biology belongs among the most diversified sciences; yet one of its most fundamental and controversial questions is surprisingly: "What is life?". The aim of this study is to point out that biology is special among other natural sciences because its need of the notion of meaning. Meaning takes the central position in the biological rea-soning. Compared to other sciences, biology has to reflect the dimension of information and its interpretation: language-like properties, communication and interpretation belong to the basic characteristics of life. In spite of the fact, most contemporary theories of evo-lution deny active participation of living beings on the very process - living being come out of its description as puppets or zombies controlled by external forces. As a remedy from such a situation, biology should start with a new model for living entities. A bene-ficial methapor seems to be that of natural languages, i.e. an analogy between a net of historical interactions and conventional ways of interpretation of meaning in (i) living entities and (ii) in system of natural languages. I consider as the most appropriate biolo-gical systems for modeling of such a network of symbiotic interactions, i. e. the pheno-menon of symbiosis and especially symbiogenesis. Keywords: life,...
|
|
| |
|
|
Evolution of photoreceptors: insights from amphioxus
Vopálenský, Pavel ; Kozmik, Zbyněk (advisor) ; Černý, Robert (referee) ; Markoš, Anton (referee)
The topic of eye evolutionwas touchedas early as at the very beginningof the evolutionarytheoryitself.In his book'On theOrign of Species'CharlesDarwinexpresses concemsfor theexplanationof theocclurenceof complexeyesby naturalselection.Eventhe simplest'proto-eye'composedof a singlephotoreceptorcellanda shadingpigmentrequires properfrrnctioningof dozensof genesinvolvedin the phototansductioncascade,signal transmissionand pigmentation.Photoreceptorcells can be classifiedaccordingto their morphology as ciliary or rhabdomeric.Primary observationsrevealedthe rhabdomeric photoreceptorsbeing predominantlypresentin the eyes of invertebrates,whereasthe vertebrateandcnidarianseyesemploytheciliary type.Key componentsof thephotoreceptor cells arevisualpigments(opsins)andassociatedGa subunitsresponsiblefor absorptionof photonandthefirst stepof aphotoffansductioncascade.To properlyorchesftatetheassembly of thesestructuralgenesmediatingbiochemicalprocessesinto a functionalorgan,a tight regulationby a dedicatedsetof tanscriptionfactorsis required.Oneof themostremarkable andbeststudiedexamplesof geneswith anevolutionaryconservedrole in eyeorganogenesis is a paired-homeoboxgenePax6.However,availableliteraturepointsto othertranscription factors participatingin photoreceptordevelopmentacrossanimal phyla, for examplea...
|
|
|
Thematic Unit "Development of Nature" in the Context of Biology Curriculum and Requierements of the Framework Education Programme for Grammer Schools
Šlechtová, Anna ; Markoš, Anton (referee) ; Rajsiglová, Jiřina (advisor)
The submitted work constitutes an elaboration of a thematic unit "Development of nature" designed for grammar schools in both expert and methodical aspect. Resulting outputs are a web presentation, two short educational films and two elaborated tutorial programmes based on E-U-R model of teaching. For better understanding and orientation in the curriculum, the look into the past is divided into four zooms: 1) in the scale of milliards, it includes the period from the origin of the Earth until the present; 2) in the scale of millions, it brings closer the Fanerozoicum; 3) in the scale of hundreds of thousands years, it covers the Qarternary era; 4) in the scale of thousands, it corresponds to the Holocene. Elaboration of this thematic unit is tied together with the ongoing school reform. It takes into account the incorporation of Geology educational field into the Framework Education Programme for Grammar Schools and works with key competencies.
|
guest ::
RSS feed.