Greek for beginning or first
Genes that are expressed at the wrong time or
inappropriately
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Genetics |
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Pain and Suffering |
Contributed by: BU
Any stem cell taken from mature tissue, regardless of the age of the donor.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
Algeny is from Jeremy Rifkin's book of the same name. He defines it as "the upgrading of existing organisms and the design of wholly new ones with the intent of 'perfecting' their performance."
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Transplantation of
tissue from one individual to another within a given species
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Alzheimer's disease causes progressive memory loss and severe dementia in advanced cases. It is associated with certain abnormalities in brain tissue, involving a particular protein, amyloid. The gene encoding amyloid has been located and cloned from Chromosome 21.
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Genetics |
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Aging |
Contributed by: CTNS
A controversial cosmological principle that the observable universe, as it is, must be compatible with our powers of observation, or else we would not be able to observe it. Exponents of the principle will often point out that the universe appears to be “fine tuned,”or delicately balanced in its basic physical processes, to allow for the existence of carbon-based life. Although there are many versions of the principle, usually one can distinguish between (a) the Weak Anthropic Principle, which affirms simply that the existence of human life itself implies that nature must be consistent with having evolved carbon-based life, and (b) the Strong Anthropic Principle, which is concerned with the possibility of alternative universes, yet goes on to state metaphysically that our observable universe must be the only kind of universe capable of evolving human-like creatures as observers.
Only a small range of possible values for the universal constants (such as the mass of an electron) are consistent with the presence of life as we know it. The significance of such apparent fine-tuning of the universal constants is disputed by those who regard it as trivial and those who argue from it to the necessity of life in the universe.
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Design |
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Physics |
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Interviews: Was the Universe Designed? |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox and CTNS
The study of the origin and behavior of humans.
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What Makes us Human? |
Matter composed of the counterparts of ordinary matter, such as anti-protons instead of protons; and positrons instead of electrons.
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
A genetically determined destruction of cells from within due to activation of a stimulus or removal of a suppressing agent or stimulus that is postulated to exist to explain the orderly elimination of superfluous cells - called also programmed cell death.
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Genetics |
By permission. From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary at www.Merriam-Webster.com by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
Italian Dominican Priest and philosophical theologian. He is known, principally, as the author of the Summa Theologiae and in modern times was made official philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church. However, his work continues to be studied by students of philosophy with no special religious interest. He wrote several commentaries on the work of Aristotle, as well as on Proclus, Pseudo-Dionysius and Peter Lombard. His literary achievement was immense, and his impact is second only to Augustine’s. He describes the Summa Theologiae as a textbook for beginners in the Christian faith who required an uncluttered overview of basic Christian truths; though he also insisted that it is our love of God, not our knowledge, which truly matters in life.
He became a friar in the order of preachers in 1244, studied in Paris and Cologne between 1245-52, lectured in Paris 1252-9, in Italy 1259-68, before returning to Paris in 1268 and then moving on to Naples in 1272 to establish a studium (a Catholic house of studies). He was canonised in 1323.
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Theology |
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History |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
A Semitic language that originated in what is present-day Syria. The language, which was used by the Christ and his apostles, flourished between the 4th and 7th centuries. It was then overtaken by the Arabic and virtually disappeared by the 13th century.
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History |
Contributed by: CTNS
The argument from design - argues from the evidence of the natural world, especially the intricacy, ingenuity and adaptedness of living things to their environment, for the existence and ingenuity of a creator God.
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Evolution |
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Design |
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Theology |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Greek philosopher and scientist. For more than two millennia Aristotle was the greatest influence on the conceptual foundations of science and natural philosophy. From the fourth century BCE through to the seventeenth century and the Galileo controversy over the correct theory of planetary motion, Aristotelianism emerged as the filter through which the world was viewed, particularly in the areas of physics and cosmology, but also in medicine and theology.
Aristotle’s works also formed the basis of the Western European university curriculum and were a dominant intellectual force over late antiquity and three great empires: Byzantium, the civilisation of Islam and Latin Christendom. His corpus of writings included texts on subjects as diverse as metaphysics and economics, poetics and logic, biology and politics and was a positive affirmation of the human effort to investigate the operations of the world. This helped to lay the foundations of what was to follow in the seventeenth century.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Atherosclerosis is a disease in which the arteries thicken and the inner surfaces accumulated deposits of cholesterol, fibrin, and other cellular debris. The arteries become inelastic, and narrowed, increasing the stress on the heart, as it tries to pump blood through. It has some hereditary links, and is associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
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Health |
Contributed by: CTNS
A process in which an organism can reproduce itself; usually involving cell division, spore formation, fission, or budding and not the union of individuals or germ cells (sperm and egg).
Contributed by: BU
An experiment to
analyze for one or more specific components.
Contributed by: BU
A theory that postulates a basic, generic, and indivisible unit of matter (originally atoms, then protons, neutrons, and electrons, and currently quarks and leptons).
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
A highly reductive theory of the structure of the world, in which all things are made of an infinite number of randomly moving indivisible cells (corpuscles).
This is also known as mechanical philosophy, and was a philosophy of nature popular during the seventeenth century. It sought to explain all natural phenomena in terms of the configuration, motions and collisions of small unobservable particles of matter, or atomies, later known as ‘atoms’.
This philosophy has its roots in the writing of the ancient Epicurus and his Roman disciple, Lucretius. These two men sought to explain all phenomena in terms of the chance collisions of material atoms in empty space. Epicurus believed that atoms have always existed and are infinite in number.
By the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the atomism of Epicurus seemed particularly compatible with the spirit of the new astronomy and physics, rather than the doctrines of Platonism, Stoicism or Aristotelianism. During this period some of its advocates included Sebastian Basso (1550-1600), Walter Warner (1570-1642) and the Dutch schoolteacher Isaac Beeckman (1588-1637), who was influential on later mechanists like Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) and Rene Descartes (1596-1650).
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
African Bishop and Doctor of the Catholic Church. He lived much of his life in Roman North Africa and was, for the last 34 years of his life, the Bishop Regius of the seaport known as Hippo, located in modern-day Algeria. He is the most acute of Christian Platonists and did much to lay the foundations for the synthesis between Christianity and the classical theism that stemmed from Plato and Aristotle. Later authors including Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, Pascal and Kierkegaard, all stand within the tradition that he established. His writings were also amongst the favourite books of Wittgenstein and Nietzsche. He was one of the first to explore the existence of a ‘sub-conscious’, anticipating the work of Freud by some fifteen centuries. A biography is located within the pages of his Confessions, but he also wrote on commentaries on the gospel of John, the doctrine of the Trinity and the idea of the just city in City of God: Against the Pagans.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
A constellation of different diseases all characterized by the failure of the body to distinguish “self” from “non-self” causing the body to attack its own tissues.
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Genetics |
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Health |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
Transplant using tissue from the same individual, or a twin.
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Genetics |
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Health |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
"Before common era." This abbreviation has come to replace the previously used B.C. ("before Christ"), and covers the period of history prior to the birth of Christ.
A London-born statesman and philosopher. As a forerunner of the British empiricist tradition and a prophet of the dawning scientific revolution, he was the first writer to outline clearly the proper methods of modern science as the pursuit of knowledge of natural phenomena. The so-called “Baconian Method” of induction emphasizes (a) the examination of particular, concrete facts, (b) generalizations about such facts, and (c) the necessity of testing hypotheses via observations and experiments.
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History |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
English Franciscan and philosopher. Born in either Somerset or in Gloucestershire, he may have begun his studies in Oxford, but certainly spent some time in Paris. His published works include a series of questions on Aristotle’s metaphysical and physical treatises (c.1240-1246). He also invested heavily, whilst in his thirties, in the study of languages, mathematics and experimental science and was particularly influenced by Robert Grossteste. In 1257 he entered the Franciscan order in a bid to pursue his chosen studies further still. His place in the history of science and religion is hard to assess, as recent scholarship has shown that his work is not as original as once claimed. His knowledge of Arabic and Greek texts and their translation was vast, though it never progressed into any unified or systematic scheme of thought. The real achievement of the man has been lost beneath the veneer of a reputation for magical powers and mechanical invention. The twentieth century has seen attempts to represent him as a martyr of science and freedom of thought, but these have been to no avail.
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History |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Scottish philosopher and psychologist (1818-1903). Bain was Professor of Logic at Aberdeen University from 1860-1881. In 1876 he founded the journal Mind. His major psychological works were The Senses and the Intellect (1855), and The Emotions and the Will (1859), each of which went through several revised and updated editions in the following decades. He was a protégé of John Stuart Mill and an admirer of Comte’s positivist philosophy.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Thomas Dixon
Swiss Protestant pastor and professor, widely regarded as the greatest Christian theologian of the twentieth century. He criticized the anthropocentrism of liberal theologians such as Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), opposed Nazi ideology, and rejected natural theology. Throughout his many publications and, especially, in his multi-volume Church Dogmatics, Barth retrieved and reinterpreted the Reformed emphasis upon the triumphant grace of the Word of God by way of the concrete event of Jesus Christ as he is received in faith through the biblical witness and preached in the ecumenical Church.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
The act of pleasurable and unconditional goodwill and compassion for all those within reach of our influence, arising from our love of God and the spiritual recognition of our common origin, anxieties, and ultimate destiny.
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Ethics |
Contributed by: CTNS
French philosopher and diplomat. His life straddles the turn of the twentieth century and his very complex thought also marks a turn from scientifically minded positivism of the nineteenth century to the more suspicious attitude towards mathematically based physical science, typical of the twentieth century. His own philosophy combined respect for maths and physics with a sense of their limitations as the key to metaphysical reality.
His most famous works are Creative EvolutionR, Matter and Memory and Time and Simultaneity. In 1928 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and during the First World War he acted as a diplomat in the precursor to what is nowadays known as UNESCO. His importance lies in his influence over much of the twentieth century French thought that followed him. Bergson set the agenda for French philosophy with a focus on embodiment, concreteness, rejection of rationality modelled on physics and maths, as well as the recognition of time and the concept of ‘becoming’.
By way of his philosophy of dynamism he described a vital principle, or living impulse, at work in the universe. Contrary to Darwin’s notion of natural selection, Bergson posited such a non-materialistic, non-mechanistic creative urge in nature as the driving force of biological evolution.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite and Marty Maddox/CTNS
A broad area of research that includes theories of the structure and development of the universe based upon Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which implies an expanding universe. The expansion of the universe was first confirmed in 1929 by Edwin Hubble’s observations of the retreating motion of galaxies.
During the decade following the publication of his special theory of relativity, Einstein worked on applying it to a dynamical theory of gravity. His basic insight was to reconceptualize gravity as the curvature of spacetime instead of as a (Newtonian) force in space. Rather than being deflecting from their otherwise linear motion in a Euclidean space with three dimensions, masses would move along geodesics describing the shortest possible path in curved spacetime. Their motion, in turn, would alter the curvature of spacetime, thus giving the field equations General Theory of Relativity (GR) their highly non-linear form aptly described as: ‘spacetime tells mass how to move; mass tells spacetime how to curve’.
Shortly after the discovery of GR, solutions to Einstein’s equations were developed for two distinct classes of problems: i) point masses, which when applied to the solar system led to several key tests of the theory and their eventual confirmation (including the deflection of starlight by the sun and the precession in the perihelion of the orbit of Mercury), and ii) dust, which when eventually applied to the distribution of galaxies and galactic clusters described the universe as expanding in time. During the 1920s, telescopic observations by Edwin Hubble showed that galaxies were indeed receding from us and at a velocity proportional to their distance. In essence, the expansion of the universe had been discovered!
There are in fact three types of expansion possible. i) Closed model: spherical. In one model the universe has the shape of a 3-dimensional sphere of finite size. It expands up to a maximum size, approximately 100 billion years from now, then recontracts, eventually recollapsing to a singularity that mirrors t=0 with infinite temperatures and densities. ii) Open model 1: ‘flat’ and iii) open model 2: ‘saddle-shaped’. Both the ‘flat’ and ‘saddle-shaped’ models are infinite in size and expanding in time. In both cases the universe will expand forever and cool indefinitely towards absolute zero. The future of these models is often used to characterize them as ‘freeze’ (open, both cases) or ‘fry’ (closed). All three came to be called “Big Bang” models because they describe the universe as having a finite past life of 10-20 billion years and beginning in an event of infinite temperature and density, and zero volume. Since the age of the universe, t, is calculated as starting here, it is convenient to label it “t=0"; technically this event is referred to as an “essential singularity.” In the 1960s, Stephen Hawking, Roger Penrose, and Robert Geroch proved key theorems which showed that the existence of an essential singularity, t=0, given Einstein’s GR, was unavoidable.
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Physics |
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Did the Universe Have a Beginning? |
Contributed by: Robert Russell - CTNS
An organism used to
control a particular pest. This includes toxins produced by organisms, plants or
animals. The chosen organism might
be a predator, parasite, or disease, which will attack the pest.
Contributed by: BU
A point of extreme mass in spacetime with a radius, or event horizon, inside of which all electromagnetic radiation (including light) is trapped by gravity - No communication is possible from inside the event horizon to the world outside
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
A preimplantation embryo of 30-150 cells. Contains a layer of specialized cells is made up of trophoblasts, which attach to the uterine wall and form the placenta. Inside the trophoblast layer is the inner cell mass. These cells remain undifferentiated. Embryonic Stem cells are derived from the inner cell mass.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
A view of spacetime that affords equal (ontological) status to all points in spacetime, thus regarding temporality as an illusory human construct with no reference to reality as understood by modern physics.
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Philosopher and quantum physicist particularly important for his proposal of a hidden-variable explanation of the significance of quantum theory.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Danish physicist. He is one of the most influential scientists of the twentieth century. He was the founder of atomic quantum theory and the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics.
His theory denied the possibility of a unified, observer-independent field. His own interpretation, the heart of his Copenhagen philosophy, implies that quantum phenomena can only be described by pairs of complimentary perspectives. Though it is impossible to apply either perspective to the phenomena simultaneously, both are required for the exhaustive description of the event. Bohr desired that his methodology be applied to other spheres of knowledge – put simply, he believed that new epistemological insights are obtained by adjoining seemingly incompatible viewpoints. The Copenhagen interpretation was later developed in the work of the German physicist, Werner Heisenberg. Their relationship and the related strands of their thought has been dramatised by the playwright Michael Frayn in his Copenhagen.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
A class of subatomic particles that transmit the forces of nature. These include photons, gluons and gravitons.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. James Miller
A genetically
engineered copy of a hormone which cows naturally produce. A 10-15% increase in
milk production can result from the injection of rBGH. The Food and Drug
Administration approved rBGH for use in cows in late 1993 and its uses has been
standard since 1994. Opponents argue that its use is harmful to cows, lessens
the nutritional value of milk, and threatens small family-owned dairy farms.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Oxen or cows
Contributed by: BU
British chemist and natural philosopher, particularly important scientifically for his work on the behaviour of gases, and theologically for his efforts to deploy science to aid in promoting Christianity.
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History |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Scottish philosopher (1778-1820). Brown’s main work was his Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, which was published posthumously in 1820. Though associated by some with the ‘Common Sense’ school of philosophy, Brown’s philosophy was much more sceptical and empiricist than that of e.g. Thomas Reid or Dugald Stewart. He was a pupil of Stewart, and was Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh from 1810-1820.
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History |
Contributed by: Thomas Dixon
German Protestant theologian. He was the twentieth century’s most influential interpreter of the gospel narratives of the New Testament. Based at Marburg in Germany for much of his academic career, Bultmann is associated with the term ‘demythologisation’. That is, Bultmann recognised that the Bible was written in the context of a supernatural world which no longer makes any sense to us today.
The New Testament contains important teaching, about the human situation, which is know as the Kerygma, the message. Yet this is written mythological language which needs to be properly interpreted. He expressed the importance of the existential encounter with God, rather than mere historical knowledge. What matters for Bultmann, is the response to the message in faith, he rejected the dependence of human beings on historical knowledge, emphasising the faith response.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
A name given to the extreme sensitivity of chaotic systems, in which small changes or perturbations lead to drastically different outcomes. A common example of this phenomenon is a butterfly flapping its wings in California, and thereby initiating a change in weather patterns that results in the formation of a thunderstorm in Nebraska.
Contributed by: CTNS
the four components
(nucleotides) that make up DNA, also known as the genetic code. The linear
series of nucleotides are read as triplets, that specifies the sequence of amino
acids in proteins. Each triplet specifies an amino acid, and the same codons are
used for the amino acids in almost all life-forms, an indication of the
universal nature of the code.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
C.E.: "Common era." This abbreviation came to replace the previously used A.D. (anno Domini, Latin for "in the year of the Lord") because of new knowledge regarding the date of the Christ's birth. The common era covers the time from Christ's birth to the present day.
Contributed by: CTNS
French reformer and theologian. Calvin is one of the pivotal figures in the history of theology in Western Europe. Schooled in Paris, in theology and canon law, he began to appreciate the ideas of early reformers and examined the Greek New Testament, during which time he experienced some form of conversion, whereon he begins to read and teach the scriptures along the lines laid out in the reformers approach.
Calvin’s best known theological work is his Institutes of the Christian Religion, across 79 chapters. His foundation was that scripture was the only source of knowledge about God. Nature, for example, may contain some inkling of God, but this was partial due to the fall of man in Eden. Calvin’s theology emphasised the God-man nature of Jesus, the revelation of the Trinity and the glory of God, as well as insisting that the fall has meant that humans are incapable of doing any good.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
A philosopher and psychologist, taught in the department of psychology at Northwestern University; noted for contributions to evolutionary epistemology and especially for introducing the concept of downward causation.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Nancey Murphy
Stated most simply causation is how one event or process might be said to produce, and so explain, another. In terms of Christian theology, orthodoxy seems to suggest that God is capable in causing things to happen, although this is to oversimplify the idea. There is a great deal of controversy about the precise nature of God’s action in nature, particularly in the area of the extent to which God has established secondary causes in nature to act as intermediaries.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Strong, cloned copies of otherwise fragile mRNA - the essential messenger element of the genes in the DNA which help in the coding of proteins.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Cultures of disaggregated tissue that can be maintained and propagated for use in research. Cells in the same line are typically clones. The length of time cells will survive in culture varies. Some cell lines are immortalized; that is, they can be maintained essentially indefinitely, for one of a variety of reasons. Embryonic stem cells and embryonic germ cells are immortal because they express telomerase, one of the factors necessary for cells to propagate normally.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER and CTNS
A name given to recent wide-ranging attempts to uncover the statistical regularity hidden in processes that otherwise appear random, such as turbulence in fluids, weather patterns, predator-prey cycles, the spread of disease, and even the onset of war. Systems described as "chaotic" are extremely susceptible to changes in initial conditions. As a result, small uncertainties in measurement are magnified over time, making chaotic systems predictable in principle but unpredictable in practice.
Over the past three decades, the study of chaotic systems has dramatically expanded from physics to include all the natural and even social sciences. Chaotic phenomena now include such physical and biological systems as the weather, water dripping from a faucet, bands in the rings of Saturn, oscillations in the populations of organisms, and the fluctuations of populations in complex ecosystems. In physics, though, chaotic systems are ‘classical’ in scale and thus subsumable in principle under classical mechanics with its deterministic laws of motion. Still even for the simplest systems, minute uncertainties in the initial conditions and the effect of countless interactions with other systems in nature, together with unusual characteristics in the underlying mathematics (e.g., ‘strange attractors’) make complete predictability impossible even in principle. Surprisingly, then, chaos breaks the long-standing philosophical link between determinism and predictability. Still since it is describable by deterministic equations, chaos theory supports a strictly deterministic philosophy of nature, although within subtle epistemic limits.
It is possible, however, as Polkinghorne suggests, that chaotic systems may one day be more accurately described by more complex theories, sometimes referred to as ‘holistic chaos’. The current deterministic laws would then be seen as simple approximations to holistic chaos through what Polkinghorne calls ‘downward emergence.” Finally, the new theories of holistic chaos would, hopefully, suggest an indeterministic interpretation. It is also possible that a satisfying connection will be found between chaos at the present, classical level, and quantum mechanics (sometimes referred to as ‘quantum chaology’), suggesting that the uncertainty in the initial conditions that, together with coupling to the environment, drive chaotic behavior is at least partially due to quantum indeterminism.
Contributed by: Dr. Robert Russell / Dr. Christopher Southgate
An individual, organ, or part of an organism consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
A
complex of DNA and basic proteins (as histone) in eukaryotic cells that is
condensed into chromosomes in mitosis and meiosis. There are two types: heterochromatic which is densely coiled
chromatin that appears as nodules in or along chromosomes and contains
relatively few genes. Euchromatic is the less coiled and genetically active
portion of chromatin that is largely composed of genes.
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Genetics |
By permission. From Online Biology Book Glossary property of Prof. Michael Farabee
A chromosome is a grouping of coiled strands of DNA, containing many genes. Most multicellular organisms have several chromosomes, which together comprise the genome. Sexually reproducing organisms have two copies of each chromosome, one from the each parent - Humans have 23 pairs. Also see Chromatin.
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Genetics |
Image:
Sinauer Associates
Contributed by: CTNS
Philosopher of mind and philosopher of science at U.C. San Diego, famous for her view that neuroscientific accounts will replace our ordinary explanations of behavior in terms of beliefs, desires, etc.
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Philosophy |
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The Cognitive and Neurosciences |
Contributed by: Dr. Nancey Murphy
A branch of physics that deals with the effects of energy and forces on the motion of physical objects, based on the work of Isaac Newton and on three-dimensional Euclidean geometry, also called Newtonian mechanics.
Recall that in classical physics, nature is described as a closed causal
system of ‘matter in motion’ and governed by
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Physics |
Contributed by: Robert Russell - CTNS
A branch of physics developed in the nineteenth century that deals with the study of heat, and thus with the collision and interaction of particles in large, near-equilibrium systems.
In the 19th century, thermodynamics, the study of heat transformation and exchange, was concerned with closed systems (i.e., systems which do not exchange matter or energy with their environment). In such systems although the total amount of energy E is always conserved (the “first” law, DE=0), the amount of available energy inevitably decreases to zero (the “second” law); equivalently, the entropy S of the system, defined as the amount of unusable energy, increases to a maximum: DS>=0. During the 20th century, the field was broadened to include open systems (i.e., systems which exchanged matter and/or energy with their environment). These first included non-linear systems in which effects on the system were highly amplified, and then non-linear systems far from equilibrium in which spontaneous fluctuations were even more fully amplified. Such systems demonstrated the surprising phenomena of ‘order out of chaos’, to use Ilya Prigogine’s famous phrase: they could spontaneously move to greater forms of organization, driven always by the internal production and dissipation of entropy (i.e., ‘dissipative systems’), and though, of course, the total entropy of the open system plus its environment obeyed the second law. Two final points: 1) Whether ‘entropy’ applies to the universe as a ‘closed’ system is subject to intense debate. 2) Although most physicists reduce thermodynamics to dynamics, thus explaining (away) time’s (thermodynamic) arrow, Prigogine and others insist it should be the converse. In any case, non-linear, non-equilibrium thermodynamics points to at least one form of novelty and apparent openness in nature, although it still comes (pace Prigogine) under the rubric of deterministic classical dynamics, and, like chaos theory, rendering its portrait of novelty in terms of epistemic ignorance.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Robert Russell - CTNS
Research to test the safety and efficacy of new treatments or to compare the effects of different treatments in patients or healthy volunteers.
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
The technique of producing a genetically identical duplicate of an organism. A clone is said to be all descendants derived asexually from a single individual. It involves the process of taking the nucleus of a somatic cell and injecting it into enucleated egg. The egg is then implanted into the uterus to grow. Also see SCNT (somatic cell nuclear transfer).
More...
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Genetics |
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Ethics |
British philosopher, who promoted deism and a sceptical attitude towards Scriptural revelation.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
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Health |
The never satiated desire to draw as much of reality as possible into one's self; the unlimited striving, for example, for knowledge, sex, and power. The seeking for one's own pleasure through another being without the desire to unite with, affirm, or love the other being.
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Ethics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Physical laws that stipulate the conservation over time of a specific quantity, such as charge, energy, or momentum.
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
The study of the structure, spacetime relationships, and origin of the universe that unites the tools of astronomy and quantum theory.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Polish Astronomer.Understood by the Christian church and the scientific community as the father of modern astronomy.
His education and professional life was varied both in terms of subject and geography; schooled in medicine, philosophy and mathematics at Cracow, Poland; Bologna and Rome; Heilsburg in Prussia and finally, to take up the position of residentiary canon at Frauenberg.
Copernicus rejected the received Ptolemaic system of the universe, founding his own system with the sun at the centre of the solar system on the grounds that it was improbable that such a large body as the sun would revolve around such a small body as the earth. His reformulation provided some valuable explanations, such as the variation of the seasons, equinoxes and the retrograde motion of planets. Despite the defects of his system, it certainly prepared the way for Johannes Kepler, Galileo and Isaac Newton.
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
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Physics |
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History |
A branch of study concerned with the origins and nature of the universe. (see cosmos)
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Physics |
A complex and orderly system, such as our universe; the opposite of chaos.
A complex, well-ordered, and unified system, usually referring to the world of human experience or to the universe as a whole. The verb in Greek means to put in order and to adorn, hence our words ‘cosmetic’ and ‘cosmetologist’. In referring to the universe as cosmos rather than as chaos, the classical Greeks defined reality as a homogeneous, ordered whole. In contrast, modern Western culture has tended to view reality dualistically, splitting it into subject and object, humanity and nature, mind and matter. Contemporary thinkers who attempt to reclaim the universe as cosmos have been forced to abandon the fixed structure of classical cosmologies in light of the pervasively evolutionary character of the universe revealed by modern science. Nonetheless, such thinkers -- whether they are religious or secular -- share the desire of the ancient Greeks to provide a consistent and meaningful framework for the world of human experience, by relating it to the principles governing all of reality.
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
The review and consolidation of Roman Catholic doctrine and authority following the Protestant Reformation. (Principally 1540-1650)
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Theology |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Latin: 'Continuous Creation'
This is a concept within the Christian doctrine of creation, specifically within the Eastern Orthodox tradition and some Process Theologies. It refers to speaking of God’s action in relation to the world.
According to this idea, we are to envisage this not as a single act in past, but as a continuing presence here and now, hence it is legitimate to speak of a continuing creation. Historically, it is an approach located in the writings of Maximus, Hildegard of Bingen and Gregory Palamas. It is not a past event, but a present relationship, an initial act that constitutes a starting point. In spite of the different ways this phrase is put to use, it need not be seen as in opposition to the classical position of creatio ex nihilo.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Latin: 'Creation out of nothing'
In classical thought, Christianity alone, or more precisely, the Judeo-Christian tradition, knows the notion of absolute creation. Creatio ex nihilo (‘creation out of nothing’) is a dogma of the faith. God has not created starting from something, but starting with what is not, from ‘nothingness’. It is the work of the will of God, and therefore is not co-eternal with God (it has a beginning and will have an end).
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Theology |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
A philosophical view of science and/or theology which asserts that our knowledge of the world refers to the-way-things-really-are, but in a partial fashion which will necessarily be revised as that knowledge develops.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
The process of freezing biological materials in such a way that they can be stored for long periods of time, then thawed for use.
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease affecting the lungs, most cases of which are caused by a defect in a single gene. It is the most common genetic disease in Caucasians.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: CTNS
The organized complex of inorganic and organic substances external to the nuclear membrane of a cell, including the cytosol, and mitochondria (or chloroplasts, which are found in plants).
British scientist, most famous for his book "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection."
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
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Design |
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History |
English physician, grandfather of Charles Darwin. A radical thinker and materialist, he is particularly important for developing an early theory of evolution.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
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Design |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
A neuroscientist at Boston University and McLean Hospital at Harvard Medical School. Known for his evolutionary approach to understanding the neurobiology of language use.
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The Cognitive and Neurosciences |
Contributed by: Dr. Nancey Murphy
A term tied very closely to postmodernism, deconstructionism is a challenge to the attempt to establish any ultimate or secure meaning in a text. Basing itself in language analysis, it seeks to "deconstruct" the ideological biases (gender, racial, economic, political, cultural) and traditional assumptions that infect all histories, as well as philosophical and religious "truths." Deconstructionism is based on the premise that much of human history, in trying to understand, and then define, reality has led to various forms of domination - of nature, of people of color, of the poor, of homosexuals, etc. Like postmodernism, deconstructionism finds concrete experience more valid than abstract ideas and, therefore, refutes any attempts to produce a history, or a truth. In other words, the multiplicities and contingencies of human experience necessarily bring knowledge down to the local and specific level, and challenge the tendency to centralize power through the claims of an ultimate truth which must be accepted or obeyed by all.
A technique of literary analysis that regards meaning as resulting from the differences between words themselves, rather than their reference to the things they stand for. It is a technique that entered theology in the earlier 1980’s as theologians who had been educated in Hegel, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and Heidegger began to encounter the writings of French theorists, in particular, Jacques Derrida. They emphasised the inability of theological discourse to speak substantively about dogmatic, transcendental certainties. For them, after Hegel, God had been poured into Jesus Christ without remainder and so they believed theology should be expunged of any claims on metaphysics and focus on the sensible realm.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: CTNS and Richard P Whaite
Theological movement, which gathered momentum in the 18th Century, which rejects continuing divine involvement in the details of the world. For the deist God’s action consists of setting the universe in operation at the beginning of time.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
French philosopher and natural scientist. He is often said to be father of modern philosophy. Descartes shifts attention from the question of what is the nature of what we know, to can I know anything at all for sure? The legacy of this is that modern philosophy effectively still deals with problems set by Descartes. In terms of scientific achievements he is the first to provide full world picture to challenge (and replace) Scholasticism. It is a fully mechanistic schema - including biological phenomena.
Cartesian thought holds that there are two worlds, one of mental objects and one of material things, including animals and human bodies. The mental objects are states of consciousness (e.g. pains, fear, joy, experiences), the material objects are more or less ‘bits of clockwork’. Mental states and states of the body are logically independent but causally interrelated: causal interaction is like glue, bonding mind to body in each individual person. The veracity of all our ideas in this system is guaranteed by God’s existence and goodness. His modern-day critics see him as the exponent par excellence of dualism, but contemporary scholarship is presently engaged in the task of trying to separate the man and his ideas from the caricature that has been assembled of him in the history of Western philosophy.
He was schooled at a Jesuit college called La Fleche, after this he joined the army and travelled around Europe. He had a revelation in 'well heated room' and decided to take up philosophy in a serious manner. Legend tells of his habit to meditate in bed until noon. In 1649, he took up a position with Queen Christina in Stockholm, but died of pneumonia.
His main works include: ‘The World’ (Le Monde), 1634; ‘Discourse on Method’, 1637; ‘Meditations’, 1642; ‘Principles of Philosophy’, 1644.
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
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Philosophy |
A far-reaching term, which most widely states that all events in the world are the result of some previous event, or events. In this view, all of reality is already in a sense pre-determined or pre-existent and, therefore, nothing new can come into existence. This closed view of the universe sees all events in the world simply as effects of other prior effects, and has particular implications for morality, science, and religion. Ultimately, if determinism is correct, then all events in the future are as unalterable as are all events in the past. Consequently, human freedom is simply an illusion.
One area of contemporary discourse in science that relates to the issue of human freedom is the notion of genetic determinism. Here, the concept of determinism is linked directly to the genes in the DNA of a person. Because we already know that aberrations in certain genes can lead to various forms of physical and mental disease in humans, we can say with some certainty that people are physically determined by their genes. But genetic determinists want to extend this further, by claiming that even our behavior is determined by our genes. In this line of thinking, we are but victims of our genetic makeup, and any effort to change our moral nature or behavioral patterns is useless. This is sometimes termed "puppet determinism," meaning metaphorically that we dance on the strings of our genes.
Since we can now establish a scientific connection between one's genes and one's actual and/or potential physical traits (hair and eye color, disease susceptibility, etc.), it is thought that we should use this knowledge to restructure the genetic makeup of certain individuals. In other words, genetic determinism does not just show us how we are victims of our genes; it also shows us how we can use the knowledge of our genes in order to change them and, therefore, change ourselves. This understanding of genetics and human freedom, or unfreedom as it were, illustrates the extent to which genetic determinists place the influence of nature (biology and genetics) over nurture (society and family). The fundamental premises of genetic determinism are, therefore, 1) that we are victims of our genes and have no ultimate freedom, and 2) that with proper knowledge, we can take charge of our genes so that we are no longer their victim, but rather, are their architect. This latter premise has been termed "Promethean determinism," meaning that with the proper knowledge we can take charge of our genetic and, therefore, moral/ behavioral makeup.
Though a fascinating and long-debated theory, determinism raises serious difficulties regarding the nature of human knowledge and its bearing on our understanding of morality. For example, if one adheres to the idea of determinism and believes that one's life is simply the mechanical and unchangeable outplay of forces beyond one's control, then how does this affect one's relationship to the world and other people. Does adherence to determinism not lead one into a sense of meaninglessness and impotence regarding one's fate and actions? Does determinism not also lead one into the belief that whatever one does is morally acceptable, by virtue of the fact that whatever one does is already pre-determined, and therefore, meant to be?
If determinism is in fact true, then our whole conception of morality is a pointless illusion. Since everything in existence is the result of necessary and pre-determined causes, then even something like murder can be considered normal. Here, determinism fails to take into account human freedom and choice. The majority of humans would choose not to be killed, just as most humans would choose not to kill another human. Determinists can claim that our choice to be killed or not to kill is itself already a determined effect, but this is only of theoretical interest since the issue of one's life or death is of extreme existential significance. In other words, in relation to issues of morality, determinism is an interesting theory, but in practice it is quite untenable. In essence, the acceptance of determinism makes one into a mere thing, a mechanical and non-autonomous entity without the power to deliberate or change one's direction in life.
The deterministic view is expressed religiously in the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, wherein those elected to a divine eternity and those condemned to an eternal hell are already established prior to birth. A counter doctrine to this view is that humans are co-creators with God, helping to bring about a new and just divine order, symbolically represented by the Kingdom of God. The further theological implication of this nondeterministic view is that of the nature of God. If humans are co-creators and the world's potential is unfolding and open, then the nature of God can also be seen as changing and open to the new.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: CTNS
Cells that are
specialized for a particular function (i.e. heart muscle or blood cell) and do
not maintain the ability to generate other kinds of cells, or revert back to a
less specialized cell (like stem cells).
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
English born theoretical physicist who shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in physics with Erwin Schrödinger for his contributions to the development of quantum theory and its relation to relativity theory. In 1930 Dirac also proposed the existence of the "positron," a positively charged particle with the same mass as the negatively charged electron. It was discovered experimentally in 1932.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. James Miller
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a double-stranded helix of nucleotides which carries the genetic information of a cell. It encodes the information for the proteins and is able self-replicate.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: CTNS
The name given by the Roslin Insitute to the first cloned mammal; a sheep. It took 277 attempts to clone Dolly (0.4% efficiency).
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Genetics |
Double helix refers to the structure of DNA. DNA is composed of two strands of nucleotides, which form bonds with each other as rungs in a ladder. These linked strands then twist around one another to make a helix with two parallel strands.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: CTNS
Down's syndrome is condition with several symptoms, including a characteristic body type, mental retardation, increased susceptibility to infections, and various heart and other organ abnormalities. It is a result of an extra copy of chromosome 21. In most cases this is a result of one of the parents' gametes not dividing properly. In some cases, it is a result of one of the parents having a chromosomal abnormality in which chromosome 14 and 21 are merged. This can be detected by looking at the parents' chromosomes.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: CTNS
Author of The History of the conflict between religion and science, published in 1875.
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The Relation of Science & Religion |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
This is a concept that refers to the division of any given area of reality into two contrasting and, possibly, conflicting areas. Some examples include: mind and matter, spirit and flesh and heaven and earth.
In its classic formulation, in the work of Rene Descartes, mental phenomena are taken as, in some respect, non-physical. The mind for Descartes is a non-physical substance, because minds have no spatial properties and physical reality is essentially extended in space, minds are wholly non-physical. This can be contrasted to ‘body’, which is physical and does have extension in space. In this way the reality of the human person has been divided into two distinct areas.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
The view that the human is made up of two components: a material, physical body, and an immaterial soul or spirit.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: CTNS
A theory that deals with forces and their relation to the motion of objects.
Contributed by: CTNS
The areas of the universe habitable by living organisms.
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Ecology |
The outermost of the three primary layers of an embryo; produces the nervous system, the epidermis and epidermal derivatives, and the lining of various body cavities such as the mouth.
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
Tissue that has formed abnormally temporally or spatially.
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Health |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
American theologian and philosopher (1703-1758). Edwards, a Congregationalist minister, was one of the central figures of the mid-eighteenth-century religious revival in New England known as the ‘Great Awakening’. His Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (1746) was one of his most important religious works. He also wrote on philosophical topics, including The Freedom of the Will (1754).
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Theology |
Contributed by: Thomas Dixon
Embryonic germ cells. These cells are found in a specific part of the embryo/fetus called the gonadal ridge, and normally develop into mature gametes.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
The sperm enters
the egg and the interaction between them stimulates the egg to resume the cell
cycle and begin development.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
German-born naturalised Swiss and American physicist. He is arguably the twentieth century’s most famous scientific figure. His output included the theories of special relativity (1905) and general relativity (1915), which revolutionised the classical mechanical understanding of space, time and gravitation.
He made fundamental contributions to the fields of statistical mechanics and quantum theory. Later in his life, following his emigration to the United States and appointment at Princeton University in New Jersey, he searched for a unified theory of gravitation and electromagnetism. He complained that the new quantum theory was fundamentally incomplete without this unification. It remains one of the physical sciences greatest unsolved puzzles.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
A theory that deals with the physical relations between electricity and magnetism, and which shows visible light to be part of a spectrum of electromagnetic radiation encompassing radio waves, microwaves, and x-rays.
Contributed by: CTNS
The negatively charged fundamental particle that along with protons and neutrons comprise the atom.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. James Miller
A force proposed by physicists Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg which unifies the electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces under conditions of extreme temperature prevalent much earlier in the history of the universe - The symmetry corresponding to this unification has since "broken," with the ensuing expansion and drop in temperature of the universe yielding two of the four fundamental forces known today.
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Organisms in the early stages of growth and development. In animals, embryos are characterized by the cleavage of the fertilized eggs to many cells, the laying down of the three germ layers, and formative steps in organ development. Although there is some discussion about the characteristics marking the switch from embryo to fetus, in human beings, “embryo” generally refers to the time from implantation to about eight to twelve weeks after conception.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
A branch of biology
that studies embryos and their development
Contributed by: BU
The innermost of
the germ layers of an embryo that is the source of the epithelium of the
digestive tract and its derivatives.
Contributed by: BU
Caused by factors
inside the retrovirus; produced or synthesized within the retrovirus. A
retrovirus is an RNA virus (like HIV) that produces reverse transcriptase by
means of which DNA is produced using their RNA as a template and incorporated
into the genome of infected cells.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
An intellectual movement which began in England in the seventeenth century, but then spread to have eventual influence over all sections of the world. The term "Enlightenment," rooted in an intellectual skepticism to traditional beliefs and dogmas, denotes an "illumined" contrast to the supposed dark and superstitious character of the Middle Ages. From its inception, the Enlightenment focused on the power and goodness of human rationality. Some of the more characterisitic doctrines of the Enlightenment are: 1) Reason is the most significant and positive capacity of the human; 2) reason enables one to break free from primitive, dogmatic, and superstitious beliefs holding one in the bonds of irrationality and ignorance; 3) in realizing the liberating potential of reason, one not only learns to think correctly, but to act correctly as well; 4) through philosophical and scientific progress, reason can lead humanity as a whole to a state of earthly perfection; 5) reason makes all humans equal and, therefore, deserving of equal liberty and treatment before the law; 6) beliefs of any sort should be accepted only on the basis of reason, and not on traditional or priestly authority; and 7) all human endeavors should seek to impart and develop knowledge, not feelings or character.
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History |
Contributed by: CTNS
A term from philosophy of biology, introduced by Hans Driesch, to explain the appearance of life. This reflects an episode in the history of biology when it was debated whether life arises from biological complexity alone, or whether a non-material entity needs to be added to organic material to produce a living being.
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Evolution |
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Where did we Come From? |
Contributed by: Dr. Nancey Murphy
A measure of the disorder or unavailability of energy within a closed system. More entropy means less energy available for doing work.
The removal of the
nucleus of a cell; in cloning the nucleus is removed from the egg cell.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Hellenistic philosopher and founder of the school of Epicureanism, which focused on an ethical, hedonistic way of life in the context of an atomistic, materialistic universe. He had a type of “survival of the fittest” doctrine which accounted for the evolution of species. Although such a teaching avoided Aristotle’s appeal to final causes, it still made room for the activities of Greek gods.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
The study of theories of knowledge or ways of knowing, particularly in the context of the limits or validity of the various ways of knowing.
It is concerned with the nature, extent, sources and legitimacy of knowledge. Key questions in this area include: what must be added to belief to make it knowledge? What is genuine knowledge? How is knowledge acquired? Over the course of western philosophy, philosophers have concentrated on one or two of these issues to the exclusion of all the others; rarely has a philosopher embraced all of them.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Embryonic stem cells.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
Eschatology - from the Greek ‘eschaton’ meaning ‘end,’ so literally the study of the end times. More widely the discussion of the ultimate fate of the universe and of human beings, and of the processes leading to the end.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Extra-terrestrial intelligence.
Extra-terrestrial intelligent life.
The study of the causes, or origins, of diseases or abnormal physiological conditions.
Eugenics involves using principles of genetics to "improve" humankind. Though presently out of favor, the idea that this was a good thing was fairly universally accepted throughout the early part of this century.
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Genetics |
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Ethics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Organisms composed of cells that have a nucleus (i.e., the nucleus, where the genetic material resides, is separated from the rest of the cell, called the cytoplasm, by a complex membrane called the nuclear envelope). The earliest single-celled forms of such organisms appeared about 2 billion years ago.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
The merciful act of helping a person or animal end their life in a painless way due to a terminal and/or very painful health condition.
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Genetics |
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Ethics |
Developer of the many-universes explanation of the significance of quantum theory.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
A branch of biology that deals with the descent by modification of plants and animals from earlier generations.
Evolutionary biology rests on two
principles: variation and selection. Natural selection was proposed by Charles
Darwin in his 1859 publication, The Origin of
Species. It is a process that promotes or maintains adaptation by
filtering out among the variations in progeny those most fit to survive, and
thus gives creatures the appearance of purpose or design. What was missing for
In recent decades, the modern synthesis has been extended to include paleontology, comparative anatomy, biogeography, embryology and molecular genetics. Research areas include the processes of speciation, gradual versus punctuated evolution, protein evolution, the neutrality theory of molecular evolution, the molecular evolutionary clock, multiple forms of selection at the level of gene, organism, kin, group, and species, and the possibility of additional sources of biological novelty besides mutation and selection. There are also a variety of scientific theories pushing the frontiers of evolutionary and molecular biology from the perspective of physics, including chaos, complexity, and self-organization, particularly through the work of Stuart Kauffman. Moreover, research on human evolution is focusing on what distinguishes our species from other early hominids, including such possibilities as bipedalism, brain size, language and tools, as well as on the biological basis of morality.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: Dr. Robert Russell
Existentialism enjoyed great popularity in Continental Europe in the 1940s and 1950s, and has probably had a greater impact upon literature than any other philosophy. The common interest that unites Existentialist philosophers is their interest in human freedom and the nature of choice.
Readers of Existentialist philosophy are being asked, not merely to contemplate the nature of freedom but to experience freedom and practice it. However, the title is slightly misleading, it does not designate a system or a school of thought. They aim, above all to demonstrate freedom, to reveal to ordinary people that which has always been the case, but which for one reason or another has gone unnoticed, that they are free to choose.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Caused by factors
(as food or a traumatic factor) or an agent (as a disease-producing organism)
which are introduced, produced, or synthesized from outside of the infected
organism.
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Genetics |
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Health |
Contributed by: BU
An expressed sequence tag (EST) is a small part of the active part of a gene, made from cDNA, which can be used to fish the rest of the gene out of the chromosome, by matching base pairs with part of the gene. The EST can be radioactively labeled in order to locate it in a larger segment of DNA.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
British theologian who became Warden of Keble College, Oxford. Important among other things for his reframing of the neo-Thomist model of divine action - that of double agency.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Italian born theoretical physicist who won the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1926, he discovered the statistical laws governing the subatomic particles that constitute matter, now known as Fermions.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. James Miller
Particles such as electrons, protons, and neutrons that are the "constituents" of matter and account for its impenetrability. Other particles - called, "bosons" - mediate, or carry, forces between fermions. Examples would be photons, gravitons, and gluons.
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Un unborn or unhatched vertebrate especially after attaining
the basic structural plan of its kind; specifically : a developing human from
usually three months after conception to birth.
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Genetics |
By
permission. From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary at www.Merriam-Webster.com
by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
American born physicist who, in 1965, shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Julian Schwinger and Shinichiro Tomonaga for work in quantum electrodynamics. He was a participant in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. In 1945 he joined the faculty of Cornell University where he developed a simple notation for describing the complex behavior of subatomic particles that came to be known as Feynman Diagrams.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. James Miller
A connective-tissue cell of mesenchymal (somewhat undifferentiated) origin that secretes proteins from which the extracellular fibrillar matrix of connective tissue forms.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
A theory that describes physical reality, including the spacetime continuum, by means of the influence of a field, such as gravity, on objects.
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Physics |
An ecumenical council taking place in 1512 in the Latin basilicas of Rome.
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Theology |
A view of spacetime that supposes the truly temporal character of time as a fourth dimension and thus insists that flowing time is integral to the structure of reality.
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Physics |
See:
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Philosophy |
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Are we Free? |
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Neuroscience |
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What Makes us Human? |
Related Topics:
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Neuroscience |
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What Makes us Human? |
A cone-shaped portion of spacetime containing all (future) locations at which light could arrive after having departed from a particular location within spacetime (the tip of the cone). Points inside the cone can be reached at the speed of light or slower and points on the surface only at the speed of light. Since nothing can travel faster than light, points outside the cone cannot in any way be affected by the tip.
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Italian astronomer and natural philosopher. Galileo finally manages to destroy the Aristotelian theories of motion, but perhaps more importantly for what is to come in the scientific revolution he instigates the idea that mathematics can apply precisely to the world around us and that we can produce mathematically framed laws that relate to this world.
In relation to the reverence granted to Aristotle at this time, Galileo’s break with tradition and insistence that we test matters for ourselves is also significant, as is the support some of his work lends to the Copernican theory. Taken as a whole his views on motion are certainly not the last word, but they lay the basis for the more sophisticated treatments to come, especially in the areas of inertia and frames of reference. Although on the whole Galileo’s views are new and radical, he does hold onto the old notion that the proper motion of planets is circular, and non-inertial, that is they require no force to keep them in motion; in fact the orbits are ellipses, and both circular and elliptical orbits need forces.
Galileo also is famous for incurring the wrath of the Catholic Church and the inquisition. Galileo is at first careful about his pro-Copernican views. Johannes Kepler urges Galileo to step forward and be counted; Galileo replies that if more men thought like Kepler he would. With the telescopic discoveries of 1610, Galileo believes he now has proof of the Copernican theory. Clerical reaction to Galileo is by no means uniformly unfavourable; Cardinal Baronius famously comments: “The Bible teaches the way to go to heaven, but not the way the heavens go”. However in 1616 Galileo is ordered by the church not to hold or defend Copernicanism. The new Pope Cardinal Barberini (Urban VIII) discusses these matters with Galileo, and allows him to publish if he reaches no firm conclusion, the Pope’s position being that God can make it seem to men that heliocentrism is correct if he so chooses, but the bible says that geocentrism is correct. When Galileo does publish, this position is put into the mouth of the most foolish character in his book, and the Pope is persuaded that this is a personal insult. Galileo is tried, and admits his guilt; it is a later fabrication that he tapped the ground and said “and yet it moves” as he got up after apologising. The sentence of house arrest was less harsh than it might have been.
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Physics |
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History |
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The Relation of Science & Religion |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
A mature male or female
germ cell usually possessing a haploid chromosome set, and capable of initiating
formation of a new diploid individual by fusion with a gamete of the opposite
sex.
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Genetics |
By permission. From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary at www.Merriam-Webster.com by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
Gametocyte therapy involves making changes to gametes (egg and sperm cells) prior to conception.
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Genes are activated
or deactivated throughout life. Activated genes are expressed by being
transcribed and translated.
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Gene fragments are pieces of genes containing only the exons (those parts of the gene which actually encode the protein sequence). They are composed of cDNA.
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
A change in the DNA
base pair arrangement. It can be a
single nucleotide that is altered, or it can be a large deletion or insertion of
bases.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
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Design |
Contributed by: BU
The cell process by
which a gene is cut into different parts, exons and introns.
The exons are the coding region and are put back together to make the
gene that is transcribed and translated into a protein.
Sometimes the same gene can be spliced different ways to give rise to
different proteins.
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
The use of genes
and the techniques of genetic engineering in the treatment of a genetic
disorders.
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
An account of the
descent of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or from older forms.
Contributed by: BU
An extension of Einstein’s theory of special relativity to include gravity and other non-inertial (accelerating) frames of reference.
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Genethics is the ethics of genetic issues.
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Genetics |
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Ethics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Alteration
of an organism's genetic, or hereditary, material to eliminate undesirable
characteristics or to produce desirable new ones. Genetic engineering is used to
increase plant and animal food production; to diagnose disease, improve medical
treatment, and produce vaccines and other useful drugs; and to help dispose of
industrial wastes.
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Using someone else’s
genome without consent.
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Changes between or within chromosomes that may alter an organism’s phenotype, giving it greater or lesser advantage in the process of natural selection.
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
The study of genes.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
The genome of an organism is its set of chromosomes, containing all of its genes and associated DNA.
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
The genetic makeup of an organism with regard to an observed trait; the genes that an organism carries.
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Cells comprising actual reproductive components of an organism (specifically, eggs and sperm, and their precursors).
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
Germline engineering (or 'enhancement') involves making "improvements" in gametic (reproductive) cells. These changes will be passed on to subsequent generations.
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
The period in which
the offspring is in the uterus. The
normal gestation period in humans is nine months.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: BU
In quantum theory, these particles are the fundamental units of energy and the carrier of the strong nuclear force.
Related Topics:
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. James Miller
Gonadal cell therapy involves manipulating the genes in the reproductive organs (gonads). It differs from somatic cell therapy (cells not involved in sexual reproduction) in that any changes made to genes in these cells will be passed along to the next generation.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
The boson that is thought to convey gravitational force.
Related Topics:
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. James Miller
Human Assisted Reproductive Technologies. Technology that helps infertile couples have children.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
American process theologian, the principal developer of Whitehead’s process metaphysics as the basis for a theological scheme.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Anything related to the culture and/or language of the Hebrews.
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Theology |
Pluripotent stem cells, derived from fetal tissue, that differentiate into various tissues in the body.
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Genetics |
German theoretical physicist. Famous for the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics, widely received as asserting a radically irreducible conception of nature (1927). In brief, a particle’s position and momentum together define its path, or trajectory, but the uncertianity principle implies that a precisely defined value for position and momentum cannot both be possessed at by a quantum mechanical system. The more determinate one of the values is, the less the other value in the pair will be.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
A cosmology with the sun at the centre of the universe.
Nicolai Copernicus (1473-1543) is the first modern to suggest that the earth moves round a central sun (heliocentrism) rather than the sun moves around a central earth (geocentrism), with the publication of De Revolutionibus in 1543. However, the reception of this theory is surprisingly muted. It was certainly not accepted immediately, as there are too many problems and too few advantages. Not until Kepler and Galileo is it taken as a serious challenge, in cosmological terms, to the Ptolemaic system. It is seen to be useful by astronomers for simpler methods of predicting the motions of the heavens.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) greatly simplifies the new cosmology by showing that the planetary orbits are in fact simple ellipses around the sun (discovered 1605, published 1609). He is the first to break with Plato’s idea of regular circular motion.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) is the first to make systematic use of the telescope (1609/10 on), and finds a great deal of evidence against the old system, and some evidence in favour of the new. He also does important work in producing new theories of motion which do away with many important objections to the heliocentric system, based on Aristotle’s views.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) finally cements this revolution with the 1/d2 gravitational law, which gives a proper explanation of the elliptical orbits of the planets, and of motion on the earth.
Above all, it is important to recognise that the Copernican system was not significantly more accurate than the Ptolemaic system it replaced. However, it is a more elegant explanation of retrogression, as due to relative motion of earth and planets. There is a proper ordering of planets and estimation of planetary distances, for example it yields as explanation of why Mercury and Venus are always seen near sun. The real improvement is its simplicity - instead of those fearsome Ptolemaic devices for the apparent motions of the planets, and in particular retrogressions, we have simple orbits around the sun.
Related Topics:
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The Relation of Science & Religion |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Refers to a particular kind of stem cell that can restore blood.
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
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Genetics |
Greek philosopher, famous for his insistence on the primacy of change in the physical universe. The dominant element in his cosmos was that of fire.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
The study of the principles of interpreting the meaning of written texts. It includes the whole question of how a particular text is ‘received,’ especially considerations such as discerning the authors intentions as well as understanding the social context and the thought-forms of the period.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Pluripotent stem cells that differentiate into various tissues in the body.
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Genetics |
Heuristic - a word used both as a noun and an adjective, in both cases to refer to a technique or proposal which is used as a device for finding out more about the field of study in question (Greek ‘heurisko meaning ‘I find’).
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Human Genome Project (also Human Genome Initiative). Started in 1988, the scientific goal is to map and sequence the human DNA. It has a current annual U.S. budget of $200 million with a fifteen-year timeline and a $3 billion total price tag. Mapping will eventually tell us the position and spacing of the predicted 100,000 genes in each of our body’s cells; and sequencing will determine the order of the four base pairs - the A,T,G and C nucleotides - that compose the DNA molecule. The study's motive is to identify the 4,000 or so genes that are suspected to be responsible for inherited diseases and to prepare the way for treatment through genetic therapy.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
A wide-reaching term, designating views in which the individual elements of a system are determined by their relations to all other elements of that system. Being highly relational, holistic theories do not see the sum of the parts as adding up to the whole. In addition to the individual parts of a system, there are "emergent," or "arising," properties that add to or transform the individual parts. As such, holistic theories claim that no element of a system can exist apart from the system in which it is a part. Holistic theories can be found in philosophical, religious, social, or scientific doctrines.
Contributed by: CTNS
American Astronomer who found the first evidence of the expansion of the universe. The Hubble Space Telescope is named after him. For more on the Hubble Space Telescope, see http://www.stsci.edu.
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Physics |
Scottish historian and sceptical philosopher particularly known for his attacks on the soundness of believing in miracles.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Huntington's chorea is a genetic disease involving the degeneration of nervous system cells, including brain cells, beginning at around age 30. It is possible to predict whether a person will develop this disease, using RFLP (DNA "fingerprinting"), but there is no known cure.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
British biologist. Close friend and defender of the views of Charles Darwin, which earned him the nickname ‘Darwin’s bulldog.’
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Different
strains of a species (that is, members of the same species with different
characteristics) or members of different species combined in an effort to obtain
the most desirable characteristics of both.
Contributed by: BU
A hybrid cell produced by the fusion of an antibody-producing lymphocyte with a tumor cell and used to culture continuously a specific monoclonal antibody.
By permission. From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary at www.Merriam-Webster.com by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
Organic compounds
composed entirely of carbon and hydrogen (i.e.glucose, lactose and petroleum).
Contributed by: BU
Intelligent Design Theory. A contemporary version of the Argument from Design, which focuses on biological complexity at the cellular level, and mathematical analysis of the kinds of complexity that can reasonably be produced by natural selection alone.
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Design |
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Evolution |
Idealism - a general term for the conviction that the most real things are mental rather than physical. Often contrasted with materialism or physicalism, which explain mental phenomena as properties of physical systems.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
("image of God"): A theological term, applied uniquely to humans, which denotes the symbolical relation between God and humanity. The term has its roots in Genesis 1:27, wherein "God created man in his own image. . ." This scriptural passage does not mean that God is in human form, but rather, that humans are in the image of God in their moral, spiritual, and intellectual nature. Thus, humans mirror God's divinity in their ability to actualize the unique qualities with which they have been endowed, and which make them different than all other creatures: rational structure (see logos), complete centeredness, creative freedom, a possibility for self-actualization, and the ability for self-transcendence.
Imago Dei - Longer definition: The term imago Dei refers most fundamentally to two things: first, God's own self-actualization through humankind; and second, God's care for humankind. To say that humans are in the image of God is to recognize the special qualities of human nature which allow God to be made manifest in humans. In other words, for humans to have the conscious recognition of their being in the image of God means that they are the creature throught whom God's plans and purposes can be made known and actualized; humans, in this way, can be seen as co-creators with God. The moral implications of the doctrine of imago Dei are apparent in the fact that if humans are to love God, then humans must love other humans, as each is an expression of God. The human's likeness to God can also be understood by contrasting it with that which does not image God, i.e., beings who, as far as we know, are without self-consciousness and the capacity for spiritual/ moral reflection and growth. Humans differ from all other creatures because of their rational structure - their capacity for deliberation and free decision-making. This freedom gives the human a centeredness and completeness which allows the possibility for self-actualization and participation in a sacred reality. However, the freedom which makes the human in God's image is the same freedom which manifests itself in estrangement from God, as the myth of the Fall (Adam and Eve) exemplifies. According to this myth, humans can, in their freedom, choose to deny or repress their spiritual and moral likeness to God. The ability and desire to love one's self and others, and therefore, God, can become neglected and even opposed. Striving to bring about the imago Dei in one's life can be seen as the quest for wholeness, or one's "essential" self, as pointed to in Christ's life and teachings.
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Theology |
Contributed by: CTNS
From the Latin meaning ‘remaining within’ - usually used of God’s indwelling of God’s creation. In classical Christian theology God is present to every entity in the universe, an emphasis also strong in Islam. But historically the concept of divine transcendence has often received more stress in Christianity than that of divine indwelling.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Something existing in the realm of the material universe and/or human consciousness. (compare transcendent)
Outside the living body and in an artificial environment.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
In the living body of a plant or animal.
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Genetics |
A central doctrine of the Christian faith which affirms that God took human form in the body of Christ. In other words, God was 'in-carnated' in human flesh. This doctrine is based on the fundamental paradox that because God was incarnated in Christ, Christ was both fully human and fully God at the same time. Of course, there were rival opinions regarding the exact nature of God's incarnation. For example, some claimed that Christ was not fully embodied by the divine (Arianism), while others claimed that he only had a divine nature (Monophysism). The doctrine of incarnation that is now commonly agreed upon - that Christ was both fully human and fully God - was formalized as the "Nicene Creed" in the 4th century in Nicea.
The doctrine of incarnation is particularly relevant for understanding the
relationship between time and eternity, as well as the finite and the infinite.
For instance, if Christ fully embodied God, then the infinite can be seen as
having immanence in the natural world and human experience. In fact, the
doctrine of the incarnation expresses the importance of this immanence, because
one's life can be transformed in the finite world through knowledge and
experience of the eternal in Christ.
In connection to the doctrine of incarnation, modern scholarship of the Gospels
has raised questions about the limits of Christ's knowledge, and how such limits
might come to bear on the nature of his divinity. In other words, if Christ was
not fully God, as his cry from the cross "My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me?" would suggest, then how is Christ's relationship to God
changed? Such questions continue to stimulate discussion among theologians,
particularly in relation to the doctrine of the Trinity.
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Theology |
Contributed by: CTNS
Infanticide is the killing of an infant (a baby).
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Ethics |
The inability to
produce offspring.
Related Topics:
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Health |
Contributed by: BU
With the introduction of the “inflationary Big Bang” scenario by Alan Guth and colleagues in the 1970s and further developments in this direction in the 1980s, these problems were basically solved. According to inflation, the extremely early universe (roughly the Planck time 10-43 seconds) expands extremely rapidly, then quickly settles down to the expansion rates of the standard Big Bang model. During inflation, countless domains may arise, separating the overall universe into huge portions of spacetime in which the natural constants and even the specific laws of physics can vary. The effect of inflation on the problem of t=0, however, is fascinating. In some inflationary cosmologies, the Hawking-Penrose theorems don’t apply during the inflationary epoch. In these cosmologies we may never know whether or not an essential singularity exists, even if it does. Recently, attempts have been made to unify quantum physics and gravity and apply the results to cosmology. Proposals by Hawking and Hartle, Linde, Isham, Guth, Hawking and Turek, and others, are still in a speculative stage, but there are already some indications of what different quantum cosmologies might look like, including models with or without an initial singularity (‘eternal inflation’), with open or closed domains embedded in an open or a closed mega-universe, and so on. In most quantum cosmologies, our universe is just a part of an eternally expanding, infinitely complex megauniverse. Quantum cosmology, however, is a highly speculative field. Theories involving quantum gravity, which underlie quantum cosmology, are notoriously hard to test empirically, and they lift the philosophical issues already associated with quantum mechanics to a much more complex level since the domain is now ‘the universe’.
Contributed by: Robert Russell
Autonomous authorization of a medical invention or involvement in research based on substantial understanding.
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
Given that we can neither think nor speak nor engage with the world at all except through language, theory, and concept, an instrumentalist view of (for instance) science would merely regard scientific data as a function of the instrumentation and conceptual constructs by which science functions.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
A process whereby a single egg is injected with a single sperm to achieve fertilization. Prior to ICSI, a woman undergoes drug therapy so that her ovaries will produce several eggs that may then be harvested for use in ICSI.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Introns are sequences of "junk" DNA found in the middle of gene sequences. These sequences are excised before the mRNA is translated into a protein. The function of introns is not known.
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a reproductive technology in which an egg is removed from a woman, joined with a sperm cell from a man in a test tube (in vitro). The cells fuse to form single cell called a zygote, which then starts dividing, becoming an embryo. When the zygote/embryo is only a few cells large, it is implanted in the woman's uterus, and, if successful, will develop as a normal embryo.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Meaning “heritage,” a mystical form, or “secret science,” of Judaism that developed in the late Middle Ages. Kabbalah was an esoteric method of interpreting the Hebrew Scriptures by way of the numerical coding of Hebrew letters. Such a code system was meant to bring out the hidden meaning of each biblical word. The culminating, classical work of Kabbalah was the Zohar (“illumination”), a work containing the record of revelations concerning divine mysteries, as they were traditionally received from the second-century Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai and his mystic circle.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
Prussian philosopher. Kant is considered to be the paradigmatic philosopher of the Modern era, removing the last traces of scholasticism from philosophy in the eighteen century. He agreed with the rationalists that one can have exact and certain knowledge, but he followed the empiricists in holding that such knowledge is more informative about the structure of thought than about the world outside of thought.
He distinguished three kinds of knowledge: analytical a priori, which is exact and certain but uninformative, because it makes clear only what is contained in definitions; synthetic a posteriori, which conveys information about the world learned from experience, but is subject to the errors of the senses; and synthetic a priori, which is discovered by pure intuition and is both exact and certain, for it expresses the necessary conditions that the mind imposes on all objects of experience. Mathematics and philosophy, according to Kant, provide this last type.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Austrian Astronomer. Kepler proposed the fundamental simplification of the Copernican scheme by hypothesising one ellipse for the orbit of each planet. This achieved a very good fit, and finally put to rest the Platonic scheme of explaining the motions of the heavens in terms of compounds of uniform circular motion.
Kepler is famous for three laws, firstly, elliptical orbits for planets, secondly the law that a line from the sun to a planet sweeps out equal areas in equal times, and finally that the square of the time a planet takes to complete one orbit is proportional to the cube of its mean distance from the sun. Kepler was the first whole hearted and public advocate of the Copernican system. He is also famous for trying to reproduce the ratios of the orbits of the planets from fitting together the five perfect solids, and the theory that the sun holds the planets in their orbits by magnetism.
Related Topics:
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Physics |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Danish philosopher Kierkegaard (pronounced Kee-ker-gord) is one of the master thinkers of the modern age, a defining influence on existentialism and twentieth century theology. He was born and lived in Copenhagen. His many works of philosophy and theology include Either/Or, Fear and Trembling and Sickness Unto Death.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
A branch of dynamic theory that deals with aspects of motion apart from mass and force.
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Physics |
Anglican priest and writer, most famous for his children’s book The Water-Babies (1863), a book informed by his enthusiasm for the idea of evolution. Kingsley did much to try and reconcile the new scientific knowledge of the 19th Century, especially Darwinism, with Christian doctrine.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Genes that are missing because they have been knocked out by various techniques.
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
American Historian of Science, Philosopher and Linguist. Kuhn was amongst the first to explore the history of science for any non-observational factors that might explain theory choice, as well as to consider how it might be justifiable as well.
His most famous work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions sought to explore the character of scientific theory change. Kuhn introduced insights from sociology and psychology and re-shaped the landscape of philosophy of science, asserting that science is not a disinterested pursuit of truth and could be seen as creative an undertaking as painting or music. For Kuhn, the history of science is the history of change, but not always progress.
Related Topics:
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
American preacher and psychologist (1842-1921). Ladd was one of the most important figures in the foundation of the new psychological profession in America in the 1880s and 1890s, despite being a trenchant critic of what he perceived to be the materialism and determinism of William James’ ‘cerebral science’. He held the chair in philosophy at Yale from 1881 to 1905, founded the psychological laboratory there in 1892, and was the second president of the American Psychological Association. His major works included Elements of Psychology (1887) and Psychology, Descriptive and Explanatory (1894). Ladd had been a Christian minister and preacher for ten years before turning to academic philosophy and thence psychology. He published on The Doctrine of Sacred Scripture (1883) and, later, on The Philosophy of Religion (1905).
Related Topics:
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The Cognitive and Neurosciences |
Contributed by: Thomas Dixon
Proponent of an important theory in the philosophy of science, which developed the work of Popper and also responded to the insights of Kuhn.
Related Topics:
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
French biologist who developed an important model of evolution, based on the inheritance of acquired characteristics. A major influence on Darwin, though his scheme was ultimately superseded by Darwinism.
Related Topics:
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Evolution |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
French mathematician. Among Laplace’s achievements was an improvement in the mathematical description of the solar system, which suggested that the system could be self-sustaining - without the need Newton saw for occasional divine intervention to keep it stable.
Related Topics:
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Purpose and Design |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
German philosopher, mathematician, historian, jurist, and physicist. Against any monistic view of the universe, he characterized ultimate reality as composed of an infinite number of simple, indivisible, immaterial substances, i.e., spiritual atoms, or “monads,” created and maintained by the existence of the Prime Monad, i.e., God. Monads are also self-determining substances which together comprise God’s “best possible world,” wherein material substances do indeed have their own realities, although they are dependent finally upon monads existing in a “pre-established harmony” that allows order and causal relationships to occur.
Related Topics:
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
Belgian born Roman Catholic priest, mathematician, and astrophysicist. In a 1927 note he proposed that the universe originated from the explosion of concentration of matter and energy that he called a "cosmic egg" or "primeval atom." This was one of the first expressions of what is today the Big Bang Theory of cosmic origins.
Related Topics:
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Physics and Cosmology |
Contributed by: Dr. James Miller
The contraction of a measured length of an object or a distance in a frame of reference moving at nearly the speed of light, predicted by the theory of special relativity.
Related Topics:
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
The class of subatomic particles that constitute matter which have no measurable size and do not interact with the strong nuclear force. These include the electrons, muons and neutrinos.
Related Topics:
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Physics |
A principle originating in classical Greek thought which refers to a universal divine reason, immanent in nature, yet transcending all oppositions and imperfections in the cosmos and humanity. An eternal and unchanging truth present from the time of creation, available to every individual who seeks it. A unifying and liberating revelatory force which reconciles the human with the divine; manifested in the world as an act of God's love in the form of the Christ.
Logos - Longer definition: The Greek word logos (traditionally meaning word, thought, principle, or speech) has been used among both philosophers and theologians. In most of its usages, logos is marked by two main distinctions - the first dealing with human reason (the rationality in the human mind which seeks to attain universal understanding and harmony), the second with universal intelligence (the universal ruling force governing and revealing through the cosmos to humankind, i.e., the Divine).
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus appears to be the first to have used the word logos to refer to a rational divine intelligence, which today is sometimes referred to in scientific discourse as the "mind of God." The early Greek philosophical tradition known as Stoicism, which held that every human participates in a universal and divinely ordained community, then used the Logos doctrine as a principle for human law and morality. The Stoics believed that to achieve freedom, happiness, and meaning one should attune one's life to the wisdom of God's will, manifest in the second distinction (above) of Logos. The Christian church then extended the Stoic idea of the universal community by claiming the universal nature of salvation and the potential for all humans to participate in it.
In the New Testament, the phrase "Word (Logos) of God," found in John 1:1 and elsewhere, shows God's desire and ability to "speak" to the human. The Christian expression of this communication is evidenced in the Christ, who is the "Word become flesh." In these three biblical words, Christianity points to the possibility of union between the human and the divine, or the personal and the absolute. God's logos, which the Christ represents, acts as a bridge between the human's inner spiritual needs and the answer proclaimed by the Christian message.
Because it is highly philosophical, the logos doctrine has caused some of the more orthodox theologians of recent times to claim that it should not be used in theology, while other theologians claim it is absolutely necessary to a doctrine of God. According to the philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich, "He who sacrifices the Logos principle sacrifices the idea of a living God, and he who rejects the application of this principle to Jesus as the Christ rejects his character as Christ." In other words, without an understanding of God's love, will, and power as a living and active force in the world - through the logos in the Christ and through our participation in the logos with our reason - the Christian message becomes a lifeless and inconsequential set of doctrines which can be accepted or rejected without bearing on one's life.
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Theology |
Contributed by: CTNS
British physicist who did important work on electricity, magnetism and heat. Developer of the Kelvin temperature scale.
Related Topics:
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Physics |
The first test tube
baby (produced in Europe).
Related Topics:
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Ethics |
Contributed by: BU
Ancient Latin poet and expounder of the philosophy of Epicurus. In De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), he dealt with Epicurean atomic theory, the mortality of the soul, sensation and thought, the origins and development of the world, and various natural phenomena.
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
Although many religious reforms in Europe preceded those of Martin Luther, he is considered to be the initiator of the Protestant Reformation. In the year 1517, outraged by the sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church (see Reformation), Luther, posted on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany, his now-famous 95 theses. In the theses, Luther railed against the Catholic Church and what he saw as its excesses and hypocrisies, clearly exemplified in its selling of indulgences to the common masses.
Prior to his Reformation activities, Luther, a German, was a student of philosophy at the University of Erfurt, where he received his Bachelor's degree (1503), and then two years later, his Master's degree. Though his father wished him to study law, Luther's unsettled soul and the sudden death of a close friend caused him to enter an Augustinian cloister in 1505. As a monk, Luther began a more thorough study of the Bible and theology, particularly Augustine and the Christian mystics. In 1507, he was ordained a priest.
In 1508, Luther was appointed professor of philosophy at the newly-established University of Wittenburg. After becoming disillusioned with the philosophy of the time, Luther made preparations to attain higher degrees in theology. In 1509, he received his Bachelor's degree, and in 1512 the Doctor of Theology degree. Following this, Luther began to lecture on the Bible and preach against what he saw as the corruptions of the papacy. When Luther encountered Johann Tetzel, a Dominican commissioned in 1502 by the pope to preach and sell indulgences in Germany and the Scandinavian kingdoms, he resolved to counter not only the sale of indulgences, but also the entire theological and economic systems of the Catholic Church.
Like all other Protestant refomers, Luther placed heavy emphasis on the Scripture, particularly the New Testament. In opposition to the priestly hierarchy of the Catholic Church and its supposed infallibility, Luther came to see each individual as having access to the Truth preached by the Christ. As such, Luther coined the phrase "justification by grace, through faith," making evident his belief in each individual human's spiritual authority and access to soul healing, or salvation.
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Theology |
Contributed by: CTNS
Scottish geologist whose Principles of Geology was one of the major scientific books of the 19th Century. Lyell emphasised gradual geological change over very long periods, as opposed to the ‘catastrophic’ models of others thinkers such as Baron Cuvier. This thinking was important in the formation of Darwin’s evolutionary scheme.
Related Topics:
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Evolution |
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Design |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
A neuropsychologist who specialized in sensory communication mechansims in the brain and also wrote on the relation between science and religion. He taught at King's College London and the University of Keele in Staffordshire. He gave the Gifford Lectures in 1986.
Related Topics:
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The Cognitive and Neurosciences |
Contributed by: Dr. Nancey Murphy
The “Great Charter” of liberties, the most famous document of British constitutional history, issued by King John at Runnymede in June, 1215. English barons compelled King John to sign and give his assent to this landmark document, so as to grant significant rights and privileges to his subjects and thus limit royal power.
Related Topics:
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History |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
Related Topics:
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Health |
British economist and demographer - famous for his theory that population growth will tend to exceed food supply. His conclusion was that human reproduction should be limited to ensure the progress of the species. The idea of over-reproduction and competition for resources was very important to Darwin’s evolutionary scheme.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
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Design |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
A metaphysical thesis that asserts that everything that exists is material or a product of material processes.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Nancey Murphy
Understood literally, this is the quality of ‘being material’ or ‘enfleshed’. It is the acknowledgement that we are all material beings, constituted from other material things. Indeed, more than this, it is the acknowledgement that we are material beings around which are situated other material things. It is important to note that this is not the same as materialism, that is the commodification and idolatry of the material. This is a recognition, located in recent social thought, that we know, experience and encounter the world and others through our material existence – not simply as disembodied minds.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Scottish theologian and philosopher (1811-1894). McCosh, a Calvinist minister, made his name as one of the group to leave the established Church and set up the Free Church of Scotland in 1843 (a group led by Thomas Chalmers). He taught at Queens’ College in Belfast, before becoming President of the College of New Jersey, Princeton in 1868. He wrote on a wide variety of theological, philosophical and psychological topics. His major works included The Method of Divine Government, Physical and Moral (1850), The Scottish Philosophy from Hutcheson to Hamilton (1875), and The Emotions (1880).
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Theology |
Contributed by: Thomas Dixon
Austrian botanist and geneticist; founder of genetics. He was most famous for his pea experiments that demonstrated the habitability of phenotypic characteristics.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
A particular kind of stem cell that may give rise to tissues of mesodermal origin, including muscle, bone, and related tissues.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
The middle of the
three primary germ layers of an embryo. It
forms into many of the bodily tissues and structures such as bone, muscle,
connective tissue, and skin.
Contributed by: BU
mRNA (messenger RNA) is the mediating template between DNA and proteins. The information from a particular gene is transferred from a strand of DNA by the construction of a complementary strand of RNA through a process known as transcription. Next three nucleotide segments of RNA, called tRNA (transfer RNA), which are attached to specific amino acids, match up with the template strand of mRNA to order the amino acids correctly. These amino acids are then bonded together to form a protein. This process, called translation occurs in the ribosome, which is composed of proteins and the third kind of RNA, rRNA (ribosomal RNA)
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
A section in the
equatorial plane of the metaphase spindle having the chromosomes oriented upon
it.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
The stage of
mitosis and meiosis in which the chromosomes become arranged in the equatorial
plane of the spindle.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Derived from the Greek meta ta physika ("after the things of nature"); referring to an idea, doctrine, or posited reality outside of human sense perception. In modern philosophical terminology, metaphysics refers to the studies of what cannot be reached through objective studies of material reality. Areas of metaphysical studies include ontology, cosmology, and often, epistemology.
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Philosophy |
Metaphysics is a type of philosophy or study that uses broad concepts to help define reality and our understanding of it. Metaphysical studies generally seek to explain inherent or universal elements of reality which are not easily discovered or experienced in our everyday life. As such, it is concerned with explaining the features of reality that exist beyond the physical world and our immediate senses. Metaphysics, therefore, uses logic based on the meaning of human terms, rather than on a logic tied to human sense perception of the objective world. Metaphysics might include the study of the nature of the human mind, the definition and meaning of existence, or the nature of space, time, and/or causality.
The origin of philosophy, beginning with the Pre-Socratics, was metaphysical in nature. For example, the philosopher Plotinus held that the reason in the world and in the rational human mind is only a reflection of a more universal and perfect reality beyond our limited human reason. He termed this ordering power in the universe "God."
Metaphysical ideas, because they are not based on direct experience with material reality, are often in conflict with the modern sciences. Beginning with the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution, experiments with, and observations of, the world became the yardsticks for measuring truth and reality. Therefore, our contemporary valuation of scientific knowledge over other forms of knowledge helps explain the controversy and skepticism concerning metaphysical claims, which are considered unverifiable by modern science.
In matters of religion, the problem of validating metaphysical claims is most readily seen in all of the "proofs" for the existence of God. Like trying to prove the existence of a "soul" or "spirit" in the human, attempts to scientifically prove the existence of God and other nonobjective, nonhuman realities is seemingly impossible. The difficulty arises out of the attempt to scientifically study and objectify something which, by its very nature, cannot become an object of our scientific studies. This reigning belief that everything can be explained scientifically in terms of natural causes - referred to as naturalism - compels many to think that only what is seen or sensed, only what can be hypothesized and tested can be true, and therefore, meaningful to us as humans.
Recently, however, even as metaphysics has come under attack for its apparent lack of access to real knowledge, so has science begun to have its own difficulties in claiming absolute knowledge. Continual developments in our understanding of the human thought process reveals that science cannot solely be relied upon to explain reality, for the human mind cannot be seen as simply a mirror of the natural world. For example, since the act of scientific observation itself tends to produce the reality it hopes to explain, the so-called "truths" of science cannot be considered as final or objective. This fact manifests itself over and over again, as scientific truths and laws continue to break down or yield to new and better explanations of reality. What becomes apparent, therefore, is that the process of human interpretation in the sciences, as elsewhere, is both variable and relative to the observer's viewpoint.
Under the skeptical analyses of the philosophical movements known as postmodernism and deconstructionism, all of these facts have resulted in a modern repudiation of both metaphysics and science. Their criticisms are based on the cultural and historical relativity of all knowledge. These two philosophical "schools" deny any existence at all of an objective or universal knowledge. Thus, metaphysical claims stand today between the absolutist claims of science (scientism) and the complete relativism of postmodernism and deconstructionism.
Contributed by: CTNS
Contemporary British theologian. Milbank is one of the central figures of the ‘Radical Orthodoxy’ movement in British theology, which combines resources and insights drawn from postmodern philosophy with a radical reappropriation of Christian tradition and practice. His major works are Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason (1990) and The Word Made Strange: Theology, Language, Culture (1997). Milbank has argued that the social sciences are often covertly based upon nihilist or anti-Christian assumptions.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Thomas Dixon
DNA that is unique to the mitochondria. It is not the same the DNA in the nucleus.
Mitochondrion
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Image:
Sinauer Associates
Contributed by: BU
A process that takes place in the nucleus of a dividing cell, involves typically a series of steps consisting of prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase, and results in the formation of two new nuclei each having the same number of chromosomes as the parent nucleus.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: BU
A network of microtubules formed during prophase. Some microtubules attach to the centromeres (center) of the chromosomes and help draw the chromosomes apart during anaphase.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
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Design |
Images:
Sinauer Associates
By
permission. From Online
Biology Book Glossary property of Prof. Michael Farabee
Molecular hematology is the study of blood and its production from a molecular/genetic perspective.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Antibodies produced in the laboratory by specialized cells called hybridomas. The important features of these antibodies include their specificity of binding to a single antigen (protein), the ability to produce them in unlimited amounts, and their homogeneity. These antibodies have proven to be very useful in the detection of several diseases (including, but not limited to, cancer and various viral infections) and in therapy (for certain cancers).
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Genetics |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
The developmental
evolution of the whole or a part of an embryo; the sequence whereby complex
microcosm-macrocosm interchanges occur which further develop the microcosm’s
given form or structure. For example, the maturation of an adult mammal from a
fertilized ovum, biological evolution, human learning, and societal development.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: BU
Related Topics:
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The Cognitive and Neurosciences |
Muscular dystrophy is a term for a group of diseases involving muscle deterioration. At least one form of the disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, appears to be related to deletions in a huge gene coding for the protein dystrophin, which is then absent from the cells of sufferers. The gene is linked to the X chromosome, so it appears predominantly in males.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It’s mission is to uncover new knowledge that will lead to better public health.
The theory that the
moral standards that govern human behavior are derived from the nature of human
beings. There are many variations of this theory, but they are rooted in the
philosophy of Aristotle (4th Century BC).
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: BU
The process by which individuals’ inherited needs and abilities are more or less closely matched to resources available in their environment, giving those with greater "fitness" a better chance of survival and reproduction.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
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Design |
Traditionally understood as the consideration of what can be known about God without the aid of revelation, i.e. from consideration of the created world in general, aided by reason.
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Philosophy |
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
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Design |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Abnormal mass of
tissue, the growth of which exceeds and is uncoordinated with that of normal
tissues and persists in the same excessive manner after cessation of the stimuli
which evoked the change,
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Neoplatonism is a thought form rooted in the philosophy of Plato (c. 428-347
B.C.E.), but extending beyond or transforming it in many respects. Neoplatonism
developed as a school of thought in the Roman Empire from the third to the fifth
century of the common era (C.E.). However, the term itself was coined only
recently in the mid-ninteenth century, when German scholars used it to
distinguish the ideas of later Greek and Roman Platonists from those of Plato
himself. Plotinus (c. 204-270 C.E.) is considered the first main proponent of
Neoplatonism, and his intent was to use Plato's thought as an intellectual basis
for a rational and humane life.
Neoplatonist ideas are more explicitly religious than those of Plato, and they
developed largely to counter dualistic interpretations of Plato's thought. For
example, Neoplatonism sought to overcome the Platonic cleavage between thought
and reality, or Ideal and Form. Platonism is characterized by its method of
abstracting the finite world of Forms (humans, animals, objects) from the
infinite world of the Ideal, or One. Neoplatonism, on the other hand, seeks to
locate the One, or God in Christian Neoplatonism, in the finite world and human
experience. This is evidenced in Plotinus's now-famous maxim that the Absolute
"has its center everywhere but its circumference nowhere."
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: CTNS
Related Topics:
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The Cognitive and Neurosciences |
A chemical which conveys or inhibits nerve impulses at a synapse.
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The Cognitive and Neurosciences |
Leptons that are thought to have extremely low mass (or no mass whatsoever) and be electrically neutral and so have only very weak interactions.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. James Miller
English natural philosopher. His Works include: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, 1687. Opticks, 1704. His importance lay in the areas of: Gravity, mathematics, optics, astronomy, motion, as well as the grand synthesis completing new view of the world.
Newton’s work can be considered as the culmination of the scientific revolution. The cosmological synthesis draws together the work of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Descartes to finalise a new view of the universe, heliocentric, constructed out of mathematically treatable particles, governed by the laws of mathematical physics, working in the fashion of clockwork. While this view of the world needs to be extended beyond physics and astronomy (which was effectively the task which the Enlightenment sets itself) the fundamentals of this view of the world fall into place with the work of Newton. The methodological synthesis is equally important, as it sets the guidelines as to how science will be done, and is of course closely related to the new view of the universe. Again Newton draws on various sources; Galileo, Bacon and Descartes, to name a few.
The new method seeks a balance between mathematical theorising and controlled experiment, and pays no attention to ancient ‘authority’. The success of Newton is also important; it shows that science can indeed make great strides forward and heralds the great era of eighteenth century optimism known as the Enlightenment
He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1661 and graduated 1664. In 1665, Newton returned to Lincolnshire due to plague. In 1667, appointed Lucasian Professor at the University of Cambridge. In 1689 is made Member of Parliament for the University and then in 1696 in made Warden of the Royal Mint. This was followed in 1703 by the Presidency of the Royal Society. He was knighted in 1705
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
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Design |
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Physics |
Newtonian physics - the system of physics based principally on the dynamics of Isaac Newton, 1642-1727 (including his famous law of gravitation). The system was very successful in predicting the behaviour of particles, pendulums, machines etc up to the end of the 19th Century when the new physics began to have its impact.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
From the Latin nihil, “nothing”, a term referring to the extreme philosophical view there there is no justification for values. The term is also used to speak of the all-out attack on specific values - especially in religion or morality. A nihilist is presumably one who promotes the state of believing in nothing whatsoever, or one who holds that there is nothing in life that is really purposeful or meaningful.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
Systems which are not characterizable by linear or first-order equations, but are governed by any variety of complex, reciprocal relationships, or feedback loops.
Contributed by: CTNS
A branch of physics developed in the latter half of the twentieth century that deals with systems of particles that are far from the near-equilibrium conditions studied in classical thermodynamics and which are governed by complex, non-linear forces. Significant attempts have been made to extend this theory into the realm of living (self-replicating) organisms.
Contributed by: CTNS
Complex structures or concepts can have irreducibly non-physical properties, such as consciousness and will.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: CTNS
Nucleotides are nitrogen-containing molecules which link together to form strands of DNA and RNA.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
A cellular organelle of eukaryotes, enclosed in a definite membrane that is essential to cell functions. Its center is called a nucleolus, which contains the DNA (chromosomes) along with proteins that aid its replication and translation into RNA.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Images:
Sinauer Associates
Contributed by: BU
Ockhams Razor - the principle pronounced by the English theologian and philosopher Willam of Ockham (c.1285-1349) that, other things beings equal, the simpler of two explanations is to be preferred. The Latin is entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem - entities are not to be multiplied unnecessarily.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Greek for ending or last.
Literally, "all knowing." A term used in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam which points to the unconditional character of the divine knowledge of God. An infallible knowledge transcending the subject-object structure of finite human existence, in which God knows all things, past, present, and future.
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Theology |
Contributed by: CTNS
A branch of study concerned with the nature and relations of being, or things which exist. Ontological discussion concerns things as they actually are, often in contrast to questions of our knowledge of reality (epistemological questions).
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: CTNS, Southgate
The female sex cell (egg).
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Genetics |
British anatomist and palaeontologist - one of the major scientific figures of his day, best known for his opposition to Darwin’s evolutionary scheme.
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Evolution |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Anglican priest and philosopher. Natural Theology and its most popular vehicle, the argument from design, can be traced back to the Anglican Divine, William Paley. His 1807 work, The Argument from Design, is the starting point for his theology of nature, which would later become a standard text for students reading for the divinity degree at Cambridge University.
Paley’s argument is one from analogy. It relies on the principle that if two things are similar in some known respect they are likely to be similar in other respects. These arguments enable us to draw conclusions as to likely similarities, where these are not already known. The problem is that they presuppose a sense of where the analogy holds and will help us to new truths and where it does not it will let us down. He argues that we would still think something was a watch, so long as it had the observable properties of a watch, even if we did not about its origins. Whatever we suppose about its origins, the fact that the various parts of a watch work together so as to tell the time would be evidence that it had a designer.
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Philosophy |
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
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Design |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
A model of the relation between God and the universe which regards the whole created order as contained within God, and yet considers that this does not exhaust the divine being. Compare with pantheism.
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Philosophy |
Pantheism holds that God is in the world or, rather, God is the world. It stresses the immanence of God in the world. There are several kinds of pantheism. The Greek philosopher Parmenides is famous for explicating what is known as absolute pantheism. This asserted that there was only one being in the universe and everything else was non-being. Another ancient source, Plotinus, was believed to be an exponent of emanational pantheism, in that everything flows from God the way a flower unfolds from a seed. The most obvious example of this kind of thought in the contemporary climate is Hinduism, a manifestational pantheism; that all things are, in some sense, divine and to be venerated as such.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Related Topics:
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The Cognitive and Neurosciences |
Greek philosopher. An important influence on Plato and on the atomists, Parmenides questioned the reality of change in the cosmos.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
A branch of physics dealing with the description and categorization of the basic units of matter and energy.
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
French mathematician, philosopher and theologian. His talents were manifold, but his main achievement was a defence of the Christian religion for those folk during his lifetime that had not been afforded the luxury of an education in classical thought. His anthropological reflections were published as Pensées in 1670.
He is also famous for his expression of his own religious experience which he recorded on a piece of paper and carried around sewn into the inside of his jacket: “Fire...the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and not the God of the philosophers...or the men of science”.
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Philosophy |
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Theology |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
A cone-shaped portion of spacetime containing all (past) locations from which light could arrive at a particular location within spacetime (the tip of the cone). The tip can be reached from points inside the cone at the speed of light or slower, and from points on the surface of the cone only at the speed of light. Since nothing can travel faster than light, points outside the cone cannot in any way affect the tip.
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
This is a period in the history of the Christian Church stretching from late antiquity through to the thirteenth century. It is so-named because the Fathers or ‘patres’ of the church wrote much of the theology in this period.
In its strictest use, it refers to those teachers who wrote between the end of the first century and the close of the eighth century. This period is known for controversies surrounding doctrinal and creedal formulations, the writing of extensive biblical commentaries and the exposition of the relations between Christian orthodoxy and the best philosophical thought of the period.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
The observed properties or outward appearance of a trait. The physical expression of the genes (alleles). This contrasts with genotype, which is an organism’s genetic composition. The phenotype results from the interaction of the genotype with the environment.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
By permission. From Online Biology Book Glossary property of Prof. Michael Farabee
Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a disease of the nervous system caused by the lack of an enzyme which breaks down the amino acid phenylalanine. The defective version of the gene is recessive. Infants who have two defective copies, and will thus develop the disease, can be identified with a genetic test, and are subsequently put on a special diet which controls the symptoms.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: CTNS
Hellenistic philosopher and leading figure in the Jewish community of Alexandria. He was a prolific writer who synthesized Greek thought and Jewish faith through his allegorical interpretation of the Pentateuch, the ancient Greek translation of the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures (what Christians would later call the Old Testament). His interpretive aims and methods influenced medieval Jewish, Islamic, and Latin Christian philosophy.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
The boson that is the fundamental unit of electromagnetic radiation. The name given to a small bundle or quantum of electromagnetic energy. It is used when describing the particle-like behavior of electromagnetic waves (including light waves).
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. James Miller and CTNS
Physicalist - the metaphysical position that the universe is explicable in terms of the components of matter and energy that it contains. It is a more comprehensive term than materialism because it includes energy as well as matter. Both terms are usually contrasted with idealism, theism, or some form of dualism.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
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Health |
German physicist. 1918 Nobel Prize winner for his work on quantum theory.
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Physics |
Self-replicating,
circular DNA molecules found in bacterial cells; often used as vectors in
recombinant DNA technology. Small circles of double-stranded DNA found in some
bacteria. Plasmids can carry from four to 20 genes. Plasmids are a commonly used
vector in recombinant DNA studies.
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Genetics |
By permission. From Online Biology Book Glossary property of Prof. Michael Farabee
The founder of one of the most enduring philosophical systems in history, as well as the co-founder of the Academy in Athens. He produced around twenty-five works, nearly all of which were written in the style of a dialogue between characters that stood for different viewpoints in Plato’s scheme of thought. He is most famous, and most vilified (by his critics), for his theory of forms. He taught that for every significant word such as ‘justice’, ‘man’ or ‘circle’, there is a corresponding, abstract idea of form. In this way his view, Platonism, is also seen as a kind of dualism. His works include The Republic, Phaedo and Timaeus.
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Neoplatonism |
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Stem cells which can develop into any of the three major tissue types: endoderm (interior gut lining), mesoderm (muscle, bone, blood), and ectoderm (epidermal tissues and nervous system). Pluripotent stem cells can eventually specialize in any bodily tissue, but they cannot themselves develop into a human being.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: Dr. Ted Peters
This is a feature of Christian Theological Doctrine concerned with the action, nature and extent of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Hungarian born physical chemist who came to the University of Manchester in England in 1933. In 1947 he moved from the faculty of science to the faculty of humanities where he developed his philosophy of science and of society. Polanyi argued that knowledge was neither objective nor subjective but personal in that all knowledge required the commitment of the knower to some community of knowers. He also developed the idea of "tacit knowledge," knowledge that was incapable of full explicit expression, which underlies all explicit knowledge. Two of his dictums are: We say more than we know that we say. We know more than we can say that we know.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. James Miller
A small haploid
cell, produced during oogenesis in female animals, that does not develop into a
functional ovum.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Austrian philosopher of science - particularly important for his understanding of science as progressing by the falsification of hypotheses.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
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Health |
A general and wide-ranging term which is applied to literature, art, philosophy, architecture, fiction, and cultural and literary criticism, among others. Postmodernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective, efforts to explain reality. In essence, it stems from a recognition that reality is not simply mirrored in human understanding of it, but rather, is constructed as the mind tries to understand its own particular and personal reality. For this reason, postmodernism is highly skeptical of explanations which claim to be valid for all groups, cultures, traditions, or races, and instead focuses on the relative truths of each person. In the postmodern understanding, interpretation is everything; reality only comes into being through our interpretations of what the world means to us individually. Postmodernism relies on concrete experience over abstract principles, knowing always that the outcome of one's own experience will necessarily be fallible and relative, rather than certain and universal.
Postmodernism is "post" because it is denies the existence of any ultimate principles, and it lacks the optimism of there being a scientific, philosophical, or religious truth which will explain everything for everybody - a characterisitic of the so-called "modern" mind. The paradox of the postmodern position is that, in placing all principles under the scrutiny of its skepticism, it must realize that even its own principles are not beyond questioning. As the philospher Richard Tarnas states, postmodernism "cannot on its own principles ultimately justify itself any more than can the various metaphysical overviews against which the postmodern mind has defined itself."
This term refers to a trend in the history of ideas, in the mid-to-late twentieth century. It is a part of, as well as a reaction to, Modernity itself and has arrived with the advent of global or late-capitalism. It is a branch of thought that is pre-occupied with discourse and appearance. In this sense, it is a radically anti-metaphysical view of the world. Because of this obsession with the surface of things, it is also a very sceptical viewpoint; scepticism particularly focussed on the seventeenth century project of empiricism and scientific realism. Postmodernity asserts that it impossible to get ‘behind’ the meanings and representations that discourse offers; realism, with its focus on the independent reality, is ruled out as a matter of course.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: CTNS and Richard P Whaite
The dismissal and disavowal of God or the notion of the transcendent is a hallmark of modern philosophy. Philosophical discussions of theology were determined by secular assumptions, which resulted in the rejection of God. However, the legacy of this project is now apparent: the creation of a secular world that is not as liberated, knowledgeable and free as it had hoped. Indeed, some scholars see this as the logical consequence of a programme of thought that saw theology debased at the hands of Enlightenment science. But the destruction of theology is no longer certain, according to post-secular thinkers, and the task of this new project is to uncover the underlying theological programmes at work in ‘secular’ modern philosophy.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
This is a relative recent trend in the philosophical academy, perhaps reflective of our more global society and increasing interest in philosophies of existence. Post-analytic thought is that which retains the methodological rigour and clarity characteristic of the analytic tradition, but which also calls on sources and addresses subjects that fall beyond the analytic/continental division. It is a style of philosophising that meets the challenge of modernity by engaging with its past in such a way that, neither dismissing it nor moving on from it uncritically, it remains recognisably the same subject.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
Winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on ‘dissipative structures’ - an aspect of chaos theory which is important in the understanding of self-organisation and the development of complexity.
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
The source of embryonic germ cells. In normal development, these are the cells that give rise to eggs or sperm.
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
Organisms whose genomic DNA is free within the cell. These are single-celled organisms, forms of which are believed to be the earliest forms of cellular life on Earth about 3.8 billion years ago.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: Dr. James Miller
Egyptian astronomer, mathematician, and geographer who flourished in Alexandria. He is credited with the “Ptolemaic system,” a geocentric view of the universe that would dominate scientific thinking for 13 centuries, until Copernicus (1473 - 1573) put forth his heliocentric theory of the universe.
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History |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
A theory developed by Paul Dirac in 1927 that explains the apparent paradox of wave/particle duality, by identifying a wave with the superposition of an indefinite number of particles. For example, if a wave is then interpreted as showing the probability of the location of a particle, then a "collapse" of the wave through measurement yields a particle sometimes found "here" and sometimes "there."
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Quantum theory grew out of a series of anomalies in the picture of matter and light offered by Newtonian physics - in particular associated with black-body radiation, the photo-electric effect, and the need to devise a model of the atom consistent with the newly discovered subatomic particles.
Important principles of quantum theory include its statistical nature, and the uncertainty principle which sets a limit on our knowledge of physical systems. The implications of the theory for the nature of reality are much discussed (see Implications of the new physics). Most quantum theorists accept an intrinsic element of probability in fundamental physics, and also the need to see systems as wholes rather than merely dissecting them into their simplest components.
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Physics |
The empirical basis for quantum physics lies in such phenomena as blackbody radiation, the photoelectric effect, the specific heats of solids, the stability of the structure and the emission spectrum of atoms, all of which remained unexplainable in terms of classical physics. In 1901, Max Planck solved the blackbody problem by proposing that energy is quantized: it is available in discrete, not continuous, amounts. The quantization of light as ‘photons’ by Einstein in 1905 explained the photoelectric effect as well as the specific heat two years later. In 1913 Niels Bohr predicted the emission spectrum for hydrogen with a simple ‘planetary’ model of the atom in which the angular momentum of the orbiting electron, and thus the size of its orbits, are quantized. In 1924, Louis de Broglie attributed wave-like behavior to particles as the converse of energy quantization. Based on this idea, Erwin Schrödinger developed the wave equation which has proved to be foundational for quantum mechanics, Werner Heisenberg announced the uncertainty principle (and an alternative, but mathematically, equivalent formulation to that of Schrödinger), Wolfgang Pauli discovered the exclusion principle; by the end of the decade (nonrelativistic) quantum mechanics was basically complete.
Still, almost a century later, major conceptual problems persist in interpreting quantum mechanics:
the Schrödinger equation propagates continuously in time but ‘collapses’ discontinuously in a process not described by the Schrödinger equation when a particle interacts with a classical system (often called ‘the measurement problem’);
the Schrödinger equation describes the propagation of the wave function ψ but this is a complex variable whose squared value ψ2 represents information about the quantum system;
a composite quantum system displays a holistic character entirely unlike classical composite systems (what can be called ‘whole-part causality’ as distinct from ‘whole-part constraints’): once interacting, now vastly separated, particles continue to act in some ways as though they remained part of a single system, as underscored by the “EPR” paradox in the 1930s and Bell’s theorem in the 1960s and now referred to as ‘non-locality’ and ‘non-separability’;
’chance’ in quantum mechanics (i.e., quantum statistics) is not only strikingly different from classical chance (as in the familiar ‘bell curve’), it actually gives rise, in a ‘bottom-up’ way, to the basic features of the classical world, including the impenetrability of matter.
Quantum mechanics can be
interpreted philosophically in a variety of conflicting ways, and so far we know
of no experimental basis for choosing definitively between them. These include
ontological indeterminism (Heisenberg), ontological determinism (Einstein, David
Bohm --- as stressed recently by Jim Cushing), or many worlds (
Contributed by: Dr. Robert Russell - Dr. Christopher Southgate
Quantum (plural quanta) - a quantised system can only take very specific values of energy. A quantum will be the smallest packet of energy by which the system can change. So, in the photo-electric effect, only light in packets larger than this limit can eject an electron from a metal surface.
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Quarks are theoretical elementary particles, originally proposed independently by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig and named by Gell-Mann. They have fractional charges and come in six types called "flavors": up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom. They are the constituents of protons and neutrons.
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Contributed by: Dr. James Miller
A phrase used to designate a Christian faction during the Protestant Reformation that was considered more extreme in its beliefs and actions than the primary Protestant Reformers. Radical Reformers were also pejoratively called "anabaptists" (rebaptizers) because of their opposition to infant baptism and their belief that, if baptized in infancy, one should again be baptized in adulthood when there is a better cognition of the ritual's symbolic meaning.
The Radical Reformers challenged not only Roman Catholic doctrine and authority, but also that of other Protestant Reformers themselves, including figures such as Calvin, Luther, Zwingli, and others. With the intent to fully actualize the principles and practices of the New Testament, on which the Protestant Reformation itself was based, the Radical Reformers worked to adapt the Church to the New Testament. Therefore, the Radical Reformers rejected the relationship the Church had developed with society since the time of Constantine, and instead chose to rebel against the mainstream secular society, as well as the society the Protestant Reformers were trying to establish.
Because they followed Christ as their first and foremost authority in establishing an authentic Christian society, the Radical Reformers saw themselves as the true representatives of Christianity. As such, their strict adherence to the life and teachings of Christ caused the Radical Reformers to embrace and commit to pacifism. Several contemporary Christian denominations which grew out of this movement, such as the Mennonites, are still committed to pacifism. However, because during the Reformation some of the Radical Reformers came to see the end of the world as imminent, there was, to some degree, a decline in this committment. Some took up arms and sought to establish the Kingdom of God by force. Once this armed movement was quashed, however, pacifism again became the hallmark for denominations growing out of the Radical Reform tradition. Today, pacifism and opposition to all forms of militarism are still central to these Christian denominations.
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Theology |
Contributed by: CTNS
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Health |
Molecules that are constructed outside living cells by joining natural or synthetic DNA segments in such a way that they can replicate in a living cell (the replicative products are also considered to be recombinant DNA). It usually involves putting a gene from one organism into the genome of a different organism, generally of a different species.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER/CTNS
New combinations of
DNA fragments formed by cutting DNA segments from two sources with restriction
enzyme and then joining the fragments together with DNA ligase. Interspecies
transfer of genes usually through a vector such as a virus or plasmid.
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Genetics |
By permission. From Online Biology Book Glossary property of Prof. Michael Farabee
The view that only the material world (matter) is truly real, and that all processes and realities observed in the universe can be explained by reducing them down to their most basic scientific components, e.g., atoms, molecules, and everything else thought to make up what we know as "matter." For example, a reductive materialist would view the miraculous and unexpected healing of a supposedly terminal cancer patient as a random coincidence of solely biological and physiological processes in the person's body. While, on the other hand, some might view the healing as stemming from factors contributing to the biological factors, e.g., prayer or meditation.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: CTNS
A doctrine stating that everything in the world can be reduced down to its
fundamental physical, or material, basis. For this reason, the word
"physicalism" is often used interchangeably with the word
"materialism." Both terms hold that the real world consists only of
matter and energy, and that all organic and inorganic processes can be explained
by reference to the laws of nature. Physics, the main branch of science
generally supporting this view, has been able to explain a large range of
phenomena in terms of a few of these basic natural laws; such as gravity,
electricity, composition of mass, etc.
Essentially, reductive physicalism proposes that the properties of larger
objects or entities are determined by those of their physical parts. Thus, in
the area of cognitive science and psychology, a person's thoughts, feelings, and
sensations are seen as issuing from certain physical (chemical and biological)
components of a person's physiological makeup. In other words, once all talk
about minds and consciousness is reduced to its most basic level, then all we
are left with is talk about about physical facts. Challenging this reductionism
is the fact that physiologists are far from making exact correlations between
neural states and even one mental state.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: CTNS
A term covering a number of changes in Western Christianity (Europe) between the 14th and 17th centuries, resulting in the split in Christianity between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. The Reformation, widely conceived, was a reaction against the hierarchical and legalistic structures of the Papacy and the Roman Catholic Church. Reformers rallied against the Roman Catholic Church's dogmatic theology, economic and religious exploitation of the common masses, and colonialization and conquest of indigenous peoples. Most fundamentally, the Reformation challenged the Papacy's claims of divine authorization and infallibility.
One particularly well-known Catholic method of exploitation in the Middle Ages was the practice of selling indulgences, a monetary payment of penalty which, supposedly, absolved one of past sins and/or released one from purgatory after death. It was the selling of indulgences that led the Reformer Martin Luther to post his famous 95 Theses - a document challenging Roman Catholic authority in theological matters, including indulgences and many others. Luther's opposition to the selling of indulgences was not new, however. In most of the Reformation movements stress lay not upon new understandings or doctrines, but on a return to the more authentic and original excellence of tradition.
Luther, one of the main Protestant Reformers, eventually arrived at the conclusion that divine relationship and salvation come by grace through faith, not by good works, belief in dogma, or economic propitiation. One's relationship to the divine is initiated by God, and one can only participate in this relationship by remaining open to it. Therefore, Luther's theology placed him in square opposition to the Roman Catholic practice of selling indulgences.
The Roman Catholic emphasis on the acceptance and adherence to its dogma exemplifies its legalistic bent, while for the Protestant Reformers it is just this legalism which cuts one off from the Good News of the Gospel. Therefore, Protestant Reformers tended to give primacy to the New Testament and Scripture.
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Theology |
Contributed by: CTNS
A term generally meant to include all Protestant Churches which have accepted the principles of the Reformation. The term more accurately refers to only those churches rooted in Calvinist doctrines, in contrast to Lutheran doctrines.
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Theology |
Contributed by: CTNS
Scottish philosopher (1710-1796). Reid was the founder of the ‘Common Sense’ school of Scottish philosophy, which set out to refute the varieties of philosophical scepticism defended by Hume and Berkeley, by proposing a view in which knowledge is based on human intuitions or ‘common sense’. Reid was Professor at Glasgow University from 1764-1780. His most important works were his Enquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764), Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785), and Essays on the Active Powers of Man (1788).
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Thomas Dixon
A theory of quantum interactions that incorporates the insights of the theory of special relativity, and is thus relativistically correct. To date, there has been no success in developing a so-called theory of "quantum gravity" that would incorporate the theory of general relativity into quantum mechanics.
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
The use of genetic
technologies by individuals in the course of reproduction to ensure or prevent
the inheritance of particular genes in their child.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Aged cells that are
set back to their embryonic state.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Reverse transcriptase is an enzyme produced by some viruses (retroviruses, which store their genetic information as RNA instead of DNA), which, as the name implies, reverses the normal process of transcription. It facilitates the synthesis of DNA from an RNA template. It has found great application in molecular biology labs, because it allows specific genes to be easily isolated, using mRNA, then inserted into a specific DNA genome, by reverse transcribing the RNA. The DNA resulting from this process is called cDNA (copy DNA) and is much more stable than mRNA.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
General resurrection: A doctrine which states that at a point in time (called the parousia, or "Second Coming") God will cast a final judgment on humanity and raise into heaven both the "saved" who are currently living, as well as the saved who have been dead.
Resurrection of the body: The belief that after death one's departed soul will be restored, or resurrected, to a bodily life in heaven.
Immediate resurrection: A doctrine which states that after one's death there is no intermediate state, such as purgatory, before one's soul enters its eternal state. In other words, immediately following death, one's soul enters its final place of rest.
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Theology |
Contributed by: CTNS
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Health |
An enzyme used in
the replication of retroviruses; aids in copying the retrovirus's RNA into a
complementary strand of DNA once inside the host cell.
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Genetics |
By permission. From Online Biology Book Glossary property of Prof. Michael Farabee
Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends. Author of Algeny (New York: Viking, 1983)
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Ethics |
Contributed by: CTNS
RNA (ribonucleic acid) is an information encoded strand of nucleotides, similar to DNA, but with a slightly different chemical structure. There are three main forms of RNA, each a slightly different function. mRNA (messenger RNA) is the mediating template between DNA and proteins. The information from a particular gene is transferred from a strand of DNA by the construction of a complementary strand of RNA through a process known as transcription. Next three nucleotide segments of RNA, called tRNA (transfer RNA), which are attached to specific amino acids, match up with the template strand of mRNA to order the amino acids correctly. These amino acids are then bonded together to form a protein. This process, called translation occurs in the ribosome, which is composed of proteins and the third kind of RNA, rRNA (ribosomal RNA)
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
British physicist. 1908 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry.
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Physics |
Having a holy or sacred character.
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Theology |
Disregard for, or irreverence towards, anyone or anything considered holy, including God.
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Theology |
Having a most holy or sacred character. A term sometimes used pejoratively to disclose an ascribed, but not genuine, character of sacredness.
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Theology |
An Indo-Aryan language, and the classical language of ancient India, the Vedas, and Hinduism. Even today, Sanskrit survives in Hindu liturgical usage.
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
German theologian much influenced by Romanticism, and particularly important for his emphasis on the ‘God-consciousness’ of the believer, the immediate feeling of God’s living and working within us.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
The dominant philosophy in the period up to 1600 is known as scholasticism. This is a fusion of Aristotle’s work with Christianity. It is accepted and taught by the churches and the universities. A highly systematic and comprehensive view, it was ideal for teaching at the medieval universities. However, the major task is seen as the further interpretation of the works of Aristotle rather than the pursuance of new and useful discoveries. Scholasticism is perhaps the ultimate ‘ivory tower’ philosophy. While some people do try to attack it, because of its highly integrated nature it is a difficult system to reform. Either one accepts it or rejects it as a whole. Only when the equally comprehensive and systematic works of Descartes become available in the 1640’s was it replaced as the main view of the universities.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Richard P Whaite
A development which arose in the early sixteenth century with the cosmological discoveries of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543). Copernicus, going against the current belief that the Earth was stationary and at the center of the universe, hypothesized a Sun-centered (heliocentric) universe with a moveable Earth. Further discoveries by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) confirmed the second of these hypotheses, and added two other discoveries: 1) planetary orbits in the shape of ellipses, and 2) an explanation of the varying speeds of the planets as they orbited - fastest near the Sun, slowest the more outward a planet is from the Sun. In connection to these discoveries, the movement of the planets, the maintenance of their orbits, the basic mathematical structure of the universe, and gravity all came to be understood. From these discoveries, and many more, came an understanding of the universe as a mechanistic structure, dictated by a few principles which seemed to be arranged with amazing mathematical precision.
Many of the discoveries which initiated the Scientific Revolution were greeted with great opposition because of their challenge to traditional and religious conceptions of the universe, e.g., the traditional belief in the Earth being the center of the universe, and thus humanity's ultimate significance in the grand scheme of things. However, centuries later it became common knowledge that God had created this complex universe, with neither the Earth, nor the Sun, being at its center. Further, the laws which were once thought to only govern the realms of "space" were now seen to be applicable to Earth as well. When all was said and done, the major thinkers of the Scientific Revolution (Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Descartes) had revealed a universe which seemed like a perfectly run machine, comprehensible by the human mind and the enlightened scientific understanding it had now gained.
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History |
Contributed by: CTNS
Unlike the use of the scientific method as only one mode of reaching knowledge, scientism claims that science alone can render truth about the world and reality. Scientism's single-minded adherence to only the empirical, or testable, makes it a strictly scientifc worldview, in much the same way that a Protestant fundamentalism that rejects science can be seen as a strictly religious worldview. Scientism sees it necessary to do away with most, if not all, metaphysical, philosophical, and religious claims, as the truths they proclaim cannot be apprehended by the scientific method. In essence, scientism sees science as the absolute and only justifiable access to the truth.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: CTNS
The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life (see www.seti.org).
Greek translation of the old-testament Bible.
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Theology |
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Health |
Sickle cell anemia is a disease involving abnormally shaped red blood cells, which then have difficulty circulating properly through the body. It is caused by a one nucleotide substitution in one gene. This is a recessive mutation, meaning that the disease only develops when both copies of the gene (one on each duplicate chromosome) contain the substitution. Interestingly, people with only one copy of the mutation (who thus have normal red blood cells) show an increased resistance to malaria.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
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Health |
Contributed by: CTNS
Changes in a single
base pair of a particular gene happening simultaneously in a population.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: BU
The singularity (in Big Bang cosmology) is the point at which time goes to zero and values such as the density of the universe go to infinity, so that the laws of physics no longer hold. See is the Big Bang a moment of creation?
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Physics |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
The human pursuit of better societal treatment for oppressed peoples or abused lands or organisms. Examples include struggles for gender equality, democratic rights, equal access to economic opportunities, intellectual freedom, environmental protection and human and animal rights.
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Ethics |
Contributed by: BU
According to its ‘founding figure', E. O. Wilson, sociobiology is “the systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior.” Unlike sociology, with its “structuralist and nongenetic approach” and its focus on “descriptive taxonomy and ecology”, sociobiology works entirely within the neo-Darwinist evolutionary paradigm in which “each phenomenon is weighed for its adaptive significance and then related to the basic principles of opulatin genetics.” Its primary assumption, then, is that the behavior of an organism is, at least partly, influenced by its genetics; thus biologically significant behaviors form the basis for the evolution of human culture. Sociobiology examines both differences between species and within species, particularly through research in behavioural genetics. Richard Dawkins, for example, has focused on the genetic constraints of social behavior, emphasizing that differences in the allele’s of even a ‘single gene’ might result in strikingly different social acts. We are, in effect, the “survival machines” by which genes perpetuate themselves. Dawkins has also proposed that ‘memes’, units which replicate cultural variations, play an analogous role in cultural evolution as does the gene in biological evolution. Lindon Eaves and colleagues have pursued extensive research on the relation between genetics and environment on personality and attitude by a comparitive study of fraternal and maternal twins
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
Contributed by: Dr. Robert Russell
Genetic engineering
of adult cells to alleviate disease, however, it is not possible yet.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Another name for cloning. It is a more descriptive name because it refers to the actual process of transferring a somatic cell into an enucleated cell.
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Genetics |
Cells from the body
that compose the tissues, organs, and parts of that individual other than the
germ (sex) cells.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
From the Greek soteria, “salvation”, a term for the doctrine of salvation. Often discussed as a Christian teaching, soteriology deals with the question of the possibility, meaning, and scope of salvation and how it relates to the historical life and work of Jesus Christ.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
A continuum of four dimensions (3 spatial and 1 temporal) in which any object or event can be located.
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Physics |
A theory developed by Albert Einstein stating that the laws of motion are the same for all inertial (non-accelerating) frames of reference and that the speed of light (in a vacuum) is the same for all inertial reference frames. This leads to the equivalence of mass and energy, time dilation, and length contraction.
There are many ways to discuss special relativity (SR); one is to start with empirical data
Ideal clocks can be imagined as a pack of firecrackers of identical size, composition, and fuse. If they are all lit at once, we would expect that the firecrackers would explode at the same time, let’s say, one second later. Well, they do, when they are at rest with respect to each other. But what if we throw them to the left and right so they’re moving at different velocities v with respect to each other, and keep one at rest at the origin? Stunningly, the actual result is that they do not explode simultaneously! Instead, identical clocks (i.e., ‘firecrackers’) in relative motion run at different rates than identical clocks at rest, a fact called “time dilation”, and thoroughly verified throughout the twentieth century. So the ordinary idea of a ‘present moment’ that moves equally into the future for everyone just doesn’t hold! But there’s more: the faster they move away from us, say along the x axis, the more time t passes before they explode. In fact the events in space x and time t where they explode are all related to each other and to the time (here one second) when the firecracker we kept at rest exploded. Let’s call this time “proper time” t. Then t2 = t2 - x2/c2, where c is the speed of light. Still these are identical clocks, so what’s happening? Perhaps we should say that they each tick at the same rate in their own reference system, but the way we measure time and space itself must be reconsidered. Physicists refer to the proper time as an “invariant spacetime interval” since it represents an identical ‘distance’ or ‘interval’ between the origin of the experiment and the events in space and time where the one-second proper time ticks occurred (i.e., the firecrackers exploded).
Time dilation leads inexorably to the “downfall of the present”. Suppose, instead, that there were a physically significant global present, a universal “now” as classical physics and common sense hold. How would we specify it, i.e., how would we synchronize clocks A and C in relative motion to tell what event along the worldline of clock C corresponds to the “now” along the worldline of clock A? An obvious answer would be synchronize a third clock at rest with respect to A, then move it from A to C, set C’s time to match it, and thus to match A. The problem is time dilation: if we move identical and synchronized clocks around to different positions as just described, they will no longer be synchronized! In fact, there is no physically significant way of determining a global present according to SR. Instead of a universal, unique “present”, there is only a “present” defined by each moving observer in an equivalent way.
The immediate implications are a
variety of ‘paradoxes’, most of which represent variations on the themes of
time dilation and what is its converse, ‘length contraction.’ In effect, all
such “paradoxes” arise because we so naturally look at the world as “3+1",
i.e., as a 3-dimensional spatial universe changing in time, a perspective lodged
in both ordinary human experience and the classical physics of
The speed of light is not only a constant in SR; it functions as a limitation on which events in my future I can effect, namely those which I can reach with light signals or slower-moving phenomena. This means that the order of events along any worldline moving past me is invariant: all observers in relative motion will agree with this order. (See General Relativity.)
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Dutch Jewish philosopher. Often viewed as a pantheist, or pure naturalist, and rigid determinist, he wrote of the single metaphysical substance (“God or nature”), or the one necessary being that is self-dependent and not distinct from the world. As a strict rationalist influenced by René Descartes (1596-1650), he also discussed how we may know this one reality by way of a kind of Euclidian reasoning that issues in an ethical appreciation of reality as it is known to the intellect.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
Stem cells are
essentially undifferentiated cells. There
are many kinds of stem cells, some more differentiated than others.
When they divide, their progeny mature and specialize into a specific
type of cell (i.e. heart, blood, liver). These
differentiated cells form an embryo. Stem cells also exist in adults (Adult Stem (AS) cells) and
are used to repair and regenerate damaged organs and tissues throughout life.
However, in adults the repair and regeneration by stem cells is limited
to only certain cell types. In
contrast, embryonic stem (ES) cells are not limited in there potential to
differentiate into every cell type. Embryonic
germ (EG) cells have the same potential as ES cells.
It is the versatility and nonspecifically of these cells that gives them
the potential to have therapeutic applications.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Scottish philosopher (1753-1828). Stewart studied under Reid at Glasgow, and his philosophy was in the same ‘Common Sense’ tradition, based on ‘intuitionist’ realism and opposed to Humean scepticism. From 1788-1810, Stewart was Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University. Among his philosophical works was The Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers of Man (1828).
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Thomas Dixon
A Greek philosophical school originating around 300BCE. They held that all outcomes were determined by God, and therefore for the best.
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Philosophy |
Latin designation for the “Summary of Theology” or comprehensive system of theology written by the most important Christian thinker of the High Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas (1225-74). In this multi-volume work Aquinas synthesized Roman Catholic beliefs inherited from the Bible and Church Tradition with insights from the Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle (384-322 BCE).
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Theology |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
A woman who is paid
to bear a child for another woman, either through artificial insemination by the
other woman's husband, or by carrying until birth the other woman's surgically
implanted fertilized egg.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Tay-Sachs disease results in the deterioration of the nervous system, usually resulting in death before the patient reaches age 5. It is caused by the absence of an enzyme which breaks down lipids, resulting in a lethal accumulation in cells. There is no treatment, but potential parents can be identified as carriers for the disease with a blood test.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS
French Jesuit geologist, paleontologist, and theologian. During his lifetime he published only scientific works, for his theological writings were prohibited by the Catholic Church. However, after his death, his theological works were published, and they became quite popular. His theology emphasized God as a part of the evolutionary process of the universe. In The Phenomenon of Man and other books, he argued that our increasingly complex universe, with its evolution toward higher levels of consciousness, is moving towards its “omega point,” or ultimate goal, in the cosmic Christ.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
The natural end of a eukaryotic chromosome.
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Genetics |
By permission. From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary at www.Merriam-Webster.com by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
The final stage of
mitosis in which the chromosomes migrate to opposite poles, a new nuclear
envelope forms, and the chromosomes uncoil. The last phase of nuclear division
in eukaryotes when the segregated chromosomes uncoil and begin to reform nuclei.
This is immediately followed (in most cases) by cytokinesis.
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
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Design |
By permission. From Online Biology Book Glossary property of Prof. Michael Farabee
Reforming Anglican bishop who became Archbishop of Canterbury from 1896-1902. His son William Temple was also Archbishop.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
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Neuroscience |
African Church Father and one of the first major Christian theologians to write in Latin. Known for the dictim credo quia absurdum est (literally, “I believe because it is absurd”), he has often been viewed as promoting an irrationalistic approach to religious truth. By way of assent to paradoxical statements, he sharply opposed things that can be known only by faith over against reason. He is also recognized as the first important theologian to think of the Trinity as “one substance in three persons.”
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Theology |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
Belief in the existence of a divine reality; usually referring to monotheism (one God), as opposed to pantheism (all is God), polytheism (many gods), and atheism (without God). Theistic religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all have the monotheistic belief in a God, whereas a polytheistic religion such as Hinduism holds a belief in many gods.
(Theism: Longer definition) Theism states that the existence and continuance of the universe is owed to one supreme Being, who is distinct from Creation. For this reason, theism proclaims a dualistic relation between God and the world, wherein God is a being who controls events from outside of the human world. The main question theism raises is whether God should be seen only as transcendent, that is, beyond the limits of human experience and the material world. Could God not also be seen as immanent in them as well, having existence and effect in human consciousness and the material world? Theists generally claim that attempts to make God immanent in humanity and nature are pantheistic, and therefore, unacceptable to theistic religion. The philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich reconciled these two views by claiming that "God is neither in another nor in the same space as the world. [God] is the creative ground of the spatial structure of the world, but he [sic] is not bound to the structure, positively or negatively. . . .God is immanent in the world as its permanent creative ground and is transcendent to the world through freedom."
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Theology |
Contributed by: CTNS
From the Greek words for ‘God’ and ‘justice.’ The term refers to efforts to understand how evil and suffering can be consistent with the existence of a benevolent God, and hence in some way or other to ‘justify’ the deity.
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Theology |
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Pain and Suffering |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
Thomism is the theological system developed by Thomas Aquinas and still influential today, particularly on Roman Catholic thought. Contemporary reworkings are often referred to as ‘neo-Thomist.’
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Theology |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
A glandular structure of largely lymphoid tissue that functions especially in the development of the body's immune system. It tends to atrophy in adults.
Contributed by: BU
German Protestant theologian, and one of the foremost Christian thinkers of the twentieth century. Because of his dismissal by the Nazis in 1933, he migrated to the United States, where he spent most of his career as a professor and prolific writer. Unlike his former ally (and, later, opponent) Karl Barth, who spoke of theology as being for the Church’s proclamation, Tillich spoke of his own theology as mediating between the Christian message and contemporary culture. For example, in his Systematic Theology he translates “God” as the “Ground of Being” and the object of our “ultimate concern.” By utilizing philosophical concepts to correlate religious answers with our existential questions, Tillich hoped to make the Christian faith more meaningful for modern persons.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
One of the dialogues authored by the Greek philosopher Plato (c. 428-348 BCE), and the only known writing of his to ever deal at length with natural science. This document, which so influenced Western thinkers into and beyond the Middle Ages, is essentially an explanatory account of the creation of the universe. By analogy, Plato argued that just as the physical triangle is simply an imitation of the intelligible, ideal form “triangle,” so the physical universe itself is merely a changing likeness of the ideal, eternal, unchanging universe, and that human thinking can only present an approximation, a “likely story,” of the true nature of the cosmos.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/ CTNS
The slowing of time in a frame of reference moving at nearly the speed of light relative to an observer, predicted by the theory of special relativity.
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Physics |
Stem cells which are capable of forming every type of body cell. Each totipotent cell could replicate and differentiate and become a human being. All cells within the early embryo are totipotent up until the 16 cell stage or so.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: Dr. Ted Peters
The study of the
adverse effects of chemicals or physical agents on living organisms.
Transfected- the incorporation of exogenous DNA into a cell
Contributed by: BU
Something beyond the material universe and our experience or knowledge of it. (compare immanent)
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Theology |
An organism that is
artificially modified through the implantation of heterologous DNA into one or
more of its cells.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
The outer layer of cells of the mammalian blastocyst that gives rise to the placenta.
Contributed by: AAAS/DoSER
A thought experiment in which one twin (A) travels into space at nearly the speed of light and returns to find she has aged less than her sibling (B) who has remained on Earth. This result is paradoxical because of the seemingly symmetric roles played by A and B in the story. In fact, A returns younger than B because only A travels in a non-inertial (accelerating) reference frame. From B’s point of view, A experiences time dilation, but from A’s point of view the distance traveled is shortened because of length contraction.
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Physics |
Contributed by: CTNS
Self-replicating DNA molecules used to introduce specific genes into the genome of an organism.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
The ancient Hindu scriptures, written in Sanskrit (from around 1500-900 BCE), and comprised of four parts: 1. Rig-Veda, 2. Brahmanas, 3. Aranyakas, and 4. Upanishads. The first three parts deal mainly with the words, rituals, and meaning of the sacrificial rites of the priestly caste (Brahmin). The Upanishads focus on the message that Atman, the essence or soul of the individual “self,” is really the same as Brahman, the universal and ultimate reality that is the supreme, divine “Self.” While Brahman may not necessarily be interpreted as personal, the Vedas present such ultimate being as the source and essence of all existence.
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
Any of a subphylum (Vertebrata) of chordates possessing a spinal column that includes the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes.
By permission. From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary at www.Merriam-Webster.com by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
Viruses that
combine with DNA fragments forming recombinant DNA molecules.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Related Topics:
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
The internal organs contained within the chest and abdomen: the digestive tract together with the heart, liver, and lungs.
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Neuroscience |
A general name for the position in philosophy of biology that insists that something nonmaterial needs to be added to organic matter to produce life.
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Philosophy |
Contributed by: Dr. Nancey Murphy
US biochemist and geneticist; with Francis Crick, co-discovered double helical structure of DNA in 1953; wrote "The Molecular Biology of the Gene" in 1965, "The Double Helix" in 1968; he won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
Contemporary British writer. Webster’s major works are A Brief History of Blasphemy: Liberalism, Censorship and ‘The Satanic Verses’ and Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science, and Psychoanalysis (1995). In the latter work Webster suggests that, in various ways, Freud’s theories were not scientific but were (often Judeo-Christian) religious beliefs in disguise.
Contributed by: Thomas Dixon
English preacher and theologian (1703-1791). Wesley was the founder of Methodism, one of the products of the evangelical religious revival centred around the work of himself and his brother Charles in eighteenth-century England. He published many works, including histories, biographies, and collections of sermons. He also adapted others’ works, including Edwards’ Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, in abridged and edited forms for the use of his Methodist brethren.
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Theology |
Contributed by: Thomas Dixon
First President of Cornell University, who furthered the ‘conflict’ or ‘warfare’ hypothesis of the relationship between science and religion.
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The Relation of Science & Religion |
Contributed by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
British philosopher and mathematician who worked with Bertrand Russell at Cambridge and taught at Harvard from 1924. His Gifford Lectures of 1927 developed his scheme of process metaphysics which remains influential on theology.
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Philosophy |
Hungarian born American physicist and Nobel laureate.
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Physics and Cosmology |
Bishop of Oxford, while Vice-President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Wilberforce was notably critical of Darwin’s proposals on evolution.
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Evolution |
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The Relation of Science & Religion |
Contributed
by: Dr. Christopher Southgate
An organization
that acts as a clearinghouse for intellectual property rights
Contributed by: BU
Transplant of
tissue from one species to another species
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
A disease
communicable from animals to humans under natural conditions.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: BU
A zygote is the product of the fusion of an egg and a sperm. It contains two copies of each chromosome, one from each parent. Egg and sperms cells, on the other hand, each contain only one copy of each chromosome. The zygote develops into an embryo.
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Genetics |
Contributed by: CTNS