Human-Time Speciation

Just a regular Culex pipiens mosquito.

We all know that random mutations and artificial selection is the mechanism that leads to that advent of new species. The problem is, it's so darn hard to observe in the wild because of how long it usually takes. This is a process that can take tens of thousands of years.

(Note: The definition of "species" I'm going with is a set of animals that can breed together and produce fertile offspring.)

However, it doesn't always have to take that long. Bill Nye wrote about a species that evolved over the course of what could be a human lifetime: a new form of mosquito.

This new species came into being as an isolated population of regular, ol' mosquitoes that made it into the London Underground. Of course, mosquitoes have lived on the British Isles for ages. But, scientists suspect that during the London Blitz of World War II, when citizens would seek refuge underground, mosquitoes followed them down and were capable of establishing a colony by breeding in the standing water that formed near the tracks.

With this steady supply of human blood and puddles for their eggs, these mosquitoes saw no reason to reemerge from underground. As a result, they stopped interbreeding with their above-ground counterparts.

Now, this is where the evolution takes place. Over time, the two groups began to change their habits. In the climate-controlled Tube, the underground mosquitoes dropped their ability to hibernate during the winter months. They reconfigured themselves to feed exclusively on mammals, mostly humans. Also, they gained the ability to breed in confined spaces, which the above-grounders can't do.

Physiologically, the two species are very similar. I guess only about fifty years isn't enough time to produce any really neat external changes in mosquitoes. However, over the course of those fifty years, the two have drifted genetically enough to the point where it's very hard for the two of them to mate successfully together.

Most of the time, the two groups cannot produce eggs at all. Sometimes, they'll produce eggs; but, that new generation is infertile (the mules of the mosquito world). While it's is probably open to interpretation, this seems close enough for me (a nobody on the internet) to declare them separate species.

Sources:
"Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation" – Bill Nye
"Culex pipiens in London Underground tunnels: differentiation between surface and subterranean populations" – Katharine Byrne and Richard A. Nichols (Heredity 82, 1999)

Deborah

In the time before Israel had a king (sometime between 1380 and 1050 BC), God brought forth a series of exceptional individuals, referred to as judges, to help steer the Israelites when they began to stray from their faith. One of these judges was Deborah. She was a prophetess and leader of a band of Israelites. She's interesting to me because she managed to bring together several tribes to fight and win against a more advanced Canaanite army.

So here's the situation: The Canaanites army consists of about 900 armoured chariot archers, basically the M1 Abrams of the day. They are led by a man named Sisera.

Meanwhile, the Israelites are a scattering of disparate tribal groups. Deborah managed to bring together enough groups for a 10,000-strong army of light infantry. This may sound like a large number, but they had little armour, and the chariot archers could easily out-maneuver and chew them up. That was probably the Canaanite plan, anyway. Deborah expected this and put together a strategy to counter it.

It went something like this. Her commander, Barak, would have one chunk of the army stationed on a mountaintop to lure out Sisera's force. Deborah's army would come from behind to pinch Sisera in a marshy riverbed, where his chariot archers would be mired.

Barak balked, and insisted that Deborah fight with his soldiers on the mountain. She agreed, but reminded him that in this situation, the victory would belong to her, a woman. No, really! The Bible quotes her saying, "I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman." (Judges 4:9)

The battle played out as predicted, with an added bonus. A thunderstorm, ostensibly sent by God, caused flooding in the river valley, further impeding the Canaanite chariots. Deborah's forces fell upon them and crushed them.

As an aside, Sisera actually managed to escape from this battle. He tried to hide in the tent of a woman named Jael. After feeling safe and dozing off, Jael proceeded to drive a tent stake into his head with a hammer. That was probably for the best. Imagine what his life would be like if everyone found out he was defeated by a girl!

With the opposing army and its leader dead, Deborah led the Israelites to overthrow the Canaanite king. The peace afterwards lasted for about another forty years, before the Israelites again did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

Sources:
The Bible (New International Version)
"4000 Years of Uppity Women" - Vicki León
"Battles of the Bible" - Chaim Herzog, Mordechai Gichon

Mohammed's First Wife

Mother of Believers - Robert Hunt

As I'm reading this book about Mohammed, I'm reminded of just how awesome his first wife, Khadija, really was. Mohammed's first biographer described her as "determined, noble, and intelligent". Twice a widow and single-mother, Khadija nevertheless became a wealthy, independent merchant in the trading hub of Mecca.

Side note: Khadija's name is often followed by the acronym RA. This is short for the Arabic phrase Radiallhu Anhu, or "May God be pleased with him/her."

Their meeting was interesting. Mohammed was hired by her to manage some caravans. He seemingly did such a good job that he caught Khadija's attention. He was already well-known in the community for his honesty and trustworthiness, and it was for these reasons, in spite of his low status in society, that Khadija extended her hand to him.

Mohammed was 25-years-old when they married, but I'm having a hard time finding any definitive source of how old Khadija was when she married Mohammed. The book I'm reading now suggests she was in her late thirties when she married. Further research (i.e. Googling for about fifteen minutes) shows that the most commonly accepted age was 40 at marriage, but the idea that she was closer to 28 is gaining ground in some small circles.

The marriage was described as one of mutual respect and love. Despite living in a polygamous society, Mohammed never married another while Khadija lived. Of his many political marriages after her death, this marriage to Khadija was the only one for which this was true.

When Mohammed received his first revelation from God, he was extremely shaken. He crawled down from the mountain and went immediately to his wife, who wrapped him in her arms until he was calm. She believed his story immediately, reasoning that God would not allow any demon to tell such a lie to a good, honest person. Because of this, she is described as "the first Muslim."

They were married 25 years until Khadija passed away. Even later with his younger wives, Mohammed would still speak highly of his first wife.

Sources:
"Muhammad: A Prophet For Our Time" - Karen Armstrong
“Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes” - Tamim Ansar
Google

L.A.S.E.R.

U.S. Army Research Laboratory, 2013

For those who don't know, "laser" is an abbreviation for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. That really does sum things up nicely, but a little more explanation might be in order.

First of all, whenever an atom drops from a high energy state to a lower, the atom emits a photon of energy equal to the difference in energy states. This type of thing occurs spontaneously in nature all the time, but a laser works by forcing this kind of reaction.

To stimulate this photon emission, the gas inside the laser cavity is energized from an external source, such as an electrical current from a battery. For example, a mixture of helium and neon gets zapped, which causes the atoms to move around rapidly. The idea is that the twitchy helium atoms would bump into the neon atoms and cause them to jump to a high-energy state. Within moments, one of the neon atoms will naturally drop to a lower state and emit a photon.

When one of these photons bumps into another energized atom, it somewhat counter-intuitively causes the atom to drop to a lower energy level (the book uses the term "sympathetic vibration", but I'm not too clear on how that works right now) and release a photon with the exact same properties as the one that struck it; one photon becomes two. These reactions snowball into more photon emissions as the new photons react with other energized atoms. In a very short time, a lot of photons are bouncing around with the exact same properties as all the others.

All of this is occurring within a cylinder with carefully aligned mirrors on each end. The photons bounce back and forth between these mirrors until they gradually line up and fit through the hole at one of the ends, all at the same wavelength (colour), moving in parallel, and in the same direction. Voilà! A laser beam.

"Physics for the Rest of Us" - Roger S. Jones

The Annexation of Hawaii

The Saint Paul Globe, 1897

It seems that some of my assumptions about Hawaii's annexation aren't entirely true. I was always under the impression that a group of sugar barons pressured the US government into annexing the island chain and that was that. While it's certainly possible to spin the story into such an oversimplification, it misses a lot of what was going on.

It is true that there were several planters on the islands making big money selling sugar to the United States. The US government was even on good terms with Hawaii and had economic treaties to ensure unhindered sugar trade. However, the States had several sources of sugar, so losing Hawaii as a trade partner would not be catastrophic to the industry.

Obviously, the sugar planters wanted to ensure that they held sway in the Hawaiian government in order to continue growing their profits. When the queen at the time, Lili'uokalani, made a move to secure more power for the crown, the planters saw this as a cause for alarm.

Without orders from the United States, the group of influential, pro-annexation planters had US marines march from the coast to the royal palace and demand the creation of a new constitution that further limited royal power. I felt like this was something important. It's true that these Americans pushed for more American power in Hawaii, but it was not the direct will of the US government. It was a group of independent individuals.

In fact, the president did not approve. He sent a trusted adviser to the islands to ascertain the situation. The adviser concluded, in the so-called Blount Report, that the planters were a bunch of jerks that did not act in the best interest of the Hawaiian people (I'm paraphrasing, by the way).

Meanwhile, the now declawed queen attempted to stage a military overthrow. She gathered weapons and freedom fighters from around the islands, but was eventually discovered by the ruling junta's spies. She was arrested, tried, and sentenced to house arrest. Thus, the monarchy was effectively and completely destroyed.

President Cleveland did what he could to stall any annexation plans. In 1897, he was replaced with President McKinley, who eventually agreed to Hawaii's annexation. However, it had nothing to do with sugar, the currently ruling junta, nor to end the constant native petitions for independence. The annexation was signed primarily to keep the growing Japanese power from taking the island chain and having a strategic advantage in the Pacific.

In 1898, the Hawaiian flag was lowered and officially replaced with that of the United States.

Sources:
"Captive Paradise" - James L. Haley