Pierre‐Henri Gouyon

Evolu3on
of
Biodiversity
Pierre‐Henri
Gouyon
(MNHN)
Ecole
Théma3que
Michael
Ghil
La
Rochelle
2012
Biodiversity?
Biodiversity
www.mnhn.fr/oseb/GOUYON-Pierre-Henri
Biodiversity: Linné's point of view
“All species reckon the origin of their stock in the
first instance from the veritable hand of the Almighty
Creator: for the Author of Nature, when he created
species, imposed on his creations an eternal law of
reproduction and multiplication within the limits of
their proper types. He did indeed in many instances
allow them the power of sporting in their outward
appearance, but never that of passing from one
species to another. Hence today there are two kinds
of difference between plants: one a true difference,
the diversity produced by the all-wise hand of the
Almighty, but the other, variation in the outside shell,
the work of Nature in a sportive mood.”
What is a species?
The concept of species must evolve:
instead of being founded on the idea
of resemblance, it will be founded
on the idea of descent.
This has been the general trend of
systematics since the XVIIIth century:
Common descent is the criterion for
taxa at all levels (clades).
Diversity among species
Biodiversity
& Progress
Biodiversity & Progress
De la Nature.
Première Vue.
Histoire
générale et
particulière.
Imprimerie
royale. Paris.
1764.
On Nature.
First sight.
General and
specific history.
Royal Printing
works. Paris.
1764.
Voyez ces plages désertes, ces
tristes contrées où l’homme n’a
jamais résidé; couvertes ou
plutôt hérissées de bois épais
et noirs dans toutes les parties
élevées, des arbres sans
écorce et sans cime, courbés,
rompus, tombant de vétusté,
d’autres, en plus grand
nombre, gisant au pied des
premiers, pour pourrir sur des
monceaux déjà pourris,
étouffent, ensevelissent les
germes prêts à éclore.
See these deserted
beaches, these sad
countries where man has
never lived; covered or
rather spiked with black and
thick woods in every
highland, trees with no bark
nor top, bent, broken, falling
into decay, others, in
greater number, lying at the
foot of the former, to rot
over already rotting heaps,
suffocate, bury the seeds
ready to germinate.
La nature qui, partout
ailleurs, brille par sa
jeunesse, parait ici dans la
décrépitude; la terre,
surchargée par le poids,
surmontée par les débris de
ses productions, n’offre, au
lieu d’une verdure
florissante, qu’un espace
encombré, traversé de vieux
arbres chargés de plantes
parasites, de lichens,
d’agarics, fruits impurs de la
corruption:
Nature which, everywhere
else, is conspicuous by its
youth, appears here in
decrepitude, the earth,
overloaded by the weight,
surmounted by the debris of
its productions, offers,
instead of flourishing
greenery, only a crowded
space, ran through by old
trees loaded with parasitic
plants, with lichens, with
agarics, impure fruits of
corruption:
dans toutes les parties basses,
des eaux mortes et
croupissantes, faute d’être
conduites et dirigées; des
terrains fangeux, qui n’étant ni
solides ni liquides, sont
inabordables, et demeurent
également inutiles aux
habitants de la terre et des
eaux; des marécages qui,
couverts de plantes
aquatiques et fétides, ne
nourrissent que des insectes
vénéneux et servent de repaire
aux animaux immondes.
in all the lower parts,
stagnant and dead water,
for lack of guidance and
management; muddy lands,
which, being neither solid
nor liquid, are inaccessible,
and also remain useless to
the inhabitants of earth and
waters; swamps, covered
with aquatic and fetid
plants, that feed only
poisonous insects and
provide a den to squalid
animals.
Entre ces marais infects qui
occupent les lieux bas, et les
forêts décrépites qui
couvrent les terres élevées,
s’étendent des espèces de
landes, des savanes, qui
n’ont rien de commun avec
nos prairies; les mauvaises
herbes y surmontent, y
étouffent les bonnes: ce
n’est point ce gazon fin qui
semble faire le duvet de la
terre, ce n’est point cette
pelouse émaillée qui
annonce sa brillante
fécondité;
Stretching between the foul
marshes that occupy the
bottom places, and the
decrepit forests that cover
the high lands, there are
kind of moorlands,
savannas, which have
nothing in common with our
meadows, overcome by
weeds choking the good
plants: it is not this thin grass
that seems to be the down of
the earth, it is not this
enamelled lawn announcing
its brilliant fertility;
ce sont des végétaux
agrestes, des herbes
dures, épineuses,
entrelacées les unes
dans les autres, qui
semblent moins tenir à la
terre qu’elles ne tiennent
entre elles, et qui, se
desséchant et
repoussant
successivement les unes
sur les autres, forment
une bourre grossière
épaisse de plusieurs
pieds.
It is rustic plants, hard,
thorny weeds,
interlaced within each
other, which seem to
hold less to the
ground than amongst
themselves, and
which, drying out and
growing again over
each other, form a
several-feet-thick
coarse stuffing.
Nulle route, nulle
communication, nul vestige
d’intelligence dans ces lieux
sauvages; l’homme, obligé
de suivre les sentiers de la
bête farouche, s’il veut les
parcourir; contraint de veiller
sans cesse pour éviter d’en
devenir la proie; effrayé de
leurs rugissements, saisi du
silence même de ces
profondes solitude, il
rebrousse chemin et dit: La
Nature brute est hideuse et
mourante; c’est Moi, Moi
seul qui peux la rendre
agréable et vivante:
No road, no communication,
no vestige of intelligence in
these wild areas; man,
obliged to follow the paths
of the wild beast, if he wants
to cross them, forced to
watch constantly to avoid
becoming their prey ;
frightened by their roaring,
overcome with the very
silence of this deep
loneliness, he turns back
and says: The wilderness is
hideous and dying; I, and
only I, can make it pleasant
and alive:
desséchons ces marais,
animons ces eaux mortes
en les faisant couler,
formons-en des ruisseaux,
des canaux; employons cet
élément actif et dévorant
qu’on nous avait caché et
que nous ne devons qu’à
nous-mêmes, mettons le feu
à cette bourre superflue, à
ces vieilles forêts déjà à
demi consommées;
achevons de détruire avec
le fer ce que le feu n’aura
pu consumer: …
let’s dry these marshes,
animate these stagnant
waters by making them flow,
let’s turn them into streams,
canals, let’s use the active
and devouring element
which was hidden to us and
that we only owe to
ourselves, let’s set fire to the
unnecessary stuffing, to
these already half
consumed old forests, let’s
finish destroying by sword
what couldn’t have been
consumed by fire:...
servons-nous de ces
nouveaux aides pour
achever notre ouvrage; que
le bœuf soumis au joug
emploie ses forces et le
poids de sa masse à
sillonner la terre, qu’elle
rajeunisse par la culture:
une nature nouvelle va
sortir de nos mains
Quelle est belle, cette
Nature cultivée ! que par
les soins de l’homme elle
est brillante et
pompeusement parée ! »
Let’s use these new
assistants in order to
complete our work; let the
ox, harnessed with a yoke
use the power of his mass
to plough the ground, let it
rejuvenate through
cultivation: a new nature
will come out of our hands.
How beautiful this cultivated
nature is! How bright and
pompously adorned she is,
thanks to the care of Man,ʺ
de Maillet
Voltaire
L’Homme aux quarante écus.
(1768.) Voltaire
Man of 40 crowns.
(1768.) Voltaire
VI. — Nouvelles douleurs
occasionnées par les nouveaux
systèmes.
(Ce petit morceau est tiré des
manuscrits d’un vieux solitaire.)
VI. — New pains resulting from
new systems.
(This little piece is extracted from
the manuscripts of an old loner.)
Je vois que de si bons citoyens se
sont amusés à gouverner les États,
et à se mettre à la place des rois; si
d’autres se sont crus des
Triptolèmes et des Cérès, il y en a
de plus fiers qui se sont mis sans
façon à la place de Dieu, et qui ont
créé l’univers avec leur plume,
comme Dieu le créa autrefois par la
parole.
I see that if good citizens have
played the game of governing the
States; and taking the place of
kings, if others have believed
themselves to be Triptolemes
and Ceres, there are some
others, even prouder, who have
taken the place of God, and who
created the world with their pen,
just like God created it in the past
with the word
1748 : De l'esprit des lois de Montesquieu
1756 : Traité de la culture des terres de Duhamel du Monceau adapté de l’œuvre de Jethro Tull.
Un des premiers qui se présenta à
mes adorations fut un descendant de
Thalès, nommé Telliamed*, qui
m’apprit que les montagnes et les
hommes sont produits par les eaux
de la mer. Il y eut d’abord de beaux
hommes
marins
qui
ensuite
devinrent amphibies. Leur belle
queue fourchue se changea en
cuisses et en jambes. J’étais encore
tout plein des Métamorphoses
d’Ovide, et d’un livre où il était
démontré que la race des hommes
était bâtarde d’une race de babouins:
j’aimais autant descendre d’un
poisson que d’un singe.
One of the first people who came to
my adorations was a descendant of
Thales, named Telliamed, who told
me that the mountains and men are
produced by the waters of the sea.
First there were handsome marine
men who then became amphibious.
Their
beautiful
forked
tail
transformed into thighs and legs. I
was
still
remembering
Ovid's
Metamorphoses, and a book where it
was shown that the human race was
a bastard race of baboons: I’d rather
descend from a fish than from a
monkey.
*Telliamed est le pseudonyme
(son nom à l’envers) de « de
Maillet »
*Telliamed is the pseudonyme
(his name reversed) of « de Maillet »
Avec le temps j’eus quelques
doutes sur cette généalogie, et
même sur la formation des
montagnes. «Quoi! me dit-il, vous
ne savez pas que les courants de
la mer, qui jettent toujours du sable
à droite et à gauche à dix ou
douze pieds de hauteur, tout au
plus, ont produit, dans une suite
infinie de siècles, des montagnes
de vingt mille pieds de haut,
lesquelles ne sont pas de sable?
Apprenez
que
la
mer
a
nécessairement couvert tout le
globe. La preuve en est qu’on a vu
des ancres de vaisseau sur le
mont Saint-Bernard, qui étaient là
plusieurs siècles avant que les
hommes eussent des vaisseaux. «
Figurez-vous que la terre est un
globe de verre qui a été longtemps
tout couvert d’eau. »
With time I had some doubts
about this genealogy, and even
about
the
formation
of
mountains. "What! he said, you
do not know that the currents of
the sea, which always throw
sand to the right and to the left
ten or twelve feet high, at most,
produced during an infinite
series of centuries,
twentythousand-feet-high mountains,
which are not of sand? Know
that the sea must have covered
the entire globe. The proof is that
we saw ship anchors on Mount
St. Bernard, which had been
here centuries before the men
had vessels. "Imagine that the
earth is a globe of glass which
has long been all covered with
water.”
Plus il m’endoctrinait, plus je
devenais incrédule: « Quoi
donc! me dit-il, n’avez-vous pas
vu le falun de Touraine à
trente-six lieues de la mer?
C’est un amas de coquilles
avec lesquelles on engraisse la
terre comme avec du fumier.
Or, si la mer a déposé dans la
succession des temps une
mine entière de coquilles à
trente-six lieues de l’Océan,
pourquoi n’aura-t-elle pas été
jusqu’à trois mille lieues
pendant plusieurs siècles sur
notre globe de verre?»
The more he indoctrinated
me, the more skeptical I was:
“So what? he said, have not
you seen the coquina of
Touraine at thirty-six leagues
from the sea? It's a heap of
shells with which people
fertilize the earth as with
manure. Now, if the sea has
deposited in the course of
time a mine full of shells
thirty-six leagues from the
ocean, why will it not have
been up to three thousand
miles for centuries on our
glass globe?"
Je lui répondis: « Monsieur Telliamed,
il y a des gens qui font quinze lieues
par jour à pied; mais ils ne peuvent en
faire cinquante. Je ne crois pas que
mon jardin soit de verre; et quant à
votre falun, je doute encore qu’il soit
un lit de coquilles de mer. Il se pourrait
bien que ce ne fût qu’une mine de
petites pierres calcaires qui prennent
aisément la forme des fragments de
coquilles, comme il y a des pierres qui
sont figurées en langues, et qui ne
sont point des langues; en étoiles, et
qui ne sont point des astres; en
serpents roulés sur eux-mêmes, et qui
ne sont point des serpents; en parties
naturelles du beau sexe, et qui ne sont
point pourtant les dépouilles des
dames. On voit des dendrites, des
pierres figurées, qui représentent des
arbres et des maisons, sans que
jamais ces petites pierres aient été
des maisons et des chênes.
I replied, "Sir Telliamed, there are
people who walk for forty leagues a
day, but they cannot make it fifty. I
do not think my garden is made of
glass, and about your coquina, I still
doubt it is a bed of sea shells. It
could be only a mine of small
pieces of limestone that takes
easily the shape of shell fragments
as there are stones that look like
tongues, and which are not
tongues, as stars, and which are
not stars, as snakes rolled-in on
themselves, and which are not
snakes; in natural parts of the fair
sex, and yet are not remains of
ladies.
We
see
dendrites,
sculptured stones which look like
trees and houses, without ever
being houses or oak trees.
« Si la mer avait déposé tant de
lits de coquilles en Touraine,
pourquoi aurait-elle négligé la
Bretagne, la Normandie, la
Picardie, et toutes les autres
côtes? J’ai bien peur que ce falun
tant vanté ne vienne pas plus de
la mer que les hommes. Et quand
la mer se serait répandue à
trente-six lieues, ce n’est pas à
dire qu’elle ait été jusqu’à trois
mille, et même jusqu’à trois
cents, et que toutes les
montagnes aient été produites
par les eaux. J’aimerais autant
dire que le Caucase a formé la
mer, que de prétendre que la mer
a fait le Caucase.
"If the sea had put so many beds
of shells in Touraine, why would
she have neglected Brittany,
Normandy, Picardy, and other
coasts? I am afraid that this
famous shell sand came neither
from the sea nor from men. And
when the sea would spread to
thirty-six leagues, this is not to
say that it was up to three
thousand, and even three
hundred, and all the mountains
have been formed by the water. I
would say that the Caucasus has
formed the sea, as well as claim
that the sea made the Caucasus.
— Mais, monsieur l’incrédule, que
répondrez-vous
aux
huîtres
pétrifiées qu’on a trouvées sur le
sommet des Alpes?
— Je répondrai, monsieur le
créateur, que je n’ai pas vu plus
d’huîtres pétrifiées que d’ancres de
vaisseau sur le haut du MontCenis. Je répondrai ce qu’on a
déjà dit, qu’on a trouvé des
écailles d’huîtres (qui se pétrifient
aisément) à de très grandes
distances de la mer, comme on a
déterré des médailles romaines à
cent lieues de Rome; et j’aime
mieux croire que des pèlerins de
Saint-Jacques ont laissé quelques
coquilles vers Saint-Maurice, que
d’imaginer que la mer a formé le
mont Saint-Bernard.
— But, Mr. Unbeliever, what would
you answer about petrified oysters
that have been found on the top of
the Alps?
— My answer, Mr. Creator, I have
not seen more petrified oysters
then vessel anchors at the top of
the Mont-Cenis. I will answer what
has been said before, that we
found oyster shells (which are
easily petrified) at great distances
from the sea, as Roman medals
have been exhumed hundred
miles from Rome, and I’d rather
believe that the pilgrims of SaintJacques left a few shells towards
Saint-Maurice, than imagine that
Mount St. Bernard has been
formed by the sea.
« Il y a des coquillages partout;
mais est-il bien sûr qu’ils ne
soient pas les dépouilles des
testacés et des crustacés de nos
lacs et de nos rivières, aussi bien
que des petits poissons marins?
— Monsieur l’incrédule, je vous
tournerai en ridicule dans le
monde que je me propose de
créer.
— Monsieur le créateur, à vous
permis; chacun est le maître
dans son monde; mais vous ne
me ferez jamais croire que celui
où nous sommes soit de verre, ni
que quelques coquilles soient
des démonstrations que la mer a
produit les Alpes et le mont
Taurus.
"There are shells everywhere, but
is it certain that they are not the
remains
of
shellfish
and
crustaceans in our lakes and
rivers, as well as small marine
fish?
— Mister Unbeliever, I will ridicule
you in the world that I intend to
create.
— Mister Creator, as you wish,
everybody is master in his own
world, but you will never make
me believe that the one we are in
is made of glass or that some
shells are demonstrations that
the sea produced the Alps and
Mount Taurus.
Vous savez qu’il n’y a aucune
coquille dans les montagnes
d’Amérique. Il faut que ce ne soit
pas vous qui ayez créé cet
hémisphère, et que vous vous
soyez contenté de former l’ancien
monde: c’est bien assez.
— Monsieur, monsieur, si on n’a
pas découvert de coquilles sur
les montagnes d’Amérique, on en
découvrira.
— Monsieur, c’est parler en
créateur qui sait son secret, et
qui est sûr de son fait. Je vous
abandonne, si vous voulez, votre
falun, pourvu que vous me
laissiez mes montagnes. Je suis
d’ailleurs le très humble et très
obéissant serviteur de Votre
Providence. »
You know that there is no shell in
the mountains of America. It must
be that you have not created this
hemisphere, and you were happy
with forming the ancient world: it
is far enough.
— Sir, sir, if we did not find shells
on the mountains of America, we
will discover them
— Sir, it's talking as a creator
who knows his secret, and who is
sure of his deeds. I let you, if you
want, your shell sand, provided
you let me my mountains. By the
way, I am the most humble and
obedient
servant
of
Your
Providence. "
Lamarck
Lamarck
Lamarck long beleived that there existed
« constant species » but he later writes (in
1802):
« Maintenant, je suis convaincu que j'étois
dans l'erreur à cet égard et qu'il n'y a dans la
nature que des individus »
« Je donne le nom d'espèce à toute collection
d'individus qui, pendant une longue durée, se
ressemblent tellement
par toutes leurs
parties comparées entr'elles, que ces
individus ne présentent que de petites
différences accidentelles »
Lamarck
Lamarck
Darwin
Natural selection
•  Reproduction
•  Variation
•  Choice
Process repeated
over numerous
generations!
It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants
of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects
flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to
reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each
other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all
been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the
largest sense, being Growth with reproduction; Inheritance which is
almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct
action of the conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of
Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence
to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction
of less improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and
death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving,
namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is
grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been
originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that,
whilst this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed law of
gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and
most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.
Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and
death, the most exalted object which we are
capable of conceiving, namely, the production
of the higher animals, directly follows. There is
grandeur in this view of life, with its several
powers, having been originally breathed by the
Creator into a few forms or into one; and that,
whilst this planet has gone circling on according
to. the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a
beginning endless forms most beautiful and
most wonderful have been, and are being
evolved
It is often said that all the conditions for the first
production of a living organism are present, which
could ever have been present. But if (and Oh! what
a big if!) we could conceive in some warm little
pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric
salts, light, heat, electricity, etc., present, that a
protein compound was chemically formed ready to
undergo still more complex changes, at the present
day such matter would be instantly devoured or
absorbed, which would not have been the case
before living creatures were formed.
[…]
It is mere rubbish thinking at present of the origin of
life; one might as well think of the origin of matter
Certainly no clear line of demarcation has as
yet been drawn between species and subspecies-that is, the forms which in the opinion
of some naturalists come very near to, but do
not quite arrive at the rank of species ; or,
again, between sub-species and well-marked
varieties, or between lesser varieties and
individual differences. These differences
blend into each other in an insensible series ;
and a series impresses the mind with the idea
of an actual passage.
I am often in despair in making
the generality of naturalists even
comprehend me. Intelligent men
who are not naturalists and have
not a bigoted idea of the term
species, show more clearness of
mind.
Weissman : one
transmits only
what one received
What remains with
time in the process
of evolution?
(What does selection
act on?)
Matter / Information
•  Physiology : fluxes of matter & energy
• C + O2 → C02
•  Genetics : fluxes of information
• DNA → RNA
• Parents → Offspring
Individuals are
contingent artefacts
invented by genes
in order to be
reproduced
Biodiversité,
Science &
Société
N.
S.
:
…
l’être
humain
peut
être
dangereux.
C’est
d’ailleurs
pour
cette
raison
que
nous
avons
tant
besoin
de
la
culture,
de
la
civilisation.
Il
n’y
a
pas
d’un
côté
des
individus
dangereux
et
de
l’autre
des
innocents.
Non,
chaque
homme
est
en
lui-même
porteur
de
beaucoup
d’innocence
et
de
dangers.
N.S.:
Human
being
can
be
dangerous.
By
the
way,
it
is
for
this
reason
that
we
need
culture
and
civilization.
There
are
no
dangerous
people
on
one
side
and
innocent
on
the
other.
No,
every
individual
himself
has
much
of
innocence
and
dangerousness.
M.
O.
:
Je
ne
suis
pas
rousseauiste
et
ne
soutiendrais
pas
que
l’homme
est
naturellement
bon.
À
mon
sens,
on
ne
naît
ni
bon
ni
mauvais.
On
le
devient,
car
ce
sont
les
circonstances
qui
fabriquent
l’homme.
M.O.:
I'm
not
one
of
the
tenants
of
Rousseau
and
I
will
not
support
the
idea
that
man
is
naturally
good.
To
my
mind,
we
are
born
neither
good
nor
bad.
One
becomes
it,
because
a
person
is
built
by
the
circumstances.
N.
S.
:
Mais
que
faites-vous
de
nos
choix,
de
la
liberté
de
chacun
?
M.
O.
:
Je
ne
leur
donnerais
pas
une
importance
exagérée.
Il
y
a
beaucoup
de
choses
que
nous
ne
choisissons
pas.
Vous
n’avez
pas
choisi
votre
sexualité
parmi
plusieurs
formules,
par
exemple.
Un
pédophile
non
plus.
Il
n’a
pas
décidé
un
beau
matin,
parmi
toutes
les
orientations
sexuelles
possibles,
d’être
attiré
par
les
enfants.
Pour
autant,
on
ne
naît
pas
homosexuel,
ni
hétérosexuel,
ni
pédophile.
Je
pense
que
nous
sommes
façonnés,
non
pas
par
nos
gènes,
mais
par
notre
environnement,
par
les
conditions
familiales
et
sociohistoriques
dans
lesquelles
nous
évoluons.
N.
S.:
But
what
do
you
do
with
our
choices,
with
freedom
of
each
person?
M.O.:
I
would
not
give
them
an
exaggerated
importance.
There
are
many
things
that
we
do
not
choose.
For
instance,
you
did
not
choose
your
sexuality
among
several
options.
Neither
does
a
pedophile.
He
has
not
decided
one
morning
that,
of
all
sexual
possible
orientations,
to
be
attracted
by
children.
However,
we
are
not
born
homosexual
or
heterosexual,
or
pedophile.
I
think
we
are
shaped
not
by
our
genes,
but
by
our
environment,
family
and
socio-historical
circumstances
within
which
we
live.
N.
S.
:
Je
ne
suis
pas
d’accord
avec
vous.
J’inclinerais,
pour
ma
part,
à
penser
qu’on
naît
pédophile,
et
c’est
d’ailleurs
un
problème
que
nous
ne
sachions
soigner
cette
pathologie.
Il
y
a
1
200
ou
1
300
jeunes
qui
se
suicident
en
France
chaque
année,
ce
n’est
pas
parce
que
leurs
parents
s’en
sont
mal
occupés
!
Mais
parce
que,
génétiquement,
ils
avaient
une
fragilité,
une
douleur
préalable.
Prenez
les
fumeurs
:
certains
développent
un
cancer,
d’autres
non.
Les
premiers
ont
une
faiblesse
physiologique
héréditaire.
Les
circonstances
ne
font
pas
tout,
la
part
de
l’inné
est
immense.
N.S.:
I
do
not
agree
with
you.
As
for
me,
I
am
inclined
to
think
that
one
is
born
paedophile,
and
this
is
a
problem
that
we
do
not
know
how
to
treat
this
pathology.
There
are
1200
to
1300
young
people
who
commit
suicide
in
France
every
year;
this
is
not
because
their
parents
raised
them
up
badly!
But
because
they
had
a
genetic
weakness,
a
prior
pain.
Take
smokers:
some
develop
cancer
while
others
do
not.
The
former
have
a
hereditary
physiological
weakness.
The
circumstances
are
not
everything;
the
innate
part
is
tremendous.
N. S. : Donc, ça vous
intéresse, la
complexité ?
N.S.: So, the
complexity, is it what
you are interested in?
M. O. : Bien sûr ! Il
vaut mieux qu’on
finisse sur un
éloge de la complexité
que sur le braquage
idéologique
de la première demiheure...
M.O.: Of course! We’d
better conclude on a
eulogy of the
complexity than on the
ideological lock of the
first half-hour…
Biology is
an empirical
science
(despite some theorization…)
Progress
&
Biology ..
.
“Nature is
neither moral
nor immoral,
Nature is
non-moral.”
T. H. Huxley
In the Buck vs. Bell
decision of May 2,
1927, the United
States Supreme Court
upheld a Virginia
statute that provided
for the eugenic
sterilization for people
considered genetically
unfit.
The Court’s decision, delivered by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.,
included the infamous phrase "Three generations of imbeciles are
enough.” Upholding Virginia’s sterilization statute provided the green
light for similar laws in 30 states, under which an estimated 65,000
Americans were sterilized without their own consent or that of a family
member.
The mathematician, carried along on his flood
of symbols, dealing apparently with purely
formal truths, may still reach results of
endless importance for our description of the
physical universe.
Modern science, as training the mind to an
exact and impartial analysis of facts, is an
education specially fitted to promote
citizenship.
The right to live does not connote the right of
each man to reproduce his kind ... As we
lessen the stringency of natural selection, and
more and more of the weaklings and the unfit
survive, we must increase the standard, mental
and physical, of parentage.
Darwinism, Medical Progress and Parentage
(London 1912).
Karl Pearson
This new vision is both comprehensive and
unitary. It integrates the fantastic diversity of
the world into a single framework, the pattern
of all-embracing evolutionary process. In this
unitary vision, all kinds of splits and dualisms
are healed. The entire cosmos is made out of
one and the same world-stuff, operated by the
same energy as we ourselves. "Mind" and
"matter" appears as two aspects of our unitary
mind-bodies. There is no separate
supernatural realm: all phenomena are part of
one natural process of evolution. There is no
basic cleavage between science and religion;
they are both organs of evolving humanity.
This earth is one of the rare spots in the
cosmos where mind has flowered. Man is a
product of nearly three billion years of
evolution, in whose person the evolutionary
process has at last become conscious of itself
and its possibilities. Whether he likes it or not,
he is responsible for the whole further
evolution of our planet
The New Divinity by
Julian Huxley
Nikolay Ivanovich
Vavilov
Biodiversity in
cultivated plants
Their evolution from
centers of origin in a
context of isolation
and exchanges
"In the course of evolution nature
has gone to endless trouble to see
that every individual is unlike every
other individual. We reproduce our
kind by bringing the father's genes
into contact with the mother's.
These hereditary factors may be
combined in an almost infinite
number of ways. Physically and
mentally, each one of us is unique.
Any culture which, in the interests of
efficiency or in the name of some
political or religious dogma, seeks to
standardize the human individual,
commits an outrage against man's
biological nature"
Brave New World Revisited (1958)
by Aldous Huxley
GATTACA
L’agent orange
Cry 3A structure (front view)
Cry 3A structure (top view)
The structure is made up from three domains which are, from N to C terminus, a seven helix bundle, (Domain I) a triple
antiparallel beta sheet domain (Domain II) and a beta-sheet sandwich (Domain III). Notice the 3 hypervariable loops in
Domain II (arrowed). The core of the molecule is built from five sequence blocks which are a highly conserved feature
of all the Bt toxins, indicating that all the proteins in this Cry family will adopt the same general fold. The discovery of
the long, hydrophobic and amphipathic alpha helices of Domain I reinforced earlier computer-derived prediction that this
region is equipped for transmembrane pore formation. When viewed from the top, domain I resembles a pore forming
domain and is a candidate for the membrane insertion step. Studies suggest that the pore is initiated by insertion of a
helical hairpin (alpha4/alpha5) from domain I with subsequent association of alpha4/alpha5 hairpins from several
molecules to form an oligomeric helical bundle pore with a radius of 5-10 Angstroms.
Le pollen et les graines se dispersent…
Pollen and seeds
are dispersed :
•  Invasive plants to
come?
•  Weeds becoming
resistant ?
•  How tro manage
that?
Pollen and
seeds are
dispersed.
This has
important
consequences
when genes
are patented
Monsanto Board of Directors Increases Quarterly Dividend to 17.5 Cents
Per Share
Dividend has increased nearly 200 percent since 2002 spinoff
ST. LOUIS, Aug. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Monsanto Company (NYSE:
MON) today announced that its Board of Directors declared an increase in
the quarterly dividend on its common shares from 12.5 cents per share to
17.5 cents per share, or an increase of 40 percent. The dividend is payable
on Oct. 26, 2007, to shareowners of record on Oct. 5, 2007.
Nature
November 29, 2001
Vol. 414, pp. 541-543
T
ransgenic DNA Introgressed Into Traditional Maize Landraces in Oaxaca, Mexico
David Quist and Ignacio H. Chapela
Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management
University of California
Berkeley, California 94720-3110, USA
(Correspondence and
req
u
ests for materials should be addressed to I.H.C. e-mail: [email protected].)‫‏‬
Svalbard : Noah's Ark?
Svalbard : Noah's Ark?
Svalbard : Noah's Ark or cemetery?
Industrial farming
does not always
improve productivity
per unit surface.
Even when it does, it
also
-increases
inequalities in terms
of income
-replaces farmers by
corporations
→ It thus increases
the number of poors
and starvation
Daedalus
&
Progress
Dédale, l’ingénieur
et la technique au
service du
Progrès…
Pour se venger, Minos enferma Dédale et son
fils Icare dans le Labyrinthe. Dédale
fabriqua des ailes avec des plumes et de la
cire pour s'échapper du Labyrinthe.
Thank you
www2.mnhn.fr/oseb/spip/GOUYON-Pierre-Henri
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