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Kelvin, Lord (1824–1907) British Physicist William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, was the physicist who laid the foundation for the science of thermodynamics, which is the study of how energy moves and changes forms. Lord Kelvin influenced evolutionary science by developing the theoretical framework of thermodynamics, which allows scientists to understand how life works and how it could evolve; and by miscalculating the age of the Earth. Born June 26, 1824, the son of a mathematics professor, Thomson entered Glasgow University at the age of 10. He graduated from Cambridge University, winning top prizes for mathematics and rowing. He also started a musical society at Cambridge. At age 22, he became a professor at Glasgow University, where he remained for 53 years. He wrote more than 600 scientific papers and had more than 60 patents. His research provided the basis for the development of refrigeration; the centigrade temperature scale (which, when based upon absolute zero, is measured in degrees Kelvin, or degrees K); telegram boosting devices; depth sounders; and an improved compass. He contributed greatly to the modern understanding of electromagnetism and wave theory of light. Perhaps his major accomplishment was to lay the foundation for the science of thermodynamics. The First Law of Thermodynamics stems largely from Thomson’s work, which provided the basis for chemist J. Willard Gibbs’s development of the concept of entropy, upon which the Second Law of Thermodynamics is based. Despite his immense scientific output over a lifetime, he did not receive peerage until 1892 when he was 68 years old. The 1859 publication of Darwin’s book (see Darwin, Charles; origin of species [book]) caused a tremendous stir among scientists. Thomson realized that thermodynamics might have something valuable to contribute to the evolution debate. In 1862 he published an article which said the Earth was 98 million years old, a calculation he based upon the rate at which the Earth cooled from an initially molten state. Earlier scientists had tried a similar approach to calculating the age of the Earth; Buffon (see Buffon, Georges) K had measured the rate at which heated metal balls cooled off and extrapolated this to an estimate of the age of the Earth: 75,000 years. Thomson, however, got the calculations right, based on modern thermodynamics. The problem was that his initial assumptions were wrong: that no new heat had been added to the volume of the Earth since its beginning. Thomson knew of no process (nor did anyone else) that could produce new heat in the Earth or keep the Sun burning for more than a few million years. This paper is still one of the most famous in the history of science, not only due to the spectacular error of one of the greatest minds of the 19th or 20th centuries but also because the entire paper was only a paragraph in length (plus a brief appendix of calculations). According to Kelvin, not only was the Earth less than a hundred million years old, but the Earth’s surface would have been too hot for organisms to live upon it for most of that time. The only process that any scientist at the time knew that could empower the Sun was combustion, as if the Sun were burning like a gigantic lump of coal. Thomson calculated that, given the size of the Sun, it could burn at most twenty million years. Therefore, even though the Earth might have been cooling off for almost a hundred million years, sunlight could not have been supporting biological life, and therefore evolution, for more than one-fifth of that period of time. Twenty million years, or even a hundred million years, seemed a totally inadequate amount of time for Darwinian evolution to produce the entirety of species diversity on the Earth. Scientists scrambled for ways to accommodate this new information. Some of Darwin’s associates (see Huxley, Thomas Henry) abandoned gradualism and embraced saltation, the production of major evolutionary innovation in single steps, to make evolution fit into the allotted time. Thomson (by now Lord Kelvin) lived to see a discovery that would invalidate his assumptions. He was in the audience when physicist Ernest Rutherford spoke about the discovery of radioactivity by chemists Marie and Pierre Curie. Radioactive elements such as uranium (as determined by
0 Kenyanthropus chemist Henri Becquerel) or radium (the Curies’ discovery) emitted energy, which could keep the interior of the planet molten for billions of years. Thomson did not live to see the discovery of thermonuclear fusion as the explanation of the Sun’s energy source. Lord Kelvin died December 17, 1907. Further Reading Gould, Stephen Jay. “False premise, good science.” Chap. 8 in The Flamingo’s Smile. New York: Norton, 1985. Lindley, David. Degrees Kelvin: A Tale of Genius, Invention, and Tragedy. New York: Joseph Henry Press, 2004. Thomson, William. “The ‘Doctrine of Uniformity’ in geology briefly refuted.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 5 (1866): 512–513. Available online. URL: http://zapatopi.net/kelvin/papers/ the_doctrine_of_uniformity_in_geology_briefly_refuted.html. Accessed April 26, 2005. Zapato, Lyle. “Kelvin is Lord!” Available online. URL: http://zapatopi. net/lordkelvin.html. Accessed April 26, 2005. Kenyanthropus See australopithecines. killer ape theory See australopithecines. kin selection See altruism. K/T event See Cretaceous extinction.
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Evolution
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Encyclopedia of Evolution Copyright
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Contents Foreword ix Acknowledgment
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Foreword The theory and facts of ev
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IntroduCtIon What you do not know a
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other issues coming along with it.
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adaptation Adaptation is the fit of
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from the allometric patterns of gro
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considered as an example. (The taxo
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English) were a resounding success,
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Some Centers of the Evolution of Ag
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helps the DNA insert into the host
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Even within a single patient, HIV e
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then into the insect body; carbon d
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chromosomes (they are diploid) whil
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genetic basis. About 35,000 years a
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emained dormant and sprouted after
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Further Reading Wise, Steven M. Rat
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Because the DNA of many archaebacte
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Koi and goldfish have been bred tha
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Barringer Crater, Arizona, was form
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y a silent wall of darkness advanci
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Skeleton of “Lucy,” the Austral
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Further Reading Alemseged, Zerxenay
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acteria, evolution of Examples of t
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0 Bates, Henry Walter advantage. Th
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ehavior, evolution of In another sp
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ig bang make nests with horizontal
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iodiversity How Much Do Genes Contr
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iodiversity Biodiversity (as indica
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0 biogeography Another problem with
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iogeography Biogeography of Selecte
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iogeography their species through d
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iology design) or adaptation to the
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iology D. Response to environment.
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0 birds, evolution of • The foot.
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irds, evolution of • doves and pi
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Burgess shale early career. By heat
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Burgess shale jointed legs, Anomalo
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Cambrian period occurred when anima
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0 Cenozoic era opens the way to an
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Chicxulub Pritchard, J., and Dolph
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cladistics The above examples used
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coevolution descent, and that scien
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coevolution Coevolution of Organism
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0 coevolution What Are the “Ghost
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coevolution What Are the “Ghosts
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commensalism Wilson, Michael. Micro
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continental drift was an animal tha
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continental drift During geological
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0 convergence bee-pollinated flower
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convergence Both birds and bats hav
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creationism explained these observa
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creationism used to justify militar
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creationism • In the early 21st c
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00 Cretaceous period however, other
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0 Cro-Magnon evolution had occurred
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0 Cro-Magnon areas, perforated shel
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0 Cuvier, Georges Cuvier held stron
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0 Darwin Awards Darwin Awards “Th
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0 Darwin, Charles forever. It would
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Darwin, Charles and animals did hav
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Darwin’s finches has its own uniq
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Dawkins, Richard ate the pulp. More
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developmental evolution Part II. In
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0 Devonian period gene from an inve
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dinosaurs what DeVries thought were
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diseases, evolution of • Thyreoph
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disjunct species have happened? Som
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DNA (evidence for evolution) genes,
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0 DNA (evidence for evolution) seco
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DNA (raw material of evolution) DNA
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DNA (raw material of evolution) The
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Dobzhansky, Theodosius Mice have tw
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duplication, gene prominent brow ri
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0 ecology Second, organisms can con
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Eldredge, Niles they possess no str
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eugenics grieving, or experiencing
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eugenics because government officia
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eukaryotes, evolution of of the sor
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0 Eve, mitochondrial within cells,
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evolutionary ethics the ability to
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evolutionary ethics Can an Evolutio
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evolutionary medicine Can an Evolut
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evolutionary medicine variable in t
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0 extinction past (a genetic bottle
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fishes, evolution of his obvious vi
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Flores Island people Christopher St
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fossils and fossilization The grain
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founder effect Further Reading Fort
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0 Gaia hypothesis nitrogen oxide (N
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Galton, Francis constituted a premi
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gene pool Cocos Island is too small
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Gould, Stephen Jay animals, and the
Page 197 and 198: Gray, Asa he had long accepted Lyel
Page 199 and 200: 0 group selection used the carbon t
Page 201 and 202: gymnosperms, evolution of began per
Page 204 and 205: Haeckel, Ernst (1834-1919) German E
Page 206 and 207: The initial divergence between homi
Page 208 and 209: Although Homo ergaster, the presume
Page 210 and 211: tions were spreading through Africa
Page 212 and 213: Selected Examples of Homo heidelber
Page 214 and 215: sunlight of tropical regions, and t
Page 216 and 217: win, Hooker could not pay his own w
Page 218 and 219: gene transfer from a bacterium, per
Page 220 and 221: to evolutionary science. He also ap
Page 222 and 223: Examples of Intergeneric Crosses Re
Page 224 and 225: ice ages The term ice ages usually
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Page 228 and 229: migrated into Europe and displaced
Page 230 and 231: ence their intelligence. There is a
Page 232 and 233: This does not mean that all of the
Page 234 and 235: e exactly the right ones. Bovine in
Page 236 and 237: Van Till, Howard J. “E. coli at t
Page 238 and 239: food particles with whiplike struct
Page 240 and 241: would readily interbreed and produc
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Page 244 and 245: isotopes When evaporation from the
Page 246: Java man See Homo erectus. Johanson
Page 251 and 252: language, evolution of is not consi
Page 253 and 254: language, evolution of Italian, Por
Page 255 and 256: Lascaux caves Some of the original
Page 257 and 258: Leakey, Richard Richard Leakey, in
Page 259 and 260: 0 life history, evolution of it inv
Page 261 and 262: life history, evolution of is: sele
Page 263 and 264: life history, evolution of Why Do H
Page 265 and 266: life history, evolution of Why Do H
Page 267 and 268: Linnaean system The tree of life us
Page 269 and 270: 0 living fossils admired. The genus
Page 271 and 272: Lysenkoism about evolution. When Da
Page 273 and 274: Malthus, Thomas intelligent design)
Page 275 and 276: mammals, evolution of the reptilian
Page 277 and 278: markers another precocious and crea
Page 279 and 280: 0 Mars, life on • The spacecraft
Page 281 and 282: Maynard Smith, John producing a 200
Page 283 and 284: meiosis Zoology. He became director
Page 285 and 286: Mendel, Gregor of the fertilized eg
Page 287 and 288: Mendelian genetics an American gene
Page 289 and 290: 0 Mendelian genetics the environmen
Page 291 and 292: microevolution Stanley Miller did o
Page 293 and 294: missing links Batesian mimicry. Nam
Page 295 and 296: mitochondrial DNA Hominin skulls ha
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molecular clock these scientists di
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0 mutualism function of the protein
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natural selection Fact 1. Populatio
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natural selection Three types of na
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natural theology different kinds of
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Neandertals different species of hu
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0 Neolithic Neandertals lived short
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new synthesis In contrast to progen
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noncoding DNA Some regulatory molec
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origin of life they refer to life t
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origin of life Are Humans Alone in
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00 origin of life It is often said
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0 Origin of Species (book) ribose);
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0 Orrorin ———. On the Origin
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0 Paley, William in the Chordata) e
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0 peppered moths There remained som
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0 Permian extinction produced in la
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Permian period upon the exploitatio
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Piltdown man found in slightly diff
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plate tectonics The Earth’s surfa
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population Percent of Mammal Genera
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0 population genetics Vandermeer, J
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population genetics If allele A is
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Precambrian time at least some gene
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progress, concept of arboreal prima
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promoter Each chromosome contains t
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0 punctuated equilibria and persist
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punctuated equilibria Gradualism wa
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Quaternary period epoch of the Quat
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ecapitulation would cause some of t
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eligion, evolution of pathogens nev
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0 reproductive systems Catkins of m
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eproductive systems Scobell has inv
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eproductive systems fact, there is
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eptiles, evolution of Blanckenhorn,
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esistance, evolution of ineffective
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0 respiration, evolution of There i
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Sagan, Carl (1934-1996) American As
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tain features are universally recog
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The testing of hypotheses accumulat
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the results are sufficiently intere
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een wrong: His hypothesis of the co
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Comparison of Inherit the Wind with
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and others form more complex struct
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endonuclease gene is then used as a
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e able to do the same thing. Second
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mosomes come in groups of five rath
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eliminated—that is, if sexual rec
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one, free of parasites, is likely t
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nesses of resource acquisition and
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Zahavi, Amotz. The Handicap Princip
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and it is not happening extensively
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this, too, is a genetically based u
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monkeyflowers of the genus Mimulus)
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Further Reading Abrahamson, Warren
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comes from the unfertilized egg, ra
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of the bacteriophages. Therefore, h
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technology Technological and Cultur
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thermodynamics • Plants. The flow
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thermodynamics return to their orig
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00 Triassic period more resulting l
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unconformity An unconformity is a g
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sissippi River is getting shorter e
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ago. This was the birth of the Sun.
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0 vestigial characteristics algae.
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Wallace, Alfred Russel (1823-1913)
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genetic inferiority of the lower cl
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that point onward he questioned the
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Carl R. Woese pioneered the use of
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Darwin’s “One LOng argument”:
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the young seedlings must compete wi
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Traits can reappear after even hund
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ated: It has been an advantage in o
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chapter 10. On the imperfection of
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out in competition with the species
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languages. Linguists classify all R
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My theory has been much maligned. T
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Index Note: Boldface page numbers i
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asexual propagation 370-371 Ashfall
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Bryan, William Jennings creationism
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ird evolution 62-63 cladistics 72-7
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divergence molecular clock 278-279
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extinction 159-160. See also mass e
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Gondwana (Gondwanaland) 68, 84, 86,
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Huxley, Julian S. 200 eugenics 146
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Mendelian genetics and 268 Spencer,
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Origin of Species (Darwin) 433-434
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ocean currents 179, 207 Oceanian re
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polar cells 368 Polkinghorne, John
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Sanger, Frederick 55 Sanger, Margar
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spores 264, 370 spotted hyena (Croc
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useless characteristics 409 Ussher,
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