The Ultimate MMO

[thegreatunknown]

Thegreatunknown here,

This is a game that I have come up with. I did not read up any ideas from current MMO's, I just took several elements that are in most MMO's I have played as well as single player games and combined these to bring hopefully what could be someday, the Ultimate MMO (haven't thought up a name) and a standard for New age games.

I was thinking to myself of a game that would bring in all the elements in a MMORPG. And I thought/think I have came up with something that isn't just decent but, GREAT. This game would bring in real life situations, real life type pvp/pve combat system, and the actual use of intelligence to understand situations and survival.

This would be a game where the whole object is conquer. It is based on strategy, team work, and luck. It would make a VERY great MMO that brings not only roleplaying in but, the VERY real life scenarios of life.

To begin the game, you start out on a farm out in the far country that is not often used because of the insufficient resources in the land. There will be several of these starter places for new players.

The game of course, will not be based on Levels. It will be based on skills through training and craftsmanship. The fight is over the vast lands of Europe/EuroAsia.

The game is based in the Early Middle Ages or Mediaeval period around the 1300th century. A time in which Crusades took play, Technologic advances like cannons/gun powder were invented, and Castles were the center of attention, a rise of Empires where growing.

The objective in skilling is to train and learn the many crafts to help advance throughout the game. If one choses to be a "multi-trained person, they give up the ability to be a master of a certain training or craft.

The PvP will be a real time fight scene game where FPS can sometimes matter and it will not be possible to target a enemy. Player speed will be based on real life type movement with (xx) amount of energy before tiredness and Horse-back will be an option in battles.

The Objective of the game overall it to conquer many castles, forts, and villages as possible. The catch is riding between each battle can be a bit different. Instead of going to a castle and conquering. It may take longer if it is a full sized Castle. (NPC controlled battles) The ONLY exception is if the team defending or attacking gets suprised by too many attacks in which they are not logged, the toughness of the NPC's will start to rise (only a bit and not too much) because of the weekness it leaves the Guild.

The strategy of the game is very bizarre. You will have as a character, several men to control at all times to keep organized. You will have one group that is in control of supplies, one that is in control of attacking, and one that is in control of defending. Now, with each place that is being attacked, you will be able to control some of the units based on how many guild members can help control the NPC's that can be skilled and crafted, just not as much as your "hero(es)".

The key is having the Heroes organized throughout the different parts of the land. Now, starting out will be tough with the craftsmanship to build buildings. At first, for the first two months of the game, there will be a time where the players will not have anything. They will struggle with food, not have any weapons, and only enough horses as they can round up. Now, punching, bitting, and that kind of fighting is pathetic so, a "grace period" will be given at the beginning of the game.

A guild will consist of 20 players. It will be important to have most of these players fighting instead of using players+NPC's when defending the land. Like mentioned, there can only be 2 battles going on. The max limit of battles per day is determined by whether or not the guild gets lucky with who attacks or not.

No one guild will ever be able to dominate. With sometimes NPC controlled armies (weak though) it will always be places taken and captures. No one guild will EVER be able to conquer that much of the map.

A limit to the amount of people being able to controlled throughout the cities will be determined by the amount of food, shelter, and resources available from the local area. Therefore, no one will have mega cities to help dominate, resources will be tight.

NPC's will control getting the resources, getting the food, and getting the material toget to build things. They will also be apart of PvP and sometimes EvE or PvE. The lower limit training will be done at a SLOWER rate by the NPC's and if more time (pvp/pve/eve won't always be done) is available, you can work to gain these things quicker.

Earlier mentioned, heroes are the foundation for the population. Heroes give moral boost, have better health and gear, and know how to fight at a higher level of skill then the common foot soldier.

Now, even heroes die from time to time. Each Hero has a selected person to be his replacement (multiple people if one dies right after the original) and he must be trained quickly from the average max training that ordinary people get.

Now, when fighting a enemy, it's important to know what happens during the fight inside the village, fort, or castle. You will have the people who fight and once the fight is over, you typically have a winner. Now, in defending, you have the ability to get farmers, craftsman, and all other militia available which provides a slightly upper hand if outnumbered in military strength.

If the attacking team wins, they conquer the place. Now, with limited resources around the land, it would be nearly impossible to conquer and then move on or go back. You MUST colonize the territories and bring along women, children, and farmers who are typically elderly (they don't fight when attacking).

If the defenders win, they take the food, clothing, and any valuables away from the dead corpes and the bodies are gathered up and burned. Defending and attacking don't come at a huge price EXCEPT when it comes to getting more resources.

These sources that can also be won by the attacker can gain extra food, gear, military cannons and ammunition for fire. Burning villages won't help as most towns only offer enough food for the villagers + re-enforcing a little extra for 1-2 days worth of food for military people. (yes, military people have to work to gain food).

Things like weather will come into affect. It will be harder to travel in the winter and sometimes difficult in the hot heat. Sickness will be a major factor when going into fights and starvation will be something to watch out for.

In each village, most will be middle class with enough food + extra as well as valuables to trade to other people and there will be people who are thiefs or a bit richer or simply poor.

The civilian population CAN'T be controlled from the every processes. Things like splinting up food, selling/buying goods, black market, and robbing may occur and can not be controlled. Only things like harvesting, moral, training, and craftsman training can be "slightly increased" if there is extra time for such a feature.

The different controlled armies will always be on the move, random and multiple attacks will occur, and some people will rise while others fall. If a guild runs out of castles/forts/villages, they simply get to start over with the material, resources, and people to start over.

These lands are still open to attack and can often be defeated. This will help start to circulate many people into the game. In case a guild is constantly getting completely dominated, it would be best for them to all focus on re-building and getting everything together quicker (will never lose if they can build a castle, defend it with x3-x4 much, are ready, and have the resources available, thus, can start to expand again).

Each month, a guild will get "Guild of the Month" award thus, giving them a free month to play. This game will be a monthly paid game. Other perks include if a certain hero survives long enough, he gets legendary weapons. These will help him out a lot but, he still may be attacked when the player is offline and the NPC's will control him and he may die.


Overall, you will be playing the role of a few heroes who are generals with very superior talent lookings to control land. You will be constantly be fighting and always looking for a challenge and something new. You will face real life situations like weather, sickness, survival tactics, and grief. You will, however, experience a more real life game then any other game EVER out.

I would like any comments about this game that could change it to be more affective. Also, any places where I contradicted my ideas or didn't explain my ideas and they need explaining. I left a couple holes not filled and with more minds thinking up ideas, it would be super successful. And lastly, a name for the game would be great, thanks.

Just please, try not to post stupid stuff that has nothing to do with the game I thought up.

[giga]

Realism doesn't necessarily sell

[Heavy_Load]

sounds like Age of Conan but with a medieval flavouring to me

[thegreatunknown]

Originally Posted by giga191

Realism doesn't necessarily sell

Sex use to not sell. Back in 1960's, people smoked drugs, drank liquior, and often were retro about everything in their lives. See what 40 years does to people? Imagine the gaming community, from the time of 1998 with a shitty 2d game called UO to making mega games like WoW, EvE, AoC, and DF. That is a MAJOR jump in games.

Imagine the gaming world in 20 years. Let me give you a hint. They arn't still all playing WoW. A lot of them have switched games or quit. Now, can you imagine through technology where we have gotten in the gaming world? This game is a bit more futuristic.

Originally Posted by Heavy_Load

sounds like Age of Conan but with a medieval flavouring to me

You may have not read it fully but, I understand the general idea. You were right about the medieval part. In the medieval time, technology was starting to catch up. With advancements in armor, fire, and knowledge it was a quickly evolving world.

I base the game off of a different concept then AoC. Mine is less just based on the character, and more based on the overall strategy of game. I also do not like the idea of one character. This almost makes them super human beings that could kill 50 people at the same time (joke).

Mine offers a more serious realistic style of gaming that includes weather, hardship, and struggle. You MUST eat, you MUST drink, and you MUST have some form of shelter. Otherwise, you will lose weight, get dehydrated, or sick and die.

Now, if you took AoC, mixed in FPS combat, then mixed in Heroes of Might and Magic, then Age of Empires, and DAoC...you would almost have exactly what I have. Now, tell me a game that brings fps style fighting, Age of Empires strategy and army forming and overview control, and AoC style.

Going....going....gone

[Heavy_Load]

so its more like an online medieval total war but with neverending games

[Torque]

Originally Posted by thegreatunknown

Thegreatunknown here,

This is a game that I have come up with. I did not read up any ideas from current MMO's, I just took several elements that are in most MMO's I have played as well as single player games and combined these to bring hopefully what could be someday, the Ultimate MMO (haven't thought up a name) and a standard for New age games.

I was thinking to myself of a game that would bring in all the elements in a MMORPG. And I thought/think I have came up with something that isn't just decent but, GREAT. This game would bring in real life situations, real life type pvp/pve combat system, and the actual use of intelligence to understand situations and survival.

This would be a game where the whole object is conquer. It is based on strategy, team work, and luck. It would make a VERY great MMO that brings not only roleplaying in but, the VERY real life scenarios of life.

To begin the game, you start out on a farm out in the far country that is not often used because of the insufficient resources in the land. There will be several of these starter places for new players.

The game of course, will not be based on Levels. It will be based on skills through training and craftsmanship. The fight is over the vast lands of Europe/EuroAsia.

The game is based in the Early Middle Ages or Mediaeval period around the 1300th century. A time in which Crusades took play, Technologic advances like cannons/gun powder were invented, and Castles were the center of attention, a rise of Empires where growing.

The objective in skilling is to train and learn the many crafts to help advance throughout the game. If one choses to be a "multi-trained person, they give up the ability to be a master of a certain training or craft.

The PvP will be a real time fight scene game where FPS can sometimes matter and it will not be possible to target a enemy. Player speed will be based on real life type movement with (xx) amount of energy before tiredness and Horse-back will be an option in battles.

The Objective of the game overall it to conquer many castles, forts, and villages as possible. The catch is riding between each battle can be a bit different. Instead of going to a castle and conquering. It may take longer if it is a full sized Castle. (NPC controlled battles) The ONLY exception is if the team defending or attacking gets suprised by too many attacks in which they are not logged, the toughness of the NPC's will start to rise (only a bit and not too much) because of the weekness it leaves the Guild.

The strategy of the game is very bizarre. You will have as a character, several men to control at all times to keep organized. You will have one group that is in control of supplies, one that is in control of attacking, and one that is in control of defending. Now, with each place that is being attacked, you will be able to control some of the units based on how many guild members can help control the NPC's that can be skilled and crafted, just not as much as your "hero(es)".

The key is having the Heroes organized throughout the different parts of the land. Now, starting out will be tough with the craftsmanship to build buildings. At first, for the first two months of the game, there will be a time where the players will not have anything. They will struggle with food, not have any weapons, and only enough horses as they can round up. Now, punching, bitting, and that kind of fighting is pathetic so, a "grace period" will be given at the beginning of the game.

A guild will consist of 20 players. It will be important to have most of these players fighting instead of using players+NPC's when defending the land. Like mentioned, there can only be 2 battles going on. The max limit of battles per day is determined by whether or not the guild gets lucky with who attacks or not.

No one guild will ever be able to dominate. With sometimes NPC controlled armies (weak though) it will always be places taken and captures. No one guild will EVER be able to conquer that much of the map.

A limit to the amount of people being able to controlled throughout the cities will be determined by the amount of food, shelter, and resources available from the local area. Therefore, no one will have mega cities to help dominate, resources will be tight.

NPC's will control getting the resources, getting the food, and getting the material toget to build things. They will also be apart of PvP and sometimes EvE or PvE. The lower limit training will be done at a SLOWER rate by the NPC's and if more time (pvp/pve/eve won't always be done) is available, you can work to gain these things quicker.

Earlier mentioned, heroes are the foundation for the population. Heroes give moral boost, have better health and gear, and know how to fight at a higher level of skill then the common foot soldier.

Now, even heroes die from time to time. Each Hero has a selected person to be his replacement (multiple people if one dies right after the original) and he must be trained quickly from the average max training that ordinary people get.

Now, when fighting a enemy, it's important to know what happens during the fight inside the village, fort, or castle. You will have the people who fight and once the fight is over, you typically have a winner. Now, in defending, you have the ability to get farmers, craftsman, and all other militia available which provides a slightly upper hand if outnumbered in military strength.

If the attacking team wins, they conquer the place. Now, with limited resources around the land, it would be nearly impossible to conquer and then move on or go back. You MUST colonize the territories and bring along women, children, and farmers who are typically elderly (they don't fight when attacking).

If the defenders win, they take the food, clothing, and any valuables away from the dead corpes and the bodies are gathered up and burned. Defending and attacking don't come at a huge price EXCEPT when it comes to getting more resources.

These sources that can also be won by the attacker can gain extra food, gear, military cannons and ammunition for fire. Burning villages won't help as most towns only offer enough food for the villagers + re-enforcing a little extra for 1-2 days worth of food for military people. (yes, military people have to work to gain food).

Things like weather will come into affect. It will be harder to travel in the winter and sometimes difficult in the hot heat. Sickness will be a major factor when going into fights and starvation will be something to watch out for.

In each village, most will be middle class with enough food + extra as well as valuables to trade to other people and there will be people who are thiefs or a bit richer or simply poor.

The civilian population CAN'T be controlled from the every processes. Things like splinting up food, selling/buying goods, black market, and robbing may occur and can not be controlled. Only things like harvesting, moral, training, and craftsman training can be "slightly increased" if there is extra time for such a feature.

The different controlled armies will always be on the move, random and multiple attacks will occur, and some people will rise while others fall. If a guild runs out of castles/forts/villages, they simply get to start over with the material, resources, and people to start over.

These lands are still open to attack and can often be defeated. This will help start to circulate many people into the game. In case a guild is constantly getting completely dominated, it would be best for them to all focus on re-building and getting everything together quicker (will never lose if they can build a castle, defend it with x3-x4 much, are ready, and have the resources available, thus, can start to expand again).

Each month, a guild will get "Guild of the Month" award thus, giving them a free month to play. This game will be a monthly paid game. Other perks include if a certain hero survives long enough, he gets legendary weapons. These will help him out a lot but, he still may be attacked when the player is offline and the NPC's will control him and he may die.


Overall, you will be playing the role of a few heroes who are generals with very superior talent lookings to control land. You will be constantly be fighting and always looking for a challenge and something new. You will face real life situations like weather, sickness, survival tactics, and grief. You will, however, experience a more real life game then any other game EVER out.

I would like any comments about this game that could change it to be more affective. Also, any places where I contradicted my ideas or didn't explain my ideas and they need explaining. I left a couple holes not filled and with more minds thinking up ideas, it would be super successful. And lastly, a name for the game would be great, thanks.

Just please, try not to post stupid stuff that has nothing to do with the game I thought up.

did nto read

[Heavy_Load]

it would be more of a mock if you spelt it right torque

[Torque]

, "how much") refers to discrete units that the theory assigns to certain physical quantities, such as the energy of an atom at rest (see Figure 1, at right). The discovery that waves could be measured in particle-like small packets of energy called quanta led to the branch of physics that deals with atomic and subatomic systems which we today call Quantum Mechanics. The foundations of quantum mechanics were established during the first half of the twentieth century by Werner Heisenberg, Max Planck, Louis de Broglie, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Max Born, John von Neumann, Paul Dirac, Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli and others. Some fundamental aspects of the theory are still actively studied.

Quantum mechanics is a more fundamental theory than Newtonian mechanics and classical electromagnetism, in the sense that it provides accurate and precise descriptions for many phenomena that these "classical" theories simply cannot explain on the atomic and subatomic level. It is necessary to use quantum mechanics to understand the behavior of systems at atomic length scales and smaller. For example, if Newtonian mechanics governed the workings of an atom, electrons would rapidly travel towards and collide with the nucleus. However, in the natural world the electron normally remains in a stable orbit around a nucleus — seemingly defying classical electromagnetism.

Quantum mechanics was initially developed to explain the atom, especially the spectra of light emitted by different atomic species. The quantum theory of the atom developed as an explanation for the electron's staying in its orbital, which could not be explained by Newton's laws of motion and by classical electromagnetism.

In the formalism of quantum mechanics, the state of a system at a given time is described by a complex wave function (sometimes referred to as orbitals in the case of atomic electrons), and more generally, elements of a complex vector space. This abstract mathematical object allows for the calculation of probabilities of outcomes of concrete experiments. For example, it allows one to compute the probability of finding an electron in a particular region around the nucleus at a particular time. Contrary to classical mechanics, one cannot ever make simultaneous predictions of conjugate variables, such as position and momentum, with arbitrary accuracy. For instance, electrons may be considered to be located somewhere within a region of space, but with their exact positions being unknown. Contours of constant probability, often referred to as “clouds” may be drawn around the nucleus of an atom to conceptualise where the electron might be located with the most probability. It should be stressed that the electron itself is not spread out over such cloud regions. It is either in a particular region of space, or it is not. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle quantifies the inability to precisely locate the particle.

The other exemplar that led to quantum mechanics was the study of electromagnetic waves such as light. When it was found in 1900 by Max Planck that the energy of waves could be described as consisting of small packets or quanta, Albert Einstein exploited this idea to show that an electromagnetic wave such as light could be described by a particle called the photon with a discrete energy dependent on its frequency. This led to a theory of unity between subatomic particles and electromagnetic waves called wave-particle duality in which particles and waves were neither one nor the other, but had certain properties of both. While quantum mechanics describes the world of the very small, it also is needed to explain certain "macroscopic quantum systems" such as superconductors and superfluids.

Broadly speaking, quantum mechanics incorporates four classes of phenomena that classical physics cannot account for: (i) the quantization (discretization) of certain physical quantities, (ii) wave-particle duality, (iii) the uncertainty principle, and (iv) quantum entanglement. Each of these phenomena will be described in greater detail in subsequent sections.

Since the early days of quantum theory, physicists have made many attempts to combine it with the other highly successful theory of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. While quantum mechanics is entirely consistent with special relativity, serious problems emerge when one tries to join the quantum laws with general relativity, a more elaborate description of spacetime which incorporates gravitation. Resolving these inconsistencies has been a major goal of twentieth- and twenty-first-century physics. Despite the proposal of many novel ideas, the unification of quantum mechanics—which reigns in the domain of the very small—and general relativity—a superb description of the very large—remains a tantalizing future possibility. (See quantum gravity, string theory.)

Because everything is composed of quantum-mechanical particles, the laws of classical physics must approximate the laws of quantum mechanics in the appropriate limit. This is often expressed by saying that in case of large quantum numbers quantum mechanics "reduces" to classical mechanics and classical electromagnetism. This requirement is called the correspondence, or classical limit.



There are numerous mathematically equivalent formulations of quantum mechanics. One of the oldest and most commonly used formulations is the transformation theory invented by Cambridge theoretical physicist Paul Dirac, which unifies and generalizes the two earliest formulations of quantum mechanics, matrix mechanics (invented by Werner Heisenberg)[1] and wave mechanics (invented by Erwin Schrödinger).

In this formulation, the instantaneous state of a quantum system encodes the probabilities of its measurable properties, or "observables". Examples of observables include energy, position, momentum, and angular momentum. Observables can be either continuous (e.g., the position of a particle) or discrete (e.g., the energy of an electron bound to a hydrogen atom).

Generally, quantum mechanics does not assign definite values to observables. Instead, it makes predictions about probability distributions; that is, the probability of obtaining each of the possible outcomes from measuring an observable. Naturally, these probabilities will depend on the quantum state at the instant of the measurement. There are, however, certain states that are associated with a definite value of a particular observable. These are known as "eigenstates" of the observable ("eigen" meaning "own" in German). In the everyday world, it is natural and intuitive to think of everything being in an eigenstate of every observable. Everything appears to have a definite position, a definite momentum, and a definite time of occurrence. However, quantum mechanics does not pinpoint the exact values for the position or momentum of a certain particle in a given space in a finite time, but, rather, it only provides a range of probabilities of where that particle might be. Therefore, it became necessary to use different words for a) the state of something having an uncertainty relation and b) a state that has a definite value. The latter is called the "eigenstate" of the property being measured.

A concrete example will be useful here. Let us consider a free particle. In quantum mechanics, there is wave-particle duality so the properties of the particle can be described as a wave. Therefore, its quantum state can be represented as a wave, of arbitrary shape and extending over all of space, called a wavefunction. The position and momentum of the particle are observables. The Uncertainty Principle of quantum mechanics states that both the position and the momentum cannot simultaneously be known with infinite precision at the same time. However, we can measure just the position alone of a moving free particle creating an eigenstate of position with a wavefunction that is very large at a particular position x, and zero everywhere else. If we perform a position measurement on such a wavefunction, we will obtain the result x with 100% probability. In other words, we will know the position of the free particle. This is called an eigenstate of position. If the particle is in an eigenstate of position then its momentum is completely unknown. An eigenstate of momentum, on the other hand, has the form of a plane wave. It can be shown that the wavelength is equal to h/p, where h is Planck's constant and p is the momentum of the eigenstate. If the particle is in an eigenstate of momentum then its position is completely blurred out.

Usually, a system will not be in an eigenstate of whatever observable we are interested in. However, if we measure the observable, the wavefunction will instantaneously be an eigenstate of that observable. This process is known as wavefunction collapse. It involves expanding the system under study to include the measurement device, so that a detailed quantum calculation would no longer be feasible and a classical description must be used. If we know the wavefunction at the instant before the measurement, we will be able to compute the probability of collapsing into each of the possible eigenstates. For example, the free particle in our previous example will usually have a wavefunction that is a wave packet centered around some mean position x0, neither an eigenstate of position nor of momentum. When we measure the position of the particle, it is impossible for us to predict with certainty the result that we will obtain. It is probable, but not certain, that it will be near x0, where the amplitude of the wavefunction is large. After we perform the measurement, obtaining some result x, the wavefunction collapses into a position eigenstate centered at x.

Wave functions can change as time progresses. An equation known as the Schrödinger equation describes how wave functions change in time, a role similar to Newton's second law in classical mechanics. The Schrödinger equation, applied to our free particle, predicts that the center of a wave packet will move through space at a constant velocity, like a classical particle with no forces acting on it. However, the wave packet will also spread out as time progresses, which means that the position becomes more uncertain. This also has the effect of turning position eigenstates (which can be thought of as infinitely sharp wave packets) into broadened wave packets that are no longer position eigenstates.

Some wave functions produce probability distributions that are constant in time. Many systems that are treated dynamically in classical mechanics are described by such "static" wave functions. For example, a single electron in an unexcited atom is pictured classically as a particle moving in a circular trajectory around the atomic nucleus, whereas in quantum mechanics it is described by a static, spherically symmetric wavefunction surrounding the nucleus (Fig. 1). (Note that only the lowest angular momentum states, labeled s, are spherically symmetric).

The time evolution of wave functions is deterministic in the sense that, given a wavefunction at an initial time, it makes a definite prediction of what the wavefunction will be at any later time. During a measurement, the change of the wavefunction into another one is not deterministic, but rather unpredictable, i.e., random.

The probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics thus stems from the act of measurement. This is one of the most difficult aspects of quantum systems to understand. It was the central topic in the famous Bohr-Einstein debates, in which the two scientists attempted to clarify these fundamental principles by way of thought experiments. In the decades after the formulation of quantum mechanics, the question of what constitutes a "measurement" has been extensively studied. Interpretations of quantum mechanics have been formulated to do away with the concept of "wavefunction collapse"; see, for example, the relative state interpretation. The basic idea is that when a quantum system interacts with a measuring apparatus, their respective wavefunctions become entangled, so that the original quantum system ceases to exist as an independent entity. For details, see the article on measurement in quantum mechanics.



In the mathematically rigorous formulation of quantum mechanics, developed by Paul Dirac and John von Neumann, the possible states of a quantum mechanical system are represented by unit vectors (called "state vectors") residing in a complex separable Hilbert space (variously called the "state space" or the "associated Hilbert space" of the system) well defined up to a complex number of norm 1 (the phase factor). In other words, the possible states are points in the projectivization of a Hilbert space. The exact nature of this Hilbert space is dependent on the system; for example, the state space for position and momentum states is the space of square-integrable functions, while the state space for the spin of a single proton is just the product of two complex planes. Each observable is represented by a densely defined Hermitian (or self-adjoint) linear operator acting on the state space. Each eigenstate of an observable corresponds to an eigenvector of the operator, and the associated eigenvalue corresponds to the value of the observable in that eigenstate. If the operator's spectrum is discrete, the observable can only attain those discrete eigenvalues.

The time evolution of a quantum state is described by the Schrödinger equation, in which the Hamiltonian, the operator corresponding to the total energy of the system, generates time evolution.

The inner product between two state vectors is a complex number known as a probability amplitude. During a measurement, the probability that a system collapses from a given initial state to a particular eigenstate is given by the square of the absolute value of the probability amplitudes between the initial and final states. The possible results of a measurement are the eigenvalues of the operator - which explains the choice of Hermitian operators, for which all the eigenvalues are real. We can find the probability distribution of an observable in a given state by computing the spectral decomposition of the corresponding operator. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is represented by the statement that the operators corresponding to certain observables do not commute.

The Schrödinger equation acts on the entire probability amplitude, not merely its absolute value. Whereas the absolute value of the probability amplitude encodes information about probabilities, its phase encodes information about the interference between quantum states. This gives rise to the wave-like behavior of quantum states.

It turns out that analytic solutions of Schrödinger's equation are only available for a small number of model Hamiltonians, of which the quantum harmonic oscillator, the particle in a box, the hydrogen-molecular ion and the hydrogen atom are the most important representatives. Even the helium atom, which contains just one more electron than hydrogen, defies all attempts at a fully analytic treatment. There exist several techniques for generating approximate solutions. For instance, in the method known as perturbation theory one uses the analytic results for a simple quantum mechanical model to generate results for a more complicated model related to the simple model by, for example, the addition of a weak potential energy. Another method is the "semi-classical equation of motion" approach, which applies to systems for which quantum mechanics produces weak deviations from classical behavior. The deviations can be calculated based on the classical motion. This approach is important for the field of quantum chaos.

An alternative formulation of quantum mechanics is Feynman's path integral formulation, in which a quantum-mechanical amplitude is considered as a sum over histories between initial and final states; this is the quantum-mechanical counterpart of action principles in classical mechanics.


Quantum mechanics has had enormous success in explaining many of the features of our world. The individual behaviour of the subatomic particles that make up all forms of matter - electrons, protons, neutrons, photons and so forth - can often only be satisfactorily described using quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics has strongly influenced string theory, a candidate for a theory of everything (see Reductionism). It is also related to statistical mechanics.

Quantum mechanics is important for understanding how individual atoms combine covalently to form chemicals or molecules. The application of quantum mechanics to chemistry is known as quantum chemistry. (Relativistic) quantum mechanics can in principle mathematically describe most of chemistry. Quantum mechanics can provide quantitative insight into ionic and covalent bonding processes by explicitly showing which molecules are energetically favorable to which others, and by approximately how much. Most of the calculations performed in computational chemistry rely on quantum mechanics.

Much of modern technology operates at a scale where quantum effects are significant. Examples include the laser, the transistor, the electron microscope, and magnetic resonance imaging. The study of semiconductors led to the invention of the diode and the transistor, which are indispensable for modern electronics.

Researchers are currently seeking robust methods of directly manipulating quantum states. Efforts are being made to develop quantum cryptography, which will allow guaranteed secure transmission of information. A more distant goal is the development of quantum computers, which are expected to perform certain computational tasks exponentially faster than classical computers. Another active research topic is quantum teleportation, which deals with techniques to transmit quantum states over arbitrary distances.


Since its inception, the many counter-intuitive results of quantum mechanics have provoked strong philosophical debate and many interpretations. Even fundamental issues such as Max Born's basic rules concerning probability amplitudes and probability distributions took decades to be appreciated.

The Copenhagen interpretation, due largely to the Danish theoretical physicist Niels Bohr, is the interpretation of quantum mechanics most widely accepted amongst physicists. According to it, the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics predictions cannot be explained in terms of some other deterministic theory, and does not simply reflect our limited knowledge. Quantum mechanics provides probabilistic results because the physical universe is itself probabilistic rather than deterministic.

Albert Einstein, himself one of the founders of quantum theory, disliked this loss of determinism in measurement (Hence his famous quote "God does not play dice with the universe."). He held that there should be a local hidden variable theory underlying quantum mechanics and consequently the present theory was incomplete. He produced a series of objections to the theory, the most famous of which has become known as the EPR paradox. John Bell showed that the EPR paradox led to experimentally testable differences between quantum mechanics and local hidden variable theories. Experiments have been taken as confirming that quantum mechanics is correct and the real world cannot be described in terms of such hidden variables. "Potential loopholes" in the experiments, however, mean that the question is still not quite settled.

The writer C.S. Lewis viewed QM as incomplete, because notions of indeterminism did not agree with his philosophical beliefs.[2] Lewis, a professor of English, was of the opinion that the Heisenberg uncertainty principle was more of an epistemic limitation than an indication of ontological indeterminacy, and in this respect believed similarly to many advocates of hidden variables theories. The Bohr-Einstein debates provide a vibrant critique of the Copenhagen Interpretation from an epistemological point of view.

The Everett many-worlds interpretation, formulated in 1956, holds that all the possibilities described by quantum theory simultaneously occur in a "multiverse" composed of mostly independent parallel universes. This is not accomplished by introducing some new axiom to quantum mechanics, but on the contrary by removing the axiom of the collapse of the wave packet: All the possible consistent states of the measured system and the measuring apparatus (including the observer) are present in a real physical (not just formally mathematical, as in other interpretations) quantum superposition. (Such a superposition of consistent state combinations of different systems is called an entangled state.) While the multiverse is deterministic, we perceive non-deterministic behavior governed by probabilities, because we can observe only the universe, i.e. the consistent state contribution to the mentioned superposition, we inhabit. Everett's interpretation is perfectly consistent with John Bell's experiments and makes them intuitively understandable. However, according to the theory of quantum decoherence, the parallel universes will never be accessible for us, making them physically meaningless. This inaccessiblity can be understood as follows: once a measurement is done, the measured system becomes entangled with both the physicist who measured it and a huge number of other particles, some of which are photons flying away towards the other end of the universe; in order to prove that the wave function did not collapse one would have to bring all these particles back and measure them again, together with the system that was measured originally. This is completely impractical, but even if one can theoretically do this, it would destroy any evidence that the original measurement took place (including the physicist's memory).


In 1900, the German physicist Max Planck introduced the idea that energy is quantized, in order to derive a formula for the observed frequency dependence of the energy emitted by a black body. In 1905, Einstein explained the photoelectric effect by postulating that light energy comes in quanta called photons. The idea that each photon had to consist of energy in terms of quanta was a remarkable achievement as it effectively removed the possibility of black body radiation attaining infinite energy if it were to be explained in terms of wave forms only. In 1913, Bohr explained the spectral lines of the hydrogen atom, again by using quantization, in his paper of July 1913 On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules. In 1924, the French physicist Louis de Broglie put forward his theory of matter waves by stating that particles can exhibit wave characteristics and vice versa.

These theories, though successful, were strictly phenomenological: there was no rigorous justification for quantization (aside, perhaps, for Henri Poincaré's discussion of Planck's theory in his 1912 paper Sur la théorie des quanta). They are collectively known as the old quantum theory.

The phrase "quantum physics" was first used in Johnston's Planck's Universe in Light of Modern Physics.

Modern quantum mechanics was born in 1925, when the German physicist Heisenberg developed matrix mechanics and the Austrian physicist Schrödinger invented wave mechanics and the non-relativistic Schrödinger equation. Schrödinger subsequently showed that the two approaches were equivalent.

Heisenberg formulated his uncertainty principle in 1927, and the Copenhagen interpretation took shape at about the same time. Starting around 1927, Paul Dirac began the process of unifying quantum mechanics with special relativity by proposing the Dirac equation for the electron. He also pioneered the use of operator theory, including the influential bra-ket notation, as described in his famous 1930 textbook. During the same period, Hungarian polymath John von Neumann formulated the rigorous mathematical basis for quantum mechanics as the theory of linear operators on Hilbert spaces, as described in his likewise famous 1932 textbook. These, like many other works from the founding period still stand, and remain widely used.

The field of quantum chemistry was pioneered by physicists Walter Heitler and Fritz London, who published a study of the covalent bond of the hydrogen molecule in 1927. Quantum chemistry was subsequently developed by a large number of workers, including the American theoretical chemist Linus Pauling at Cal Tech, and John Slater into various theories such as Molecular Orbital Theory or Valence Theory.

Beginning in 1927, attempts were made to apply quantum mechanics to fields rather than single particles, resulting in what are known as quantum field theories. Early workers in this area included Dirac, Pauli, Weisskopf, and Jordan. This area of research culminated in the formulation of quantum electrodynamics by Feynman, Dyson, Schwinger, and Tomonaga during the 1940s. Quantum electrodynamics is a quantum theory of electrons, positrons, and the electromagnetic field, and served as a role model for subsequent quantum field theories.

The theory of quantum chromodynamics was formulated beginning in the early 1960s. The theory as we know it today was formulated by Politzer, Gross and Wilzcek in 1975. Building on pioneering work by Schwinger, Higgs, Goldstone, Glashow, Weinberg and Salam independently showed how the weak nuclear force and quantum electrodynamics could be merged into a single electroweak force.

[cRazy]

Quantum mechanics ftw.

[Heavy_Load]

Different compounds have different atomic masses, and this fact is used in a mass spectrometer to determine what chemicals are present in a sample. For example, table salt (NaCl), is vaporized (turned into gas) and ionized (broken down) into electrically charged particles, called ions, in the first phase of the mass spectrometry. The sodium ions and chloride ions have specific atomic weights. They also have a charge, which means that their path can be controlled with an electric or magnetic field. The ions are sent into an acceleration chamber and passed through a slit in a metal sheet. A magnetic field is applied to the chamber. The field pushes each ion perpendicular to the plane defined by the particles direction of travel and the magnetic field lines. They are then deflected (makes them curve instead of traveling straight) onto a detector. The lighter ions are deflected more than the heavier ions because according to Newton's second law of motion the acceleration of a particle is inversely proportional to its mass. Likewise, the magnetic field can push the lighter ions further, thereby giving them a larger deflection, than the heavier ions. The detector measures exactly how far each ion has been deflected, and from this measurement, the ion's 'mass-to-charge ratio' can be worked out. From this information it is possible to determine with a high level of certainty the chemical composition of the original sample.
This example was of a sector instrument, however there are many types of mass spectrometers that not only analyze the ions differently but produce different types of ions; however they all use electric and magnetic fields to change the path of ions in some way.
The ion source is the part of the mass spectrometer that ionizes the material under analysis (the analyte). The ions are then transported by magnetic or electric fields to the mass analyzer.
Techniques for ionization have been key to determining what types of samples can be analyzed by mass spectrometry. Electron ionization and chemical ionization are used for gases and vapors. In chemical ionization sources, the analyte is ionized by chemical ion-molecule reactions during collisions in the source. Two techniques often used with liquid and solid biological samples include electrospray ionization (due to John Fenn) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI, due to K. Tanaka and separately, M. Karas and F. Hillenkamp). Inductively coupled plasma sources are used primarily for metal analysis on a wide array of samples types. Others include fast atom bombardment (FAB), thermospray, desorption/ionization on silicon (DIOS), Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART), atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and thermal ionisation.
Mass analyzers separate the ions according to their mass-to-charge ratio. All mass spectrometers are based on dynamics of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields in vacuum where the following two laws apply:
(Lorentz force law)
(Newton's second law of motion)
where F is the force applied to the ion, m is the mass of the ion, a is the acceleration, q is the ionic charge, E is the electric field, and v x B is the vector cross product of the ion velocity and the magnetic field
Equating the above expressions for the force appied to the ion yields:

This differential equation is the classic equation of motion of charged particles. Together with the particles' initial conditions it completely determines the particles motion in space and time and therefore is the basis of every mass spectrometer. It immediately reveals that two particles with the same physical quantity m/q behave exactly the same. Thus all mass spectrometers actually measure m/q and strictly speaking should be called mass-to-charge spectrometers. When presenting data, it is common to use the (officially) dimensionless m/z (called mass-to-charge ratio, although (more accurately) it represents the ratio of the mass number and the charge number), where z is the number of elementary charges (e) on the ion (z=q/e).
There are many types of mass analyzers, using either static or dynamic fields, and magnetic or electric fields, but all operate according to this same law. Each analyzer type has its strengths and weaknesses. Many mass spectrometers use two or more mass analyzers for tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). In addition to the more common mass analyzers listed below, there are other less common ones designed for special situations.

It uses an electric and/or magnetic field to affect the path and/or velocity of the charged particles in some way. As shown above, sector instruments change the direction of ions that are flying through the mass analyzer. The ions enter a magnetic or electric field which bends the ion paths depending on their mass-to-charge ratios, deflecting the more charged and faster-moving, lighter ions more. The ions eventually reach the detector and their relative abundances are measured. The analyzer can be used to select a narrow range of m/q or to scan through a range of m/q to catalog the ions present.
Besides the original magnetic-sector analyzers, several other types of analyzer are now more common, including time-of-flight, quadrupole ion trap, quadrupole and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass analyzers.
Perhaps the easiest to understand is the Time-of-flight (TOF) analyzer. It uses an electric field to accelerate the ions through the same potential, and then measures the time they take to reach the detector. If the particles all have the same charge, then their kinetic energies will be identical, and their velocities will depend only on their masses. Lighter ions will reach the detector first.
Quadrupole mass analyzers use oscillating electrical fields to selectively stabilize or destabilize ions passing through a radio frequency (RF) quadrupole field. A quadrupole mass analyzer acts as a mass selective filter and is closely related to the Quadrupole ion trap, particularly the linear quadrupole ion trap except that it operates without trapping the ions. A common variation of the quadrupole is the triple quadrupole.
The quadrupole ion trap works on the same physical principles as the QMS, but the ions are trapped and sequentially ejected. Ions are created and trapped in a mainly quadrupole RF potential and separated by m/q, non-destructively or destructively.
There are many mass/charge separation and isolation methods but most commonly used is the mass instability mode in which the RF potential is ramped so that the orbit of ions with a mass a > b are stable while ions with mass b become unstable and are ejected on the z-axis onto a detector.
Ions may also be ejected by the resonance excitation method, whereby a supplemental oscillatory excitation voltage is applied to the endcap electrodes, and the trapping voltage amplitude and/or excitation voltage frequency is varied to bring ions into a resonance condition in order of their mass/charge ratio.
The cylindrical ion trap mass spectrometer is a derivative of the quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer.
A linear quadrupole ion trap is similar to a QIT, but traps ions in a 2D quadrupole field, instead of a 3D quadrupole field as in a QIT.
Fourier transform mass spectrometry, or more precisely Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance MS, measures mass by detecting the image current produced by ions cyclotroning in the presence of a magnetic field. Instead of measuring the deflection of ions with a detector such as a electron multiplier, the ions are injected into a Penning trap (a static electric/magnetic ion trap) where they effectively form part of a circuit. Detectors at fixed positions in space measure the electrical signal of ions which pass near them over time producing cyclical signal. Since the frequency of an ion's cycling is determined by its mass to charge ratio, this can be deconvoluted by performing a Fourier transform on the signal. FTMS has the advantage of high sensitivity (since each ion is 'counted' more than once) and much high resolution and thus precision.
Ion cyclotron resonance is an older mass analysis technique similar to FTMS except that ions are detected with a traditional detector. Ions trapped in a Penning trap are excited by an RF electric field until they impact the wall of the trap where the detector is located with ions of different mass being resolved in time.
The Orbitrap is the most recently introduced mass analyser (commercially available since 2005,ThermoElectron(R)). In the Orbitrap, ions are electrostatically trapped in an orbit around a central, spindle-shaped electrode. The electrode confines the ions so that they both orbit around the central electrode and oscillate back and forth along the central electrode's long axis. This oscillation generates an image current in the detector plates which is recorded by the instrument. The frequencies of these image currents depend on the mass to charge ratios of the ions in the Orbitrap. Mass spectra are obtained by Fourier transformation of the recorded image currents.
Similar to Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometers, Orbitraps have a high mass accuracy, high sensitivity and a good dynamic range.
The final element of the mass spectrometer is the detector. The detector records the charge induced or current produced when an ion passes by or hits a surface. In a scanning instrument the signal produced in the detector during the course of the scan versus where the instrument is in the scan (at what m/q) will produce a mass spectrum, a record of ions as a function of m/q.
Typically, some types of electron multiplier is used, though other detectors (such as Faraday cups) have been used. Because the number of ions leaving the mass analyzer at a particular instant is typically quite small, significant amplification is often necessary to get a signal. Microchannel Plate Detectors are commonly used in modern commercial instruments. In FTMS and Orbitraps, the detector consists of a pair of metal surfaces within the mass analyzer/ion trap region which the ions only pass near as they oscillate. No DC current is produced, only a weak AC image current is produced in a circuit between the electrodes.
A common form of mass spectrometry is gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS or GC-MS). In this technique, a gas chromatograph is used to separate different compounds. This stream of separated compounds is fed on-line into the ion source, a metallic filament to which voltage is applied. This filament emits electrons which ionize the compounds. The ions can then further fragment, yielding predictable patterns. Intact ions and fragments pass into the mass spectrometer's analyser and are eventually detected. Liquid chromatography/MS
Similar to gas chromatography MS (GC/MS), liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS or LC-MS) separates compounds chromatographically before they are introduced to the ion source and mass spectrometer. It differs from GC/MS in that the mobile phase is liquid, usually a combination of water and organic solvents, instead of gas. Most commonly, an electrospray ionization source is used in LC/MS.
Ion mobility spectrometry/mass spectrometry is a technique where ions are first separated by drift time through some pressure of neutral gas given an electrical potential gradient before being introduced into a mass spectrometer.
The drift time is a measure of the radius relative to the charge of the ion. The duty cycle of IMS (time over which the experiment takes place) is longer than most mass spectrometers such that the mass spectrometer can sample along the course of the IMS separation. This produces data about the IMS separation and the mass-to-charge ratio of the ions in a manner similar to LC/MS.
The duty cycle of IMS is short relative to liquid chromatography or gas chromatography separations and can thus be coupled to such techniques producing triply hyphenated techniques such as LC/IMS/MS.
Tandem mass spectrometry involves multiple steps of mass selection or analysis, usually separated by some form of fragmentation. A tandem mass spectrometer is one capable of multiple rounds of mass spectrometry. For example, one mass analyzer can isolate one peptide from many entering a mass spectrometer. A second mass analyzer then stabilizes the peptide ions while they collide with a gas, causing them to fragment by collision-induced dissociation (CID). A third mass analyzer then catalogs the fragments produced from the peptides. Tandem MS can also be done in a single mass analyzer over time as in a quadrupole ion trap. There are various methods for fragmenting molecules for tandem MS, including collision-induced dissociation (CID), electron capture dissociation (ECD), electron transfer dissociation (ETD), infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) and blackbody infrared radiative dissociation (BIRD). An important application using tandem mass spectrometry is in protein identification.

(The above should not be confused with the mass spectrometry technique for inorganic isotope analysis which uses a Tandem van de Graaff Accelerator. In this case "tandem accelerator" means a large nuclear particle accelerator operating at several million volts with two stages operating in tandem to accelerate the particles. This is particularly used for isotope ratio analysis of cosmogenic isotopes such as Be-10, Cl-36, Al-26 and C-14.)

Mass spectrometry produces various types of data. The most ubiquitous data representation is the mass spectrum.
Certain types of mass spectrometry data are best represented as a mass chromatogram. Types of chromatograms include selected ion monitoring (SIM), total ion current (TIC), and selected reaction monitoring chromatogram (SRM), among many others.
Other types of mass spectrometry data are well represented as a contour map of mass-to-charge on one axis, intensity on another and an additional experimental parameter (often time) on the third axis, thus producing a three dimensional surface.
Mass spectrometry data analysis is a complicated subject matter that is very specific to the type of experiment producing the data. There are several general subdivisions of data that are fundamental to beginning to understand any data. Some questions relevant to understanding MS data are:
Is the data positive ion mode or negative ion mode data?
It is very important to know whether the observed ions are negatively or positively charged. This is often important in determining the neutral mass but it also indicates something about the nature of the molecules.
What ion source is being used?
This is very important, since ion sources produce a very wide variety of results. A source such as an electron impact source produces many fragments and mostly odd electron species with one charge, where a source such as an electrospray source usually produces quasimolecular even electron species that may be multiply charged.
Is this an MS/MS spectrum?
Tandem mass spectrometry purposely produces fragment ions post source.
What is the origin of the sample?
By understanding the origin certain expectations can be assumed. For example, if the sample is coming from a synthesis/manufacturing process impurities are likely to be present that are related to the major component. If the sample is a relatively crude preparation of a biological sample, the sample likely contains a certain amount of salt that may form adducts with the analyte molecules in certain analyses.
How was the sample prepared? How was it run/introduced?
Samples often must be prepared for analysis. An important example is which matrix was used for MALDI spotting, since much of the energetics of the desorption/ionization event is controlled by the matrix rather than the laser power. Sometimes samples are spiked with sodium or another ion-carrying species to produce adducts rather than a protonated species.
What are you trying to achieve?
This is the most overlooked basic question. To interpret data one must know the desired outcome (and have collected the right data in the first place). There are many bits of information that can be gleaned from mass spectrometry data, such as the masses of the molecules, the purity of the sample, and the structure of the molecules. Each of these questions requires a different approach.


Mass spectrometer to determine the 16O/18O und 12C/13C isotope ratio on biogenous carbonate
Mass spectrometry is also used to determine the isotopic composition of elements within a sample. Differences in mass among isotopes of an element are very small, and the less abundant isotopes of an element are typically very rare, so a very sensitive instrument is required. These instruments, sometimes referred to as isotope ratio mass spectrometers (IR-MS), usually use a single magnet to bend a beam of ionized particles towards a series of Faraday cups which convert particle impacts to electric current. A fast on-line analysis of deuterium content of water can be done using Flowing afterglow mass spectrometry, FA-MS. Probably the most sensitive and accurate mass spectrometer for this purpose is the accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS). Isotope ratios are important markers of a variety of processes. Some isotope ratios are used to determine the age of materials for example as in carbon dating. Labelling with stable isotopes is also used for protein quantification. (see Protein quantitation below)
Exposure and burial dating techniques rely on the fact that an object under a few meters of overlying material, such as soil, sediment, rock, or ice, is shielded from cosmic radiation; however, when that object is moved to the surface of the Earth it is exposed to incoming radiation. While an object is exposed to this radiation, cosmogenic nuclides such as 10Be, 14C, 26Al, and 36Cl are produced. These elements are radioactive, and have a half-life of thousands to millions of years. Measurements are typically made using an accelerator mass spectrometer, which gives a ratio of stable to radio isotopes.
Exposure dating is a technique used to find an estimated time for which an object has been on the surface of the Earth. A mass spectrometer is able to measure the ratio of these radio-isotopes to that of the stable isotope, this ratio is then used to find the absolute amount of radio-isotope in the object. The absolute amount of radio-isotope is directly proportional to the time it has spent on the surface, making it possible to find the amount of time the object has been exposed once the rate of production for a radio-isotope is known.
Burial dating, another technique involving cosmogenic nuclides, estimates the length of burial of an object. For this technique the object is assumed to have been at the surface of the Earth for some time before it becomes buried. If the amount of time an object was at the surface prior to burial is known, an initial quantity of radio-isotopes may be assumed. All radio-isotopes decay in the same fashion and the half lives of all are known, which allows the two known chemical concentrations at two different times to be placed into equations that give the length of time the object was buried. Using the chemical composition of the sample, it is possible to find the amount of radio-isotope left in the object after burial.
Several techniques use ions created in a dedicated ion source injected into a flow tube or a drift tube: selected ion flow tube (SIFT-MS), and proton transfer reaction (PTR-MS), are variants of chemical ionization dedicated for trace gas analysis of air, breath or liquid headspace using well defined reaction time allowing calculations of analyte concentrations from the known reaction kinetics without the need for internal standard or calibration.
An atom probe is an instrument that combines time-of-flight mass spectrometry and field ion microscopy (FIM) to map the location of individual atoms.
Pharmacokinetics is often studied using mass spectrometry due to the complex nature of the matrix (often blood or urine) and the need for high sensitivity to observe low dose and long time point data. The most common instrumentation used in this application is LC-MS with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Tandem mass spectrometry is usually employed for added specificity. Standard curves and internal standards are used for quantitation of usually a single pharmaceutical in the samples. The samples represent different time points as a pharmaceutical is administered and then metabolized or cleared from the body. Blank or t=0 samples taken before administration are important in determining background and insuring data integrity with such complex sample matrices. Much attention is paid to the linearity of the standard curve; however it is not uncommon to use curve fitting with more complex functions such as quadratics since the response of most mass spectrometers is less than linear across large concentration ranges.
There is currently considerable interest in the use of mass spectrometry for microdosing studies, which are seen as a promising alternative to animal experimentation.
Mass spectrometry is an important emerging method for the characterization of proteins. The two primary methods for ionization of whole proteins are electrospray ionization (ESI) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI). In keeping with the performance and mass range of available mass spectrometers, two approaches are used for characterizing proteins. In the first, intact proteins are ionized by either of the two techniques described above, and then introduced to a mass analyser. In the second, proteins are enzymatically digested into smaller peptides using an agent such as trypsin or pepsin. Other proteolytic digest agents are also used. The collection of peptide products are then introduced to the mass analyser. This is often referred to as the "bottom-up" approach of protein analysis.
Whole protein mass analysis is primarily conducted using either time-of-flight (TOF) MS, or Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR). These two types of instrument are preferable here because of their wide mass range, and in the case of FT-ICR, its high mass accuracy. Mass analysis of proteolytic peptides is a much more popular method of protein characterization, as cheaper instrument designs can be used for characterization. Additionally, sample preparation is easier once whole proteins have been digested into smaller peptide fragments. The most widely used instrument for peptide mass analysis is the quadrupole ion trap. Multiple stage quadrupole-time-of-flight and MALDI time-of-flight instruments also find use in this application.
Proteins of interest to biological researchers are usually part of a very complex mixture of other proteins and molecules that co-exist in the biological medium. This presents two significant problems. First, the two ionization techniques used for large molecules only work well when the mixture contains roughly equal amounts of constituents, while in biological samples, different proteins tend to be present in widely differing amounts. If such a mixture is ionized using electrospray or MALDI, the more abundant species have a tendency to "drown" signals from less abundant ones. The second problem is that the mass spectrum from a complex mixture is very difficult to interpret due to the overwhelming number of mixture components. This is exacerbated by the fact that enzymatic digestion of a protein gives rise to a large number of peptide products.
To contend with this problem, two methods are widely used to fractionate proteins, or their peptide products from an enzymatic digestion. The first method fractionates whole proteins and is called two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. The second method, high performance liquid chromatography is used to fractionate peptides after enzymatic digestion. In some situations, it may be necessary to combine both of these techniques.
Gel spots identified on a 2D Gel are usually attributable to one protein. If the identity of the protein is desired, the gel spot can be excised, and digested proteolytically. The peptide masses resulting from the digestion can be determined by mass spectrometry using peptide mass fingerprinting. If this information does not allow unequivocal identification of the protein, its peptides can be subject to tandem mass spectrometry.
Characterization of protein mixtures using HPLC/MS is also called shotgun proteomics and mudpit. A peptide mixture that results from digestion of a protein mixture is fractionated by one or two steps of liquid chromatography. The eluent from the chromatography stage can be either directly introduced to the mass spectrometer through electrospray ionization, or laid down on a series of small spots for later mass analysis using MALDI.
There are two main ways MS is used to identify proteins. Peptide mass fingerprinting (mentioned in the previous section) uses the masses of proteolytic peptides as input to a search of a database of predicted masses that would arise from digestion of a list of known proteins. If a protein sequence in the reference list gives rise to a significant number of predicted masses that match the experimental values, there is some evidence that this protein was present in the original sample.

Tandem MS is becoming a more popular experimental method for identifying proteins. Collision-induced dissociation is used in mainstream applications to generate a set of fragments from a specific peptide ion. The fragmentation process primarily gives rise to cleavage products that break along peptide bonds. Because of this simplicity in fragmentation, it is possible to use the observed fragment masses to match with a database of predicted masses for one of many given peptide sequences. Tandem MS of whole protein ions has been investigated recently using electron capture dissociation and has demonstrated extensive sequence information in principle but is not in common practice. This is sometimes referred to as the "top-down" approach in that it involves starting with the whole mass and then pulling it apart rather than starting with pieces (proteolytic fragments) and piecing the protein back together using De novo repeat detection (bottom-up).
A number of different algorithmic approaches have been described to identify peptides and proteins from tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) data, including peptide fragment fingerprinting (SEQUEST, MASCOT, OMSSA and X!Tandem) peptide de novo sequencing (PEAKS, LuteFisk and Sherenga) and peptide sequence tag based searching (SPIDER, GutenTAG).
Several recent methods allow for the quantitation of proteins by mass spectrometry. Typically, stable (e.g. non-radioactive) heavier isotopes of carbon (C13) or nitrogen (N15) are incorporated into one sample while the other one is labelled with corresponding light isotopes (e.g. C12 and N14). The two samples are mixed before the analysis. Peptides derived from the different samples can be distinguished due to their mass difference. The ratio of their peak intensities corresponds to the relative abundance ratio of the peptides (and proteins). The most popular methods for isotope labelling are SILAC (stable isotope labelling with amino acids in cell culture), ICAT (isotope coded affinity tagging), ITRAQ (isotope tags for relative and absolute quantitation).
The 3 dimensional structure of proteins can be probed with mass spectrometry in various ways. By using chemical crosslinking to couple parts of the protein, that are close in space, but far apart in sequence, information about the overall structure can be obtained. By following the exchange of amide protons with deuterium from the solvent, it is possible to probe the solvent accessibility of various parts of the protein.
As a standard method for analysis several mass spectrometers have reached other planets and moons. Two were taken to Mars by the Viking program. In early 2005 the Cassini-Huygens mission delivered a specialized GC-MS instrument aboard the Huygens probe through the atmosphere of Titan, the largest moon of the planet Saturn. This instrument analyzed atmospheric samples along its descent trajectory and was able to vaporize and analyze samples of Titan's frozen, hydrocarbon covered surface once the probe had landed. These measurements compare the abundance of isotope(s) of each particle comparatively to earth's natural abundance.
Mass spectrometers were used in hospitals for respiratory gas analysis beginning around 1975 through the end of the century, some are likely still in use but none are currently being manufactured.
Found mostly in the operating room they were a part of a complex system in which respired gas samples from patients undergoing anesthesia were drawn into the instrument through a valve mechanism designed to sequentially connect up to 32 rooms to the mass spectrometer. A computer directed all operations of the system, the data collected from the mass spectrometer was delivered to the individual rooms for the anesthesiologist to use.
This magnetic sector mass spectrometer's uniqueness may have been the fact that a plane of detectors, each purposely positioned to collect all of ion species expected to be in the samples, allowed the instrument to simultaneously report the all of the patient respired gases. Although the mass range was limited to slightly over 120 AMU fragmentation of some of the heavier molecules negated the need for a higher detection limit!
In 1886, Eugen Goldstein observed "rays" that traveled through the channels of a perforated cathode in a low pressure gas discharge and moved toward the anode, in the opposite direction to the negatively charged cathode rays. Goldstein called these positively charged anode rays "Kanalstrahlen" or canal rays. Wilhelm Wien found that strong electric or magnetic fields deflected the canal rays and, in 1899, constructed a device with parallel electric and magnetic fields that separated the positive rays according to their charge-to-mass ratio (e/m). Wien found that the charge-to-mass ratio depended on the nature of the gas in the discharge tube. English scientist J.J. Thomson later improved on the work of Wilhelm Wien by reducing the pressure to create a mass spectrograph. The processes that more directly gave rise to the modern version of the mass spectrometer were devised by Arthur Jeffrey Dempster and F.W. Aston in 1918 and 1919 respectively.
In 2002, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was received by John Fenn for the development of electrospray ionization (ESI) and Koichi Tanaka for the development of soft laser desorption (SLD) in 1987. An improved SLD method, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), was developed in 1987 by Franz Hillenkamp and Michael Karas.

[Demon]

Tbh get KK to make it for you...it sounds crap already but just to make sure you better let the 'experts' do it.

[giga]

TGU should stick to making Nazi sims

[Avoch]

Originally Posted by Demon

Tbh get KK to make it for you...it sounds crap already but just to make sure you better let the 'experts' do it.

Made me laugh, lol

[giga]

In terms of ideology, Nazism has come to stand for a belief in the superiority of an Aryanmaster race, an abstraction of the Germanic peoples. During the time of Hitler, the Nazis advocated a strong, centralized government under the Führer and claimed to be defending Germany and the German people (including those of German ethnicity abroad) against communism and so-called Jewish subversion. Ultimately, the Nazis sought to create a largely homogenous and self-sufficient ethnic state, absorbing the ideas of Pan-Germanism and pairing them other abstract concepts, some related to social theory and even Nietzsche's Übermensch.
However, historians often disagree on the principle interests of the Nazi Party and whether Nazism can be considered a coherent ideology. The original National Socialists claimed that there would be no program that would bind them, and that they wanted to reject any established world view. Still, as Hitler played a major role in the development of the Nazi Party from its early stages and rose to become the movement's indisputable iconographic figurehead, much of what is thought to be "Nazism" is in line with Hitler's own political beliefs - the ideology and the man continue to remain largely interchangeable in the public eye. Some dispute whether Hitler's views relate directly to those surrounding the movement; the problem is furthered by the inability of various self-proclaimed Nazis and Nazi groups to decide on a universal ideology.

Nazism and Fascism

In both popular thought and academic scholarship, Nazism is generally considered a form of fascism - with "fascism" defined so as to include any of the authoritarian, nationalist, totalitarian movements that developed in Europe around the same time. The debate focuses mainly on comparisons of fascists movements in general with the Italian prototype, including the fascists in Germany. The idea mentioned above to reject all former ideas and ideologies like democracy, liberalism, and especially marxism (as in Nolte[9]) make it difficult to track down a perfect definition of these two terms. However, Italian Fascists tended to believe that all elements in society should be unified through corporatism to form an "Organic State"; this meant that these Fascists often had no strong opinion on the question of race, as it was only the State and nation that mattered. German Nazism, on the other hand, emphasized the Aryan race or "Volk" principle to the point where the state simply seemed a means through which the Aryan race could realize its "true destiny." Since a debate among historians (especially Zeev Sternhell) to see each movement, or at least the German, as unique, the issue has been settled in most parts showing that there is a stronger family resemblance between the Italian and the German fascist movement than there is between democracies in Europe or the communist states of the Cold War[10]; additionally, the crimes of the fascist movement can of course be compared, not only in numbers of casualties but also in common developments: the March on Rome of Mussolini to Hilter's response shortly after to attempt a coup d'etat himself in Munich. Also, Aryanism was not an attractive idea for Italians that had neither blond hair nor blue eyes, but still there was a strong racism and also genocide in concentration camps long before either was in place in Germany.[11] The philosophy that had seemed to be separating both fascisms was shown to be a result of happening in two different countries: since the king of Italy never died, unlike the Reichspräsident, the leader in Italy (Duce) was never able to gain the absolute power the leader in Germany (Führer) did, leading to Mussolini's fall. The academic challenge to separate all fascist movements has since the 80's and early 90's been ground for a new attempt to see even more similarities.
In Soviet useage (which has translated into modern Russian useage), the epithet fascist is synonymous with Nazi Germans. This came to be only after Hitler's invasion of the USSR. Several historians and authors, such as dissident Valery Senderov, have claimed that the "fascist" epithet for Nazi Germans was created by Stalin who did not want to use the term Nazi, fearing it would cast a negative spin on the word socialism (National Socialism).

Nazi theory

Political Ideologies

There was no 'complete', official theory of Nazism, anywhere. Among comments on the Nazi movement, those of its leader Adolf Hitler are thought to be very influential. He claimed in his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) that he first began to develop his views through observations he made while living in Vienna. He concluded that there was a racial, religious, and cultural hierarchy, and he placed "Aryans" at the top as the ultimate superior race, while Jews and "Gypsies" were people at the bottom. He vaguely examined and questioned the policies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where as a citizen by birth, Hitler lived during the Empire's last throes of life. He believed that its ethnic and linguistic diversity had weakened the Empire and helped to create dissension. Further, he saw democracy as a destabilizing force because it placed power in the hands of ethnic minorities who, he claimed, "weakened and destabilized" the Empire by dividing it against itself.

Nationalism

The Nazi state was founded upon a racially defined "German people" and principally rejected the idea of being bound by the limits of nationalism;[12] that was only a means for attempting unlimited supremacy. In that sense, its nationalism and hyper-nationalism was tolerated to reach a world-dominating Germanic-Aryan Volksgemeinschaft. This is a central concept of Mein Kampf, symbolized by the motto Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer (one people, one empire, one leader). The Nazi relationship between the Volk and the state was called the Volksgemeinschaft ("people's community"), a late 19th or early 20th century neologism that defined a communal duty of citizens in service to the Reich (opposed to a simple "society"). The term "National Socialism", derives from this citizen-nation relationship, whereby the term socialism is invoked and is meant to be realized through the common duty of the individuals to the German people; all actions are to be in service of the Reich. In practice, the Nazis argued, their goal was to bring forth a nation-state as the locus and embodiment of the people's collective will, bound by the Volksgemeinschaft as both an ideal and an operating instrument. In comparison, non-national socialist ideologies oppose the idea of nations. For further information on national socialism and socialism, and Nazism and fascism, see Fascism and ideology.

Militarism

Nazi rationale also invested heavily in the militarist belief that great nations grow from military power and maintained order, which in turn grow "naturally" from "rational, civilized cultures". The Nazi Party appealed to German nationalists and national pride, capitalizing on irredentist and revanchist sentiments as well as aversions to various aspects of modernist thinking (though at the same time embracing other modernist ideas, e.g. admiration for engine power). Many ethnic Germans were deeply committed to the goal of creating the Greater Germany (the old dream to include German-speaking Austria) and some felt that the use of military force was necessary to achieve it.

Racism

The Nazi racial philosophy wholly embraced Alfred Rosenberg's Aryan Invasion Theory, which traced Aryan peoples in ancient Iran invading the Indus Valley Civilization, and carrying with them great knowledge and science that had been preserved from the antediluvian world. This "antediluvian world" referred to Thule, the speculative pre-Flood/Ice Age origin of the Aryan race, and is often tied to ideas of Atlantis. Most of the leadership and the founders of the Nazi Party were made up of members of the "Thule-Gesellschaft (the Thule Society)", which romanticized the Aryan race through theology and ritual.
Hitler also claimed that a nation was the highest creation of a race, and great nations (literally large nations) were the creation of homogeneous populations of great races, working together. These nations developed cultures that naturally grew from races with "natural good health, and aggressive, intelligent, courageous traits". The weakest nations, Hitler said, were those of impure or mongrel races, because they had divided, quarrelling, and therefore weak cultures. Worst of all were seen to be the parasitic Untermensch (Subhumans), mainly Jews, but also Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled and so called anti-socials, all of whom were considered lebensunwertes Leben ("Life-unworthy life") owing to their perceived deficiency and inferiority, as well as their wandering, nationless invasions ("the International Jew"). The persecution of homosexuals as part of the Holocaust has seen increasing scholarly attention since the 1990s.
According to Nazism, it is an obvious mistake to permit or encourage plurality within a nation. Fundamental to the Nazi goal was the unification of all German-speaking peoples, "unjustly" divided into different Nation States. Hitler claimed that nations that could not defend their territory did not deserve it. Slave races like the Slavic peoples he thought of as less worthy to exist than "leader races". In particular, if a master race should require room to live (Lebensraum), he thought such a race should have the right to displace the inferior indigenous races.
"Races without homelands", Hitler proclaimed, were "parasitic races", and the richer the members of a "parasitic race" were, the more "virulent" the parasitism was thought to be. A "master race" could therefore, according to the Nazi doctrine, easily strengthen itself by eliminating "parasitic races" from its homeland. This was the given rationalization for the Nazis' later oppression and elimination of Jews, Gypsies, Czechs, Poles, the mentally and physically handicapped, homosexuals and others not belonging to these groups or categories that were part of the Holocaust. The Waffen-SS and other German soldiers (including parts of the Wehrmacht), as well as civilian paramilitary groups in occupied territories, were responsible for the deaths of an estimated eleven million men, women, and children in concentration camps, prisoner-of-war camps, labor camps, and death camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka.
The belief in the need to purify the German race lead them to eugenics; this culminated in the involuntary euthanasia of disabled people and the compulsory sterilization of people with mental deficiencies or illnesses perceived as hereditary.

Religion

Hitler extended his rationalizations into a religious doctrine, underpinned by his criticism of traditional Catholicism. In particular, and closely related to Positive Christianity, Hitler objected to Catholicism's ungrounded and international character - that is, it did not pertain to an exclusive race and national culture. At the same time, and somewhat contradictorily, the Nazis combined elements of Germany's Lutheran community tradition with its Northern European, organicpagan past. Elements of militarism found their way into Hitler's own theology, as he preached that his was a "true" or "master" religion, because it would "create mastery" and avoid comforting lies. Those who preached love and tolerance, "in contravention to the facts", were said to be "slave" or "false" religions. The man who recognized these "truths", Hitler continued, was said to be a "natural leader", and those who denied it were said to be "natural slaves". "Slaves" – especially intelligent ones, he claimed – were always attempting to hinder their masters by promoting false religious and political doctrines.
Anti-clericalism can also be interpreted as part of Nazi ideology, simply because the new Nazi hierarchy was not about to let itself be overode by the power that the Church traditionally held. In Austria, clerics had a powerful role in politics and ultimately responded to the Vatican. Although a few exceptions exist, Christian persecution was primarily limited to those who refused to accommodate the new regime and yield to its power. The Nazis often used the church to justify their stance and included many Christian symbols in the Third Reich (Steigmann–Gall). A particularly poignant exemplar is the seen in the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Other Roots

The ideological roots that became German National Socialism were based on numerous sources in European history, drawing especially from Romantic 19th century idealism, and from a biological reading of Friedrich Nietzsche's thoughts on "breeding upwards" toward the goal of an Übermensch (Superhuman). Hitler was an avid reader and received ideas that were later to influence Nazism from traceable publications, such as those of the Germanenorden (Germanic Order) or the Thule society. He also adopted many populist ideas such as limiting profits, abolishing rents and generously increasing social benefits - but only for Germans.

Variants of Nazism and Hitlerism abroad

Nazism as a doctrine is far from being homogeneous and can indeed be divided into various sub-ideologies. During the 20s and 30s, there were two dominant NSDAP factions. There were the followers of Otto Strasser, the so-called Strasserites and the followers of Adolf Hitler or what could be termed Hitlerites. The Strasserite faction eventually fell afoul of Hitler, when Otto Strasser was expelled from the party in 1930, and his attempt to create an oppositional 'left-block' in the form of the Black Front failed. The remainder of the faction, which was to be found mainly in the ranks of the SA, was purged in the Night of the Long Knives, which also saw the murder of Gregor Strasser, Otto's brother. After this point, the Hitlerite faction became dominant. In the post war era, Strasserism has enjoyed something of a revival with many neo-Nazi groups openly proclaiming themselves to be 'Strasserite'. Whether they genuinely eschew Hitlerism in favour of Strasserism, or whether they simply think that by distancing Nazism from Hitler they can somehow make the ideology more acceptable is a matter of intense debate however.
Hitler's theories were not only attractive to Germans: people in positions of wealth and power in other nations are said to have seen them as beneficial. Examples are Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and Eugene Schueller, founder of L'Oréal. Nevertheless, the support for these theories was highest among the general population of Germany.

Homosexuals

The homosexuality of some supporters of Hitler, especially Ernst Röhm, was well known at the time and basis for satire and jokes. Although Hitler abhorred homosexuality, the SA and SS had not a significant, but still a surprisingly representative, number of homosexual members, which was generally ignored. Röhm was killed chiefly because he was perceived as a political threat, not for his sexuality.[13] Once in power, Hitler targeted homosexuals for elimination.[14]

[hinch]

i want those 5 minutes of my life back

[Haze]

Gangster is the frequently misused term for a career criminal who is, or at some point almost invariably becomes, a member of a violent crime organization, such as a gang.

In the WWII era, the word "gangster" became a popular term to describe an individual who was a part of a "mafia" or "organized crime group". In current times, gangsters are most commonly viewed as malicious individuals. The media has had a substantial influence on the modern view of the gangster.

Gangsters are typically organised criminals who are actively engaged in crime as a group activity or enterprise for pleasure and profit. The visibility of activities of gangsters can range from the low-level such as drug-trafficking or protectionism, which are prone to be 'under the radar', to the in-your-face spectacular, such as the UK's multi-million Brinks Mat robbery. Gangsters often run their operations as businesses insofar as they offer a "product" or "service", albeit an illegal one, or, as is sometimes the case, a legitimate business operating as a front for criminal activity.

The ranges and spheres of activities of gangsters are diverse, and frequently are to be found filling the gaps between legislature and physical reality. During the Prohibition era in the United States, gangsters effectively and lucratively exploited the demand for alcohol by filling the gap in supply. In the 1950s, they did the same with gambling. They also actively engage in other demand-driven markets such as trade in narcotics, pimping, people-trafficking, the supply of false documents, and so on and so forth.

Some gangsters engage in extortion, intimidation, and/or bribery to wield influence over labor unions. They are also known for attempting to manipulate the decisions of civil institutions, such as court cases and political elections.

[edit] United Kingdom

Britain has a long and lurid tradition of gangsters, and an ambivalent relationship with them. In Britain a career in crime can also be a useful entrypoint to the media; examples of gangsters who have gone mainstream include "Dodgy" Dave Courtney, "Mad" Frankie Fraser and John McVicar. The epitome and true viciousness of much British gangsterism can, however, be better characterised by the turf wars between the Kray twins (and their associates) and the Richardson gang.

A pimp finds and manages clients for a prostitute and engages them in prostitution (in brothels in most cases and some cases street prostitution) in order to profit from their earnings. Typically, a pimp does not force prostitutes to stay with him, but they have been known to be abusive in order to keep their prostitutes in line or maximize profits. A pimp may also offer to protect them from other pimps, prostitutes or abusive clients. He can also enable a prostitute to work in a particular area under his control. Pimping is a sex crime in most jurisdictions.

Most people who work managing prostitutes are men, but some women work in this capacity as well, but rarely in street prostitution. Women are rarely called pimps, as the word implies male dominance (see Pimps in Popular Culture below) - a woman who manages prostitutes is generally called a madam. (This should not be confused with the title of respect given to adult women in most English-speaking countries.)

Often, low level pimps will initially present themselves as lovers or father-figures to prostitutes (who may be run-aways or otherwise lack a family network) before introducing them to prostitution and perhaps drug addiction. This practice is called "turning out." Most pimp-prostitute relationships are suggestive and guided while the low life types are abusive, using psychological intimidation, manipulation and physical force to control the members in the "stable".

In 1949, the United Nations adopted a convention stating that prostitution is incompatible with human dignity, requiring all signing parties to punish pimps and brothel owners and operators, and to abolish all special treatment or registration of prostitutes. The convention was ratified by 89 countries; non-signatories included Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and the United States.

In 2005, the United Nations adopted a convention stating that prostitution is a matter of sexual choice and should be legal throughout the UN, repealing the 1949 statute. Most voters voted for the resolution, and 165 countries legalized prostitution. The most notable non-signatory was the United States.


In many European, Middle Eastern, African, and Asian countries, prostitution is legal, though pimping is not. (See Prostitution in the Netherlands and Prostitution in Germany for more information.) Managing a brothel is not classified as pimping in these jurisdictions.

In the United States, prostitution is illegal except in licensed brothels in certain counties of Nevada; however, pimping is illegal everywhere. Some municipalities, such as the city of Chicago, have made it possible for female prostitutes to take legal action against their pimps without the danger of being prosecuted for prostitution.

The number of pimps and the prostitutes' level of dependency on them is usually higher in areas where prostitution is illegal or heavily restricted. In places where prostitution is largely unrestricted, the power of pimps seems to decrease, since the prostitutes are less in need of protection.

Starting in the late '90s, the pimp culture saw a rise in popularity, and can be currently seen in the modern hip hop culture of today.

Historically in much of the criminal world, pimps have been looked down on. Rather than disapproval of prostitution, this attitude is due to the pimp is being economically supported by his women and is therefore less of a man. This attitude started to change in the late 1960s.

In the United States, urban pimps and prostitutes began to constitute an imaginary colorful and overly dramatized subculture starting in the 1970s. American pimps are also erroneously known as "macks" and often refer to their business as "the game". The archetypical flamboyant and abusive African American pimp was described in Iceberg Slim's 1969 autobiographical novel Pimp, to be followed by several other similar insider descriptions by other authors. One version of the pimp life is illustrated by author Alfred 'Bilbo' Gholson in his book The Pimp Bible:Sweet Science of Sin.

Subsequently, the pimp subculture described by the authors has been portrayed, with varying accuracy and inaccuracy, in a number of blaxploitation films. American pimps, as depicted in these films, would be seen as people from a lower-class urban setting without a higher education dressed in wild, flashy clothes and driving customized Cadillacs or Lincolns—Cadillac Eldorados in particular are seen as "pimpmobiles". The films Superfly, Dolemite, The Mack, and Willie Dynamite are good examples. Another good example would be Boss'n Up where Corde, portrayed by Snoop Dogg, becomes the most diabolical pimp in the game, after quitting his job as a grocery clerk.

The acclaimed 1976 film Taxi Driver revolves around an underage prostitute who is freed from her stereotypical urban pimp by a sympathetic vigilante.

There have also been American films that depicted pimps as coming from the elite of society, such as the character portrayed by Eddie Albert in Robert Aldrich's film Hustle (1975).

In the 1970s, the pimp images projected in books and films began feeding back into the urban pimp culture itself.

The 1999 documentary American Pimp features interviews with American pimps and prostitutes.

In television, notable stereotypical pimps include Antonio Fargas as "Huggy Bear" in the 1970s TV show Starsky and Hutch, who was also a police informant and was played primarily for humorous effect. This role was later recreated in the 2004 film with Snoop Dogg in the role. Eddie Murphy also portrayed a pimp called Velvet Jones in a recurring Saturday Night Live comedy sketch.

The imagery of the pimp lifestyle has been popularized by hip-hop culture since the 1980s. Artists such as Snoop Dogg, Ice-T, Jay-Z, The Game, Ludacris, Ice Cube, Roberto Sanchez and Too $hort paid obvious tribute to pimping within their lyrics. Many hip-hop artists have embraced a modern version of the pimp image in their music videos by including entourages of scantily-clad women, flashy jewelry (from which the phrase bling-bling emerged) and luxury automobiles. This popular image often eliminates the use of force against women in an effort to portray the pimp lifestyle in a positive light. Well known hit songs that include the word "pimp" in their titles include, Big Pimpin' by Jay-Z, Pimpin' all over the world by Ludacris.

In the late 1990s and earlier part of this decade, Charles Wright portrayed a character entitled "The Godfather", a pimp character in the WWF/WWE. This character helped popularize the slogan "pimpin' ain't easy"; this is also a song by rapper Big Daddy Kane. The movie Hustle and Flow (2005) featured a pimp played by Terrence Howard; its soundtrack contained the song It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp by Three 6 Mafia which would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Song.

Pimping and prostitution have also been themes in the popular culture of other nations, such as China, France, and Russia.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet some contend that the word fishmonger (someone who sells "fish", a modern euphemism for vagina perhaps in use at the time) was in turn a euphemism for a pimp.[1][2]

The term "pimp" is sometimes used figuratively, as in poverty pimp.

Other uses

The term pimping is common slang in medical education to describe the process of attending physicians asking physicians-in-training (i.e. resident physicians or medical students) difficult questions — some would say just questions in general. This is usually used in a derogatory fashion by those being on the receiving end of questions, as in, "I got so nervous when Dr. Smith pimped me about the causes of pancreatitis!" According to The Art of Pimping by Brancati, German surgeon Walter Karl Koch first recorded "Puempfrage" questions in 1889 to be used while seeing patients with his students in Heidelberg. In America, Abraham Flexner noted on his visit to Johns Hopkins in 1916 that Osler (likely William Osler) used rapid-fire questions on his students.

Pimp can also be used as a verb such as "You're pimped up!" or "Pimp my ride." The latter example refers to customizing an automobile, made popular by the show Pimp My Ride on MTV. It can also be used as an adjective connoting the same, i.e. "Man, that car's pimp!" Either use was originally a derogatory term, implying that the subject was overly decorated and tacky (referring to the stereotype of pimps with excessive jewelry, flashy clothes, or brightly colored cars with animal-print upholstery and crystal chandeliers). It was eventually reclaimed as an American slang term for being unique, "cool" or socially desirable, in much the same way as the term "ghetto fabulous". It's even used to describe a young teenage male as "cool" or who is very popular with teenage girls, and can meet and talk to them with ease. This would make the word Pimp another word for a Player or "Lady's Man", to describe it technically. The feminine version of pimp, in this case, is a pimpette, which describes the ultimate female who can get whatever she wants with teenage males just by using her looks.[3] Pimp costumes, in recent years, have been marketed during Halloween and/or used in costume-themed parties either as a throwback to the 1970s and/or entertainment purposes. One Houston-area art car artist was seen in the 2006 Houston Art Car Parade wearing a pimp-themed costume with a fur scarf.

TLDR

1. (Internet) too long; didn't read

[giga]

A number of proposed treatment techniques for pedophilia have been developed. Many regard pedophilia as highly resistant to psychological interference and have dismissed as ineffective most "reparative strategies."[38] Others, such as Dr. Fred Berlin, believe pedophilia can "indeed be successfully treated," if only the medical community would give it more attention.[23] The reported success rate of modern "reparative" treatment on pedophiles is very low.[38]

Non-medical therapies

Treatment strategies for pedophilia include a "12 step support system," parallel to addiction therapy, though such a system is generally regarded as the least efficacious method of treatment.[citation needed]
Another approach is cognitive-behavioral therapy. Usually, this is done by telling the pedophile to fantasize about sexual contact with children, and then, once aroused, they are given instructions to imagine the assumed legal and social consequences of such an action.[citation needed]

Medical therapies

Anti-androgenic medications such as Depo Provera may be used to lower testosterone levels, and are often used in conjunction with the non-medical approaches above. This is commonly referred to as "chemical castration."
Other programs induce an association of illegal behavior with pain by means of the more controversial aversion therapy, in which the pedophile is given an electric shock while fantasizing.[39] A study by the Council on Scientific Affairs found that the success rate of aversion therapy was parallel to that of homosexual reparative therapy.[40] This method is rarely used on pedophiles who have not offended.
Convicted sex offenders, including many pedophiles and homosexuals, have been treated by the psychosurgical procedure commonly known as lobotomization. Psychosurgery has long been controversial, particularly the historical use of surgical intervention on homosexuals given that homosexuality is no longer considered a mental illness by the psychiatric community (see for instance Rieber et al. 1976;[41] Sigusch 1977;[42] Rieber & Sigusch 1979;[43] Schorsch & Schmidt 1979)[44]
Thalamotomy is an alternative surgical treatment of sex offenders in practice since the problems with leucotomy have been commonly known (see Greist 1990;[45] Diering & Bell 1991;[46] Hay & Sachdev 1992;[47] Rappaport 1992;[48] de la Porte 1993;[49] Poynton 1993;[50] Bridges et al. 1994;[51] Cummings et al. 1995)[52] and is increasingly advertized as an "effective therapy" for sex offenders (as well as for some children suffering from symptoms of child sexual abuse, since the 1980s (see for instance Andy 1970;[53] Bradford 1988a;[54] Wyre & Swift 1991;[55] Abel et al. 1992;[56] Bridges et al. 1994;[51] Cummings et al. 1995).[52] As and Curfman have noted, however, given the availability of psychopharmacological treatment options, psychosurgical interventions are not likely to be employed given their extreme side effects and irreversible nature. See the same article for an in depth review of treatment options and diagnostic criteria. Additionally Reid 2002 writes that neurosurgery for sex offenders is "essentially unavailable" in the United States and that data on its use is sparse.[57]

Criticisms of treatment strategies

Sigusch 2001[58] and others[41][42][43][44] criticize the moral pressure put upon sex offenders continuously until the present day by offering them amnesty in return for such non-standardized brain surgery under whatever name where the surgeon is free to remove as much of the offender's cerebrum as he pleases, a therapy which according to Sigusch 2001 consecutively leads to complete physical destruction of the individual organism (or increasing exhibition of violent behaviour even if there was none before) since according to Sigusch 2001 no successes are observed after each single surgery and surgeons generally regard that the therapy will be more successful the more brain mass will be removed (see also Andy 1970). Balasubramaniam et al. 1969[59] speak of this neurosurgery used on sex offenders as a "sedative" strategy "where a patient is made quiet and manageable by an operation".
Criticisms of therapies for pedophiles as well as theoretical models of no potential for their therapy mostly stem from the finding of some studies that pedophiles exhibit no clinically pathological traits other than the direction of their sexual preference, a fact that is very rare among all other classified paraphilias and mental illnesses[60] where the pathological aetiological characteristics causing deviant behaviour are commonly therapied. As these pathological aetiological characteristics cannot be evidenced in pedophiles, common therapy models fail on them.
Vogt 2006[60] states that even on an international scale only 2 scientific studies have ever been made on distinctly pathological mental characteristics of pedophiles before 2006 that were methodologically correct, naming these as Bernard 1982;[61] Wilson & Cox 1983.[62] Vogt 2006 re-confirmed identical results as Bernard 1982; Wilson & Cox 1983. No pathological characteristics could be found for pedophiles other than the direction of their sexual preference which all three studies explicitly suggest to be up for debate as not pathological especially in light of their findings. The only significant deviance from the norm other than sexual preference that could be found by all three studies was higher mean level of education of pedophiles compared to the average population, while all three studies also opt strongly for distinguishing between clinical and forensical studies made of individuals mostly stigmatized, often traumatized by their current surroundings, and non-clinical, non-forensical studies.
These conclusions are in conflict with those of other researchers, who have found that pedophiles exhibit "many psychiatric features beyond deviant sexual desire, including high rates of comorbid axis I disorders (affective disorders, substance use disorders, impulse control disorders, other paraphilias) as well as severe axis II psychopathology (especially antisocial and Cluster C personality disorders)."[63] Beyond his criticism of clinical and forensic studies, Vogt 2006 replies to this that many, if not most studies diagnose pedophilia merely on the grounds of offenses instead of going through the effort of distinguishing the three categories of offenders via psychological examination and analysis.[60]
Scientists supporting the declassification of pedophilia as paraphilia and mental illness due to the findings of the first two studies include Howitt 1998a;[64] Green 2002;[65] Ng 2002;[66] Fiedler 2004.[67]
Also Langevin 1983[68] and Okami & Goldberg 1992[69]; ("consistent" findings with Langevin 1983) found no pathological characteristics in pedophiles other than their sexual preference and that "None of the commonly held hypotheses were supported." The most likely reason why these two studies were rejected by Vogt 2006 as methodologically incorrect is that they relied upon clinical and/or forensical data.

[Pete]

I did not read it either.


But I will say, your idea fucking sucks.

[Haze]

In biology, evolution is change in the heritable traits of a population over successive generations, as determined by changes in the allele frequencies of genes. Over time, this process can result in speciation, the development of new species from existing ones.

All contemporary organisms on earth are related to each other through common descent, the products of cumulative evolutionary changes over billions of years. Evolution is thus the source of the vast diversity of life on Earth, including the many extinct species attested to in the fossil record.[2][3]

According to the theory of evolution, the basic mechanisms that produce evolutionary change are natural selection (which includes ecological, sexual, and kin selection) and genetic drift; these two mechanisms act on the genetic variation created by mutation, genetic recombination, and gene flow.

The theory of natural selection was first set out in a joint presentation in 1858 of a pair of papers by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace and popularized in Darwin's 1859 book The Origin of Species. Natural selection is the process by which individual organisms with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce. If those traits are heritable, they are passed to the organisms' offspring, with the result that beneficial heritable traits become more common in the next generation.[2][4][5] Given enough time, this passive process can result in varied adaptations to changing environmental conditions.[6]

In the 1930s, Darwinian natural selection was combined with the theory of Mendelian heredity to form the modern evolutionary synthesis, also known as "Neo-Darwinism". The modern synthesis describes evolution as a change in the frequency of alleles within a population from one generation to the next.[6] With its enormous explanatory and predictive power, this theory has become the central organizing principle of modern biology, relating directly to topics such as the origin of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, eusociality in insects, and the biodiversity of Earth's ecosystem.[7][8][9]

Evolution consists of two basic types of processes: those that introduce new variation into a population, and those that affect the frequencies of existing genes. Paleontologist Stephen J. Gould once phrased this succinctly as "variation proposes and selection disposes."[10] In natural populations, there is a certain amount of phenotypic variation (e.g., what makes you appear different from your neighbor). This phenotypic variation is the result of variants in gene sequences among the individuals of a population or the interaction of a genotype with the environment-phenotypic plasticity There may be one or more functional variants of a gene or locus, and these variants are called alleles. Most sites in the genome (i.e., complete DNA sequence) of a species are identical in all individuals in the population; sites with more than one allele are called polymorphic or segregating sites.

[edit] Variation

All genetic variation begins as a new mutation in a single individual; in subsequent generations the frequency of that variant may fluctuate in the population, becoming more or less prevalent relative to other alleles at the site. This change in allele frequency is the commonly accepted definition of evolution, and all evolutionary forces act by driving allele frequency in one direction or another. Variation disappears when it reaches the point of fixation — when it either reaches a frequency of zero and disappears from the population, or reaches a frequency of one and replaces the ancestral allele entirely.

[edit] Mutation

Main article: Mutation

Mutation can occur because of "copy errors" during DNA replication.
Enlarge
Mutation can occur because of "copy errors" during DNA replication.

Genetic variation arises due to random mutations that occur at a certain rate in the genomes of all organisms. Mutations are permanent, transmissible changes to the genetic material (usually DNA or RNA) of a cell, and can be caused by: "copying errors" in the genetic material during cell division; by exposure to radiation, chemicals, or viruses. In multicellular organisms, mutations can be subdivided into germline mutations that occur in the gametes and thus can be passed on to progeny, and somatic mutations that can lead to the malfunction or death of a cell and can cause cancer.

Mutations that are not affected by natural selection are called neutral mutations. Their frequency in the population is governed by mutation rate, genetic drift and selective pressure on linked alleles. It is understood that most of a species' genome, in the absence of selection, undergoes a steady accumulation of neutral mutations.

Individual genes can be affected by point mutations, also known as SNPs, in which a single base pair is altered. The substitution of a single base pair may or may not affect the function of the gene (see mutation) while deletions and insertions of a single or several base pairs usually results in a non-functional gene.[11]

Mobile elements, transposons, make up a major fraction of the genomes of plants and animals and appear to have played a significant role in the evolution of genomes. These mobile insertional elements can jump within a genome and alter existing genes and gene networks to produce evolutionary change and diversity.

On the other hand, gene duplications, which may occur via a number of mechanisms, are believed to be one major source of raw material for evolving new genes as tens to hundreds of genes are duplicated in animal genomes every million years.[12] Most genes belong to larger "families" of genes derived from a common ancestral gene (two genes from a species that are in the same family are dubbed "paralogs"). Another mechanism causing gene duplication is intergenic recombination, particularly 'exon shuffling', i.e., an aberrant recombination that joins the 'upstream' part of one gene with the 'downstream' part of another. Genome duplications and chromosome duplications also appear to have served a significant role in evolution. Genome duplication has been the driving force in the Teleostei genome evolution, where up to four genome duplications are thought to have happened, resulting in species with more than 250 chromosomes.

Large chromosomal rearrangements do not necessarily change gene function, but do generally result in reproductive isolation, and, by definition, speciation (species (in sexual organisms) are usually defined by the ability to interbreed). An example of this mechanism is the fusion of two chromosomes in the homo genus that produced human chromosome 2; this fusion did not occur in the chimp lineage, resulting in two separate chromosomes in extant chimps.

Generally mathematical models incorporating mutation and natural selection have been used to model adaptation and evolution. Recent trends now incorporate "game theory" as more applicable to generating reliable models [13]. Further, this has revealed cooperation as a fundamental property needed for evolution to construct new levels of organization. New levels of organization evolve when the competing units on the lower level begin to cooperate. Cooperation allows specialization and thereby promotes biological diversity. Cooperation is the secret behind the open-endedness of the evolutionary process. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of evolution is its ability to generate cooperation in a competitive world." and suggests that "we might add “natural cooperation” as a third fundamental principle of evolution beside mutation and natural selection".[14]

Natural selection comes from differences in survival and reproduction . Differential mortality is the survival rate of individuals to their reproductive age. Differential fertility is the total genetic contribution to the next generation. Note that, whereas mutations and genetic drift are random, natural selection is not, as it preferentially selects for different mutations based on differential fitnesses. For example, rolling dice is random, but always picking the higher number on two rolled dice is not random. The central role of natural selection in evolutionary theory has given rise to a strong connection between that field and the study of ecology.

Natural selection can be subdivided into two categories:

* Ecological selection occurs when organisms that survive and reproduce increase the frequency of their genes in the gene pool over those that do not survive.
* Sexual selection occurs when organisms which are more attractive to the opposite sex because of their features reproduce more and thus increase the frequency of those features in the gene pool.

Natural selection also operates on mutations in several different ways:

* Positive or directional selection increases the frequency of a beneficial mutation, or pushes the mean in either direction.
* Purifying or stabilizing selection maintains a common trait in the population by decreasing the frequency of harmful mutations and weeding them out of the population. "Living fossils" are arguably the product of stabilizing selection, as their form and traits have remained virtually identical over a long period. It is argued that stabilizing selection is the most common form of natural selection.
* Artificial selection refers to purposeful breeding of a species to produce a more desirable and “perfect” breed. Humans have directed artificial selection in the breeding of both animals and plants, with examples ranging from agriculture (crops and livestock) to pets and horticulture. However, because humans are only part of the environment, the fractions of change in a species due to natural or artificial means can be difficult to determine. Artificial selection within human populations is a controversial enterprise known as eugenics.
* Balancing selection maintains variation within a population through a number of mechanisms, including:
o Heterozygote advantage or overdominance, where the heterozygote is more fit than either of the homozygous forms (exemplified by human sickle cell anemia conferring resistance to malaria)
o Frequency-dependent selection, where rare variants either have increased fitness or decreased fitness, because of their rarity.
* Disruptive selection favors both extremes, and results in a bimodal distribution of gene frequency. The mean may or may not shift.
* Selective sweeps describe the affect of selection acting on linked alleles. It comes in two forms:
o Background selection occurs when a deleterious mutation is selected against, and linked mutations are eliminated along with the deleterious variant, resulting in lower genetic polymorphism in the surrounding region.
o Genetic hitchhiking occurs when a beneficial allele is selected for, and linked alleles, which can be neutral or beneficial, are pushed towards fixation along with the beneficial allele.

Through the process of natural selection, organisms become better adapted to their environments. Adaptation is any evolutionary process that increases the fitness of the individual, or sometimes the trait that confers increased fitness, e.g. a stronger prehensile tail or greater visual acuity. Note that adaptation is context-sensitive; a trait that increases fitness in one environment may decrease it in another.

Evolution does not act in a linear direction towards a pre-defined "goal" — it only responds to various types of adaptationary changes. The belief in a teleological evolution of this sort is known as orthogenesis, and is not supported by the scientific understanding of evolution. One example of this misconception is the erroneous belief humans will evolve more fingers in the future on account of their increased use of machines such as computers. In reality, this would only occur if more fingers offered a significantly higher rate of reproductive success than those not having them, which seems very unlikely at the current time.

Most biologists believe that adaptation occurs through the accumulation of many mutations of small effect. However, macromutation is an alternative process for adaptation that involves a single, very large scale mutation.

[edit] Recombination

Main article: Genetic recombination

In asexual organisms, variants in genes on the same chromosome will always be inherited together — they are linked, by virtue of being on the same DNA molecule. However, sexual organisms, in the production of gametes, shuffle linked alleles on homologous chromosomes inherited from the parents via meiotic recombination. This shuffling allows independent assortment of alleles (mutations) in genes to be propagated in the population independently. This allows bad mutations to be purged and beneficial mutations to be retained more efficiently than in asexual populations.

However, the meitoic recombination rate is not very high - on the order of one crossover (recombination event between homologous chromosomes) per chromosome arm per generation. Therefore, linked alleles are not perfectly shuffled away from each other, but tend to be inherited together. This tendency may be measured by comparing the co-occurrence of two alleles, usually quantified as linkage disequilibrium (LD). A set of alleles that are often co-propagated is called a haplotype. Strong haplotype blocks can be a product of strong positive selection.

Recombination is mildly mutagenic, which is one of the proposed reasons why it occurs with limited frequency. Recombination also breaks up gene combinations that have been successful in previous generations, and hence should be opposed by selection. However, recombination could be favoured by negative frequency-dependent selection (this is when rare variants increase in frequency) because it leads to more individuals with new and rare gene combinations being produced.

When alleles cannot be separated by recombination (for example in mammalian Y chromosomes), there is an observable reduction in effective population size, known as the Hill-Robertson effect, and the successive establishment of bad mutations, known as Muller's ratchet.

[edit] Gene flow, genetic drift, and population structure

Main article: Population genetics

Map of the world showing distribution of camelids. Solid black lines indicate possible migration routes.
Enlarge
Map of the world showing distribution of camelids. Solid black lines indicate possible migration routes.

Gene flow (also called gene admixture or simply migration) is the exchange of genetic variation between populations, when geography and culture are not obstacles. Ernst Mayr thought that gene flow is likely to be homogenising, and therefore counteract selective adaptation. Where there are obstacles to gene flow, the situation is termed reproductive isolation and is considered to be necessary for speciation.

The free movement of alleles through a population may also be impeded by population structure. For example, most real-world populations are not actually fully interbreeding; geographic proximity has a strong influence on the movement of alleles within the population.

Genetic drift describes changes in allele frequency from one generation to the next due to sampling variance. The frequency of an allele in the offspring generation will vary according to a probability distribution of the frequency of the allele in the parent generation. Thus, over time even in the absence of selection upon the alleles, allele frequencies will tend to "drift" upward or downward, eventually becoming "fixed" - that is, going to 0% or 100% frequency. Thus, fluctuations in allele frequency between successive generations may result in some alleles disappearing from the population due to chance alone. Two separate populations that begin with the same allele frequencies therefore might drift apart by random fluctuation into two divergent populations with different allele sets (for example, alleles present in one population could be absent in the other, or vice versa).

Population structure has profound effects on possible mechanisms of evolution. The consequence of genetic drift depends strongly on the size of the population (generally abbreviated as N): drift is important in small mating populations (see Founder effect and Population bottleneck), where chance fluctuations from generation to generation can be large. The relative importance of natural selection and genetic drift in determining the fate of new mutations also depends on the population size and the strength of selection: when N times s (population size times strength of selection) is small, genetic drift predominates. When N times s is large, selection predominates. Thus, natural selection is predominant in large populations, or equivalently, genetic drift is stronger in small populations. Finally, the time for an allele to become fixed in the population by genetic drift (that is, for all individuals in the population to carry that allele) depends on population size, with smaller populations requiring a shorter time to fixation. An example of the effect of population structure is the so-called founder effect, resulting from a migration or population bottleneck, in which a population temporarily has very few individuals, and therefore loses a lot of genetic variation. In this case, a single, rare allele may suddenly increase very rapidly in frequency within a specific population if it happened to be prevalent in a small number of "founder" individuals. The frequency of the allele in the resulting population can be much higher than otherwise expected, especially for deleterious, disease-causing alleles. Since population size has a profound effect on the relative strengths of genetic drift and natural selection, changes in population size can alter the dynamics of these processes considerably.

[edit] Speciation and extinction
An Allosaurus skeleton.
Enlarge
An Allosaurus skeleton.

Speciation is the process by which new biological species arise. This may take place by various mechanisms. Allopatric speciation occurs in populations that become isolated geographically, such as by habitat fragmentation or migration.[22] Sympatric speciation occurs when new species emerge in the same geographic area[23][24] Ernst Mayr's peripatric speciation is a type of speciation that exists in between the extremes of allopatry and sympatry. Peripatric speciation is a critical underpinning of the theory of punctuated equilibrium. An example of rapid sympatric speciation can be eloquently represented in the triangle of U; where new species of Brassica sp. have been made by the fusing of separate genomes from related plants.

Extinction is the disappearance of species (i.e. gene pools). The moment of extinction generally occurs at the death of the last individual of that species. Extinction is not an unusual event in geological time — species are created by speciation, and disappear through extinction. The Permian-Triassic extinction event was the Earth's most severe extinction event, rendering extinct 90% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species. In the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event many forms of life perished (including approximately 50% of all genera), the most often mentioned among them being the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs.

See also: Current Research in Evolutionary Biology

[edit] Evidence of evolution

Main article: Evidence of evolution

Tiktaalik in context: one of many species that track the evolutionary development of fish fins into tetrapod limbs.
Enlarge
Tiktaalik in context: one of many species that track the evolutionary development of fish fins into tetrapod limbs.

Evolution has left numerous records that reveal the history of different species. Fossils, together with the comparative anatomy of present-day plants and animals, constitute the morphological, or anatomical, record. By comparing the anatomies of both modern and extinct species, paleontologists can infer the lineages of those species. Important fossil evidence includes the connection of distinct classes of organisms by so-called "transitional" species, such as the Archaeopteryx, which provided early evidence for intermediate species between dinosaurs and birds,[25] and the recently-discovered Tiktaalik, which clarifies the development from fish to animals with four limbs.[26]

The development of molecular genetics, and particularly of DNA sequencing, has allowed biologists to study the record of evolution left in organisms' genetic structures. The degrees of similarity and difference in the DNA sequences of modern species allows geneticists to reconstruct their lineages. It is from DNA sequence comparisons that figures such as the 95% genotypic similarity between humans and chimpanzees are obtained.[27][28]

Additional evidence of ancestry includes idiosyncratic structures present in certain organisms, such as the panda's "thumb", which indicate how an organism's evolutionary lineage constrains its adaptive development. Vestigial structures such as the vestigial limbs on pythons or the degenerate eyes of blind cave-dwelling fish are also evidences of evolutionary development.

Other evidence used to demonstrate evolutionary lineages includes the geographical distribution of species. For instance, monotremes, such as platypus, and most marsupials, like kangaroos or koalas, are found only in Australia showing that their common ancestor with placental mammals lived before the submerging of the ancient land bridge between Australia and Asia.

Scientists correlate all of the above evidence, drawn from paleontology, anatomy, genetics, and geography, with other information about the history of Earth. For instance, paleoclimatology attests to periodic ice ages during which the world's climate was much cooler, and these are often found to match up with the spread of species which are better-equipped to deal with the cold, such as the woolly mammoth.

[edit] Morphological evidence
Letter c in the picture indicates the undeveloped hind legs of a baleen whale, vestigial remnants of its terrestrial ancestors.
Enlarge
Letter c in the picture indicates the undeveloped hind legs of a baleen whale, vestigial remnants of its terrestrial ancestors.

Fossils are critical evidence for estimating when various lineages originated. Since fossilization of an organism is an uncommon occurrence, usually requiring hard parts (like teeth, bone or pollen), the fossil record is traditionally thought to provide only sparse and intermittent information about ancestral lineages. Fossilization of organisms without hard body parts is rare, but happens under unusual circumstances, such as rapid burial, low oxygen environments, or microbial action.[29]

The fossil record provides several types of data important to the study of evolution. First, the fossil record contains the earliest known examples of life itself, as well as the earliest occurrences of individual lineages. For example, the first complex animals date from the early Cambrian period, approximately 520 million years ago. Second, the records of individual species yield information regarding the patterns and rates of evolution, showing for example if species evolve into new species (speciation) gradually and incrementally, or in relatively brief intervals of geologic time. Thirdly, the fossil record is a document of large scale patterns and events in the history of life, many of which have influenced the evolutionary history of numerous lineages. For example, mass extinctions frequently resulted in the loss of entire groups of species, such as the non-avian dinosaurs, while leaving others relatively unscathed. Recently, molecular biologists have used the time since divergence of related lineages to calibrate the rate at which mutations accumulate, and at which the genomes of different lineages evolve.

Phylogenetics, the study of the ancestry of species, has revealed that structures with similar internal organization may perform divergent functions. Vertebrate limbs are a common example of such homologous structures. The appendages on bat wings, for example, are very structurally similar to human hands, and may constitute a vestigial structure. Other examples include the presence of hip bones in whales and snakes. Such structures may exist with little or no function in a more current organism, yet have a clear function in an ancestral species of the same. Examples of vestigial structures in humans include wisdom teeth, the coccyx and the vermiform appendix.

[edit] Molecular evidence

Comparison of the DNA sequences allows organisms to be grouped by sequence similarity, and the resulting phylogenetic trees are typically congruent with traditional taxonomy, and are often used to strengthen or correct taxonomic classifications. Sequence comparison is considered a measure robust enough to be used to correct erroneous assumptions in the phylogenetic tree in instances where other evidence is scarce. For example, neutral human DNA sequences are approximately 1.2% divergent (based on substitutions) from those of their nearest genetic relative, the chimpanzee, 1.6% from gorillas, and 6.6% from baboons.[30] Genetic sequence evidence thus allows inference and quantification of genetic relatedness between humans and other apes.[31][32] The sequence of the 16S rRNA gene, a vital gene encoding a part of the ribosome, was used to find the broad phylogenetic relationships between all extant life. The analysis, originally done by Carl Woese, resulted in the three-domain system, arguing for two major splits in the early evolution of life. The first split led to modern Bacteria and the subsequent split led to modern Archaea and Eukaryote.

The proteomic evidence also supports the universal ancestry of life. Vital proteins, such as the ribosome, DNA polymerase, and RNA polymerase are found in the most primitive bacteria to the most complex mammals. The core part of the protein is conserved across all lineages of life, serving similar functions. Higher organisms have evolved additional protein subunits, largely affecting the regulation and protein-protein interaction of the core. Other overarching similarities between all lineages of extant organisms, such as DNA, RNA, amino acids, and the lipid bilayer, give support to the theory of common descent. The chirality of DNA, RNA, and amino acids is conserved across all known life. As there is no functional advantage to right or left handed molecular chirality, the simplest hypothesis is that the choice was made randomly in the early beginnings of life and passed on to all extant life through common descent.

There is also a large body of molecular evidence for a number of different mechanisms for large evolutionary changes, among them genome and gene duplication, horizontal gene transfer, recombination, and endosymbiosis. These mechanisms have been, or are being incorporated into the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis :

1. Gene and genome duplication facilitates rapid evolution by providing substantial quantities of genetic material under weak or no selective constraints.
2. Horizontal gene transfer, the process in which an organism transfers genetic material (i.e. DNA) to another cell that is not its offspring, allows for large sudden evolutionary leaps in a species by incorporating beneficial genes evolved in another species.
3. Recombination is both capable of reassorting large numbers of different alleles, and establishing reproductive isolation.
4. The Endosymbiotic theory explains the origin of mitochondria and plastids (e.g. chloroplasts), which are organelles of eukaryotic cells, as the incorporation of an ancient prokaryotic cell into ancient eukaryotic cell. Rather than evolving eukaryotic organelles slowly, this theory offers a mechanism for a large evolutionary changes by incorporating the genetic material and biochemical composition of a separate species. This evolutionary mechanism has been observed. Hatena, a protist, is an extant organism that is undergoing endosymbiotic evolution.[33][34]

Further evidence for reconstructing ancestral lineages comes from junk DNA such as pseudogenes, i.e., 'dead' genes, which steadily accumulate mutations.[35]

Since metabolic processes do not leave fossils, research into the evolution of the basic cellular processes is done largely by comparison of existing organisms. Many lineages diverged when new metabolic processes appeared, and it is theoretically possible to determine when certain metabolic processes appeared by comparing the traits of the descendants of a common ancestor or by detecting their physical manifestations. As an example, the appearance of oxygen in the earth's atmosphere is linked to the evolution of photosynthesis.

[edit] Theoretical evidence

Mathematical models of evolution, pioneered by the likes of Sewall Wright, Ronald Fisher and J. B. S. Haldane and extended via diffusion theory by Motoo Kimura, allow predictions about the genetic structure of evolving populations. Direct examination of the genetic structure of modern populations via DNA sequencing has recently allowed verification of many of these predictions. For example, the Out of Africa theory of human origins, which states that modern humans developed in Africa and a small sub-population migrated out (undergoing a population bottleneck), implies that modern populations should show the signatures of this migration pattern. Specifically, post-bottleneck populations (Europeans and Asians) should show lower overall genetic diversity and a more uniform distribution of allele frequencies compared to the African population. Both of these predictions are borne out by actual data from a number of studies. [citation needed]

[edit] Ancestry of organisms

See also: Common descent

Morphologic similarities in the Hominidae family is evidence of common descent.
Enlarge
Morphologic similarities in the Hominidae family is evidence of common descent.

In biology, the theory of universal common descent proposes that all organisms on Earth are descended from a common ancestor or ancestral gene pool.

Evidence for common descent is inferred from traits shared between all living organisms. In Darwin's day, the evidence of shared traits was based solely on visible observation of morphologic similarities, such as the fact that all birds, even those which do not fly, have wings. Today, there is strong evidence from genetics that all organisms have a common ancestor. For example, every living cell makes use of nucleic acids as its genetic material, and uses the same twenty amino acids as the building blocks for proteins. All organisms use the same genetic code (with some extremely rare and minor deviations) to translate nucleic acid sequences into proteins. The universality of these traits strongly suggests common ancestry, because the selection of many of these traits seems arbitrary.

Information about the early development of life includes input from the fields of geology and planetary science. These sciences provide information about the history of the Earth and the changes produced by life. However, a great deal of information about the early Earth has been destroyed by geological processes over the course of time.

[edit] History of life

Main article: Timeline of evolution

The chemical evolution (or abiogenesis) from self-catalytic chemical reactions to life (see Origin of life) is not a part of biological evolution, but it is unclear at which point such increasingly complex sets of reactions became what we would consider, today, to be living organisms.

Not much is yet known about the earliest developments in life. However, it is unmistakably clear that all existing organisms share certain traits, including cellular structure and the same genetic code. Most scientists interpret this to mean all existing organisms share a common ancestor, which had already developed the most fundamental cellular processes, but there is no scientific consensus on the relationship of the three domains of life (Archaea, Bacteria, Eukaryota) or the origin of life. Attempts to shed light on the earliest history of life generally focus on the behavior of macromolecules, particularly RNA, and the behavior of complex systems.
Precambrian stromatolites in the Siyeh Formation, Glacier National Park. In 2002, William Schopf of UCLA published a controversial paper in the journal Nature arguing that formations such as this possess 3.5 billion year old fossilized algae microbes. If true, they would be the earliest known life on earth.
Enlarge
Precambrian stromatolites in the Siyeh Formation, Glacier National Park. In 2002, William Schopf of UCLA published a controversial paper in the journal Nature arguing that formations such as this possess 3.5 billion year old fossilized algae microbes. If true, they would be the earliest known life on earth.

The emergence of oxygenic photosynthesis (around 3 billion years ago) and the subsequent emergence of an oxygen-rich, non-reducing atmosphere can be traced through the formation of banded iron deposits, and later red beds of iron oxides. This was a necessary prerequisite for the development of aerobic cellular respiration, believed to have emerged around 2 billion years ago.

In the last billion years, simple multicellular plants and animals began to appear in the oceans. Soon after the emergence of the first animals, the Cambrian explosion (a period of unrivaled and remarkable, but brief, organismal diversity documented in the fossils found at the Burgess Shale) saw the creation of all the major body plans, or phyla, of modern animals. This event is now believed to have been triggered by the development of the Hox genes. About 500 million years ago, plants and fungi colonized the land, and were soon followed by arthropods and other animals, leading to the development of land ecosystems with which we are familiar.

The evolutionary process may be exceedingly slow. Fossil evidence indicates that the diversity and complexity of modern life has developed over much of the history of the earth. Geological evidence indicates that the Earth is approximately 4.57 billion years old. Studies on guppies by David Reznick at the University of California, Riverside, however, have shown that the rate of evolution through natural selection can proceed 10 thousand to 10 million times faster than what is indicated in the fossil record.[36] Such comparative studies however are invariably biased by disparities in the time scales over which evolutionary change is measured in the laboratory, field experiments, and the fossil record.

The ancestry of living organisms has traditionally been reconstructed from morphology, but is increasingly supplemented with phylogenetic — the reconstruction of phylogenies by the comparison of genetic (usually DNA) sequence.[37] Biologist Gogarten suggests that "the original metaphor of a tree no longer fits the data from recent genome research", and that therefore "biologists [should] use the metaphor of a mosaic to describe the different histories combined in individual genomes and use [the] metaphor of a net to visualize the rich exchange and cooperative effects of HGT among microbes".[38]

The idea of biological evolution has existed since ancient times, notably among Greek philosophers such as Anaximander and Epicurus and Indian philosophers such as Patañjali. However, scientific theories of evolution were not proposed until the 18th and 19th centuries, by scientists such as Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Charles Darwin.

The transmutation of species was accepted by many scientists before 1859, but Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection provided the first convincing exposition[39] of a mechanism by which evolutionary change could occur: natural selection. After many years of working in private on his theory, Darwin was motivated to publish his work on evolution when he received a letter from Alfred Russel Wallace in which Wallace revealed his own, independent discovery of natural selection. Accordingly, Wallace is given shared credit for originating the theory.[40][41]

The publication of Darwin's book sparked a great deal of scientific and social debate. Although the occurrence of biological evolution of some sort came to be widely accepted by scientists, Darwin's specific ideas about evolution — that it occurred gradually, through natural selection — were actively attacked and contested. Additionally, while Darwin was able to observe variation, and to infer natural selection and thereby adaptation, he was unable to explain how variation might arise or be altered over generations.[42]
Gregor Mendel's work on the inheritance of traits in pea plants laid the foundation for genetics.
Gregor Mendel's work on the inheritance of traits in pea plants laid the foundation for genetics.

Work on plant hybridity by a contemporary of Darwin's, Gregor Mendel, revealed that certain traits in peas occurred in discrete forms (that is, they were either one distinct trait or another, such as "round" or "wrinkled") and were inherited in a well-defined and predictable manner.[43] When Mendel's work was "rediscovered" in 1901, it was initially interpreted as supporting an anti-Darwinian "jumping", saltationist form of evolution, and contradicting the biometricians' gradualism.[44]

However, the simple version of the theory of early Mendelians soon gave way to the classical genetics of Thomas Hunt Morgan and his school, which thoroughly grounded and articulated the applications of Mendelian laws to biology. Eventually, it was shown that a rigorous statistical approach to Mendelism was reconcilable with the data of the biometricians by the work of statistician and population geneticist R.A. Fisher in the 1930s. Following this, the work of population geneticists and zoologists in the 1930s and 1940s synthesized Darwinian evolution with genetics, creating the modern evolutionary synthesis.[43] Genes were then still theoretical entities, and many paleontologists and embryologists were inclined to dismiss them as being of no, or minor, importance, but subsequent advancements have made genetics a key aspect of evolutionary biology.[45]
Stephen Jay Gould was a major proponent of punctuated equilibrium.
Stephen Jay Gould was a major proponent of punctuated equilibrium.

The most significant recent developments in evolutionary biology have been the improved understanding of and advances in genetics.[46] In the 1940s, following up on Griffith's experiment, Avery, MacLeod and McCarty definitively identified DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) as the "transforming principle" responsible for transmitting genetic information. In 1953, Francis Crick and James D. Watson published their famous paper on the structure of DNA, based on the research of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins. These developments ignited the era of molecular biology and transformed the understanding of evolution into a molecular process (see molecular evolution): the mutation of segments of DNA. George C. Williams's 1966 Adaptation and natural selection: A Critique of some Current Evolutionary Thought and Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene marked a departure from the idea of groups or organisms as units of selection toward the modern gene-centered view of evolution. In the mid-1970s, Motoo Kimura formulated the neutral theory of molecular evolution, a significant departure from the consensus view of evolution, as it considered genetic drift, rather than natural selection to be the predominant mode of evolution.

Debates over various aspects of how evolution occurs have continued. Two prominent debates are over the theory of punctuated equilibrium, proposed in 1972 by paleontologists Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould to explain the paucity of gradual transitions between species in the fossil record, as well as the absence of change or stasis that is observed over significant intervals of time; and also the Neutralist-Selectionist debate.

[edit] Modern synthesis

Main article: Modern evolutionary synthesis

Charles Darwin was able to observe variation, infer natural selection and thereby adaptation, but didn't know the basis of heritability. He couldn't explain how organisms might change over generations. It also seemed that when two individuals were crossed, their traits must be blended in the progeny, so that eventually all variation would be lost.

The blending problem was solved when the population geneticists R.A. Fisher, Sewall Wright, and J. B. S. Haldane, married Darwinian evolutionary theory to population genetics, which was based on Mendelian genetics (genes as discrete units of heredity).

The problem of what the mechanisms might be was solved in principle with the identification of DNA as the genetic material by Oswald Avery and colleagues, and the articulation of the double-helical structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick provided a physical basis for the notion that genes were encoded in DNA.

[edit] Heredity
A section of a model of a DNA molecule.
Enlarge
A section of a model of a DNA molecule.

Gregor Mendel's work provided the first firm basis to the idea that heredity occurred in discrete units. He noticed several traits in peas that occur in only one of two forms (e.g., the peas were either "round" or "wrinkled"), and was able to show that the traits were: heritable (passed from parent to offspring); discrete (i.e., if one parent had round peas and the other wrinkled, the progeny were not intermediate, but either round or wrinkled); and were distributed to progeny in a well-defined and predictable manner (Mendelian inheritance). His research laid the foundation for the concept of discrete heritable traits, known today as genes. After Mendel's work was "rediscovered" in 1900, it was discovered that the concepts could have wide applicability, and that most complex traits were polygenetic and not controlled by single unit characters.

Later research gave a physical basis to the notion of genes, and eventually identified DNA as the genetic material, and identified genes as discrete elements within DNA. DNA is not perfectly copied, and rare mistakes (mutations) in genes can affect traits that the genes control (e.g., pea shape).

A gene can have modifications such as DNA methylation, which do not change the nucleotide sequence of a gene, but do result in the epigenetic inheritance of a change in the expression of that gene in a trait. Another epigenetic mechanism is via micro RNA's, and RNA interference which serve regulatory roles in gene transcription and translation.

Non-DNA based forms of heritable variation exist, such transmission of the secondary structures of prions, and structural inheritance of patterns in the rows of cilia in protozoans such as Paramecium[47] and Tetrahymena. Investigations continue into whether these mechanisms allow for the production of specific beneficial heritable variation in response to environmental signals. If this were shown to be the case, then some instances of evolution would lie outside of the typical Darwinian framework, which avoids any connection between environmental signals and the production of heritable variation. However, the processes that produce these variations leave the genetic information intact and are often reversible, and are rather rare.

[edit] Study of evolution

Main article: Evolutionary biology

[edit] Academic disciplines

Scholars in a number of academic disciplines continue to document examples of evolution, contributing to a deeper understanding of its underlying mechanisms. Every subdiscipline within biology both informs and is informed by knowledge of the details of evolution, such as in ecological genetics, human evolution, molecular evolution, and phylogenetics. Areas of mathematics (such as bioinformatics), physics, chemistry, and other fields all make important contributions to current understanding of evolutionary mechanisms. Even disciplines as far removed as geology and sociology play a part, since the process of biological evolution has coincided in time and space with the development of both the Earth and human civilization.

Evolutionary biology is a subdiscipline of biology concerned with the origin and descent of species, as well as their changes over time. It was originally an interdisciplinary field including scientists from many traditional taxonomically-oriented disciplines. For example, it generally includes scientists who may have a specialist training in particular organisms, such as mammalogy, ornithology, or herpetology, but who use those organisms to answer general questions in evolution. Evolutionary biology as an academic discipline in its own right emerged as a result of the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s. It was not until the 1970s and 1980s, however, that a significant number of universities had departments that specifically included the term evolutionary biology in their titles.

Evolutionary developmental biology (informally, evo-devo) is a field of biology that compares the developmental processes of different animals in an attempt to determine the ancestral relationship between organisms and how developmental processes evolved. The discovery of genes regulating development in model organisms allowed for comparisons to be made with genes and genetic networks of related organisms.

Physical anthropology emerged in the late 19th century as the study of human osteology, and the fossilized skeletal remains of other hominids. At that time, anthropologists debated whether their evidence supported Darwin's claims, because skeletal remains revealed temporal and spatial variation among hominids, but Darwin had not offered an explanation of the specific mechanisms that produce variation. With the recognition of Mendelian genetics and the rise of the modern synthesis, however, evolution became both the fundamental conceptual framework for, and the object of study of, physical anthropologists. In addition to studying skeletal remains, they began to study genetic variation among human populations (population genetics); thus, some physical anthropologists began calling themselves biological anthropologists.

[edit] Misunderstandings about modern evolutionary biology

Although the modern synthesis is a major achievement of modern science, some aspects of it are often misunderstood. These misunderstandings have hindered acceptance of the modern synthesis,[48][49] most notably in the United States.[50] Some of the most common misunderstandings are outlined in this section.

[edit] Distinctions between theory and fact

Main article: Evolution as theory and fact
Further information: Scientific Theory
See also: Theory vs. Fact

Some critics of evolution claim that it is merely a theory. This criticism makes two claims: that evolution is a theory and therefore not a fact, and that theories are less established than facts (and less well supported than other beliefs). In other words, laypeople often use the word "theory" to signify "conjecture", "speculation", or "opinion". In science however, a theory is a model of the world (or some portion of it) that makes predictions that can be tested through controlled experiments. Evolution is a theory as it explains and interprets observations, and is used to make successful predictions.

A second linguistic confusion has arisen around the word "fact". Fact is often used by scientists to refer to empirical data, objective verifiable observations. But fact is also used in a wider sense to include any hypothesis for which there is overwhelming evidence. In this usage "the sun is at the center of the solar system" and "objects fall due to gravity" are considered to be facts.

Evolution, the observation that populations of one species of organism do, over time, change and form new species, has been extensively supported by empirical evidence and has explanatory and predictive power: it is therefore correctly described as both fact and theory.

The fact of evolution is itself explained using theories that provide deeper understanding: the causes of evolution are the mechanisms of natural selection, genetic drift etc. "The theory of evolution" is generally used to refer to the idea of evolutionary change ("descent with modification") together with the mechanisms that cause it.

Evolution, complexity, and devolution

One of the most common misunderstandings of evolution is that one species can be "more highly evolved" than another; that evolution is necessarily progressive and/or leads to greater "complexity", or that its converse is "devolution".[51] Evolution is a non-directional process in the sense that it does not proceed toward any ultimate goal. Rather, evolution acts to optimize organisms to the conditions of their environment, whatever they might be, through the process of natural selection. Thus, evolution provides no assurance that later generations will be more complex than earlier generations, a fact that applies equally to human complexity and intelligence as it does to all other organisms extant on Earth today and that have lived in the past. The claim that evolution results in directional progress is not part of modern evolutionary theory; it derives from earlier belief systems which were held around the time Darwin formulated his ideas.

In many cases evolution does proceed in the direction of increasing complexity. The earliest organisms were maximally simple life forms. Evolution caused life to become more complex, since becoming simpler wasn't advantageous; indeed it was likely impossible since organisms of any lower complexity would be too simple to carry out basic life functions. Virtually the only avenues open for evolution in the earliest epoch of life’s history was toward more complex and specialized forms. Since then, evolved complexity is a pattern that has occurred again and again in numerous lineages since it produces more specialized forms that are capable of exploiting environmental niches more effectively than competitors. Indeed, specialization through increased complexity allows an organism to define its own niche and evolve to it, thus increasing biodiversity as well.

Complexity however is not an ultimate goal of evolutionary processes, and the evidence supporting this abounds. Bacterial forms have remained comparatively simple over 3.8 billion years of evolution even though numerous forms have evolved and specialized to a variety of environments using diverse metabolic pathways. In these cases, complexity was not selected for even though substantial evolutionary change occurred. Simple organisms that rapidly metabolize energy rich nutrients available in the environment are optimal forms that dominate the biosphere and the cycling of elements in it.

Among eukarya much greater levels of complexity have evolved, but it must be remembered that these organisms represent the smaller portion of the biomass on earth. Given this fact, evolution toward complexity is the exception and not the norm. Also, numerous examples of organisms evolving towards simpler forms are found to occur in this domain.

Vestigial structures constitute one line of evidence of lessening complexity evolving among eukarya. Pythons have a vestigial pelvis that is detached from the vertebra and essentially floats in the abdominal cavity. This structure is functionless and degenerate from a functioning pelvis, with legs, in a previous ancestor. The Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus) has evolved from a previous sighted ancestor into a blind form. While the animal retains a rudimentary eye, the nerves and retina are degenerate and functionless.[52] The human appendix is a degenerate form of the caecum found in a wide variety of herbivorous vertebrates. In these animals, the caecum is a significant organ that functions to digest cellulosic plant material. In humans and hominoid apes, changes in diet have favored its degeneration. In each instance, natural selection has acted to produce decreasing complexity over time because the maintenance of useless organs represents a drain on the organism’s energy resources and is thus subject to negative selective pressure.[53]

Similarly, horses evolved from morphologically more complex ancestors with five toes on their feet. Over time, the fossil record shows a progression to reduced complexity that has produced the single toe (hoof) observed today. In the case of this animal, a simpler design is superior for the conditions under which it must survive. Many parasitic and symbiotic species have evolved simpler forms from more complex to the point that they are incapable of existing outside the bodies of their hosts or symbionts. In these cases, reduced complexity offers a selective advantage but comes with the cost of surrendering independence.

There is no guarantee that any particular organism existing today will become more complex in the future. In fact, natural selection will only favor increasing complexity if it increases an organism’s chance of survival and ability to produce viable offspring that live long enough to themselves reach sexual maturity. The same mechanism will also favor lower complexity in traits if that confers a selective advantage in the organism's environment.[54]

[edit] Speciation

Main article: Speciation

The existence of several different, but related, finches on the Galápagos Islands is evidence of the occurrence of speciation.
The existence of several different, but related, finches on the Galápagos Islands is evidence of the occurrence of speciation.

It is sometimes claimed that speciation — the origin of new species — has never been directly observed, and thus evolution cannot be called sound science. This is a misunderstanding of both science and evolution. First, scientific discovery does not occur solely through reproducible experiments; the principle of uniformitarianism allows natural scientists to infer causes through their empirical effects. Moreover, since the publication of On the Origin of Species scientists have confirmed Darwin's hypothesis by data gathered from sources that did not exist in his day, such as DNA similarity among species and new fossil discoveries. Finally, speciation has actually been directly observed.[55] (See the hawthorn fly example.) Further, there are a number of examples of speciation in plants,[56] and differences in ectodysplasin alleles in stickleback fish speciation has developed as a supermodel for studying gene alterations and speciation.[57]

A variation of this assertion, that microevolution has been directly observed and macroevolution has not, is subject to the same counterarguments. However, it is generally accepted that macroevolution uses the same mechanisms of change as those already observed in microevolution.

[edit] Entropy and life

Main articles: Entropy and life and Self-organization

It is claimed that evolution, by increasing complexity, violates the second law of thermodynamics. This law posits that in an idealised isolated system, entropy will tend to increase or stay the same. Entropy is a measure of the dispersal of energy in a physical system so that it is not available to do mechanical work.[58] The claim ignores the fact that biological systems are not isolated systems. Life inherently involves open systems, not isolated systems, as all organisms exchange energy and matter with their environment, and similarly the Earth receives energy from the Sun and emits energy back into space. Simple calculations[59] show that the Sun-Earth-space system does not violate the second law because the enormous increase in entropy due to the Sun and Earth radiating into space dwarfs the small decrease in entropy caused by the evolution of life.

[edit] Information

Some assert that evolution cannot create information, or that information can only be created by an intelligence. Physical information exists regardless of the presence of an intelligence, and evolution allows for new information whenever a novel mutation or gene duplication occurs and is kept. It does not need to be beneficial or visually apparent to be "information." However, even if those were requirements they would be satisfied with the appearance of nylon eating bacteria,[60] which required new enzymes to efficiently digest a material that never existed until the modern age.[61]

Japanese researchers demonstrated that nylon degrading ability can be obtained de novo in laboratory cultures of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain POA, which initially had no enzymes capable of degrading nylon oligomers. This indicates that the ability of bacteria to digest nylon can evolve if proper artificial selection is applied.[62] Recently, the same group found X-ray crystal structure of the newly evolved nylon-digesting enzyme.[63] Using the structural results, the authors propose "that the amino acid replacements in the catalytic cleft of a preexisting esterase resulted in the evolution of the" nylon-digesting enzyme. This hypothesis still needs to be confirmed by detailed genetic studies.

[edit] Social and religious controversies

Main articles: Social effect of evolutionary theory and Creation-evolution controversy

A satirical 1871 image of Charles Darwin as a quadrupedal ape reflects part of the social controversy over whether humans and other apes share a common lineage.
Enlarge
A satirical 1871 image of Charles Darwin as a quadrupedal ape reflects part of the social controversy over whether humans and other apes share a common lineage.

Ever since the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859, the modern science of evolution has been a source of nearly constant controversy. In general, controversy has centered on the philosophical, cosmological, social, and religious implications of evolution, not on the science of evolution itself. The proposition that biological evolution occurs through the mechanism of natural selection has been almost completely uncontested within the scientific community for much of the 20th century.[64]

As Darwin recognized early on, perhaps the most controversial aspect of evolutionary thought is its applicability to human beings. The idea that all diversity in life, including human beings, arose through natural processes without a need for supernatural intervention poses difficulties for the belief in purpose inherent in most religious faiths — and especially for the Abrahamic religions. Many religious people are able to reconcile the science of evolution with their faith, or see no real conflict;[65] Judaism, Catholicism and Anglicanism are notable as major faith traditions whose adherents generally see no conflict between evolutionary theory and religious belief.[66][67] The idea that faith and evolution are compatible has been called theistic evolution. Another group of religious people, generally referred to as creationists, consider evolutionary origin beliefs to be incompatible with their faith, their religious texts and their perception of design in nature, and so cannot accept what they call "unguided evolution".

One particularly contentious topic evoked by evolution is the biological status of humanity. Whereas the classical religious view can broadly be characterized as a belief in the great chain of being (in which people are "above" the animals but slightly "below" the angels), the science of evolution shows that humans, as animals, share common ancestry with all other animals and are particularly close to primates such as chimpanzees, gibbons, gorillas, and orangutans. Some people find this offensive because it "degrades" humankind. A related conflict arises when critics combine the religious view of people's superior status with the mistaken notion that evolution is necessarily "progressive". If human beings are superior to animals yet evolved from them, these critics claim, inferior animals would not still exist. In fact, humans and other species share common ancestors, and it is these common ancestors that are extinct.[68]

In some countries — notably the United States — these and other tensions between religion and science have fueled what has been called the creation-evolution controversy, which, among other things, has generated struggles over teaching curricula. While many other fields of science, such as cosmology[69] and earth science[70] also conflict with a literal interpretation of many religious texts, evolutionary studies in biology have borne the brunt of these debates. It also affects the public school system, where religion is assumed to have no effect on the teachings.

Evolution has been used to support philosophical and ethical choices which most contemporary scientists consider were neither mandated by evolution nor supported by science. For example, the eugenic ideas of Francis Galton were developed into arguments that the human gene pool should be improved by selective breeding policies, including incentives for reproduction for those of "good stock" and disincentives, such as compulsory sterilization, "euthanasia", and later, prenatal testing, birth control, and genetic engineering, for those of "bad stock". Another example of an extension of evolutionary theory that is now widely regarded as unwarranted is "Social Darwinism"; a term given to the 19th century Whig Malthusian theory developed by Herbert Spencer into ideas about "survival of the fittest" in commerce and human societies as a whole, and by others into claims that social inequality, racism, and imperialism were justified.[71]

[Heavy_Load]

wikipedia haze?

[Haze]

NO I WROTE IT ALL MYSELF.

Yes even the quotes that go around pictures that I didn't add in.

[cRazy]

It was only funny when Torque did it the first time so stop trying you faggots.

[Pete]

No, it still is funny because each of them will piss thegsdrkljdslfjkds off more. Then he'll make another "IM NOT COMMING BACK"(notice how I spelt coming wrong? so you know it's from him) thread and then a day later he'll be back saying how it's a joke and spend an few hours on the thread trying to prove the people that pissed him off in the first place wrong.

[Haze]

I am not here to amuse you, CrAzZYy.

[giga]

The use of the term gay, as it relates to homosexuality, arises from an extension of the sexualised connotation of "carefree and uninhibited", implying a willingness to disregard conventional or respectable sexual mores. Such usage is documented as early as the 1920s. It was initially more commonly used to imply heterosexually unconstrained lifestyles, as for example in the once-common phrase "gay Lothario",[4] or in the title of the book and film The Gay Falcon (1941), which concerns a womanizing detective whose first name is "Gay". Well into the mid 20th century a middle-aged bachelor could be described as "gay" without prejudice.
A passage from Gertrude Stein's Miss Furr & Miss Skeene (1922) is possibly the first traceable published use of the word to refer to a homosexual relationship, though it is not altogether clear whether she uses the word to mean lesbianism or happiness:
They were ...gay, they learned little things that are things in being gay, ... they were quite regularly gay. The 1929 musical Bitter Sweet by Noel Coward contains another use of the word in a context that strongly implies homosexuality. In the song "Green Carnation", four overdressed, 1890s dandies sing:
Pretty boys, witty boys, You may sneer At our disintegration. Haughty boys, naughty boys, Dear, dear, dear! Swooning with affectation... And as we are the reason For the "Nineties" being gay, We all wear a green carnation. The song title alludes to Oscar Wilde, who famously wore a greencarnation, and whose homosexuality was well known. However, the phrase "gay nineties" was already well-established as an epithet for the decade (a film entitled The Gay Nineties; or, The Unfaithful Husband was released in the same year). The song also drew on familiar satires on Wilde and Aestheticism dating back to Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience (1881). Because of its continuation of these public usages and conventions – in a mainstream musical – the precise connotations of the word in this context remain ambiguous.
Other usages at this date involve some of the same ambiguity as Coward's lyrics. Bringing Up Baby (1938) was the first film to use the word gay in apparent reference to homosexuality. In a scene where Cary Grant's clothes have been sent to the cleaners, he must wear a lady's feathery robe. When another character inquires about his clothes, he responds "Because I just went gay...all of a sudden!"[5] However, since this was a mainstream film at a time when the use of the word to refer to homosexuality would still be unfamiliar to most film-goers, the line can also be interpreted to mean "I just decided to do something frivolous". There is much debate about what Grant meant with the ad-lib (the line was not in the script). The word continued to be used with the dominant meaning of "carefree", as evidenced by the title of The Gay Divorcee (1934), a musical film about a heterosexual couple. It was originally to be called The Gay Divorce after the play on which it was based, but the Hays Office determined that while a divorcee may be gay, it would be unseemly to allow a divorce to appear so.
By the mid-century "gay" was well-established as an antonym for "straight" (respectable sexual behaviour), and to refer to the lifestyles of unmarried and or unattached people. Other connotations of frivolousness and showiness in dress ("gay attire") led to association with camp and effeminacy. This range of connotation probably affected the gradual movement of the term towards its current dominant meaning, which was at first confined to subcultures. The subcultural usage started to become mainstream in the 1960s, when gay became the term predominantly preferred by homosexual men to describe themselves. Gay was the preferred term since other terms, such as "queer" were felt to be derogatory. "Homosexual" was perceived as excessively clinical: especially since homosexuality was at that time designated as a mental illness, and "homosexual" was used by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to denote men affected by this "mental illness". Homosexuality was no longer classified as an illness in the DSM by 1973, but the clinical connotation of the word was already embedded in society.
One of the many characters invented by 1950s TV comic Ernie Kovacs was a "gay-acting" poet named Percy Dovetonsils. In one of his poems (which were always read to an imaginary off-screen character named "Bruce") he mentions the expression "gay caballero".
By 1963, the word "gay" was known well enough by the straight community to be used by Albert Ellis in his book The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Man-Hunting. By 1968 mainstream audiences were expected to recognise the double entendre in the ultra-camp musical entitled Springtime for Hitler: a gay romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden — which formed part of the plot of the film The Producers. The camp implications of the concept were explicit in the pastiche of Coward's style epitomised by the title song:
Springtime for Hitler and Germany Deutschland is happy and gay! We're marching to a faster pace Look out, here comes the master race!