1.
California Science Center
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The California Science Center is a state agency and museum located in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, next to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the University of Southern California. Billed as the West Coasts largest hands-on science center, the California Science Center is a partnership between the State of California and the California Science Center Foundation. The California Natural Resources Agency oversees the California Science Center and the California African American Museum, founded in 1951 as the California Museum of Science and Industry, the Museum was remodeled and renamed in 1998 as the California Science Center. The California Science Center hosts the California State Science Fair annually, admission includes access to the permanent exhibits, such as the Space Shuttle Endeavour and other prominent aircraft and spacecraft, and to various demonstrations. A separate ticket is required for the IMAX movies, most special traveling exhibitions, and special activities include a climbing wall, motion simulator. The Center has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the museum is also an affiliate in the Smithsonian Affiliations program. An area with activities and exhibits that explore innovation and invention, with themes involving construction, energy. The brick and terra cotta building, designed by William D. Coates, Jr. state architect, after World War II, the building also featured exhibits about state science and technology industries. In 1951, the became the California Museum of Science. The State Exhibition building was renamed in honor of major donor, the hands-on interactive exhibits included themes on agriculture, transportation, electricity, energy, industries, and minerals. Interaction stations demonstrated different concepts including celestial mechanics, the Möbius strip, multiplication, symmetry, the original exhibit closed in 1998, and is now on display at the New York Hall of Science. The Hall of Health was added in 1968, in preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics, the museum added new exhibits on earthquakes and economics, and a IMAX theatre. The opening and closing ceremonies for the games were held in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, in 1994, the museums building was damaged by the Northridge earthquake. The California Museum of Science and Industry closed in 1996 to prepare for a new facility, the California Aerospace Museum was also opened in 1984 adjacent to and operated by the California Museum of Science and Industry to coincide with the Summer Olympics. The museum focused on the States history as a leader in the aviation and aerospace industries and featured a giant, hangar-like space with aircraft and space vehicles, the building, now known as the Air and Space Gallery, was closed in 2011. In 2012 the building was listed on the California Register of Historical Resources, in 1988 the museums leadership began a to develop a three-phase, 25-year master plan to transform the institution from a science museum to a science education facility. This new facility would be known as the California Science Center, the original museum building closed its doors in 1996 to prepare for the new construction. The new construction was designed by Portland, Oregon-based Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, changes included, Redesign of the original main building
2.
Golden Gate Park
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Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of 1,017 acres of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20 percent larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a mile north to south, in the 1860s, San Franciscans began to feel the need for a spacious public park similar to Central Park, which was then taking shape in New York City. Golden Gate Park was carved out of unpromising sand and shore dunes that were known as the Outside Lands, conceived ostensibly for recreation, the underlying purpose of the park was housing development and the westward expansion of the city. The tireless field engineer William Hammond Hall prepared a survey and topographic map of the site in 1870. He was later named Californias first state engineer and developed a flood control system for the Sacramento Valley. The park drew its name from nearby Golden Gate Strait, the plan and planting were developed by Hall and his assistant, John McLaren, who had apprenticed in Scotland, home of many of the 19th-century’s best professional gardeners. John McLaren, when asked by the Park Commission if he could make Golden Gate Park one of the beauty spots of the world, replied saying With your aid gentleman, and God be willing, that I shall do. He also promised that hed go out into the country and walk along a stream until he found a farm, and that hed come back to the garden and recreate what nature had done. In 1876, the plan was almost replaced by one for a racetrack, favored by the Big Four millionaires, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington and it was Gus Mooney who claimed land adjacent to the park on Ocean Beach. Many of Mooneys friends also staked claims and built shanties on the beach to sell refreshments to the patrons of the park, Hall resigned, and the remaining park commissioners followed. In 1882 Governor George C. Perkins appointed Frank M. Pixley founder, Pixley was adamant that the Mooneys shanties be eliminated, and he found support with the San Francisco Police for park security. Pixley favored Stanfords company by granting a lease on the route that closed the park on three sides to competition. The original plan, however, was back on track by 1886, Hall selected McLaren as his successor in 1887. The first stage of the development centered on planting trees in order to stabilize the dunes that covered three-quarters of the park’s area. By 1875, about 60,000 trees, mostly Eucalyptus globulus, Monterey pine, by 1879, that figure more than doubled to 155,000 trees over 1,000 acres. Later, McLaren scoured the world for trees, by correspondence and he lived in McLaren Lodge in Golden Gate Park until he died in 1943, aged 96. In 1903, a pair of Dutch-style windmills were built at the western end of the park
3.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
4.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
5.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
6.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
7.
Natural history
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Natural history is the research and study of organisms including animals, fungi and plants in their environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. It encompasses scientific research but is not limited to it, with articles nowadays more often published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the sciences, natural history is the systematic study of any category of natural objects or organisms. That is a broad designation in a world filled with many narrowly focused disciplines. For example, geobiology has a strong multi-disciplinary nature combining scientists, a person who studies natural history is known as a naturalist or natural historian. The English term natural history is a translation of the Latin historia naturalis and its meaning has narrowed progressively with time, while the meaning of the related term nature has widened. In antiquity, it covered essentially anything connected with nature or which used materials drawn from nature. For example, Pliny the Elders encyclopedia of this title, published circa 77 to 79 AD, covers astronomy, geography, man and his technology, medicine and superstition as well as animals and plants. Medieval European academics considered knowledge to have two divisions, the humanities and divinity, with science studied largely through texts rather than observation or experiment. In modern terms, natural philosophy roughly corresponded to modern physics and chemistry, natural history had been encouraged by practical motives, such as Linnaeus aspiration to improve the economic condition of Sweden. Similarly, the Industrial Revolution prompted the development of geology to help find useful mineral deposits, the astronomer, William Herschel was also a natural historian. Instead of working with plants or minerals he worked with the stars and he spent his time building telescopes to see the stars and the rest of the time watching the stars. In the beginning, he believed there to be a known as a nebulae. Herschel can be considered a natural historian because he observed the natural world, in the process he made charts of all the stars and kept records of all that he saw. S. Wilcove and T. Eisner, The close observation of organisms—their origins, their evolution, their behavior and it encompasses changes in internal states insofar as they pertain to what organisms do. Some definitions go further, focusing on observation of organisms in their environment. Bartholomew, A student of history, or a naturalist, studies the world by observing plants. A common thread in many definitions of natural history is the inclusion of a component, as seen in a recent definition by H. W. Greene
8.
American Alliance of Museums
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AAM is dedicated to ensuring that museums remain a vital part of the American landscape, connecting people with the greatest achievements of the human experience, past, present and future. AAM is the organization representing the entire scope of museums and professionals and nonpaid staff who work for. AAM currently represents more than 25,000 individual museum professionals, at the 2014 American Alliance of Museums conference, the Institute of Museum and Library Services announced there are now at least 35,000 museums in the US. 1906, Foundation 1911, Directory of North and South American museums published 1923, Headquarters established in Washington, the M&T Network is the AAM link between museums and media technologies. As such, it identifies, examines, and advocates appropriate uses of technologies in helping museums meet the needs of their diverse publics. Membership is limited to institutions or individuals that are members of AAM, the mission of the M&T is to identify, access, and advocate a broad variety of program uses for media and technology in helping museum professionals meet the needs of their diverse publics. The Spark is the first comprehensive plan in AAM’s recent history. It articulates a vision for museums, the field and AAM, the mission highlights AAMs commitment to leadership, advocacy, collaboration and service. The Spark contains four goals, excellence, advocacy, sustainability and alignment
9.
Association of Science-Technology Centers
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The Association of Science-Technology Centers is a non-profit, global organization based in Washington, D. C. United States that provides a voice, professional support, and programming opportunities for science centers, museums. Through strategic alliances and global partnerships, ASTCs goal is to increase awareness of the valuable contributions its members make to their communities and the field of informal STEM learning. Science centers connect people with science, give science a presence in the community and offer people of all ages and backgrounds the opportunity to ask questions, discuss, Science centers provide firsthand experience and an opportunity to develop intuitions about the natural world. Many schools rely on science centers for field trips and auditorium programs, hands-on curriculum, science kits. In the words of Frank Oppenheimer, founder of San Franciscos Exploratorium, “No one flunks a museum. ”For some, the interests awakened by science center experiences have turned into a passion for science, and the beginning of a lifetime devoted to teaching or research. ASTC’s goal is to support efforts of science centers and museums, in addition to their staff, visitors. Some ASTC member institutions also participate in ASTC’s Passport Program, more than 300 institutions in over a dozen countries are currently participating in the Passport Program. ASTC provides professional development opportunities for those who work in science centers, ASTC provides CoPs with resources and support for connecting with colleagues, convening meetings, and organizing workshops, among other activities. They work with partners to support sharing of knowledge and experience, and assist with planning, marketing, ASTC Connect is a learning and resource-sharing area for the informal science education community. Discussion forums, online workshops, and self-paced tutorials are hosted in collaboration with partners throughout the field. The YOUmedia Network is a group of libraries, museums and community-based organizations that invite people to create, learn. There are currently 24 Learning Lab sites operating across the country with programs that are driven by youth interests and connect learning directly back to school, careers, and other realms. This program was inspired by President Obama and other world leaders’ commitment to strengthening the science, technology, engineering, to date, more than 100 science centers have joined the challenge. ExhibitFiles is a community of exhibit practitioners building a shared collection of exhibition records. Its a place to connect with colleagues, find out about exhibits, exhibitFiles was developed to preserve and share experiences and materials that are often unrecorded, temporary, and hard to locate. Visitors to the site can search for, and post exhibitions rentals. ASTC and the National Writing Project received a grant from the National Science Foundation to design a program that will integrate science, through this program, ten partnerships will be created between NWP sites and ASTC-member science centers and museums to develop innovative programs for educators and youth
10.
Renzo Piano
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Renzo Piano, OMRI, OMCA is an Italian architect and engineer. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, The Shard in London, and he won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1998. Piano was born in Genoa, Italy, into a family of builders and his grandfather had created a masonry enterprise, which had been expanded by his father, Carlo Piano, and his fathers three brothers, into the firm Fratelli Piano. The firm prospered after World War II, constructing houses and factories, when his father retired the enterprise was led by Renzos older brother, Ermanno, who studied engineering at the University of Genoa. Renzo studied architecture at the Milan Polytechnic University and he graduated in 1964 with a dissertation about modular coordination supervised by Giuseppe Ciribini and began working with experimental lightweight structures and basic shelters. In 1970, he received his first international commission, for the Pavilion of Italian Industry for Expo 70 in Osaka and he collaborated with his brother Ermanno and the family firm, which manufactured the structure. It was lightweight and original composed of steel and reinforced polyester, the first project of the firm was the administrative building of B&B Italia, an Italian furniture company, in Novedrate, Como, Italy. This design featured suspended container and an open bearing structure, with the conduits for heating and these unusual features attracted considerable attention in the architectural world, and influenced the choice of the jurors who selected Piano and Rogers to design the Pompidou Center. The award came a surprise, to the world, since the two were little-known, and had no experience with museums or other major structures. The New York Times declared that their design turned the world upside down. The escalator, in a transparent tube, crossed the facade of the building at a diagonal, the building was an astonishing success, entirely transforming the character a run-down commercial section near the Marais in Paris, and made Piano one of the best-known architects in the world. The media dubbed the style of the building as high-tech, Beaubourg, he said, was a joyous urban machine, a creature which might have come out of a Jules Verne novel, a sort of bizarre boat in dry dock. It is a provocation, a challenge to academism. To consider it as an object is a mistake. In 1977 Piano ended his collaboration with Rogers and began a new collaboration with engineer Peter Rice and they established their offices in Genoa. One of their first projects was a plan for the rehabilitation of the old port of Otranto from a site into a commercial. Their first major building was the Menil Collection, in art museum for the art collector Dominique de Menil, the chief requirements of the owner for this building was to make the maximum use of natural light in the interiors. Piano wrote, Paradoxically, the Menil Collection, with its serenity, its calm, its discretion, is more modern, scientifically speaking
11.
Natural history museum
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Some museums have public exhibits to share the beauty and wonder of the natural world with the public, these are referred to as public museums. Some museums feature non-natural history collections in addition to their collections, such as ones related to history, art. Renaissance cabinets of curiosities were private collections that typically included exotic specimens of natural history, sometimes faked, the first natural history museum was possibly that of Swiss scholar Conrad Gessner, established in Zürich in the mid-16th century. The Muséum National dHistoire Naturelle, established in Paris in 1635, was the first natural history museum to take the form that would be recognized as a history museum today. Early natural history museums offered limited accessibility, as they were private collections or holdings of scientific societies. The Ashmolean Museum, opened in 1683, was the first natural history museum to grant admission to the general public, see List of natural history museums for examples grouped by country
12.
Arapaima
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The arapaima, pirarucu, or paiche are any large species of bonytongue in the genus Arapaima native to the Amazon and Essequibo basins of South America. Genus Arapaima is the genus of the family Arapaimidae. They are among the worlds largest freshwater fish, reaching as much as 3 m and they are an important food fish. They have declined in the range due to overfishing and habitat loss. In contrast, arapaima have been introduced to tropical regions outside the native range where they are sometimes considered invasive species. Its local name, pirarucu, derives from the words for pira meaning fish. Arapaima was traditionally regarded as a genus, but later several species were distinguished. As a consequence of this confusion, most earlier studies were done using the name A. gigas, but this species is only known from old museum specimens. The regularly seen and studied species is A. arapaima, although a number of A. leptosoma also have been recorded in the aquarium trade. The remaining species are unknown, A. agassizii from old detailed drawings. A. arapaima is relatively thickset compared to the remaining species, fishBase recognizes four species in the genus. In addition to these, evidence suggests that a fifth species, Arapaima arapaima Valenciennes,1847 Arapaima agassizii Valenciennes,1847 Arapaima gigas Schinz,1822 Arapaima leptosoma D. J. Sites such as these offer the likelihood of diversity. Arapaima can reach lengths of more than 2 m, in exceptional cases even more than 2.5 m. The maximum recorded weight for the species is 200 kg, while the longest recorded length was 4.52 m, as a result of overfishing, large arapaima of more than 2 m are seldom found in the wild. The arapaima is torpedo-shaped with large scales and red markings. It is streamlined and sleek, with its dorsal and anal fin set near its tail, Arapaima scales have a mineralised, hard, outer layer with a corrugated surface under which lie several layers of collagen fibres in a Bouligand-type arrangement. In a structure similar to plywood, the fibres in each layer are oriented at large angles to those in the previous layer. The arapaima has a dependence on surface air to breathe
13.
Arowana
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Arowanas are freshwater bony fish of the family Osteoglossidae, also known as bonytongues. In this family of fish, the head is bony and the body is covered by large, heavy scales. The dorsal and anal fins have soft rays and are long based, the name bonytongues is derived from a toothed bone on the floor of the mouth, the tongue, equipped with teeth that bite against teeth on the roof of the mouth. The arowana is a facultative air breather and can obtain oxygen from air by sucking it into its swim bladder, osteoglossids are basal fish that originated some time during the Cretaceous, and are placed in the actinopterygiid order Osteoglossiformes. As traditionally defined, the family includes several extant species from South America, one from Africa, several from Asia, today Arapaimidae is often regarded as a separate family, which includes the arapaimas and the African arowana. Consequently, the South American genus Osteoglossum, and the Asian and Australian genus Scleropages are the extant genera that remain in the osteoglossid family. Arapaimidae and Osteoglossidae split about 220 million years ago, during the Late Triassic, within Osteoglossidae, the South America Osteoglossum arowanas diverged from the Asian and Australian Scleropages arowanas about 170 Mya, during the Middle Jurassic. The Osteoglossidae are the only freshwater fish family found on both sides of the Wallace Line. At least five genera, known only from fossils, are classified as osteoglossids. Other fossils from as far back as the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous are widely considered to belong to the arowana superorder Osteoglossomorpha, osteoglossomorph fossils have been found on all continents except Antarctica. These fossil genera include Brychaetus, Joffrichthys, and Phareodus, arowana species typically grow to around 2 to 3 ft in captivity. Several species of osteoglossids exhibit parental care and they build nests and protect their young after they hatch. All species are mouthbrooders, the parents holding sometimes hundreds of eggs in their mouths, the young may make several tentative trips outside the parents mouth to investigate the surroundings before leaving permanently. Depending on the system used, there are 10 types of arowana commonly kept as pets,4 from Asia,3 from South America,2 from Australia and 1 from Africa. Arowanas are solitary fish and only allow company while young, adults may show dominance and these fish are best kept with live or frozen feed and they easily outgrow the tank within 8 to 10 months. An aquarium of at least 150 gallons is a minimum, while tanks upwards of 400-600 gallons is preferable, Australian species are best kept alone in aquaria. The name comes from the Indonesian language arwana or nirwana, meaning fish of paradise, archived from the original on 26 May 2006
14.
Catfish
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Catfish are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. There are armour-plated types and there are also naked types, neither having scales, despite their name, not all catfish have prominent barbel. Members of the Siluriformes order are defined by features of the skull, Catfish are of considerable commercial importance, many of the larger species are farmed or fished for food. Many of the species, particularly the genus Corydoras, are important in the aquarium hobby. Many catfish are nocturnal, but others are crepuscular or diurnal, extant catfish species live inland or in coastal waters of every continent except Antarctica. Catfish have inhabited all continents at one time or another, Catfish are most diverse in tropical South America, Asia and Africa with one family native to North America and one family in Europe. More than half of all species live in the Americas. They are the only ostariophysans that have entered freshwater habitats in Madagascar, Australia and they are found in freshwater environments, though most inhabit shallow, running water. Representatives of at least eight families are hypogean with three families that are also troglobitic, one such species is Phreatobius cisternarum, known to live underground in phreatic habitats. Numerous species from the families Ariidae and Plotosidae, and a few species from among the Aspredinidae and Bagridae, are found in salt water. In the United States, catfish species may be known by a variety of names, such as mud cat, polliwogs. These nicknames are not standardized, so one area may call a bullhead catfish by the nickname chucklehead, while in state or region. Representatives of the genus Ictalurus have been introduced into European waters in the hope of obtaining a sporting, however, the European stock of American catfishes has not achieved the dimensions of these fish in their native waters, and have only increased the ecological pressure on native European fauna. Walking catfish have also introduced in the freshwaters of Florida. Flathead catfish, Pylodictis olivaris, is also a North American pest on Atlantic slope drainages, pterygoplichthys species, released by aquarium fishkeepers, have also established feral populations in many warm waters around the world. In general, they are buoyant, which means that they will usually sink rather than float due to a reduced gas bladder. Catfish have a variety of shapes, though most have a cylindrical body with a flattened ventrum to allow for benthic feeding. A flattened head allows for digging through the substrate as well as serving as a hydrofoil
15.
Pacu
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Pacu is a common name used to refer to several species of omnivorous South American freshwater serrasalmid fish that are related to the piranha. Pacu, unlike piranha, mainly feed on plant material and not flesh or scales, Additionally, the pacu can reach much larger sizes than piranha, at up to 1.08 m in total length and 40 kg in weight. The common name pacu is generally applied to fish classified under the following genera, among these, genera marked with a star* contain species where commonly used English names include the word pacu. Colossoma* Metynnis Mylesinus Mylossoma Ossubtus Piaractus* Tometes Utiaritichthys Each of these contain one or more separate species. For example, the fish found in pet stores known as the black pacu and red-bellied pacu typically belong to the species Colossoma macropomum and Piaractus brachypomus. A species popular among fish farmers is Piaractus mesopotamicus, also known as Paraná River pacu or small-scaled pacu, pacu is a term of Brazilian Indian/Guaraní origin. When the large fish of the Colossoma genus entered the trade in the U. S. and other countries. In the Brazilian Amazon, the term pacu is generally reserved to smaller and medium-sized fish in the Metynnis, Mylossoma, Colossoma macropomum are known as tambaqui, whereas Piaractus brachypomus is known as pirapitinga. In Peru, both of the species are called pacú and gamitana, Piaractus mesopotamicus of the Paraná-Paraguay basin is also called pacú in Paraguay and Argentina. Pacu, along with their cousins, are a characin fish, meaning a kind of tetra. The ongoing classification of fish is difficult and often contentious. DNA research sometimes confounds rather than clarifies species ranking, ultimately, classifications can be rather arbitrary. Pacu, along with piranha, are further classified into the Serrasalmidae family. Serrasalmidae means serrated salmon family and is a name which refers to the serrated keel running along the belly of these fish, however, dental characteristics and feeding habits further separate the two groups from each other. Pacus are native to tropical and subtropical South America and they inhabit rivers, lakes, floodplains and flooded forests in the Amazon, Orinoco, São Francisco and Río de la Plata Basins, as well as rivers in the Guianas. Here they form part of the highly diverse Neotropical fish fauna and their habitat preferences varies significantly depending on the exact species. Pacus have been introduced to the wild in places outside their native range. They are sometimes released to increase the fishing, but others are released by aquarists when they outgrow their aquarium
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Cichlid
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Cichlids /ˈsɪklᵻdz/ are fish from the family Cichlidae in the order Perciformes. Cichlids are members of a known as Labroidei, along with the wrasses, damselfishes. This family is large and diverse. At least 1,650 species have been described, making it one of the largest vertebrate families. New species are discovered annually, and many species remain undescribed, the actual number of species is therefore unknown, with estimates varying between 2,000 and 3,000. Cichlids are popular freshwater fish kept in the home aquarium, Cichlids span a wide range of body sizes, from species as small as 2.5 cm in length to much larger species approaching 1 m in length. As a group, cichlids exhibit a diversity of body shapes, ranging from strongly laterally compressed species to species that are cylindrical. Generally, however, cichlids tend to be of size, ovate in shape, and slightly laterally compressed, and generally similar to the North American sunfishes in morphology, behavior. Many cichlids, particularly tilapia, are important food fishes, while others are valued game fish, the family also includes many familiar aquarium fish, including the angelfish, oscars, and discus. Cichlids have the largest number of endangered species among vertebrate families and their diversity in the African Great Lakes is important for the study of speciation in evolution. Many cichlids introduced into waters outside of their range have become nuisances. Cichlids share a key trait, the fusion of the lower pharyngeal bones into a single tooth-bearing structure. Cichlids are efficient and often highly specialized feeders that capture and process a wide variety of food items. This is assumed to be one reason why they are so diverse, Cichlids vary in body shape, ranging from compressed and disc-shaped, to triangular to elongated and cylindrical. A ninth subfamily, Ptychochrominae, was recognized by Sparks. Cichlid taxonomy is still debated, and classification of genera cannot yet be definitively given, a comprehensive system of assigning species to monophyletic genera is still lacking, and there is not complete agreement on what genera should be recognized in this family. As an example of the problems, Kullander placed the African genus Heterochromis phylogenetically within Neotropical cichlids. Other problems center upon the identity of the common ancestor for the Lake Victoria superflock
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Shark tunnel
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A shark tunnel is an underwater tunnel that passes through an aquarium, typically with sharks and related aquatic life. They are usually made of acrylic glass. Most aquarium tunnels are cylindrical in shape, though tunnels can be made elliptical and this list is sorted alphabetically by aquarium name. † — Estimated based on top of tunnel being 4 ft under the surface and 9 ft to bottom of tunnel, ithaa, an underwater restaurant in the Maldives
18.
Planetarium
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A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. Whatever technologies are used, the objective is normally to link together to provide an accurate relative motion of the sky. Typical systems can be set to display the sky at any point in time, past or present, planetaria range in size from the Hayden Planetariums 21-meter dome seating 423 people, to three-meter inflatable portable domes where children sit on the floor. Such portable planetaria serve education programs outside of the permanent installations of museums, the term planetarium is sometimes used generically to describe other devices which illustrate the solar system, such as a computer simulation or an orrery. Planetarium software refers to an application that renders a three-dimensional image of the sky onto a two-dimensional computer screen. The term planetarian is used to describe a member of the staff of a planetarium. The ancient Greek polymath Archimedes is attributed with creating a primitive device that could predict the movements of the Sun and the Moon. The discovery of the Antikythera mechanism proved that such devices already existed during antiquity, campanus of Novara described a planetary equatorium in his Theorica Planetarum, and included instructions on how to build one. The Globe of Gottorf built around 1650 had constellations painted on the inside and these devices would today usually be referred to as orreries. In fact, many planetaria today have what are called projection orreries, the small size of typical 18th century orreries limited their impact, and towards the end of that century a number of educators attempted some larger scale simulations of the heavens. The efforts of Adam Walker and his sons are noteworthy in their attempts to fuse theatrical illusions with educational aspirations, walkers Eidouranion was the heart of his public lectures or theatrical presentations. Every Planet and Satellite seems suspended in space, without any support and these devices most probably sacrificed astronomical accuracy for crowd-pleasing spectacle and sensational and awe-provoking imagery. The oldest, still working planetarium can be found in the Dutch town Franeker and it was built by Eise Eisinga in the living room of his house. It took Eisinga seven years to build his planetarium, which was completed in 1781 and this was displayed at the Deutsches Museum in 1924, construction work having been interrupted by the war. The planets travelled along overhead rails, powered by electric motors,180 stars were projected onto the wall by electric bulbs. Atwoods work at the Chicago Academy of Sciences and by the ideas of Walther Bauersfeld, in August 1923, the first Zeiss planetarium projected images of the night sky onto the white plaster lining of a 16 m hemispherical concrete dome, erected on the roof of the Zeiss works. The first official public showing was at the Deutsches Museum in Munich on October 21,1923, when Germany was divided into East and West Germany after the war, the Zeiss firm was also split. Part remained in its headquarters at Jena, in East Germany
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Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
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The biome includes several types of forests, Lowland equatorial evergreen rain forests, commonly known as tropical rainforests, are forests which receive high rainfall throughout the year. These forests occur in a belt around the equator, with the largest areas in the Amazon basin of South America, the Congo basin of central Africa, some trees in these forests drop some or all of their leaves during the winter dry season. These forests are found in parts of South America, in Central America and around the Caribbean, in coastal West Africa, parts of the Indian subcontinent, montane rain forests, are found in cooler-climate mountainous areas. Those with elevations high enough to regularly encounter low-level cloud cover are known as cloud forests, flooded forests, including freshwater swamp forests and peat swamp forests. In contrast to TSMF, tropical forest regions with lower levels of rainfall are home to tropical dry broadleaf forests, temperate rain forests also occur in certain humid temperate coastal regions. Rainforests now cover less than 6% of Earths land surface, scientists estimate that more than half of all the worlds plant and animal species live in tropical rain forests
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African penguin
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The African penguin, also known as the jackass penguin and black-footed penguin is a species of penguin, confined to southern African waters. It is also known as the jackass penguin for its donkey-like bray. Like all extant penguins it is flightless, with a streamlined body, adults weigh on average 2. 2–3.5 kg and are 60–70 cm tall. The pink gland above their eyes helps them to cope with changing temperatures, when the temperature gets hotter, the body of the African penguin sends more blood to these glands to be cooled by the air surrounding it. This then causes the gland to turn a shade of pink. The African penguin is a diver and feeds primarily on fish. Once extremely numerous, the African penguin is declining due to a combination of threats and is classified as endangered and it is a charismatic species and is popular with tourists. The African penguin is a penguin, placed in the genus Spheniscus. All are similar in shape, colour and behaviour, the African penguin is a member of the class Aves, and the order Sphenisciformes. It belongs to the penguin family Spheniscidae and it is classified as Spheniscus demersus. The genus to which the African penguin belongs to, Spheniscus, derives from the Ancient Greek word sphen and this refers to their streamlined body shape. Its species name, demersus, is a Latin word for plunging, African penguins grow to 60–70 cm tall and weigh between 2. 2–3.5 kg. They have a stripe and black spots on the chest. They have pink glands above their eyes, which are used for thermoregulation, the hotter the penguin gets, the more blood is sent to these glands so it may be cooled by the surrounding air, thus making the glands more pink. This species exhibits sexual dimorphism, the males are larger than the females and have larger beaks. Juveniles do not possess the bold, delineated markings of the adult but instead have dark upperparts that vary from greyish-blue to brown, the beak is more pointed than that of the Humboldt. African penguins look similar and are thought to be related to the Humboldt, Magellanic, African penguins have a very recognisable appearance with a thick band of black that is in the shape of an upside-down horseshoe. They have black feet and unique black spots that vary in size, Magellanic penguins share a similar characteristic that often confuses the two, the similarity is a double bar on the throat and chest
21.
Albinism in biology
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Albinism in biology is the Congenital absence of any pigmentation or coloration in a person, animal or plant, resulting in white hair and pink eyes in mammals. Varied use and interpretation of the mean that written reports of albinistic animals can be difficult to verify. Albino animals have characteristic pink or red eyes because the lack of pigment in the iris allows the vessels of the retina to be visible. Familiar albino animals include in-bred strains of animals, but populations of naturally occurring albino animals exist in the wild. Albinism is a phenomenon in molluscs, both in the shell and in the soft parts. It has been claimed by some, e. g, in plants, albinism is characterised by partial or complete loss of chlorophyll pigments and incomplete differentiation of chloroplast membranes. Albinism in plants interferes with photosynthesis, which can reduce survivability, some plant variations may have white flowers or other parts. However, these plants are not totally devoid of chlorophyll, terms associated with this phenomenon are hypochromia and albiflora. Biological pigments are produced by living organisms that have a colour resulting from selective colour absorption. What we perceive as colour are the wavelengths of light that are not absorbed by the pigment, biological pigments include plant pigments and flower pigments. Animals can appear coloured due to two mechanisms, pigments and structural colours, animals may have both biological pigments and structural colours, for example, some butterflies. Many animal body-parts, such as skin, eyes, feathers, fur, hair, scales and cuticles and these cells are found in a wide range of animals including amphibians, fish, reptiles, crustaceans and cephalopods. Mammals and birds, in contrast, have a class of cells called melanocytes for colouration, the term chromatophore can also refer to coloured, membrane-associated vesicles found in some forms of photosynthetic bacteria. Chromatophores are largely responsible for generating skin and eye colour in animals and are generated in the neural crest during embryonic development. Light typically passes through multiple layers and is reflected more than once, the multiple reflections compound one another and intensify the colours. Structural colour differs according to the observers position whereas pigments appear the same regardless of the angle-of-view, animals that show iridescence include mother of pearl seashells, fish, and peacocks. These are just a few examples of animals with this quality, definitions of albinism vary and are inconsistent. Whilst they are clear and precise for humans and other mammals, many animals have pigments other than melanin, and some also have structural colours
22.
American alligator
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The American alligator, sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile endemic to the southeastern United States. It is one of two living species in the genus Alligator within the family Alligatoridae, it is larger than the other extant alligator species, adult male American alligators measure 3.4 to 4.6 m in length, and can weigh up to 453 kg. Females are smaller, measuring around 3 m, the American alligator inhabits freshwater wetlands, such as marshes and cypress swamps from Texas to North Carolina. Alligators are apex predators and consume fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and they play an important role as ecosystem engineers in wetland ecosystems through the creation of alligator holes, which provide both wet and dry habitats for other organisms. Throughout the year, but particularly during the season, alligators bellow to declare territory. Male alligators use infrasound to attract females, eggs are laid in a nest of vegetation, sticks, leaves, and mud in a sheltered spot in or near the water. Young are born with bands around their bodies and are protected by their mother for up to one year. The American alligator is listed as Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, historically, hunting had decimated their population, and the American alligator was listed as an endangered species by the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Subsequent conservation efforts have allowed their numbers to increase and the species was removed from the list in 1987, alligators are now harvested for their skins and meat. The species is the state reptile of three states, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The American alligator was first classified by French zoologist François Marie Daudin as Crocodilus mississipiensis in 1801, in 1807 Georges Cuvier created the genus Alligator, the American alligator shares this genus with the Chinese alligator. They are grouped in the family Alligatoridae with the caimans, the superfamily Alligatoroidea includes all crocodilians that are more closely related to the American alligator than to either the Nile crocodile or the gharial. Members of this superfamily first arose in the late Cretaceous, leidyosuchus of Alberta is the earliest known genus. Alligators and caimans split in North America during the late Cretaceous, the Chinese alligator likely descended from a lineage that crossed the Bering land bridge during the Neogene. The modern American alligator is well represented in the record of the Pleistocene. The alligators full mitochondrial genome was sequenced in the 1990s and it suggests the animal evolved at a similar to mammals and greater than birds. However, the genome, published in 2014, suggests that the alligator evolved much more slowly than mammals. In 2016, a Miocene fossil alligators skull was found at Marion County, unlike the other extinct alligator species of in the same genus, the fossil skull was virtually indistinguishable from that of the modern American alligator
23.
Reticulated python
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The reticulated python is a species of python found in Southeast Asia. They are the worlds longest snakes and longest reptiles, and among the three heaviest snakes, like all pythons, they are nonvenomous constrictors and normally not considered dangerous to humans. However, cases of people killed by reticulated pythons have been documented, an excellent swimmer, P. reticulatus has been reported far out at sea and has colonized many small islands within its range. The specific name, reticulatus, is Latin meaning net-like, or reticulated and this species is the largest snake native to Asia. More than a thousand wild reticulated pythons in southern Sumatra were studied and estimated to have a range of 1.5 to 6.5 m. Reticulated pythons with lengths more than 6 m are rare, though according to the Guinness Book of World Records, a reticulated python of the same length as a green anaconda may weigh only half as much as the bulkier anaconda. One of the largest scientifically measured specimens, from Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, was measured under anesthesia at 6.95 m, when Colossus died on April 14,1963, its body was deposited in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. The hide tends to stretch from the process, and thus be longer than the snake from which it came – e. g. by roughly 20–40% or more. Because of these issues, a 2012 journal article concluded that Colossus was neither the longest snake nor the heaviest snake ever maintained in captivity, too large to be preserved with formaldehyde and then stored in alcohol, the specimen was instead prepared as a disarticulated skeleton. The hide was sent to a laboratory to be tanned, but it was either lost or destroyed, there is considerable confusion in the literature over whether Colossus was male or female. The colour pattern is a geometric pattern that incorporates different colours. The back typically has a series of diamond shapes flanked by smaller markings with light centers. In this species wide range, much variation of size, colour. In zoo exhibits, the pattern may seem garish, but in a shadowy jungle environment amid fallen leaves and debris. Called disruptive colouration, it protects them from predators and helps them to catch their prey, the smooth dorsal scales are arranged in 69–79 rows at midbody. There are deep pits on four anterior upper labials, on two or three anterior lower labials, and on five or six lower labials. The original description does not include a type locality, three subspecies have been proposed, but are not recognized in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System. The color and size can vary a great deal among the subspecies described, geographical location is a good key to establishing the subspecies, as each one has a distinct geographical range
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Systematics
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Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees, phylogenies have two components, branching order and branch length. Phylogenetic trees of species and higher taxa are used to study the evolution of traits, Systematics, in other words, is used to understand the evolutionary history of life on Earth. John Lindley provided a definition of systematics in 1830, although he wrote of systematic botany rather than using the term systematics. This is a field with a history that in recent years has experienced a notable renaissance. Part of the material has to do with evolutionary areas. Taxonomy is that part of Systematics concerned with topics to above, however, in modern usage, they can all be considered synonyms of each other. For example, Websters 9th New Collegiate Dictionary of 1987 treats classification, taxonomy, according to this work the terms originated in 1790, c. Europeans tend to use the terms systematics and biosystematics for the field of the study of biodiversity as a whole, all of these biological disciplines can deal both with extinct and with extant organisms. Scientific classifications are aids in recording and reporting information to other scientists, the systematist, a scientist who specializes in systematics, must, therefore, be able to use existing classification systems, or at least know them well enough to skilfully justify not using them. Phenetics was an attempt to determine the relationships of organisms through a measure of overall similarity, from the late-20th century onwards, it was superseded by cladistics, which rejects plesiomorphies in attempting to resolve the phylogeny of Earths various organisms through time. Todays systematists generally make use of molecular biology and of computer programs to study organisms. Taxonomic characters are the attributes that can be used to provide the evidence from which relationships between taxa are inferred. Adaptation, or evolutionary mechanisms Scientific classification and Taxonomy - the result of research in systematics Schuh, Randall T. biological Systematics, Principles and Applications, 2nd edn. ISBN 978-0-8014-4799-0 Simpson, Michael G.2005, ISBN 978-0-12-644460-5 Society of Australian Systematic Biologists Society of Systematic Biologists Willi Hennig Society
25.
Conservation biology
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It is an interdisciplinary subject drawing on natural and social sciences, and the practice of natural resource management. The conservation ethic is based on the findings of conservation biology, wilcox and Michael E. Soulé with a group of leading university and zoo researchers and conservationists including Kurt Benirschke, Sir Otto Frankel, Thomas E. Lovejoy, and Jared M. Diamond. The meeting was prompted by the concern over deforestation, disappearing species. Conservation biology and the concept of biological diversity emerged together, helping crystallize the modern era of conservation science, the inherent multidisciplinary basis for conservation biology has led to new subdisciplines including conservation social science, conservation behavior and conservation physiology. It stimulated further development of genetics which Otto Frankel had originated first but is now often considered a subdiscipline as well. The rapid decline of established biological systems around the means that conservation biology is often referred to as a Discipline with a deadline. Conservation biology is tied closely to ecology in researching the ecology of rare or endangered species. Conservation biologists work in the field and office, in government, universities, non-profit organizations, the topics of their research are diverse, because this is an interdisciplinary network with professional alliances in the biological as well as social sciences. Those dedicated to the cause and profession advocate for a response to the current biodiversity crisis based on morals, ethics. Conscious efforts to conserve and protect global biodiversity are a recent phenomenon, natural resource conservation, however, has a history that extends prior to the age of conservation. Resource ethics grew out of necessity through direct relations with nature and this social dilemma with respect to natural resource management is often called the Tragedy of the Commons. From this principle, conservation biologists can trace communal resource based ethics throughout cultures as a solution to communal resource conflict. For example, the Alaskan Tlingit peoples and the Haida of the Pacific Northwest had resource boundaries, rules and these rules were guided by clan elders who knew lifelong details of each river and stream they managed. There are numerous examples in history where cultures have followed rules, rituals, Conservation ethics are also found in early religious and philosophical writings. There are examples in the Tao, Shinto, Hindu, Islamic, in the bible, through Moses, God commanded to let the land rest from cultivation every seventh year. Before the 18th century, however, much of European culture considered it a view to admire nature. Wilderness was denigrated while agricultural development was praised, however, as early as AD680 a wildlife sanctuary was founded on the Farne Islands by St Cuthbert in response to his religious beliefs. Natural history was a preoccupation in the 18th century, with grand expeditions
26.
Anthropology
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Anthropology is the study of various aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology and cultural anthropology study the norms and values of societies, linguistic anthropology studies how language affects social life. Biological or physical anthropology studies the development of humans. The abstract noun anthropology is first attested in reference to history and its present use first appeared in Renaissance Germany in the works of Magnus Hundt and Otto Casmann. Their New Latin anthropologia derived from the forms of the Greek words ánthrōpos and lógos. It began to be used in English, possibly via French anthropologie, various short-lived organizations of anthropologists had already been formed. The Société Ethnologique de Paris, the first to use Ethnology, was formed in 1839 and its members were primarily anti-slavery activists. When slavery was abolished in France in 1848 the Société was abandoned and these anthropologists of the times were liberal, anti-slavery, and pro-human-rights activists. Anthropology and many other current fields are the results of the comparative methods developed in the earlier 19th century. For them, the publication of Charles Darwins On the Origin of Species was the epiphany of everything they had begun to suspect, Darwin himself arrived at his conclusions through comparison of species he had seen in agronomy and in the wild. Darwin and Wallace unveiled evolution in the late 1850s, there was an immediate rush to bring it into the social sciences. When he read Darwin he became a convert to Transformisme. His definition now became the study of the group, considered as a whole, in its details. Broca, being what today would be called a neurosurgeon, had taken an interest in the pathology of speech and he wanted to localize the difference between man and the other animals, which appeared to reside in speech. He discovered the speech center of the brain, today called Brocas area after him. The title was translated as The Anthropology of Primitive Peoples. The last two volumes were published posthumously, Waitz defined anthropology as the science of the nature of man. By nature he meant matter animated by the Divine breath, i. e. he was an animist and he stresses that the data of comparison must be empirical, gathered by experimentation
27.
Marine biology
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Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the sea. Marine biology differs from marine ecology as marine ecology is focused on how organisms interact with each other, a large proportion of all life on Earth lives in the ocean. The exact size of this proportion is unknown, since many ocean species are still to be discovered. The ocean is a complex three-dimensional world covering approximately 71% of the Earths surface, the organisms studied range from microscopic phytoplankton and zooplankton to huge cetaceans 30 meters in length. Marine life is a vast resource, providing food, medicine, at a fundamental level, marine life helps determine the very nature of our planet. Marine organisms contribute significantly to the cycle, and are involved in the regulation of the Earths climate. Shorelines are in part shaped and protected by marine life, many species are economically important to humans, including both finfish and shellfish. It is also becoming understood that the well-being of marine organisms, the human body of knowledge regarding the relationship between life in the sea and important cycles is rapidly growing, with new discoveries being made nearly every day. These cycles include those of matter and of air, large areas beneath the ocean surface still remain effectively unexplored. The study of marine biology dates back to Aristotle, who made observations of life in the sea around Lesbos. In 1768, Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin published the Historia Fucorum, the first work dedicated to marine algae and it included elaborate illustrations of seaweed and marine algae on folded leaves. The British naturalist Edward Forbes is generally regarded as the founder of the science of marine biology, the pace of oceanographic and marine biology studies quickly accelerated during the course of the 19th century. The observations made in the first studies of marine biology fueled the age of discovery, during this time, a vast amount of knowledge was gained about the life that exists in the oceans of the world. Many voyages contributed significantly to this pool of knowledge, among the most significant were the voyages of the HMS Beagle where Charles Darwin came up with his theories of evolution and on the formation of coral reefs. The creation of laboratories was important because it allowed marine biologists to conduct research. The oldest marine laboratory in the world, Station biologique de Roscoff, was established in France in 1872, in the United States, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography dates back to 1903, while the prominent Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute was founded in 1930. As inhabitants of the largest environment on Earth, microbial marine systems drive changes in every global system, microbes are responsible for virtually all the photosynthesis that occurs in the ocean, as well as the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients and trace elements. Microscopic life undersea is incredibly diverse and still poorly understood, for example, the role of viruses in marine ecosystems is barely being explored even in the beginning of the 21st century
28.
Botany
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Botany, also called plant science, plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who specialises in this field, the term botany comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη meaning pasture, grass, or fodder, βοτάνη is in turn derived from βόσκειν, to feed or to graze. Nowadays, botanists study approximately 410,000 species of plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants. Medieval physic gardens, often attached to monasteries, contained plants of medical importance and they were forerunners of the first botanical gardens attached to universities, founded from the 1540s onwards. One of the earliest was the Padua botanical garden and these gardens facilitated the academic study of plants. Efforts to catalogue and describe their collections were the beginnings of plant taxonomy, in the last two decades of the 20th century, botanists exploited the techniques of molecular genetic analysis, including genomics and proteomics and DNA sequences to classify plants more accurately. Modern botany is a broad, multidisciplinary subject with inputs from most other areas of science, dominant themes in 21st century plant science are molecular genetics and epigenetics, which are the mechanisms and control of gene expression during differentiation of plant cells and tissues. Botany originated as herbalism, the study and use of plants for their medicinal properties, many records of the Holocene period date early botanical knowledge as far back as 10,000 years ago. This early unrecorded knowledge of plants was discovered in ancient sites of human occupation within Tennessee, the early recorded history of botany includes many ancient writings and plant classifications. Examples of early works have been found in ancient texts from India dating back to before 1100 BC, in archaic Avestan writings. His major works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, constitute the most important contributions to science until the Middle Ages. De Materia Medica was widely read for more than 1,500 years, important contributions from the medieval Muslim world include Ibn Wahshiyyas Nabatean Agriculture, Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarīs the Book of Plants, and Ibn Bassals The Classification of Soils. In the early 13th century, Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, and Ibn al-Baitar wrote on botany in a systematic and scientific manner and these gardens continued the practical value of earlier physic gardens, often associated with monasteries, in which plants were cultivated for medical use. They supported the growth of botany as an academic subject, lectures were given about the plants grown in the gardens and their medical uses demonstrated. Botanical gardens came much later to northern Europe, the first in England was the University of Oxford Botanic Garden in 1621, throughout this period, botany remained firmly subordinate to medicine. German physician Leonhart Fuchs was one of the three German fathers of botany, along with theologian Otto Brunfels and physician Hieronymus Bock, Fuchs and Brunfels broke away from the tradition of copying earlier works to make original observations of their own. Bock created his own system of plant classification, physician Valerius Cordus authored a botanically and pharmacologically important herbal Historia Plantarum in 1544 and a pharmacopoeia of lasting importance, the Dispensatorium in 1546. Naturalist Conrad von Gesner and herbalist John Gerard published herbals covering the medicinal uses of plants, naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi was considered the father of natural history, which included the study of plants
29.
Entomology
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Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. This wider meaning may still be encountered in informal use, Entomology is rooted in nearly all human cultures from prehistoric times, primarily in the context of agriculture, but scientific study began only as recently as the 16th century. William Kirby is widely considered as the father of Entomology, in collaboration with William Spence, he published a definitive entomological encyclopedia, Introduction to Entomology, regarded as the subjects foundational text. He also helped to found the Royal Entomological Society in London in 1833, one of the earliest such societies in the world, earlier antecedents, such as the Aurelian society date back to the 1740s. There has also been a history of people becoming entomologists through museum curation and research assistance, insect identification is an increasingly common hobby, with butterflies and dragonflies being the most popular. Most insects can easily be recognized to such as Hymenoptera or Coleoptera. However, insects other than Lepidoptera are typically identifiable to genus or species only through the use of Identification keys and Monographs. Because the class Insecta contains a large number of species and the characteristics separating them are unfamiliar, and often subtle. This has led to the development of automated species identification systems targeted on insects, for example, Daisy, ABIS, SPIDA, in 1994 the Entomological Society of America launched a new professional certification program for the pest control industry called The Associate Certified Entomologist. To qualify as a true entomologist an individual would require an advanced degree. Trichopterology - caddis flies Vespology - Social wasps Like other scientific specialties, entomologists have a number of local, national, there are also many organizations specializing in specific subareas. C. Y. Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas University of Minnesota, big Fleas Have Little Fleas, How Discoveries of Invertebrate Diseases Are Advancing Modern Science University of Arizona Press, Tucson,208 pages, ISBN 0-8165-2544-7. Triplehorn, Charles A. and Norman F. Johnson, borror and DeLongs Introduction to the Study of Insects, 7th edition, Thomas Brooks/Cole. — a classic textbook in North America, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Capinera, JL.2008. Iowa State Entomology Index of Internet Resources, archived from the original on 2006-11-14. Archived from the original on 2006-12-06, archived from the original on 2007-02-07. Compendium of References on Flies and Disease, archived from the original on 2006-10-15. USDA Collecting methods. Detailed instructions Arthropa Extensive photo album sorted by topic, Tereshkin Scientific illustration in entomology Tereshkin, A.2008, Methodology of a scientific drawings preparation in entomology on example of ichneumon flies
30.
Herpetology
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Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles. Batrachology is a subdiscipline of herpetology concerned with the study of amphibians alone. Herpetology is concerned with poikilothermic, ectothermic tetrapods, one of the most prestigious organizations, the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, is an example of this. Many herpetological societies exist today, having been formed to promote interest in reptiles, some toxins and venoms produced by reptiles and amphibians are useful in human medicine. Currently, some snake venom has been used to create anti-coagulants that work to treat stroke victims, the word herpetology is from Greek, ἑρπετόν, herpeton, creeping animal and -λογία, -logia, knowledge. People with an avid interest in herpetology and who keep different reptiles or amphibians often refer to themselves as herpers, herp is a vernacular term for reptiles and amphibians. It is derived from the old term herpetile, with back to Linnaeuss classification of animals, in which he grouped reptiles. There are over 6700 species of amphibians and over 9000 species of reptiles, career options in the field of herpetology include, but are not limited to lab research, field studies and survey, zoological staff, museum staff and college teaching. In modern academic science, it is rare for individuals to consider themselves a herpetologist first and foremost, for example, an evolutionary biologist who is also a herpetologist may choose to work on an issue such as the evolution of warning coloration in coral snakes. Modern herpetological writers of note include Mark OShea and Philip Purser, most colleges or universities do not offer a major in herpetology at the undergraduate or even the graduate level. Instead, persons interested in herpetology select a major in the biological sciences, the knowledge learned about all aspects of the biology of animals is then applied to an individual study of herpetology. Herping List of herpetologists List of herpetology academic journals Adler, Kraig, contributions to the History of Herpetology. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, bushmaster, Raymond Ditmars and the Hunt for the Worlds Largest Viper Goin, Coleman J. Olive B. Xi +378 pp. ISBN 0-7167-0020-4, herpMapper is a database of reptile and amphibian sightings
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Ichthyology
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Ichthyology, also known as fish science, is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. This includes bony fish, cartilaginous fish, and jawless fish, while a large number of species have been discovered, approximately 250 new species are officially described by science each year. According to FishBase,33,400 species of fish had been described by October 2016, the study of fish dates from the Upper Paleolithic Revolution. The science of ichthyology was developed in several interconnecting epochs, each with various significant advancements, the study of fish receives its origins from humans desire to feed, clothe, and equip themselves with useful implements. Early cultures manifested these insights in abstract and identifiable artistic expressions, informal, scientific descriptions of fish are represented within the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Old Testament laws of kashrut forbade the consumption of fish scales or appendages. These fish include cyprinids of the genera Barbus and Mirogrex, cichlids of the genus Sarotherodon, Aristotle incorporated ichthyology into formal scientific study. Between 335 BC–322 BC, he provided the earliest taxonomic classification of fish, furthermore, Aristotle documented anatomical and behavioral differences between fish and marine mammals. After his death, some of his pupils continued his ichthyological research, theophrastus, for example, composed a treatise on amphibious fish. The Romans, although devoted to science, wrote extensively about fish. Pliny the Elder, a notable Roman naturalist, compiled the works of indigenous Greeks, including verifiable and ambiguous peculiarities such as the sawfish. Plinys documentation was the last significant contribution to ichthyology until the European Renaissance, the writings of three sixteenth century scholars, Hippolito Salviani, Pierre Belon, and Guillaume Rondelet, signify the conception of modern ichthyology. The investigations of individuals were based upon actual research in comparison to ancient recitations. This property popularized and emphasized these discoveries, despite their prominence, Rondelets De Piscibus Marinis is regarded as the most influential, identifying 244 species of fish. The incremental alterations in navigation and shipbuilding throughout the Renaissance marked the commencement of a new epoch in ichthyology, the Renaissance culminated with the era of exploration and colonization, and upon the cosmopolitan interest in navigation came the specialization in naturalism. Georg Marcgrave of Saxony composed the Naturalis Brasilae in 1648 and this document contained a description of 100 species of fish indigenous to the Brazilian coastline. In 1686, John Ray and Francis Willughby collaboratively published Historia Piscium, the fish contained within this informative literature were arranged in a provisional system of classification. The classification used within the Historia Piscium was further developed by Carl Linnaeus and his taxonomic approach became the systematic approach to the study of organisms, including fish
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Zoology
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The term is derived from Ancient Greek ζῷον, zōion, i. e. animal and λόγος, logos, i. e. knowledge, study. The history of zoology traces the study of the kingdom from ancient to modern times. This ancient work was developed in the Middle Ages by Muslim physicians. During the Renaissance and early period, zoological thought was revolutionized in Europe by a renewed interest in empiricism. Microscopy revealed the unknown world of microorganisms, laying the groundwork for cell theory. The growing importance of natural theology, partly a response to the rise of mechanical philosophy, over the 18th and 19th centuries, zoology became an increasingly professional scientific discipline. Naturalists began to reject essentialism and consider the importance of extinction, cell theory provided a new perspective on the fundamental basis of life. These developments, as well as the results from embryology and paleontology, were synthesized in Charles Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection. In 1859, Darwin placed the theory of evolution on a new footing, by his discovery of a process by which organic evolution can occur. Darwin gave new direction to morphology and physiology, by uniting them in a biological theory. The end of the 19th century saw the fall of spontaneous generation, cell biology studies the structural and physiological properties of cells, including their behavior, interactions, and environment. This is done on both the microscopic and molecular levels, for single-celled organisms such as bacteria as well as the cells in multicellular organisms such as humans. Understanding the structure and function of cells is fundamental to all of the biological sciences, the similarities and differences between cell types are particularly relevant to molecular biology. Anatomy considers the forms of macroscopic structures such as organs and organ systems and it focuses on how organs and organ systems work together in the bodies of humans and animals, in addition to how they work independently. Anatomy and cell biology are two studies that are related, and can be categorized under structural studies. Physiology studies the mechanical, physical, and biochemical processes of living organisms by attempting to understand how all of the function as a whole. The theme of structure to function is central to biology, for example, what is learned about the physiology of yeast cells can also apply to human cells. The field of animal physiology extends the tools and methods of physiology to non-human species
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Mammalogy
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In zoology, mammalogy is the study of mammals – a class of vertebrates with characteristics such as homeothermic metabolism, fur, four-chambered hearts, and complex nervous systems. Mammalogy has also known as mastology, theriology, and therology. There are about 4,200 different species of animals which are considered mammals, the major branches to study in the mammalogy career include natural history, taxonomy and systematics, anatomy and physiology, ethology, ecology, and management and control. The approximate salary of a mammalogist varies from $20,000 to $60,000 a year, Mammalogists are typically involved in activities such as conducting research, managing personnel, and writing proposals. Mammalogy branches off into other taxonomically-oriented disciplines such as primatology, and this is a list of scientific journals broadly serving mammalogists. In addition, many more general zoology, ecology and evolution, or conservation journals also deal with mammals. List of mammalogists Mammal March Madness Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, South Africa The American Society of Mammalogists
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Ornithology
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Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. The word ornithology derives from the ancient Greek ὄρνις ornis and λόγος logos, several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds. Most marked among these is the extent of studies undertaken by amateurs working within the parameters of strict scientific methodology, most modern biological theories apply across taxonomic groups and the number of professional scientists who identify themselves as ornithologists has therefore declined. A wide range of tools and techniques are used in ornithology, the origins of the word ornithology come from the Greek ornithologos and late 17th-century Latin ornithologia meaning bird science. Trends include the move from mere descriptions to the identification of patterns, Humans have had an observational relationship with birds since prehistory, with some stone age drawings being amongst the oldest indications of an interest in birds. Birds were perhaps important as a source, and bones of as many as 80 species have been found in excavations of early Stone Age settlements. Waterbird and seabird remains have also found in shell mounds on the island of Oronsay off the coast of Scotland. Cultures around the world have rich vocabularies related to birds, traditional bird names are often based on detailed knowledge of the behaviour, with many names being onomatopoeic, many still in use. Traditional knowledge may also involve the use of birds in folk medicine, hunting of wild birds as well as their domestication would have required considerable knowledge of their habits. Poultry farming and falconry were practised from early times in many parts of the world, artificial incubation of poultry was practised in China around 246 BC and around at least 400 BC in Egypt. The Egyptians also made use of birds in their scripts, many of which. Early written records provide information on the past distributions of species. For instance Xenophon records the abundance of the ostrich in Assyria, other old writings such as the Vedas demonstrate the careful observation of avian life histories and includes the earliest reference to the habit of brood parasitism by the Asian koel. Like writing, the art of China, Japan, Persia and India also demonstrate knowledge. Aristotle in 350 BC in his Historia Animalium noted the habit of migration, moulting, egg laying and life spans. Similar misconceptions existed regarding the breeding of barnacle geese, around 77 AD, Pliny the Elder described birds, among other creatures, in his Historia Naturalis. The origins of falconry have been traced to Mesopotamia and the earliest record comes from the reign of Sargon II, falconry made its entry to Europe only after AD400, brought in from the East after invasions by the Huns and Allans. Frederick II of Hohenstaufen learned about Arabian falconry during wars in the region and he had this work translated into Latin and also conducted experiments on birds in his menagerie
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Geology
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Geology is an earth science concerned with the solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Geology can also refer generally to the study of the features of any terrestrial planet. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth by providing the evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life. Geology also plays a role in engineering and is a major academic discipline. The majority of data comes from research on solid Earth materials. These typically fall into one of two categories, rock and unconsolidated material, the majority of research in geology is associated with the study of rock, as rock provides the primary record of the majority of the geologic history of the Earth. There are three types of rock, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The rock cycle is an important concept in geology which illustrates the relationships between three types of rock, and magma. When a rock crystallizes from melt, it is an igneous rock, the sedimentary rock can then be subsequently turned into a metamorphic rock due to heat and pressure and is then weathered, eroded, deposited, and lithified, ultimately becoming a sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rock may also be re-eroded and redeposited, and metamorphic rock may also undergo additional metamorphism, all three types of rocks may be re-melted, when this happens, a new magma is formed, from which an igneous rock may once again crystallize. Geologists also study unlithified material which typically comes from more recent deposits and these materials are superficial deposits which lie above the bedrock. Because of this, the study of material is often known as Quaternary geology. This includes the study of sediment and soils, including studies in geomorphology, sedimentology and this theory is supported by several types of observations, including seafloor spreading, and the global distribution of mountain terrain and seismicity. This coupling between rigid plates moving on the surface of the Earth and the mantle is called plate tectonics. The development of plate tectonics provided a basis for many observations of the solid Earth. Long linear regions of geologic features could be explained as plate boundaries, mid-ocean ridges, high regions on the seafloor where hydrothermal vents and volcanoes exist, were explained as divergent boundaries, where two plates move apart. Arcs of volcanoes and earthquakes were explained as convergent boundaries, where one plate subducts under another, transform boundaries, such as the San Andreas Fault system, resulted in widespread powerful earthquakes. Plate tectonics also provided a mechanism for Alfred Wegeners theory of continental drift and they also provided a driving force for crustal deformation, and a new setting for the observations of structural geology
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Paleontology
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Paleontology or palaeontology is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene Epoch. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms evolution and interactions with each other, paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuviers work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term itself originates from Greek παλαιός, palaios, i. e. old, ancient, ὄν, on, i. e. being, creature and λόγος, logos, i. e. speech, thought, study. Paleontology lies on the border between biology and geology, but differs from archaeology in that it excludes the study of modern humans. It now uses techniques drawn from a range of sciences, including biochemistry, mathematics. The final quarter of the 20th century saw the development of molecular phylogenetics, molecular phylogenetics has also been used to estimate the dates when species diverged, but there is controversy about the reliability of the molecular clock on which such estimates depend. The simplest definition is the study of ancient life, paleontology is one of the historical sciences, along with archaeology, geology, astronomy, cosmology, philology and history itself. This means that it aims to describe phenomena of the past, hence it has three main elements, description of the phenomena, developing a general theory about the causes of various types of change, and applying those theories to specific facts. Sometimes the smoking gun is discovered by an accident during other research. Paleontology lies on the boundary between biology and geology since paleontology focuses on the record of past life but its source of evidence is fossils. In addition paleontology often uses techniques derived from other sciences, including biology, osteology, ecology, chemistry, techniques developed in engineering have been used to analyse how ancient organisms might have worked, for example how fast Tyrannosaurus could move and how powerful its bite was. As knowledge has increased, paleontology has developed specialised subdivisions, vertebrate paleontology concentrates on fossils of vertebrates, from the earliest fish to the immediate ancestors of modern mammals. Invertebrate paleontology deals with fossils of such as molluscs, arthropods. Paleobotany focuses on the study of plants, but traditionally includes the study of fossil algae. Palynology, the study of pollen and spores produced by plants and protists. Micropaleontology deals with all microscopic fossil organisms, regardless of the group to which they belong, one example is the development of oxygenic photosynthesis by bacteria, which hugely increased the productivity and diversity of ecosystems. This also caused the oxygenation of the atmosphere, together, these were a prerequisite for the evolution of the most complex eukaryotic cells, from which all multicellular organisms are built
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Biology
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Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, evolution, distribution, identification and taxonomy. Modern biology is a vast and eclectic field, composed of branches and subdisciplines. However, despite the broad scope of biology, there are certain unifying concepts within it that consolidate it into single, coherent field. In general, biology recognizes the cell as the unit of life, genes as the basic unit of heredity. It is also understood today that all organisms survive by consuming and transforming energy and by regulating their internal environment to maintain a stable, the term biology is derived from the Greek word βίος, bios, life and the suffix -λογία, -logia, study of. The Latin-language form of the term first appeared in 1736 when Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus used biologi in his Bibliotheca botanica, the first German use, Biologie, was in a 1771 translation of Linnaeus work. In 1797, Theodor Georg August Roose used the term in the preface of a book, karl Friedrich Burdach used the term in 1800 in a more restricted sense of the study of human beings from a morphological, physiological and psychological perspective. The science that concerns itself with these objects we will indicate by the biology or the doctrine of life. Although modern biology is a recent development, sciences related to. Natural philosophy was studied as early as the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indian subcontinent, however, the origins of modern biology and its approach to the study of nature are most often traced back to ancient Greece. While the formal study of medicine back to Hippocrates, it was Aristotle who contributed most extensively to the development of biology. Especially important are his History of Animals and other works where he showed naturalist leanings, and later more empirical works that focused on biological causation and the diversity of life. Aristotles successor at the Lyceum, Theophrastus, wrote a series of books on botany that survived as the most important contribution of antiquity to the plant sciences, even into the Middle Ages. Scholars of the medieval Islamic world who wrote on biology included al-Jahiz, Al-Dīnawarī, who wrote on botany, biology began to quickly develop and grow with Anton van Leeuwenhoeks dramatic improvement of the microscope. It was then that scholars discovered spermatozoa, bacteria, infusoria, investigations by Jan Swammerdam led to new interest in entomology and helped to develop the basic techniques of microscopic dissection and staining. Advances in microscopy also had a impact on biological thinking. In the early 19th century, a number of biologists pointed to the importance of the cell. Thanks to the work of Robert Remak and Rudolf Virchow, however, meanwhile, taxonomy and classification became the focus of natural historians
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Biodiversity
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Biodiversity, a contraction of biological diversity, generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. One of the most widely used definitions defines it in terms of the variability within species and it is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation within an area, biome, terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator, which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth, and is richest in the tropics and these tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 per cent of earths surface, and contain about 90 percent of the worlds species. Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, there are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, the number and variety of plants, animals and other organisms that exist is known as biodiversity. It is a component of nature and it ensures the survival of human species by providing food, fuel, shelter, medicines. The richness of biodiversity depends on the conditions and area of the region. All species of plants taken together are known as flora and about 300,000 species of plants are known to date, all species of animals taken together are known as fauna which includes birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, insects, crustaceans, molluscs, etc. Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions, more than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earths current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. More recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described, the total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 and weighs 50 billion tonnes. In comparison, the mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all living on Earth. The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, there are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia. Other early physical evidence of a substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old meta-sedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland. More recently, in 2015, remains of life were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. According to one of the researchers, If life arose relatively quickly on Earth, then it could be common in the universe
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Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos
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California Academy of Sciences
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The California Academy of Sciences is a natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 26 million specimens. Completely rebuilt in 2008, the building covers 400,000 square feet and is among the newest natural history museums in the United States, the primary building in Golden Gate Park reopened on September 27,2008. The Academy Fellows are, in turn, ominated by their colleagues, underlying these operations is a staff of hundreds of employees who operate the day-to-day functions without which the Academy could not offer its programs. The operations branch of the Academy is divided into three departments, Building Operations, Guest Operations, and IT Services, in fact, unbeknownst to most patrons, research and administrative facilities occupy nearly 50% of the Academys physical structure. Prior to being replaced, the old Academy building attracted approximately half a million each year. As has been the case from the start, the main thrust of the exhibits is natural history, Morrison Planetarium - features the worlds largest completely digital planetarium dome measuring in at 27. There also is an emphasis on environmental concerns, with all the various departments collaborating closely to focus on systematic biology. Academy researchers study life around the world, a 2011 expedition to the Philippines discovered an estimated 300 species new to science, the Academy publishes the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, as well as Occasional Papers, Memoirs, and Special Publications. The California Academy of Natural Sciences was founded in 1853, only three years after California joined the United States, becoming the first society of its kind in the Western US. Its stated aim was to undertake a systematic survey of every portion of the State. It was renamed as the more inclusive California Academy of Sciences in 1868, in 1892, Alice Eastwood, a botanist, was hired by the Academy and worked there until she retired in 1949. Fortunately, the 1905-1906 scientific collecting expedition to the Galápagos Islands already was underway, in 1916, the Academy moved to the North American Hall of Birds and Mammals in Golden Gate Park, the first building on the site that was to become its permanent home. In 1923, the Steinhart Aquarium was added, followed in 1934 by the Simson African Hall, the post-war years saw a flurry of new construction on the site, the Science Hall was added in 1951, followed by the Morrison Planetarium in 1952. The Morrison Planetarium was the seventh major planetarium to open in the United States and featured a one-of-a-kind star projector, the Academy Projector produced a remarkably natural-looking star field. It projected irregularly shaped stars, rather than the circular stars projected by many optical star projectors, the irregular shapes were created by placing variously sized grains of silicon carbide onto the glass star plates by hand, then aluminizing the plates, and brushing away the silicon carbide grains. In 1959, the Malliard Library, Eastwood Hall of Botany, in 1969, another new building, Cowell Hall, was added to the site. In 1976, several new galleries were opened, and the year, in 1977. Prior to the old building being torn down in 2005, there was a Life through Time gallery, housing a display on evolution
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Western United States
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The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West, the Far West, or simply the West, traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because European settlement in the U. S. expanded westward after its founding, prior to about 1800, the crest of the Appalachian Mountains was seen as the western frontier. Since then, the frontier moved westward and eventually lands west of the Mississippi River came to be referred to as the West. The West contains several major biomes, the Western U. S. is the largest region of the country, covering more than half the land area of the United States. Given this expansive and diverse geography it is no wonder the region is difficult to specifically define, a majority of the historian respondents placed the eastern boundary of the West east of the Census definition out on the eastern edge of the Great Plains or on the Mississippi River. The survey respondents as a whole showed just how little agreement there was on the boundaries of the West, within a region as large and diverse as the Western United States, smaller areas with more closely shared demographics and geography have developed as subregions. Meanwhile, the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington can be considered part of the Northwest or Pacific Northwest, West Texas in the Chihuahuan Desert may be considered as part of the Western U. S. Fort Worth has long laid claim to be Where the West Begins, the West is still one of the most sparsely settled areas in the United States with 49.5 inhabitants per square mile. Only Texas with 78.0 inhabitants/sq mi, Washington with 86.0 inhabitants/sq mi. and California with 213.4 inhabitants/sq mi. exceed the national average of 77.98 inhabitants/sq mi. The entire Western region has also strongly influenced by European, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Native Americans. African and European Americans, however, continue to wield a stronger political influence because of the rates of citizenship and voting among Asians. The West also contains much of the Native American population in the U. S. particularly in the reservations in the Mountain. The Western United States has a sex ratio than any other region in the United States. Because the tide of development had not yet reached most of the West when conservation became an issue, agencies of the federal government own. National parks are reserved for activities such as fishing, camping, hiking, and boating, but other government lands also allow commercial activities like ranching, logging. The largest city in the region is Los Angeles, located on the West Coast, Other West Coast cities include San Diego, San Bernardino, San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, Bakersfield, Sacramento, Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland. Prominent cities in the Mountain States include Denver, Colorado Springs, Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Boise, El Paso, and Cheyenne. Along the Pacific Ocean coast lie the Coast Ranges, which and they collect a large part of the airborne moisture moving in from the ocean
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Chinatown, San Francisco
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The Chinatown centered on Grant Avenue and Stockton Street in San Francisco, California, is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside Asia. It is the oldest of the four notable Chinatowns in the city, since its establishment in 1848, it has been highly important and influential in the history and culture of ethnic Chinese immigrants in North America. Chinatown is an enclave that continues to retain its own customs, languages, places of worship, social clubs, there are two hospitals, numerous parks and squares, a post office, and other infrastructure. Chinatown has been defined by the neighborhoods of North Beach, and Telegraph Hill areas as bound by Bush Street, Taylor Street, Bay Street. Officially, Chinatown is located in downtown San Francisco, covers 24 square blocks, within Chinatown there are two major thoroughfares. It is dominated by buildings that are three to four stories high, with shops on the ground floor and residential apartments upstairs. A major focal point in Chinatown is Portsmouth Square, since it is one of the few open spaces in Chinatown and sits above a large underground parking lot, Portsmouth Square bustles with activity such as Tai Chi and old men playing Chinese chess. A replica of the Goddess of Democracy used in the Tiananmen Square protest was built in 1999 by Thomas Marsh and it is made of bronze and weighs approximately 600 lb. According to the San Francisco Planning Department, Chinatown is the most densely populated area west of Manhattan. In the 1970s, the density in Chinatown was seven times the San Francisco average. The estimated total population in the 2000 Census was at 100,574 residents, during the time from 2009 to 2013, the median household income was $20,000 - compared to $76,000 citywide - with 29% of residents below the national poverty threshold. The median age was 50 years, the oldest of any neighborhood, as of 2015, two thirds of the residents lived in one of Chinatowns 105 single room occupancy hotels,96 of which had private owners and nine were owned by nonprofits. Most residents are speakers of Mandarin or Cantonese, in 2015. Many of those Chinese immigrants who gain some wealth while living in Chinatown leave it for the Richmond District, working-class Hong Kong Chinese immigrants began arriving in large numbers in the 1960s. Despite their status and professional qualifications in Hong Kong, many took low-paying employment in restaurants, an increase in Cantonese-speaking immigrants from Hong Kong and Mainland China has gradually led to the replacement in Chinatown of the Hoisanese/Taishanese dialect by the standard Cantonese dialect. These outer neighborhoods have been settled largely by Chinese from Southeast Asia, there are also many suburban Chinese communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, especially in Silicon Valley, such as Cupertino, Fremont, and Milpitas, where Taiwanese Americans are dominant. Despite these developments, many continue to commute in from these neighborhoods and cities to shop in Chinatown, causing gridlock on roads and delays in public transit. To address this problem, the public transit agency, Muni, is planning to extend the citys subway network to the neighborhood via the new Central Subway
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James Lick
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James Lick was an American carpenter, piano builder, land baron, and patron of the sciences. At the time of his death, he was the wealthiest man in California, James Lick was born in Stumpstown Pennsylvania on August 25,1796. Licks grandfather, William Lick, served during the American Revolutionary War under General George Washington and his son, John Lick, the son of a carpenter, Lick began learning the craft at an early age. When he was twenty one, after a romance with Barbara Snavely, Lick left Stumpstown for Baltimore, Maryland. He quickly mastered the skill, and moved to New York City, in 1821 Lick moved to Argentina, after learning that his pianos were being exported to South America. Lick found his time in Buenos Aires to be difficult, due to his ignorance of Spanish, however, his business thrived and in 1825 Lick left Argentina to tour Europe for a year. On his return trip, his ship was captured by the Portuguese, Lick escaped captivity and returned to Buenos Aires on foot. In 1832, Lick decided to return to Stumpstown and he failed to reunite with Barbara Snavely and their son and returned to Buenos Aires. He decided the situation was too unstable and moved to Valparaíso. After four years, he moved his business, this time to Lima. In 1846, Lick decided to return to North America and, anticipating the Mexican-American War, Lick arrived in San Francisco, California, in January 1848, bringing with him his tools, work bench, $30,000 in gold, and 600 pounds of chocolate. The chocolate quickly sold, and Lick convinced his uncle and friend in Peru, the confectioner Domingo Ghirardelli, to move to San Francisco, upon his arrival, Lick began buying real estate in the small village of San Francisco. Lick himself got a touch of gold fever and went out to mine the metal, in 1861, Lick began construction of a hotel, which became known as Lick House, at the intersection of Montgomery and Sutter Streets in San Francisco. The hotel had a room that could seat 400, based on a similar room at the palace of Versailles. Lick House was considered the finest hotel west of the Mississippi River, the hotel was destroyed in the fire following the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Following the construction, Lick returned to his San Jose orchards, in 1874, Lick suffered a massive stroke in the kitchen of his home in Santa Clara. The following morning, he was found by his employee, Thomas Fraser, and taken to Lick House, in the next three years, Lick spent his time determining how to dispense with his fortune. He originally wanted to build giant statues of himself and his parents, in 1874 he placed $3,000,000 at the disposal of seven trustees, by whom the funds were to be applied to specific uses
44.
Entrepreneurship
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What appears as a real opportunity ex ante might actually be a non-opportunity or one that cannot be actualized by entrepreneurs lacking the necessary business skills, financial or social capital. Traditionally, an entrepreneur has been defined as a person who starts, organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk. Rather than working as an employee, an entrepreneur runs a business and assumes all the risk and reward of a given business venture, idea. The entrepreneur is commonly seen as a leader and innovator of new ideas. They act as the manager and oversee the launch and growth of an enterprise, Entrepreneurship is the process by which an individual identifies a business opportunity and acquires and deploys the necessary resources required for its exploitation. For Schumpeter, the changes and dynamic disequilibrium brought on by the innovating entrepreneur, the ‘norm’ of a healthy economy. Entrepreneurial spirit is characterized by innovation and risk-taking, for example, in the 2000s, the field of social entrepreneurship has been identified, in which entrepreneurs combine business activities with humanitarian, environmental or community goals. In the 2010s, entrepreneurship can be studied in college or university as part of the disciplines of management or business administration, Entrepreneur, is a loanword from French. First used in 1723, today the term entrepreneur implies qualities of leadership, initiative, economist Robert Reich has called team-building, leadership, and management ability essential qualities for the entrepreneur. Historically the study of entrepreneurship reaches back to the work in the late 17th and early 18th centuries of Richard Cantillon and Adam Smith, which was foundational to classical economics. In the 20th century, entrepreneurship was studied by Joseph Schumpeter in the 1930s and other Austrian economists such as Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, the term entrepreneurship was coined around the 1920s, while the loan from French of the word entrepreneur dates to the 1850s. According to Schumpeter, an entrepreneur is willing and able to convert a new idea or invention into a successful innovation, thus, creative destruction is largely responsible for long-term economic growth. The idea that leads to economic growth is an interpretation of the residual in endogenous growth theory. For Schumpeter, entrepreneurship resulted in new industries and in new combinations of currently existing inputs, Schumpeters initial example of this was the combination of a steam engine and then current wagon making technologies to produce the horseless carriage. In this case the innovation, the car, was transformational and it did not immediately replace the horse-drawn carriage, but in time, incremental improvements reduced the cost and improved the technology, leading to the modern auto industry. Despite Schumpeters early 20th-century contributions, traditional microeconomic theory did not formally consider the entrepreneur in its theoretical frameworks, in this treatment, the entrepreneur was an implied but unspecified actor, consistent with the concept of the entrepreneur being the agent of x-efficiency. For Schumpeter, the entrepreneur did not bear risk, the capitalist did, Schumpeter was of the opinion that entrepreneurs shift the Production Possibility Curve to a higher level using innovations. Cantillon emphasized the willingness of the entrepreneur to assume risk and to deal with uncertainty, thus, he draws attention to the function of the entrepreneur, and distinguishes clearly between the function of the entrepreneur and the owner who provides the money
45.
Philanthropy
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Philanthropy means etymologically, the love of humanity, in the sense of caring, nourishing, developing, and enhancing what it means to be human. In this meaning, it both the benefactor in their identifying and exercising their values, and the beneficiary in their receipt. A person who practices philanthropy is called a philanthropist, Philanthropy has distinguishing features from charity, not all charity is philanthropy, or vice versa, though there is a recognized degree of overlap in practice. The literal, classical definitions and understandings of the term philanthropy derive from its origins in the Greek φιλανθρωπία, the most conventional modern definition is private initiatives, for public good, focusing on quality of life. This combines the social scientific aspect developed in the century with the humanistic tradition. These distinctions have been analyzed by Olivier Zunz, and others, instances of philanthropy commonly overlap with instances of charity, though not all charity is philanthropy, or vice versa. The difference commonly cited is that charity relieves the pains of social problems, the first use of the noun form philanthrôpía came shortly thereafter, in the early Platonic dialogue Euthyphro. Socrates is reported to have said that his out of his thoughts freely to his listeners was his philanthrôpía. In the second century CE, Plutarch used the concept of philanthrôpía to describe superior human beings and this Classically synonymous troika, of philanthropy, the humanities, and liberal education, declined with the replacement of the classical world by Christianity. During the Middle Ages, philanthrôpía was superseded by Caritas charity, selfless love, Philanthropy was modernized by Sir Francis Bacon in the 1600s, who is largely credited with preventing the word from being owned by horticulture. Bacon considered philanthrôpía to be synonymous with goodness, which correlated with the Aristotelian conception of virtue, then in the 1700s, an influential lexical figurehead by the name of Samuel Johnson simply defined philanthropy as love of mankind, good nature. This definition still survives today and is cited more gender-neutrally as the love of humanity. However, it was Noah Webster who would more accurately reflect the usage in American English. The precise meaning of philanthropy is still a matter of some contention, nevertheless, there are some working definitions to which the community associated with the field of philanthropic studies most commonly subscribes. The Greeks adopted the love of humanity as an ideal, whose goal was excellence —the fullest self-development, of a body, mind, and spirit. The Platonic Academys philosophical dictionary defined Philanthropy as a state of well-educated habits stemming from love of humanity, just as Prometheus human-empowering gifts rebelled against the tyranny of Zeus, philanthropic was also associated with freedom and democracy. Both Socrates and the laws of Athens were described as philanthropic and democratic, gradually there emerged a non-religious agricultural infrastructure based on peasant farming organized into manors, which were, in turn, organized for law and order by feudalism. Francis Bacon in 1592 wrote in a letter that his vast contemplative ends expressed his philanthropic, Henry Cockeram, in his English dictionary, cited philanthropy as a synonym for humanity—thus reaffirming the Classical formulation
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