Dan Graur is the author of the book Molecular and Genome Evolution (2016). Dan Graur has a very low threshold for hooey, hype, hypocrisy, postmodernism, bad statistics, ignorance of population genetics and evolutionary biology, and hatred of any kind. This blog is a diary of peeves, dislikes, antipathies, annoyances, and random feelings of contempt. Rarely, do I have good things to say.
Following a silly letter from Scotland, I found it necessary to state very, very clearly that all the opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not represent the views of either my academic employer or the current Secretary of the Flat Earth Society.
(a) 1616: A movement or change of position, e.g., “The nature of this Euolution is clearely to leaue the File-leaders in front, and Bringers in reare.”
(b) 1624: The process of unrolling, opening out, or revealing.
(d) 1764: Introduction of (b) into biology. Emergence or release from an enclosed structure, e.g., “Our author asserts, that every fungus is contained in an entire and perfect state… in the egg, or as it is called, the seed, and wants nothing but evolution, in order to imbibe the necessary juices.
(e) 1783: The process of emission or release of such entities as gas, heat, and light, e.g., “The method put in practice by Mr. Hutchins to settle the freezing point of quicksilver depends entirely upon the evolution of heat.”
(f) 1832: The use of “evolution” à la Darwin started with Charles Lyell’s second edition of Principles of Geology, where on page 11 it is written “The testacea of the ocean existed first, until some of them by gradual evolution, were improved into those inhabiting the land.”