Evolution of theoretical ecology in last decades: why did individual-based modelling emerge

Why did life emerge?

Many mechanisms, functions and structures of life have been unraveled. However, the fundamental driving force that propelled chemical evolution and led to life has remained obscure. The 2 law of thermodynamics, written as an equation of motion, reveals that elemental abiotic matter evolves from the equilibrium via chemical reactions that couple to external energy toward complex biotic nonequili...

Evolution. When did photosynthesis emerge on Earth?

Life began early in Earth's history, but it was the emergence of photosynthesis that allowed its proliferation across the planet, because it freed life from its sole dependence on abiotic chemical sources of reducing power. Des Marais discusses recent geological and molecular biological evidence, such as the paper by Xiong et al., that photosynthesis emerged at least 2,800 million years ago.

Individual-based models in ecology after four decades

Individual-based models simulate populations and communities by following individuals and their properties. They have been used in ecology for more than four decades, with their use and ubiquity in ecology growing rapidly in the last two decades. Individual-based models have been used for many applied or "pragmatic" issues, such as informing the protection and management of particular populatio...

Why Did Hospital Ethics Committees Emerge in the US?

Ethics committees are the primary mechanism for dealing with ethical issues in hospitals in the United States today [1-3]. Present in nearly every US hospital, ethics committees were virtually nonexistent in the 1960s and ’70s and, as recently as the early 1980s, were present in only 1 percent of US hospitals [4]. By the late 1980s, however, ethics committee presence had expanded to over 60 per...

Evolution in the Production and control of Equine Tetanus Antitoxin During the last 3 decades in Iran.