Modern Progress in Vertebrate Palæontology

Pulsed evolution shaped modern vertebrate body sizes

The relative importance of different modes of evolution in shaping phenotypic diversity remains a hotly debated question. Fossil data suggest that stasis may be a common mode of evolution, while modern data suggest some lineages experience very fast rates of evolution. One way to reconcile these observations is to imagine that evolution proceeds in pulses, rather than in increments, on geologic...

Progress and Poverty in Early Modern Europe

Indigenous Astronomies and Progress in Modern Astronomy

From an anthropological point of view, the whole concept of a ‘path of progress’ in astronomical discovery is anathema, since it implicitly downgrades other cultural perspectives, such as the many ‘indigenous cosmologies’ that still exist in the modern world. By doing so, one risks provoking those who hold them and—as is most obvious in places such as Hawaii where the two ‘world-views’ come int...

Modern human origins: progress and prospects.

The question of the mode of origin of modern humans (Homo sapiens) has dominated palaeoanthropological debate over the last decade. This review discusses the main models proposed to explain modern human origins, and examines relevant fossil evidence from Eurasia, Africa and Australasia. Archaeological and genetic data are also discussed, as well as problems with the concept of 'modernity' itsel...

the tragedy of modern man in arthur millers world

what miller wants is a theatre of heightened consciousness. he speaks of two passions in a man, the passion to "feel" and the passion "know". he belives that we can have more of the latter. he says: drama is akin to the other inventions of man in that it ought to help us know more and not merely to spend our feelings. the writing of the crucible shows us that he is trying to give more heightene...