We compare G7 life expectancies with the existential conditions from 1870 to date, using the real annual outputs of goods and services per capita as a measure of existential conditions. Wars destroy analytic relations, but life insurers eliminate catastrophic losses, and the outputs have an envelope representing the undisturbed existential condition. Both evolutions are S-functions with the sam...

There exists no memory of biologic evolution besides the individuals themselves. Indeed, the biologic milieu can change and a previously unnt action or individual can come to be more t; it would be most dangerous to rely on the memory of the past. This contrasts with artiicial evolution most often considering a xed milieu: the generation of an unnt individual previously explored is only a waste...

This article examines the evolving policy context of municipal open-space acquisition in New Jersey. The authors hypothesize that voters’ interest in open-space protection is sensitive to changes in state policy and that municipal acquisition may have exclusionary effects. The authors examine local acquisition practices using three different approaches: voting behavior, municipal acquisition, a...

Paleovalleys are components of regional unconformities that provide important constraints on the tectonic evolution of orogenic systems. Some paleovalleys represent canyons cut through deformed strata. Others comprise linear rift-valleys filled with lakes, streams, or alluvium. Locally preserved fluvial and alluvial gravel may directly link source regions to depositional basins, providing timel...

Prof. Xiao’s current research focuses on the biological evolution and environmental changes in the Proterozoic Eon (2500 to 543 million years ago). He has been working on some of the most important and exquisitely preserved microfossils from the ca. 600-million-year-old Doushantuo Formation in South China. These microfossils include multicellular red algae and animal embryos at successive cleav...

As Earth evolved over the last 4.5 billion years, its mineralogy changed. As we peer back through Earth’s history, it seems logical to think that our lens would grow increasingly fogged and our light ever more dim. How do we see beyond the oldest preserved rocks and minerals, after billions of years of volcanism, plate tectonics, and weathering? How do we see past the Moon-forming collision, wh...