Types of Thieves

Intangible Plant Needs

What if plants do not only need the card measured resources such as nutrients, minerals, CO2, O2, sunlight and water? What if plans also need love, care, companionship, compassion and other intangible conditions? How about sound waves, what if plants need those too? What if plants are affected by the singing of the birds in a positive way? It would be quite interesting not only to study such conditions and their effect on plants, but also to use such knowledge that we come up with in order to devise systems by which we can care for plants. For instance, if in agriculture we know that a specific kind of crop or fruit tree needs such an amount of nitrogen, how about also knowing that it needs such specific sound waves in order to bear good fruit? That would be a completely new dimension in agriculture. I hope that when such time comes, sound requirements of a plant would be provided to it through natural means such as the singing of birds rather than using electronic devices that emit specific frequencies of sound waves in a farm.

Types of Thieves

Some organisms may be specialized in feeding on a particular type of plant, such as the silkworm and the mulberry tree leaves. Other organisms may feed on a variety of plants and animals. Similarly, thieves may specialize and 'prey' on particular types of robbery. Some thieves would be pickpockets that specialize on picking pockets. Others might be burglars who break into houses and rob their contents. Still other types of thieves might be those who steal bags from pedestrians. Yet other even more dangerous types may threaten to use force in order to take your belongings right before your very eyes. There are of course thieves who are 'generalists', they do not specialize in a particular type of robbery yet 'feed' on a variety of different types.

Islands and Speciation

Thoughts

1. The theory of evolution of species and what Islam and the Quran teach, how can they be reconciled?
2. In Upper Egypt, people are more isolated then those in the Nile Delta area. What effect, if any, does this have on them?
3. Taking plant species from such remote islands and reintroducing them elsewhere would be an interesting idea.
4. Breeding, of animals, taken from elsewhere can be interesting.
5. 'Specialization' of humans when isolated.
6. Specialization of coexisting humans.
7. How and why do populations diverge despite being in the same geographic location?

Digest

• Galápagos Islands are volcanic islands
• Location: Isolated in the Pacific Ocean about 1000 km west of Ecuador and 750 km from the island of Cocos, which is itself 500 km from Central America.
• Description: At more than 500 m above sea level the vegetation is open grassland. Below this is a humid zone of forest that grades into a coastal strip of desert vegetation with some endemic species of prickly pear cactus (Opuntia).
• Darwin's finches: Fourteen species of finch are found on the islands.
• Microsatellite: The evolutionary relationships amongst them have been traced by molecular techniques
• The 14 distinct species of finches differ in shape and feeding habits.
• Isolation of individual islands within the archipelago has led to the evolution of a series of species each matching its own environment.

Small ground finch (Geospiza fuliginosa)

Questions

1. How do populations specialize despite not being geographically separated?
2. What islands, other than land surrounded by water, exist? (Oases?)
3. Let's explore the interesting subject of rare and specialized species in isolated islands and the process by which they evolve!