Panels at the APA on papyri

SECTION 20

GRECO-EGYPTIAN RELIGION IN LIGHT OF THE DEMOTIC SOURCES

1:30pm-4:00pm

Franziska Naether, University of Leipzig, and Gil H. Renberg, Institute for Advanced Study, Organizers

This panel aims to explore aspects of religion in Greco-Roman Egypt that are best understood by studying the Greek and Demotic documents together, demonstrating the importance of employing this inclusive approach to various aspects of post-Pharaonic Egyptian culture and history. Though focusing on religion, the papers will touch on other sub-fields -- including Hellenistic and Roman history, historiography, the ancient novel, epistolography, ethnicity and bilingualism, and onomastics -- that likewise are illuminated by some of the 15000 edited Demotic texts. Additionally, the panel will showcase certain new methodologies and technical applications that have uses beyond Demotic studies.

Gil H. Renberg, Institute for Advanced Study Introduction (5 mins.)

1. Heinz-Josef Thissen, University of Cologne
   Ptolemaic Decrees and the Relation between Priests and the King (15 mins.)
   
   
   
2. Joachim Quack, University of Heidelberg
   The Manual of the Ideal Egyptian Temple (20 mins.)
   
   
   
3. Kim Ryholt, University of Copenhagen
   Egyptian Historical Literature from the Tebtunis Temple Library (20 mins.)
   
   
   
4. Franziska Naether, University of Leipzig
   Oracles, Dreams, Magical Spells: Bilingualism in Religious Texts (15 mins.)
   
   
   
5. Mark Depauw, University of Leuven
   The Rise of Egyptian Religion in Roman Egypt: Two Studies in Cultural Interaction (15 mins.)
   
   
   Robert Ritner, University of Chicago/Oriental Institute Respondent (10 mins.) 

SECTION 53    
SPONSORED BY THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PAPYROLOGISTS
Sunday, January 8, 2012 8:30am-11:00am

Raffaella Cribiore, New York University, Organizer
This panel presents a challenging mixture of papers concerning socio-economic and cultural issues. The first paper represents the work of a team that has found a large amount of papyri that belong to a well- known archive. The second paper sheds some light on the use of slave labor in skilled trades in late antiquity. The following concerns horoscopes designated as “deluxe” that so far have attracted little attention. From there the panel moves to handbooks for interpreting dreams and to two late papyri with interlinear musical notations that appear to be directly related to the origin of Byzantine musical notation.

1. Michel Cottier and George Bevan, University of Toronto New Documents from the Epagathus Archive (15 mins.)

2. Ryan McConnell, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Servi Callidi: P. Cornell 127 and Slave tarsikarioi in Late Antique Egypt (15 mins.)


3. Alexander Jones, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University An Enduring Genre of Deluxe Horoscopes (15 mins.)


4. Luigi Prada, University of Oxford
Interpreting Dreams in Roman Egypt and Beyond: New Papyrological Evidence in Demotic from the Fayum (15 mins.)


5. Celine Grassien and Alan Gampel, Sorbonne University
Two Unpublished Christian Liturgical Hymns with Musical Notations (15 mins.) \

SECTION 23
RECONSTRUCTING HERCULANEUM PAPYRI: A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION


Seminar (Advance registration required)


1:30pm-4:30pm


Richard Janko, University of Michigan and Jeffrey Fish, Baylor University, Organizers

conjectural restorations will be very welcome, and care will be taken to ensure, in the eventual publications, that they are credited to those who first suggested them. Expert knowledge of philosophical Greek is not a prerequisite.  Illustrated presentations will reveal the methods used to reconstruct two different Herculaneum rolls by Philodemus, On the Good King According to Homer and On Poems II. Time will be allowed for reading and discussing unpublished fragments of each work, which will be distributed in advance. New

1. Jeffrey Fish, Baylor University
   The Reconstruction of Philodemus’ On the Good King According to Homer (20 mins.)
   
   
   
2. Richard Janko, University of Michigan
   Reconstructing Philodemus’ On Poems Book 2 (20 mins.) 
   

First Circular: 27th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF PAPYROLOGY

First Circular

27th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF PAPYROLOGY

29 July ‐ 3 August 2013 Warsaw, Poland

On behalf of the Organising Committee, we are pleased to invite you to take part in the 27th International Congress of Papyrology in 2013 in Warsaw, Poland. The Congress is organised under the patronage and in close cooperation with the International Association of Papyrologists.

The Polish capital hosted scholars interested in papyrology, history of Graeco‐Roman Egypt, and ancient laws during the 10th International Congress of Papyrology already over a half a century ago, in 1961. Bringing this event again to Poland’s capital shows the strength and vitality of the Warsaw papyrological milieu centred around The Journal of Juristic Papyrology.

All relevant information concerning the venue and registration is to be found on the Congress website: www.papyrocongress2013.wpia.uw.edu.pl. Further information on accommodation, programme and events will be posted at a later date.

All correspondence will be sent by e‐mail: papyrocongress2013@uw.edu.pl

Venue

The Congress will be held between Monday, 29 July, and Saturday, 3 August 2013. All sessions will take place in the Con Centre at the Collegium Novum, the old Library of the University of Warsaw located at the heart of the main University Campus at 26‐28, Krakowskie Przedmieście Street. The campus is found in the very centre of Warsaw, near its historical quarter, and it can be accessed easily by bus. The venue boasts modern auditoria and conference rooms fully equipped with audio‐visual facilities. At the disposal of the Congress participants will be 8 conference rooms seating up to 50 persons (convertible into 4 rooms seating 100 persons), as well as a spacious auditorium for up to 300 persons.

Accommodation

The Congress venue is located in the neighbourhood of several hotels representing a selection of standards. The accommodation offer with special rates for Congress participants will be posted on the website and included in the second circular.

Sessions

Five days of sessions will be scheduled. The sixth day will be reserved for the General Assembly of the AIP devoted to obituaries and a general discussion of current problems in our discipline.

The papers will be presented in one of the following languages: English, French, German, and Italian.

The sessions will be divided into two categories:

1) Plenary sessions, held in the morning, with papers read by invited scholars and devoted to the presentation of the results of recent work in the main fields of papyrology.

2) Parallel sessions held in the afternoon, with papers grouped according to subject matter. Two types of presentations will be accepted:

• Papers (20 minutes)
• Short papers (10 minutes)
  Posters will be exhibited in addition to the sessions.
  The Participants are required to submit abstracts (max. 200 words) of papers and poster presentations by e‐mail to papyrocongress2013@uw.edu.pl.

  
  

  Social events
  The city of Warsaw and the surrounding areas have numerous interesting places to visit, and the cultural offer of the Polish capital is extremely rich. The organizing committee will arrange several attractive tours open for participants and accompanying persons to be taken place in the days immediately following the Congress. Details will be published on the Congress website. A dinner and a farewell party will be offered for all participants (dates to be confirmed).
  
  
  

  Registration
  The congress registration form and account details are provided on the website.

Regular fee:

150 EUR  Registration fees

230 EUR  Preferential fee

50 EUR  Student fee

100 EUR Accompanying perso

Payment of fees shall be made by bank transfer and by credit card after registration.

Important dates

Payment of Congress fees received from: 1 March 2012 Distribution of Second Circular: 30 April 2012

Deadline for preferential fees: 28 February 2013 Deadline for payment of fees: 31 May 2013

Deadline for abstract submission: 28 February 2013

Organising bodies

Department of Roman and Antique Law of the University of Warsaw

Department of Papyrology of the University of Warsaw Raphael Taubenschlag Foundation (publisher of The Journal of Juristic Papyrology)

Contact

Maria Nowak – Secretary of the 27th International Congress of Papyrology Department of Roman and Antique Law

University of Warsaw Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28

00‐927 Warsaw Poland

Tel: +48‐22‐5520388, +48‐22‐5522815 Fax: +48‐22‐5524319

E‐mail: papyrocongress2013@uw.edu.pl

Website: www.papyrocongress2013.wpia.uw.edu.pl

And the Winner Is .....

 

I collected the names of all the undergraduates who got the right answer for Monday's Molecules. I put them on slips of paper and had my colleague, Alex Palazzo draw one of them from a small beaker.

Alex still has a blog on Scienceblogs called Transcription and Translation (formerly The Daily Transcript) but he hasn't blogged very much recently. He's too busy doing experiments.

What name did he draw out of the beaker?

The winner of a free autographed textbook is .....

Read more »

The Cambrian Conundrum: Fossils vs Genes

The earliest fossil examples of most animal classes and phyla appear in the fossil record at about the same time in the Cambrian (about 530 million year as ago (Ma)). This period of apparent rapid divergence is referred to as the "Cambrian Explosion."

It seemed unlikely that this disparity could have evolved in just a few million years so many scientists have been searching for fossil antecedents in the early Cambrian and Ediacaran (635-541 Ma). Many trace fossils have been found in the past few decades, indicating that the fossil animals of the Cambrian were preceded by small wormlike creatures.

The other approach has been sequence analysis. One can construct molecular phylogenies by comparing the sequences of genes in modern extant organisms. This approach has been highly successful over the past fifty years so that we now know a great deal about the relationship of the various animal phyla. The correspondence between the old morphological taxonomy and molecular evolution is the most powerful evidence we have that evolution explains the history of life [see Twin Nested Hierarchies].

The problem with sequence comparisons has always been getting accurate dates using the molecular clock. It is hard to get an accurate date when dealing with events that occurred 500 million years ago because there aren't very many calibration points. An accurate calibration point is a known time when two lineages diverge.

If there really was a rapid divergence in the Cambrian then one would expect the molecular tree to show this. But it never has. The molecular phylogeny shows that chordates diverged from invertebrates at least one hundred million years before their fossils appear in the Cambrian. Similarly other phyla and classes of animals have their origin long before the Cambrian, according to the molecular clock.

A recent paper in Science extends this comparison by calculating more a more accurate molecular phylogeny using seven housekeeping genes from 118 different species (Erwin et al. 2011). The result is shown in Figure 1 of the paper: "The origin and diversification of animals as inferred from the geologic and genetic fossil records." (Click on the figure to embiggen.)

Read more »

Do the IDiots Understand Biochemistry and Molecular Biology?

 

We've been discussing whether Intelligent Design Creationists understand enough about biochemistry, molecular biology, and evolution to warrant their criticisms of these fields. The answer is clearly "no" as they demonstrate time and time again.

This time it's an anonymous posting on the premier IDC website, Evolution News & Views [Long Non-coding RNA Punches Another Hole in "Junk Genome" Myth]. The anonymous poster links to a recent paper in Genes & Development that shows a function for a particular long non-coding (lnc) RNA. The paper implies that many of these lncRNAs (up to 400) are expressed in mouse erythroid cells.

Regulatory RNA have been known and studied for at least four decades and various lncRNAs have been characterized over the past twenty years. The IDiot at Evolution News & Views seems to think that this is a new discovery proving that there's no junk in our genome. The facts are quite different.

As I pointed out in my review of The Myth of Junk DNA, the amount of the genome devoted to producing lncRNAs is about 0.1% [Junk & Jonathan: Part 6—Chapter 3]. So, not only have we known about regulatory RNAs for many years, we also know that their genes don't account for very much of the genome, I figure it can't be more than 2% even when you include all of the most optimistic estimates of regulatory RNAs [see What's in Your Genome?].

But the ignorance of the IDiots is much more profound than just being incapable of calculating percentages. The latest posting reveals the depth of their ignorance.

These findings have two important implications. First, non-coding regions of the genome were assumed to be leftover evolutionary relics that no longer play a functional role. The assumption was not due to extensive studies of non-coding regions of the genome, but rather to a commitment to what is known as the central dogma of molecular biology: DNA is transcribed into RNA and RNA is translated into amino acids to make proteins. This was considered the primary purpose of DNA. The non-coding regions were assumed to have no function, and were dismissed as the natural consequence of genetic "junk" accumulating over time. This paper is one among an accumulating corpus of papers discussing new and interesting functions of the non-coding regions of the genome. (See The Myth of Junk DNA by Jonathan Wells for a history of "junk" DNA and additional references describing the function of so-called "junk" DNA. See here for a discussion on the regulatory role of introns.)

There was never a time in the past fifty years when knowledgeable biochemists and molecular biologists thought that all non-coding DNA was nonfunctional junk. This was never an assumption of the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology which states that "... once (sequential) information has passed into protein it cannot get out again" [Basic Concepts: The Central Dogma of Molecular Biology]. There are many scientists who have misconceptions about the Central Dogma [The Central Dogma Strawman] but the IDiots go one step farther by misunderstanding the misconception!

We've known about functions in non-coding DNA since the early 1960s as anyone who has ever glanced at a textbook would know. It's hard to tell whether the IDiots are just butt-ignorant of basic science or whether they are lying. This is an especially tricky problem when the silly strawman argument is popularized by Jonathan Wells because he's supposed to know the science [Junk & Jonathan: Part 1—Getting the History Correct] [Junk & Jonathan: Part 2— What Did Biologists Really Say About Junk DNA?].

We know that most of our genome is junk because we know a great deal about genomes, genes, biochemistry, molecular biology, and evolution. We know which parts are likely to be functional and which parts are likely to be broken genes and other kinds of junk. We know this because we understand the subject, not because we are covering up our ignorance.

The IDiots are ignorant of the science and they assume that everyone else is as well. That's a very bad assumption.

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C. BENNETT, Alexandria and the Moon

Alexandria and the Moon An Investigation into the Lunar Macedonian Calendar of Ptolemaic Egypt Studia Hellenistica, 52 Year: 2011 ISBN: 978-90-429-2505-2 Pages: XXXVI-276 p. Price: 68 EURO Summary: This book is the first comprehensive study of the lunar Macedonian calendar in two decades. The mechanics of the calendar are examined in detail, and a new approach for reconstructing the sequence of intercalary months and years is proposed which, for the first time, permits a consistent interpretation of the papyrological data of the middle Ptolemaic period. It is shown that in c. 265 BC Ptolemy II deliberately set in motion a process to realign the calendar over an extended period, which ended early in the reign of Ptolemy IV. The results have implications for the origins of the financial year, the date of the Ptolemaieia, and the history of the Canopic reform of the Egyptian calendar, among other topics. Appendices consider the nature of Macedonian intercalation and the New Year outside Egypt. The study is of interest to students of ancient calendars, Ptolemaic chronology, and Hellenistic history.

«PALABRAS BIEN DICHAS»: ESTUDIOS FILOLÓGICOS DEDICADOS AL P. PIUS RAMON TRAGAN

«PALABRAS BIEN DICHAS»: ESTUDIOS FILOLÓGICOS DEDICADOS AL P. PIUS RAMON TRAGAN

Amb ocasió del X Aniversari de l’Estudi  i Publicació del Fons Papirològic Roca-Puig, l’equip de filòlegs del Consell Superior d’Investigacions Científiques (CSIC) ha volgut oferir al responsable de la col·lecció en nom de la Comunitat benedictina de Montserrat un conjunt d’estudis filològics sota el nom de “Palabras bien dichas”.

El diumenge dia 27 de novembre va tenir lloc a la Sala de Romeries l’entrega del mencionat llibre amb l’assistència dels autors i la presència del P. Abad i del P. Prior, així com d’altres monjos de la Comunitat.

L’acte expressa la vitalitat i l’impuls per a continuar en l’estudi i la publicació dels textos manuscrits existents en hebreu, àrab i siríac; i sobretot dels papirs encara no editats.

Tot ha estat gràcies a que a les qualitats intel·lectuals, se’ls ha afegit el valor humà de la comprensió mútua i de la profunda amistat.

Vegeu l’índex d’autors i els seus textos.

Versión en castellano.

Con ocasión del X Aniversario del Estudio y Publicación del Fondo Papirológico Roca-Puig, el equipo de filólogos del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) ha querido ofrecer al responsable de la colección en nombre de la Comunidad benedictina de Montserrat un conjunto de estudios filológicos bajo el nombre de “Palabras Bien Dichas”.

El domingo día 27 de noviembre tuvo lugar en la Sala de Romerías la entrega del mencionado libro con la asistencia de los autores y la presencia del P. Abad y el P. Prior, así como de otros monjes de la Comunidad.

El acto expresa la vitalidad y el impulso para continuar en el estudio y la publicación de los textos manuscritos existentes en hebreo, árabe y siríaco; y sobretodo de los papiros todavía no editados.

Todo esto ha sido gracias a que a las cualidades intelectuales se le ha añadido el valor humano de la compresión mutua y de la profunda amistad.

Ved el índice de autores y sus textos.

Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, Barcelona 2011

ÍNDICE
Damià Roure: Pius-Ramon Tragan: La persona i l'obra


Barbara Böck: Die medizinischen Texte der Tontafelsammlung des Klostermuseums Montserrat. MM 501 (BAM IV 381) und MM 478 (BAM IV 392)


Ignacio Màrquez Rowe: Un documento casi desconocido de principios de la primera dinastía de Babilonia en el Museu Bíblic de Montserrat


Raquel Martín Hernández: El fondo papirológico del Pad
re Ubach de la Biblioteca de Montserrat


M.a Teresa Ortega Monasterio: El Instituto Papirológico Roca-Puig y el CSIC: ¿Proyecto o realidad?


Klaas A. Worp: Female professionals in the Hellenistic World

Alberto Nodar Domínguez: Los papiros carbonizados de Bubastis de la
colección Palau Ribes: un estudio preliminar


María Jesús Albarrán Martínez - Sofía Torallas Tovar: Unas cuentas coptas en una tabla proveniente del Fondo Roca-Puig en Montserrat


M.a Victoria Spottorno: Prefacio al Nuevo Testamento de la Biblia Políglota Complutense


Javier del Barco: Los manuscritos hebreos de la Biblioteca de Montserrat robados en 1996


Francisco del Rio Sànchez: Ishaq bar Armalto, el escribano siríaco de Buenaventura Ubach. Colofones de algunos manuscritos del Fondo Oriental de Montserrat


Amalia Zomeño: Sobre el Ms.Or. 91 de la Biblioteca de Montserrat y las versiones árabes de los Evangelios 

IOSSIF P.P., CHANKOWSKI A.S., LORBER C.C. (eds.), MORE THAN MEN, LESS THAN GODS:

MORE THAN MEN, LESS THAN GODS:
STUDIES ON ROYAL CULT AND IMPERIAL WORSHIP
Proceedings of the International Colloquium Organized by the Belgian School at Athens (November 1-2, 2007)


IOSSIF P.P., CHANKOWSKI A.S., LORBER C.C. (eds.)

Year: 2011
ISBN: 978-90-429-2470-3
Pages: XVI-728 p.
Price: 97 EURO

Summary: More Than Men, Less Than Gods is conceived as a demonstration project, with the goal of opening new perspectives in the study of Graeco-Roman ruler worship. A principal emphasis is placed on the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary approach to the subject. The present volume points to some possible forerunners to Hellenistic royal cult and emperor worship, or at least to the concept of the divine king, to supplement the well-studied roots of ruler worship in the cultic life of the Greek polis and in pharaonic Egypt. More than Men... aspires to contribute to the debate relative to divine kingship, royal cult and emperor worship by opening new perspectives or reopening old ones. The focus is in eliciting some audacious and innovative approaches to such a complex phenomenon. All questions are not raised and certainly most of them are not answered here. In abandoning the sterile opposition between “political” and “religious,” the volume’s perspective transcends established notions conditioned by the Judeo-Christian model of western societies and scholarship, to consider the problem under different perspectives: there is no need to oppose “Greek” vs. “oriental,” “rational” vs. “emotional” to understand the birth of the phenomenon. The diversity of approaches draws attention to the variety of sources that provide evidence relating to ruler worship, or that can enhance our understanding of the broader phenomenon of the divinization of powerful men. These include myth and historical accounts preserved by ancient authors; dedicatory inscriptions; clay tablets; papyri; architectural decoration and other archaeological remains; statuary, cameos, gems and various minor arts; seal impressions; and coins.

Hagedorns WörterListen (WL) Update

O.Taxes II
P.Dime III
P.Mich. XX
P.Prag. III
P.Sorb. III
P.Vet. Aelii
PSI Com. IX
Tyche 25

Popular Media: Atlantic Monthly, "Digital Excavations of Ancient Analog"

OCT 17 2011, 12:07 PM ET 1

Physical documents can be incredibly durable, retaining ancient information through earthquakes, fires, and damage by insects and mold

The Fire at the Institut d'Egypte (Le Caire) Updates

Center for Inquiry Canada: New Associate Members

 
The Board of Directors voted on accepting new Associate Members at its December 11th meeting. I have just received a letter from the Board signed by the new (?) Chair, Richard Thain.

Dear Professor Moran,

On December 11, 2011 one of the many important items on the agenda for the Board od Directors meeting was discussion of the applications for Associate Membership.

The goal is to have a diverse group of Associate Members which reflects our membership geographically. In order to achieve this, the Board recognizes that we must update our website and post the By-Laws which explain the governance of CFI Canada. We hope to attract more applications which will then be reviewed before the next CFI Canada AGM in March 2012.

We felt it was important to approve some of the applications at the December 11th board meeting, so we reviewed and accepted the following five people:

Iain Martel, Seanna Watson, Brian Eelhart, Craig Irving and Marlowe Filippov.

The other applications were put under review and will be considered with the next wave of applicants at a future board meeting.

The Board of Directors realizes you have made and are continuing to make significant contributions to our success. We would like to sincerely thank you for your continued support and committment to helping CFI build a better Canada through reason.

Richard Thain DDS
Chair, Board of Directors
CFI Canada

My application was rejected!

I wish I knew why the Board didn't accept my application but did accept some others. Iain Martel is the Chair of CASS and Seanna Watson is the Director of the Ottawa branch of CFI so I assume that the people filling these positions are a sort of ex officio Associate Members. That makes a lot of sense especially for Iain and Seanne who have devoted so much time and effort to CFI.

Bryan Eelhart was the Financial Agent for the Green Party in the riding of Trinity-Spadina (Toronto) during the recent Ontario election. He's a member of the Board of Directors at Conscience Canada and he works for Science for Peace. Bryan has extensive expertise in website design and implementation.

Craig Irving is a freelance videographer from Toronto. He serves on the Multimedia Committee at Centre for Inquiry Canada.

Marlowe Filippov lives in Ottawa where she volunteers at the Centre for Inquiry. She's also an expert in websites. She's been helping out with membership problems and advising the National Director on other issues.

It appears that three two of the new Associate Members were chosen for their ability to help out with updating the CFI website.

There are currently three Associate Members who are CFI Advisory Fellows; Jeff Rosenthal from Toronto, Chris diCarlo from Guelph, and Ethan Clow from Vancouver. It's possible that the Board of Directors felt that only three CFI Canada Advisory Fellows should also be Associate Members, or maybe they felt that having two from the Toronto area was too much and that's why my application was rejected.

I'll try and find out more about the qualifications required for Associate Membership. It's clear that length of membership in CFI is not important since there are Associate Members who only joined CFI two years ago. I think that active volunteering on administrative tasks is an important criterion so if you are currently helping out in this area you will probably have a good chance of being appointed.

I'm a little unclear about the criterion of reflecting membership geographically. About half of all CFI Canada members are from the Toronto area but I don't think this means that half of the Associate Members will be from Toronto. I think it means that you're more likely to be chosen as an Associate Member if you are from one of the other centres that isn't already represented.

I'm not sure what the role of a CFI Canada Advisory Fellows is supposed to be. If we can't be Associate Members then who are we supposed to advise? :-)

Post a comment if your application was also rejected. That way we might be able to figure out what the Board of Directors is thinking when it comes to appointing new Associate Members. I'll let the Board know about this posting so they can comment, or at least see your comments.

---

A Torley Defense of Irreducible Complexity

Vincent Joseph Torley (vjtorley) has a Ph.D. in Philosophy (2007) from the University of Melbourne (Australia). He currently teaches English in Japan.

Torley hangs out at Uncommon Descent where he tries to defend Intelligent Design Creationism. He didn't like my recent posting on Irreducible Complexity [Barry Arrington Explains Irreducible Complexity] because I accused Barry Arrington of not understanding evolution. You might recall that Arrington began his defense of irreducible complexity by saying, "(1) By definition, evolution can work only in a stepwise fashion wherein each successive step is “selected for” because it has conferred a selective advantage on the organism."

This is not how evolution is defined and it's a particularly bad way to begin because the scientific understanding of many irreducibly complex systems involves the fixation of neutral or even detrimental alleles. Competency in evolution also requires an understanding of redundancy, contingency, and sloppiness.

Vincent Joseph Torley asks, "Will this do, Professor Moran?" He starts with ....

Let me state up-front that I am a philosopher, not a scientist. However, I believe in arguing rigorously, so I have attempted to state the argument from irreducible complexity in a rigorous fashion. I’d appreciate hearing from Professor Moran thinks of this argument, as a biologist.

Read more »

These are not berries!

 

This is Juniperus communis from Botany Photograph of the Day. If you visit that website you'll learn two three things about juniper that you didn't know before: (1) juniper grows in lots of places, (2) the "berries" aren't berries, (3) gin comes from the French word for juniper.

---

The Mite Genome

 

The genome of the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae has been sequenced and the results were published in Nature last month (Grbic et al. 2011).

Spider mites eat plants. They produce silk-like webs and that's why they're called "spider mites". They belong to the class Arachnida, which is the same group that contains spiders. The Arachnids are in the subphylum Chelicerata, a large group of arthropods distantly related to the insects and crustaceans. This is the first genome sequence of a chelicerate and that's why it's important.

Genome Size

The genome is only 90 Mb in size. It's the smallest arthropod genome that has been sequenced so far. Contrast this size with the human genome at 3,200 Mb or the genome of another tick, Ixodes scapularis, estimated to be 2,100 Mb. (Honeybee = 236 Mb, Drosophila = 140 Mb.) According to Ryan Gregory's animal genome size database this is the smallest known arachnid genome and the smallest known arthropod genome.

The authors estimate that there are 18,414 protein-encoding genes in the mite genome. This is about the same number of genes as most insects whose genomes have been sequenced and only slightly less than the number of genes in the human genome.

About 41% of the mite genome consists of exons (protein-encoding). Recall that less than 2% of our genome encodes proteins and in most insects the exon sequences make up less than 10% of the genome. (Honeybees and Drosophila also have smaller than average genome sizes.)

Introns

As you might imagine, the mite genome has a lot less junk DNA than other animals. This is partially reflected in the number and size of the introns. The average protein-encoding gene has less than three introns and the ones that are present are a lot smaller than the introns in species with larger genomes.

The figure on the right is a truncated version of a figure that appears in the supplemental information. It shows that the smallest introns are 40 bp and 70% of all introns are less that 150 bp in length (median = 96 bp). This is close to the smallest possible intron size allowing for slices sites and formation of a loop during splicing.

Transposons and Repetitive Sequences

Transposons (active and degenerate) make up less than 10% of the T. urticae genome and highly repetitive sequences (microsatellites) are almost absent. (The spider mite chromosomes don't have centromeres.)

Transposon sequences and highly repetitive sequences are a major component of the junk DNA found in large genomes so their absence in the mite genome is not a surprise.

Why Is the Mite Genome So Small?

The short answer is, we don't know. The long answer is much more complicated. As Michael Lynch points out (Lynch 2007 p.37), there's a balance between rates of insertion and deletion mutations. In species with small genomes the spontaneous rate of nucleotide deletion exceeds that of insertion so genome sizes shrink over time.

There may not be a selective advantage to having small or large genomes. It may just be that in some species the repair machinery tends to favor deletions while in closely related species the enzymes don't have this bias. Or maybe large genomes are slightly deleterious but the population size isn't large enough to allow natural selection to act. Some lineages may never have encountered significant bottlenecks so they've maintained a huge population size for millions of years allowing natural selection to operate on slightly deleterious mutations. This leads to smaller genomes.

Whatever the explanation, the small genome of mites shows us that most of the junk DNA present in other arthropod genomes is dispensable. That's why it's called "junk."

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Grbic, M. et al. (2011) The genome of Tetranychus urticae reveals herbivorus pest adaptations. Nature 479:487-492. [doi: 10.1038/nature10640] [PubMed]

Lynch, M. (2007) "The Origins of Genome Architecture" Sinauer Associates, Inc. Publishers, Sunderland, Massachusetts, United States

Jonathan McLatchie and Junk DNA

 
THEME

Genomes & Junk DNA
Jonathan McLatchie takes on PZ Myers in a spirited attack on junk DNA [Treasure in the Genetic Goldmine: PZ Myers Fails on "Junk DNA"]. The Intelligent Design Creationists are convinced that most of our genome is functional because that's what a good designer would create. They claim that junk DNA is a myth and their "evidence" is selective quotations from the scientific literature. They ignore the big picture, as they so often due.

I discussed most of the creationist arguments in my review of The Myth of Junk DNA.

Jonathan McLatchie analyzes three argument made by PZ Myers in his presentation at Skepticon IV. In that talk PZ said that introns are junk, telomeres are junk, and transposons are junk. I have already stated that I diasgree with PZ on these points [see PZ Myers Talks About Junk DNA]. Now I want to be clear on why Jonathan McLatchie is wrong.

1. Introns are mostly junk. I think PZ exaggerated a bit when he dismissed all introns as junk. My position is that we should treat introns as functional elements of a gene even though many (but not all) of them could probably be deleted without affecting the survival of the species. Each intron has about 50-80 bp of essential information that's required for proper splicing [Junk in Your Genome: Protein-Encoding Genes]. The rest of the intron, which can be thousand of base pairs in length, is mostly junk [Junk in Your Genome: Intron Size and Distribution]. Some introns contain essential gene regulatory regions and some contain essential genes. That does not mean that all intron sequences are functional.

2. Telomeres are not junk. I don't think telomeres are junk [Telomeres]. They are absolutely required for proper DNA replication. PZ Myers agrees that telomeres (and centromeres) are functional DNA (28 minutes into the talk). Jonathan McLatchie claims that PZ describes telomeres as junk DNA, "Myers departs from the facts, however, when he asserts that these telomeric repetitive elements are non-functional." McLatchie is not telling the truth.
3. Defective Transposons are Junk. PZ Myers talks about transposons as mobile genetic elements and states that transposons make up more than half of our genome. That's all junk according to PZ Myers. My position is that the small number of active transposons are functional selfish genes and the real junk is the defective transposon sequences that make up most of the genome [Transposon Insertions in the Human Genome]. Thus, I differ a bit from PZ's position. Jonathan McLatchie, like Jonathan Wells, argues that because the occasional defective transposon in the odd species has acquired a function, this means that most of the defective transposon sequences (~50% of the genome) are functional. This is nonsense.

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[Image Credit: The image shows human chromosomes labelled with a telomere probe (yellow), from Christoher Counter at Duke University.]

Monday's Molecule #154

 

Today's molecule is a bit more complicated than some of the others. You have to identify the molecule (common name only) and describe (briefly) its function. Can you name the precursor?

Post your answer in the comments. I'll hold off releasing any comments for 24 hours. The first one with the correct answer wins. I will only post correct answers to avoid embarrassment. This is your last chance to enter the Christmas draw for a free textbook!

There could be two winners. If the first correct answer isn't from an undergraduate student then I'll select a second winner from those undergraduates who post the correct answer. You will need to identify yourself as an undergraduate in order to win. (Put "undergraduate" at the bottom of your comment.) Every undergraduate who posts a correct answer will have their names entered in a Christmas draw. The winner gets a free autographed copy of my book! (One entry per week. If you post a correct answer every week you will have ten chances to win.)

Some past winners are from distant lands so their chances of taking up my offer of a free lunch are slim. (That's why I can afford to do this!)

In order to win you must post your correct name. Anonymous and pseudoanonymous commenters can't win the free lunch.

Winners will have to contact me by email to arrange a lunch date.

UPDATE: The molecule is thyrotropin-releasing hormone. It's derived from a long precursor protein containing multiple repeats of the tripeptide Glu-His-Pro.

The winner is Joseph C. Somody.

I'll announce the undergraduate winner of my textbook on Christmas day.

Winners
Nov. 2009: Jason Oakley, Alex Ling
Oct. 17: Bill Chaney, Roger Fan
Oct. 24: DK
Oct. 31: Joseph C. Somody
Nov. 7: Jason Oakley
Nov. 15: Thomas Ferraro, Vipulan Vigneswaran
Nov. 21: Vipulan Vigneswaran (honorary mention to Raul A. Félix de Sousa)
Nov. 28: Philip Rodger
Dec. 5: 凌嘉誠 (Alex Ling)
Dec. 12: Bill Chaney

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M.Herrero de Jáuregui (et al.), Tracing Orpheus: Studies of Orphic Fragments In Honour of Alberto Bernabé

Tracing Orpheus: Studies of Orphic Fragments In Honour of Alberto Bernabé, De Gruyter (col. Sozomena 10), Berlin New York, 2011 (Edited by M.Herrero de Jáuregui, A. I. Jiménez San Cristóbal, E.R. Luján, R. Martín Hernández, M.A. Santamaría,  S. Torallas Tovar).

Contents: 


Ad Orphicorum Fragmenta

Jan N. Bremmer 1. 
The Place of Performance of Orphic Poetry (OF 1) . 1

Claude Calame 2.
 L’écriture de la voix enchanteresse d’Orphée (OF 1) . 7

Fritz Graf 3. 
Exclusive Singing (OF 1a/b) . 11

Mª Dolores Lara 4. 
El buen médico y el médico ignorante (OF 1) . 15

Sara Macías Otero 5. 
Echoes of the Formula “Let the Profane Shut the Doors” (OF 1) in
two Passages by Euripides . 21

Julia Mendoza 6. 
Ζεὺς μοῦνος: Philosophical Monism and Mythological Monism (OF 12) 27

Pilar Boned 7. 
Orphic Theogonies and the Goddess Isis in Apuleius (OF 14, 31 and 243) 33

Tomás Calvo Martínez 8. 
Aristotle, Metaphysics 14.4: a Problematic Reference to Orphism
(OF 20 IV) 39

Gregory Nagy 9. 
Comments on OF 22 . 47

Manuel Sánchez Ortiz de Landaluce 10. 
ΑΙΓΥΠΤΙΩΝ ΙΕΡΟΣ ΛΟΓΟΣ (OF 40–63) 53

Albert Henrichs 11. Dionysos Dismembered and Restored to Life: The Earliest Evidence (OF 59 I–II) . 59

Paola Corrente 12. 
The Gods who Die and Come Back to Life: the Orphic Dionysus and his Parallels in the Near-East (OF 59 I–III and 327 II) 67

Christoph Riedweg 13. 
Teilt Kaiser Julian die kritische Sicht auf monströse orphischeMythologeme mit den Christen? Beobachtungen zu Adversus Galilaeos fr. 4 Masaracchia (= OF 59 VII = Kyrill von Alexandrien Contra Iulianum 2.11) . 75

Eugenio R. Luján 14. 
The Cosmic Egg (OF 64, 79, 114) 83

Roxana Beatriz Martínez Nieto  15. 
OF 111: Χρόνος ἀγήραος . 91

Carolina López-Ruiz 16.
 A Hangover of Cosmic Proportions: OF 222 and its Mythical Context 97

Glenn W. Most 17. 
Heraclitus Fragment B 52 DK (on OF 242) 103

Rosa García-Gasco Villarrubia  18. 
Titans in Disguise: the Chalk in Myth and Ritual (OF 308) 109

Óscar Patón Cordero 19. 
The Role of Gypsum in Orphism (OF 308) . 117

Sarah Iles Johnston 20. 
Hecate, Leto’s Daughter, in OF 317 121

Silvia Porres Caballero 21. 
Dionysus’ Definitive Rebirth (OF 328 I) 125

Fátima Díez Platas 22. 
From the Heart and with a Serpent: on OF 329 . 131

Carlos Megino González 23. 
Presence in Stoicism of an Orphic Doctrine on the Soul quoted by Aristotle (De Anima 410b 27 = OF 421) . 137


Francisco Molina Moreno 24. 
Non-musical Notes on the Orphic Lyra (OF 417) 145

Madayo Kahle 25. 
OF 437 and the Transformation of the Soul . 151

Emilio Suárez de la Torre 26. 
OF 443.2: ἐνάτωι ἔτεϊ. The Delphic Key 157

Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal 27. 
Do not Drink the Water of Forgetfulness (OF 474–477) . 163

José Joaquín Caerols 28. 
Adnotatiunculae in lamellam Hipponensem (OF 474) . 169

Marisa Tortorelli Ghidini 29. 
La limne divina della lamina di Petelia (OF 476.8–10) 177

Radcliffe G. Edmonds III 30. 
Festivals in the Afterlife: A New Reading of the Petelia Tablet (OF 476.11) 183

Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui 31.
 OF 485–486: “On this Day” . 187

Paloma Cabrera 32. 
“Ram, You Fell into the Milk” (OF 485.5–486.4). Possible Orphic Echoes in an Apulian Image . 195

Aurelio Pérez Jiménez 33. 
En las redes de χρόνος. La peregrinación inicial de las almas contaminadas (Plu. De facie 943C): sobre OF 487.6 . 203

Marco Antonio Santamaría Álvarez 34. 
“I Have Reached the Desired Crown with Swift Feet” (OF 488.6) 211

Gábor Betegh 35.
 The “Great Tablet” from Thurii (OF 492) 217

Emilio Crespo 36. 
OF 496: Dialectal Diversity in Macedon at the End of the Fourth
Century BC 225

Yannis Z. Tzifopoulos 37. 
Ad OF 496 . 229

Rosa Ma Aguilar 38. 
Reflejos del orfismo en Plutarco (OF 524, 358 II, 31 V; Epimen. fr. 43) .     235

Elvira Gangutia 39. 
OF 531 I, Sapph. fr. 58 Voigt y la «nueva Safo» . 239

Gabriella Ricciardelli 40. 
Un dio dai molti nomi (OF 540) . 247

Giulia Sfameni Gasparro 41. 
OF 540 = Macrobio, Sat. 1.18.12 e Inno orfico 52: Dioniso tra teogonia e attualità religiosa . 253

Attilio Mastrocinque 42. 
Orfismo nel culto romano di Bona Dea (OF 584) 259



Juan Rodríguez Somolinos 43. 
Note to OF 586: κρανιάρχης 267

Alberto Nodar Dominguez 44. 
Theophrastus, Characters 16.12: Orphism or Rhetoric? (OF 654) . 273

María Paz López Martínez 45. 
Synesius, Dio 7 (OF 674) . 281

Felipe G. Hernández Muñoz 46. 
Critical Notes to OF 683 287

Juan Antonio Álvarez-Pedrosa Núñez 47. 
The Etymology of Gk. ῎Εμπουσα (OF 713–716) 291

Helena Rodríguez Somolinos 48. 
OF 750: Frost or Snow? 295

José Antonio Berenguer-Sánchez 49. 
Greek ἐπηετανός and Other Possible Compounds of ἔτος ‘year’ in Ancient Greek (OF 773) 301

Raquel Martín Hernández 50. 
Τύχα in Two Lead Tablets from Selinous (OF 830) 309

Marcos Martínez 51. 
Música y Palabra en Orfeo (sobre OF 960) 315

Ricardo Olmos 52. 
Heracles y Orfeo. Una relación de por vida (sobre OF 1018 I) . 323

Irene Pajón Leyra 53. 
Extraordinary Orpheus. The Image of Orpheus and Orphism in the Texts of the Paradoxographers (OF 1065, 787, 790, 793, and 794) 331

Fernando García Romero 54.
 ἀμουσότερος Λειβηθρίων (OF 1069) . 337

David Konstan and Pura Nieto 55. 
Orpheus Reunited with Eurydice (on OF 1076–1077) 343 ad Musaei Linique Fragmenta

Dirk Obbink 56. 
Orphism, Cosmogony, and Genealogy (Mus. fr. 14) 349

Mercedes Aguirre 57. 
Linus, fr. 2: Music and Death 353 ad Papyrum Derveni

Walter Burkert 58. 
The Derveni Papyrus on Heraclitus (col. IV) . 359

Franco Ferrari 59. 
Eraclito e i Persiani nel Papiro di Derveni (col. IV 10–14) . 363

José Luis Calvo Martínez 60. 
Col. VI of the Derveni Papyrus and the Ritual Presence of Poultry (OF 471)  369

Francesc Casadesús Bordoy 61.
 The Castration of Uranus and its Physical Consequences in the Derveni Papyrus (cols. XIII and XIV) and the First Stoic Philosophers 375

Luc Brisson 62. 
Okéanos dans la colonne XXIII du Papyrus de Derveni 383

Anton Bierl 63. 
Enigmatic Hints at the Hidden Meaning of Two Central Homeric Passages. The Derveni-Author as Homeric Philologist in PDerv. col. XXVI . 391 ad Hymnos Orphicos

Christopher A. Faraone 64. 
Orphic Hymn 37 397

Sofía Torallas Tovar 65. 
Orphic Hymn 86 “To Dream”: On Orphic Sleep and Philo 403 de Orpheo in Moderna Aetate

Carlos García Gual 
La decisión de Orfeo (según Cesare Pavese) . 411

Carmina Orphica Hispanica

Luis Alberto de Cuenca Himno órfico a Zeus . 417

Vicente Cristóbal El Orfeo de Ovidio en hexámetros castellanos 419