Self-study
P1
The French biologist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744–1829) outlined a theory of evolutionary change in 1809, 50 years before Darwin's . ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ █████████ █████ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ███████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ███ ███████████████ ████ ████ █████████ ███
Lamarck's Theory of Evolution ·
Environmental adaptations could be inherited
Critique ·
Consensus view among scientists is that Lamarck is wrong
Steele ·
Claims to have evidence for Lamarckism
Steele claims to have found evidence for Lamarckian hereditary mechanism in the immune system. Not sure what this means but presumably the rest of the passage will flesh this out.
P2
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Phenomenon ·
Complexity of the immune system
How does our immune system work? If knowledge of how to defend against attacks are coded in the genes, how does it defend against a new disease, something it's never encountered before?
Partial Explanation ·
Some immune system cells mutate a lot
The immune system doesn't know. But "typo" mutations (when an error occurs when transcribing DNA into RNA) happen a lot which allows immune system to test different defenses.
P3
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Steele's Hypothesis ·
Supporting Lamarckism
Steele hypothesizes that the "typo" mutations that end up working gets coded back into the immune cell's DNA. Steele further hypothesizes that a virus then carries the altered immune cell DNA into the DNA of the reproductive cells. That's the mechanism by which an environmentally induced adaptation (in the immune cell) gets inherited.
P4
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Evidence ·
for Steele's Hypothesis?
Steele ·
Yes, circumstantial evidence
Steele claims that there's circumstantial evidence. Something about a pattern of mutations. Not sure what this means.
Other Biologists ·
No, there are simpler explanations for the "pattern of mutations"
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
27.
Suppose a scholar believes that ███ █████████ ████ ██ █ █████████ █████ ████ ████████ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ █ ███████ ████ █ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████
a
a copy of ███ █████████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ██ █ ██████████ █████████████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████
(A) doesn’t involve some pattern we can observe in the surviving text. So it’s not analogous to the kind of evidence used by Steele. (A) involves discovery of a different text; but Steele’s evidence doesn’t involve use of a different set of genes.
b
a letter in █████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ████████
This doesn’t involve a pattern we can observe in the surviving text. (B) involves a separate piece of evidence suggesting alteration. But Steele’s evidence doesn’t involve something besides the genes; he doesn’t bring up something outside of genes to show that the genes have been passed through altered DNA in reproductive cells.
c
an allegation by ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████ ███ ████████ ████
This doesn’t involve a pattern we can observe in the surviving text. (C) involves a separate piece of evidence suggesting alteration. But Steele’s evidence doesn’t involve something besides the genes; he doesn’t bring up something outside of genes to show that the genes have been passed through altered DNA in reproductive cells.
d
an account dating ████ ███ ████████████ ████ ██ █ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████ █ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ███████
This doesn’t involve a pattern we can observe in the surviving text. (D) involves a separate piece of evidence suggesting alteration. But Steele’s evidence doesn’t involve something besides the genes; he doesn’t bring up something outside of genes to show that the genes have been passed through altered DNA in reproductive cells. For example, he doesn’t bring up the genes that offspring would have based on the original DNA and compare that to the actual set of genes.
e
vocabulary in the █████████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ███ ███ █████ ██ █████ █████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████
Vocabulary in the surviving text is analogous to the pattern of mutations. Just as vocabulary from a later era is a sign that parts of the text are not original, Steele believes the pattern of mutations in the genes are a sign that parts of the genes do not come from the original DNA. (E) is the only answer that involves evidence from the surviving text itself — we can look at the surviving text and certain things in the text can indicate changes have occurred in the text. No other answer involves evidence we can observe in the text itself.