Evolution

This article is about evolution in biology. For other articles with similar names, see Evolution (disambiguation).
For a non-technical introduction to the topic, please see Introduction to evolution.
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Evolution
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Biology Portal ·
In biology, evolution is the process in which some of a population's inherited traits become more common, at the expense of others, from generation to generation. This is usually measured in terms of the variant genes, known as alleles, that encode the competing traits. As differences in and between populations accumulate over time, speciation, the development of new species from existing ones, can occur. All organisms, including extinct species, are related by common descent through numerous speciation events starting from a single ancestor.[1][2]
Mutation of the genes, migration between populations, and the reshuffling of genes during sexual reproduction creates variation in organisms. While a certain random component, known as genetic drift, is involved, the variation is also acted on by natural selection, in which organisms which happen to have combinations of traits that help them to survive and reproduce more than others in the population will, on average, have more offspring, passing more copies of these beneficial traits on to the next generation. This leads to advantageous traits becoming more common in each generation, while disadvantageous traits become rarer. [1][3][4] Given enough time, this passive process can result in varied adaptations to changing environmental conditions.[5]
The theory of evolution by natural selection was first put forth in detail in Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species. In the 1930s, Darwinian natural selection was combined with Mendelian inheritance to form the modern evolutionary synthesis.[5] With its enormous explanatory and predictive power, this theory has become the central organizing principle of modern biology, providing a unifying explanation for the diversity of life on Earth.[6][7][8]
Contents
1 Basic processes
1.1 Variation
1.2 Heredity
1.3 Mutation
1.4 Horizontal gene transfer
2 Mechanisms of evolution
2.1 Selection and adaptation
2.2 Recombination
2.3 Genetic drift
2.4 Gene flow and population structure
2.5 Speciation and extinction
2.6 Cooperation
3 Evidence of evolution
3.1 Morphological evidence
3.2 Molecular evidence
4 Ancestry of organisms
4.1 History of life
5 Study of evolution
5.1 History of modern evolutionary thought
5.2 Academic disciplines
6 Misunderstandings
7 Social and religious controversies
8 See also
9 Footnotes
10 References
11 External links
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Basic processes
Evolution consists of two basic types of processes: those that introduce new genetic variation into a population, and those that affect the frequencies of existing genes. Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould once summarized this as "variation proposes and selection disposes".[9] There is a certain amount of variation in apparent traits, or phenotypes, in populations. This phenotypic variation is the result of genotypes, the specific genetic makeup encoded on DNA molecules. Variants in gene sequences in the individuals of a population and the interaction of a genotype with the environment are involved in phenotypic plasticity. There may be one or more functional variants of a gene or locus, and these variants are called alleles. Most sites in the genome (i.e., complete DNA sequence) of a species are identical in all individuals in the population; sites with more than one allele are called polymorphic, or segregating, sites.
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Variation
Genetic variation is often the result of a new mutation in a single individual; in subsequent generations the frequency of that variant may fluctuate in the population, becoming more or less prevalent relative to other alleles at the site. This change in allele frequency is the commonly accepted definition of evolution, and all evolutionary forces act by driving allele frequency in one direction or another. Variation disappears when it reaches the point of fixation—when it either reaches a frequency of zero and disappears from the population, or reaches a frequency of one and replaces the ancestral allele entirely.
Variation is also produced during the production of gametes and union at fertilization to produce a zygote (there is genetic recombination that produce variation). In some organisms (like bacteria and plants) the lateral transfer of genetic material or Horizontal gene transfer plays a significant role, and the mixing of genetic material by hybridization (mixing species) produces significant variation (like in plants and birds).
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Heredity

A section of a model of a DNA molecule.[10]
Gregor Mendel's work provided the first firm basis to the idea that heredity occurred in discrete units. He noticed several traits in peas that occur in only one of two forms (e.g., the peas were either "round" or "wrinkled"), and was able to show that the traits were: heritable (passed from parent to offspring); discrete (i.e., if one parent had round peas and the other wrinkled, the progeny were not intermediate, but either round or wrinkled); and were distributed to progeny in a well-defined and predictable manner (Mendelian inheritance). His research laid the foundation for the concept of discrete heritable traits, known today as genes. After Mendel's work was "rediscovered" in 1900, it was found that the concepts could have wide applicability, and that most complex traits were polygenetic and not controlled by single unit characters.
Later research gave a physical basis to the notion of genes, and eventually identified DNA as the genetic material, and identified genes as discrete elements within DNA. DNA is not perfectly copied, and rare mistakes (mutations) in genes can affect traits that the genes control (e.g., pea shape).
A gene can have modifications such as DNA methylation, which do not change the nucleotide sequence of a gene, but do result in the epigenetic inheritance of a change in the expression of that gene in a trait. Another epigenetic mechanism is via micro RNA's, and RNA interference which serve regulatory roles in gene transcription and translation.
Non-DNA based forms of heritable variation exist, such as transmission of the secondary structures of prions or structural inheritance of patterns in the rows of cilia in protozoans such as Paramecium[11] and Tetrahymena. Investigations continue into whether these mechanisms allow for the production of specific beneficial heritable variation in response to environmental signals. If this were shown to be the case, then some instances of evolution would lie outside of the typical Darwinian framework, which avoids any connection between environmental signals and the production of heritable variation. However, the processes that produce these variations are rather rare, often reversible, and leave the genetic information intact.
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Mutation

Mutation can occur because of "copy errors" during DNA replication.
Genetic variation arises due to random mutations that occur at a certain rate in the genomes of all organisms. Mutations are permanent, transmissible changes to the genetic material (usually DNA or RNA) of a cell, and can be caused by: "copying errors" in the genetic material during cell division; by exposure to radiation, chemicals, or viruses. In multicellular organisms, mutations can be subdivided into germline mutations that occur in the gametes and thus can be passed on to progeny, and somatic mutations that can lead to the malfunction or death of a cell and can cause cancer.
Mutations that are not affected by natural selection are called neutral mutations. Their frequency in the population is governed by mutation rate, genetic drift and selective pressure on linked alleles. It is understood that most of a species' genome, in the absence of selection, undergoes a steady accumulation of neutral mutations.
Individual genes can be affected by point mutations, also known as SNPs, in which a single base pair is altered. The substitution of a single base pair may or may not affect the function of the gene (see mutation) while deletions and insertions of a single or several base pairs usually results in a non-functional gene.[12]
Mobile elements, transposons, make up a major fraction of the genomes of plants and animals and appear to have played a significant role in the evolution of genomes. These mobile insertional elements can jump within a genome and alter existing genes and gene networks to produce evolutionary change and diversity. [13]
On the other hand, gene duplications, which may occur via a number of mechanisms, are believed to be one major source of raw material for evolving new genes as tens to hundreds of genes are duplicated in animal genomes every million years.[14] Most genes belong to larger "families" of genes derived from a common ancestral gene (two genes from a species that are in the same family are dubbed "paralogs"). Another mechanism causing gene duplication is intergenic recombination, particularly 'exon shuffling', i.e., an aberrant recombination that joins the 'upstream' part of one gene with the 'downstream' part of another. Genome duplications and chromosome duplications also appear to have served a significant role in evolution. Genome duplication has been the driving force in the Teleostei genome evolution, where up to four genome duplications are thought to have happened, resulting in species with more than 250 chromosomes.
Large chromosomal rearrangements do not necessarily change gene function, but do generally result in reproductive isolation, and, by definition, speciation (species (in sexual organisms) are usually defined by the ability to interbreed). An example of this mechanism is the fusion of two chromosomes in the homo genus that produced human chromosome 2; this fusion did not occur in the chimp lineage, resulting in two separate chromosomes in extant chimps.
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Horizontal gene transfer

A phylogenetic tree of all extant organisms, based on 16S rRNA gene sequence data, showing the evolutionary history of the three domains of life, bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. Originally proposed by Carl Woese.
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) (or Lateral gene transfer) is any process in which an organism transfers genetic material (i.e. DNA) to another organism that is not its offspring. This mechanism allows for the transfer of genetic material between unrelated organisms of the same species or of different species and is a form of gene flow.
Many mechanisms for horizontal gene transfer have been observed, such as antigenic shift, reassortment, and hybridization. Viruses can transfer genes between species via transduction.[15] Bacteria can incorporate genes from other dead bacteria or plasmids via transformation, exchange genes with living bacteria via conjugation, and can have plasmids "set up residence separate from the host's genome".[16] Hybridization is highly significant in plant speciation [17] , and one out of ten species of birds are known to hybridize.[18] There are also examples of hybridization in mammals and insects [19] , however it most often produces sterile offspring.
HGT has been shown to result in the spread of antibiotic resistance across bacterial populations.[20] Furthermore, findings indicate that HGT has been a major mechanism for prokaryotic and eukaryotic evolution.[21][22]
HGT complicates the inference of the phylogeny of life, as the original metaphor of a tree of life no longer fits. Rather, since genetic information is passed to other organisms and other species in addition to being passed from parent to offspring, "biologists [should] use the metaphor of a mosaic to describe the different histories combined in individual genomes and use [the] metaphor of a net to visualize the rich exchange and cooperative effects of HGT among microbes."[23]
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Mechanisms of evolution
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Selection and adaptation

A peacock's tail is the canonical example of sexual selection.
Natural selection comes from differences in survival and reproduction. Differential mortality is the survival rate of individuals to their reproductive age. Differential fertility is the total genetic contribution to the next generation. Note that, whereas mutations and genetic drift are random, natural selection is not, as it preferentially selects for different mutations based on differential fitnesses. For example, rolling dice is random, but always picking the higher number on two rolled dice is not random. The central role of natural selection in evolutionary theory has given rise to a strong connection between that field and the study of ecology.
Natural selection can be subdivided into two categories: ecological selection occurs when organisms that survive and reproduce increase the frequency of their genes in the gene pool over those that do not survive; and sexual selection occurs when organisms which are more attractive to the opposite sex because of their features reproduce more and thus increase the frequency of those features in the gene pool.
Natural selection operates on mutations in a number of different ways. Arguably the most common form of selection is stabilizing selection, which decreases the frequency of harmful mutations; "living fossils" may be a result of this. Other forms of natural selection include directional selection, which increases the frequency of a beneficial mutation, and artificial selection, the purposeful breeding of a species.
Through the process of natural selection, organisms become better adapted to their environments. Adaptation is any evolutionary process that increases the fitness of the individual, or sometimes the trait that confers increased fitness, e.g., a stronger prehensile tail or greater visual acuity. Note that adaptation is context-sensitive; a trait that increases fitness in one environment may decrease it in another.
Most biologists believe that adaptation occurs through the accumulation of many mutations of small effect. However, macromutation is an alternative process for adaptation that involves a single, very large-scale mutation.
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Recombination
In asexual organisms, variants in genes on the same chromosome will always be inherited together—they are linked, by virtue of being on the same DNA molecule. However, sexual organisms, in the production of gametes, shuffle linked alleles on homologous chromosomes inherited from the parents via meiotic recombination. This shuffling allows independent assortment of alleles (mutations) in genes to be propagated in the population independently. This allows bad mutations to be purged and beneficial mutations to be retained more efficiently than in asexual populations.
However, the meitoic recombination rate is not very high - on the order of one crossover (recombination event between homologous chromosomes) per chromosome arm per generation. Therefore, linked alleles are not perfectly shuffled away from each other, but tend to be inherited together. This tendency may be measured by comparing the co-occurrence of two alleles, usually quantified as linkage disequilibrium (LD). A set of alleles that are often co-propagated is called a haplotype. Strong haplotype blocks can be a product of strong positive selection.
Recombination is mildly mutagenic, which is one of the proposed reasons why it occurs with limited frequency. Recombination also breaks up gene combinations that have been successful in previous generations, and hence should be opposed by selection. However, recombination could be favoured by negative frequency-dependent selection (this is when rare variants increase in frequency) because it leads to more individuals with new and rare gene combinations being produced.
When alleles cannot be separated by recombination (for example in mammalian Y chromosomes), there is an observable reduction in effective population size, known as the Hill-Robertson effect, and the successive establishment of bad mutations, known as Muller's ratchet.
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Genetic drift
Genetic drift is the change in allele frequency from one generation to the next due to sampling variance. The frequency of an allele in the offspring generation will vary according to a probability distribution of the frequency of the allele in the parent generation. Thus, over time even in the absence of selection upon the alleles, allele frequencies tend to "drift" upward or downward, eventually becoming "fixed" - that is, going to 0% or 100% frequency. Thus, fluctuations in allele frequency between successive generations may result in some alleles disappearing from the population due to chance alone. Two separate populations that begin with the same allele frequencies therefore might drift apart by random fluctuation into two divergent populations with different allele sets (for example, alleles present in one population could be absent in the other, or vice versa).
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Gene flow and population structure

Map of the world showing distribution of camelids. Solid black lines indicate possible migration routes.
Gene flow, also called migration, is the exchange of genetic variation between populations, when geography and culture are not obstacles. Ernst Mayr thought that gene flow is likely to be homogenising, and therefore counteracting selective adaptation. Obstacles to gene flow result in reproductive isolation, a necessary condition for speciation.
The free movement of alleles through a population may also be impeded by population structure, the size and geographical distribution of a population. For example, most real-world populations are not actually fully interbreeding; geographic proximity has a strong influence on the movement of alleles within the population. Population structure has profound effects on possible mechanisms of evolution.
The effect of genetic drift depends strongly on the size of the population: drift is important in small mating populations, where chance fluctuations from generation to generation can be large. The relative importance of natural selection and genetic drift in determining the fate of new mutations also depends on the population size and the strength of selection. Natural selection is predominant in large populations, while genetic drift is in small populations. Finally, the time for an allele to become fixed in the population by genetic drift (that is, for all individuals in the population to carry that allele) depends on population size—smaller populations require a shorter time for fixation.
An example of the effect of population structure is the founder effect, in which a population temporarily has very few individuals as a result of a migration or population bottleneck, and therefore loses much genetic variation. In this case, a single, rare allele may suddenly increase very rapidly in frequency within a specific population if it happened to be prevalent in a small number of "founder" individuals. The frequency of the allele in the resulting population can be much higher than otherwise expected, especially for deleterious, disease-causing alleles. Since population size has a profound effect on the relative strengths of genetic drift and natural selection, changes in population size can alter the dynamics of these processes considerably.
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Speciation and extinction

An Allosaurus skeleton.
Speciation is the process by which new biological species arise. This may take place by various mechanisms. Allopatric speciation occurs in populations that become isolated geographically, such as by habitat fragmentation or migration.[24] Sympatric speciation occurs when new species emerge in the same geographic area.[25][26] Ernst Mayr's peripatric speciation is a type of speciation that exists in between the extremes of allopatry and sympatry. Peripatric speciation is a critical underpinning of the theory of punctuated equilibrium. An example of rapid sympatric speciation can be clearly observed in the triangle of U, where new species of Brassica sp. have been made by the fusing of separate genomes from related plants.
Extinction is the disappearance of species (i.e., gene pools). The moment of extinction is generally defined as occurring at the death of the last individual of that species. Extinction is not an unusual event on a geological time scale—species regularly appear through speciation, and disappear through extinction. The Permian-Triassic extinction event was the Earth's most severe extinction event, rendering extinct 90% of all marine species and 70% of all terrestrial vertebrate species. In the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, many forms of life perished (including approximately 50% of all genera), the most commonly mentioned among them being the non-avian dinosaurs. The Holocene extinction event is a current mass extinction, involving the rapid extinction of tens or hundreds of thousands of species each year. Scientists consider human activities to be the primary cause of the ongoing extinction event, as well as the related influence of climate change.[27]
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Cooperation
Generally mathematical models incorporating mutation and natural selection have been used to model adaptation and evolution. Recent trends now incorporate "game theory" as more applicable to generating reliable models.[28] This work and others studies have focused attention on cooperation as a fundamental property needed for evolution to construct new levels of organization. Selfish replicators sacrificing their own reproductive potential to cooperate seems paradoxical in a competitive world. However a number of mechanisms have demonstrated the capacity to generate cooperation, and even altruism, such as kin selection, direct reciprocity, indirect reciprocity, network reciprocity, and group selection. The ubiquity of cooperation in the natural world and studies from the last twenty years reveal cooperation as a significant principle in constructive evolution.[29][30]
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Evidence of evolution

Tiktaalik in context: one of many species that track the evolutionary development of fish fins into tetrapod limbs.
Evolution has left numerous signs of the histories of different species. Fossils, along with the comparative anatomy of present-day organisms, constitute the morphological, or anatomical, record. By comparing the anatomies of both modern and extinct species, paleontologists can infer the lineages of those species.
The development of molecular genetics, and particularly of DNA sequencing, has allowed biologists to study the record of evolution left in organisms' genetic structures. The degrees of similarity and difference in the DNA sequences of modern species allows geneticists to reconstruct their lineages. It is from DNA sequence comparisons that figures such as the 95% genotypic similarity between humans and chimpanzees are obtained.[31][32]
Other evidence used to demonstrate evolutionary lineages includes the geographical distribution of species. For instance, monotremes and most marsupials are found only in Australia, showing that their common ancestor with placental mammals lived before the submerging of the ancient land bridge between Australia and Asia.
Scientists correlate all of the above evidence, drawn from paleontology, anatomy, genetics, and geography, with other information about the history of Earth. For instance, paleoclimatology attests to periodic ice ages during which the world's climate was much cooler, and these are often found to match up with the spread of species which are better-equipped to deal with the cold, such as the woolly mammoth.
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Morphological evidence

Letter c in the picture indicates the undeveloped hind legs of a baleen whale, vestigial remnants of its terrestrial ancestors.
Fossils are critical evidence for estimating when various lineages originated. Since fossilization of an organism is an uncommon occurrence, usually requiring hard parts (like teeth, bone, or pollen), the fossil record provides only sparse and intermittent information about ancestral lineages.[33]
The fossil record provides several types of data important to the study of evolution. First, the fossil record contains the earliest known examples of life itself, as well as the earliest occurrences of individual lineages. For example, the first complex animals date from the early Cambrian period, approximately 520 million years ago. Second, the records of individual species yield information regarding the patterns and rates of evolution, showing whether, for example, speciation occurs gradually and incrementally, or in relatively brief intervals of geologic time. Thirdly, the fossil record is a document of large-scale patterns and events in the history of life. For example, mass extinctions frequently resulted in the loss of entire groups of species, while leaving others relatively unscathed. Recently, molecular biologists have used the time since divergence of related lineages to calibrate the rate at which mutations accumulate, and at which the genomes of different lineages evolve.
Phylogenetics, the study of the ancestry of species, has revealed that structures with similar internal organization may perform divergent functions. Vertebrate limbs are a common example of such homologous structures. The appendages on bat wings, for example, are very structurally similar to human hands, and may constitute a vestigial structure. Vestigial structures are idiosyncratic anatomical features such as the panda's "thumb", which indicate how an organism's evolutionary lineage constrains its adaptive development. Other examples of vestigial structures include the degenerate eyes of blind cave-dwelling fish, and the presence of hip bones in whales and snakes. Such structures may exist with little or no function in a more current organism, yet have a clear function in an ancestral species. Examples of vestigial structures in humans include wisdom teeth, the coccyx and the vermiform appendix.
These anatomical similarities in extant and fossil organisms can give evidence of the relationships between different groups of organisms. Important fossil evidence includes the connection of distinct classes of organisms by so-called "transitional" species, such as the Archaeopteryx, which provided early evidence for intermediate species between dinosaurs and birds,[34] and the recently-discovered Tiktaalik, which clarifies the development from fish to animals with four limbs.[35]
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Molecular evidence
By comparing the DNA sequences of species, we can find out their evolutionary relationships. The resultant phylogenetic trees are typically congruent with traditional taxonomy, and are often used to either strengthen or correct taxonomic classifications. Sequence comparison is considered a measure robust enough to be used to correct erroneous assumptions in the phylogenetic tree in instances where other evidence is scarce. For example, neutral human DNA sequences are approximately 1.2% divergent (based on substitutions) from those of their nearest genetic relative, the chimpanzee, 1.6% from gorillas, and 6.6% from baboons.[36] Genetic sequence evidence thus allows inference and quantification of genetic relatedness between humans and other apes.[37][38] The sequence of the 16S rRNA gene, a vital gene encoding a part of the ribosome, was used to find the broad phylogenetic relationships between all extant life. This analysis, originally done by Carl Woese, resulted in the three-domain system, arguing for two major splits in the early evolution of life. The first split led to modern bacteria, and the subsequent split led to modern archaea and eukaryotes.
Since metabolic processes do not leave fossils, research into the evolution of the basic cellular processes is done largely by comparison of existing organisms. Many lineages diverged when new metabolic processes appeared, and it is theoretically possible to determine when certain metabolic processes appeared by comparing the traits of the descendants of a common ancestor or by detecting their physical manifestations. As an example, the appearance of oxygen in the earth's atmosphere is linked to the evolution of photosynthesis.
The proteomic evidence also supports the universal ancestry of life. Vital proteins, such as the ribosome, DNA polymerase, and RNA polymerase, are found in everything from the most primitive bacteria to the most complex mammals. The core part of the protein is conserved across all lineages of life, serving similar functions. Higher organisms have evolved additional protein subunits, largely affecting the regulation and protein-protein interaction of the core. Other overarching similarities between all lineages of extant organisms, such as DNA, RNA, amino acids, and the lipid bilayer, give support to the theory of common descent. The chirality of DNA, RNA, and amino acids is conserved across all known life. As there is no functional advantage to right- or left-handed molecular chirality, the simplest hypothesis is that the choice was made randomly by early organisms and passed on to all extant life through common descent. Further evidence for reconstructing ancestral lineages comes from junk DNA such as pseudogenes, "dead" genes which steadily accumulate mutations.[39]
There is also a large body of molecular evidence for a number of different mechanisms for large evolutionary changes, among them: genome and gene duplication, which facilitates rapid evolution by providing substantial quantities of genetic material under weak or no selective constraints; horizontal gene transfer, the process of transferring genetic material to another cell that is not an organism's offspring, allowing for species to acquire beneficial genes from each other; recombination, capable of reassorting large numbers of different alleles and of establishing reproductive isolation; and endosymbiosis, the incorporation of genetic material and biochemical composition of a separate species, a process observed in organisms such as the protist hatena and used to explain the origin of organelles such as mitochondria and plastids as the absorption of ancient prokaryotic cells into ancient eukaryotic ones.[40][41]
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Ancestry of organisms

Morphologic similarities in the Hominidae family are evidence of common descent.
The theory of universal common descent proposes that all organisms on Earth are descended from a common ancestor or ancestral gene pool. Evidence for common descent is inferred from traits shared between all living organisms. In Darwin's day, the evidence of shared traits was based solely on visible observation of morphologic similarities, such as the fact that all birds, even those which do not fly, have wings. Today, there is strong evidence from genetics that all organisms have a common ancestor. For example, every living cell makes use of nucleic acids as its genetic material, and uses the same 20 amino acids as the building blocks for proteins. The universality of these traits strongly suggests common ancestry, because the selection of many of these traits seems arbitrary.[42]
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History of life

Precambrian stromatolites in the Siyeh Formation, Glacier National Park. In 2002, William Schopf of UCLA published a controversial paper in the journal Nature arguing that formations such as this possess 3.5 billion year old fossilized algae microbes. If true, they would be the earliest known life on earth.
The origin of life from self-catalytic chemical reactions is not a part of biological evolution, but rather of pre-evolutionary abiogenesis. However, disputes over what defines life make the point at which such increasingly complex sets of reactions became true organisms unclear. Not much is yet known about the earliest developments in life. There is no scientific consensus regarding the relationship of the three domains of organisms (Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryota) or regarding the precise reactions involved in abiogenesis. Attempts to shed light on the origin of life generally focus on the behavior of macromolecules—particularly RNA—and the behavior of complex systems.
Fossil evidence indicates that the diversity and complexity of modern life has developed over much of the 4.57 billion year history of Earth. Oxygenic photosynthesis emerged around 3 billion years ago, and the subsequent emergence of an oxygen-rich atmosphere made the development of aerobic cellular respiration possible around 2 billion years ago. In the last billion years, simple multicellular plants and animals began to appear in the oceans. Soon after the emergence of the first animals, the Cambrian explosion, a geologically brief period of remarkable biological diversity, originated all the major body plans, or phyla, of modern animals. This event is now believed to have been triggered by the development of the Hox genes.
About 500 million years ago (mya), plants and fungi colonized the land, and were soon followed by arthropods and other animals. Amphibians first appeared around 300 mya, followed by reptiles, then mammals around 200 mya and birds around 100 mya. The human genus arose around 2 mya, while the earliest modern humans lived 200 thousand years ago.
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Study of evolution
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History of modern evolutionary thought

Gregor Mendel's work on the inheritance of traits in pea plants laid the foundation for genetics.
Although the idea of evolution has existed since classical antiquity, being first discussed by Greek philosophers such as Anaximander, the first convincing exposition of a mechanism by which evolutionary change could occur was not proposed until Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace jointly presented the theory of evolution by natural selection to the Linnean Society of London in separate papers in 1858. Shortly after, the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin popularized and provided detailed support for the theory.
However, Darwin had no working mechanism for inheritance. This was provided by Gregor Mendel, whose research revealed that distinct traits were inherited in a well-defined and predictable manner.[43]
In the 1930s, Darwinian natural selection and Mendelian inheritance were combined to form the modern evolutionary synthesis. In the 1940s, the identification of DNA as the genetic material by Oswald Avery and colleagues, and the articulation of the double-helical structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick, provided a physical basis for the notion that genes were encoded in DNA. Since then, the role of genetics in evolutionary biology has become increasingly central.[44]
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Academic disciplines
Scholars in a number of academic disciplines continue to document examples of evolution, contributing to a deeper understanding of its underlying mechanisms. Every subdiscipline within biology both informs and is informed by knowledge of the details of evolution, such as in ecological genetics, human evolution, molecular evolution, and phylogenetics. Areas of mathematics (such as bioinformatics), physics, chemistry, and other fields all make important contributions to current understanding of evolutionary mechanisms. Even disciplines as far removed as geology and sociology play a part, since the process of biological evolution has coincided in time and space with the development of both the Earth and human civilization.
Evolutionary biology is a subdiscipline of biology concerned with the origin and descent of species, as well as their changes over time. It was originally an interdisciplinary field including scientists from many traditional taxonomically-oriented disciplines. For example, it generally includes scientists who may have a specialist training in particular organisms, such as mammalogy, ornithology, or herpetology, but who use those organisms to answer general questions in evolution. Evolutionary biology as an academic discipline in its own right emerged as a result of the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s. It was not until the 1970s and 1980s, however, that a significant number of universities had departments that specifically included the term evolutionary biology in their titles.
Evolutionary developmental biology (informally, evo-devo) is a field of biology that compares the developmental processes of different animals in an attempt to determine the ancestral relationship between organisms and how developmental processes evolved. The discovery of genes regulating development in model organisms allowed for comparisons to be made with genes and genetic networks of related organisms.
Physical anthropology emerged in the late 19th century as the study of human osteology, and the fossilized skeletal remains of other hominids. At that time, anthropologists debated whether their evidence supported Darwin's claims, because skeletal remains revealed temporal and spatial variation among hominids, but Darwin had not offered an explanation of the specific mechanisms that produce variation. With the recognition of Mendelian genetics and the rise of the modern synthesis, however, evolution became both the fundamental conceptual framework for, and the object of study of, physical anthropologists. In addition to studying skeletal remains, they began to study genetic variation among human populations (population genetics); thus, some physical anthropologists began calling themselves biological anthropologists.
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Misunderstandings
There are a number of common misunderstandings about evolution, some of which have hindered its general acceptance.[45][46][47] Critics of evolution frequently assert that evolution is "just a theory", a misunderstanding of the meaning of theory in a scientific context: whereas in colloquial speech a theory is a conjecture or guess, in science a theory is "a model of the universe, or a restricted part of it, and a set of rules that relate quantities in the model to observations that we make" [48] Critics also state that evolution is not a fact, although from a scientific viewpoint evolution is considered both a theory and a fact.[49][50][51] A related, more extreme claim is that evolution is a "theory in crisis", generally based on misrepresenting the scientific support and evidence for evolutionary theory.[52]
Another common misunderstanding is the idea that one species, such as humans, can be more "highly evolved" or "advanced" than another. It is often assumed that evolution must lead to greater complexity, or that devolution ("backwards" evolution) can occur. Scientists consider evolution a non-directional process that does not proceed toward any ultimate goal; advancements are only situational, and organisms' complexity can either increase, decrease, or stay the same, depending on which is advantageous, and thus selected for.[53]
Evolution is also frequently misinterpreted as stating that humans evolved from monkeys; based on this, some critics argue that monkeys should no longer exist. This misunderstands speciation, which frequently involves a subset of a population cladogenetically splitting off before speciating, rather than an entire species simply turning into a new one. Additionally, biologists have never claimed that humans evolved from monkeys—only that humans and monkeys share a common ancestor, as do all organisms.[54]
It is also frequently claimed that speciation has only been inferred, never directly observed. In reality, the evolution of numerous new species has been observed.[55] A similar claim is that only microevolution, not macroevolution, has been observed; however, macroevolution has been observed as well, and modern evolutionary synthesis draws little distinction between the two, considering macroevolution to simply be microevolution on a larger scale.[56]
Other widespread misunderstandings of evolution include the idea that evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics, which applies to isolated systems, not open systems like the earth, which absorbs light from the sun an radiates heat to space; and that evolution cannot create new physical information, although this regularly occurs whenever a novel mutation or gene duplication arises.[57]
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Social and religious controversies

This caricature of Charles Darwin as an ape reflects the cultural backlash against evolution and common descent.
Ever since the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859, evolution has been a source of nearly constant controversy. In general, controversy has centered on the philosophical, social, and religious implications of evolution, not on the science of evolution itself; the proposition that biological evolution occurs through the mechanism of natural selection is completely uncontested within the scientific community.[58]
As Darwin recognized early on, perhaps the most controversial aspect of evolutionary thought is its applicability to human beings. Specifically, many object to the idea that all diversity in life, including human beings, arose through natural processes without a need for supernatural intervention. Although many religions, such as Catholicism, have reconciled their beliefs with evolution through theistic evolution, creationists argue against evolution on the basis that it contradicts their theistic origin beliefs.[59] In some countries—notably the United States—these tensions between scientific and religious teachings have fueled the ongoing creation-evolution controversy, a social and religious conflict especially centering on public education. While many other fields of science, such as cosmology[60] and earth science[61] also conflict with a literal interpretation of many religious texts, evolutionary biology has borne the brunt of these debates. Some also argue that evolutionary common descent "degrades" human beings by placing them on the same level as other animals, in contrast with past views of a great chain of being in which humans are "above" animals.
Evolution has been used to support philosophical and ethical choices which most contemporary scientists consider were neither mandated by evolution nor supported by science.[62] For example, the eugenic ideas of Francis Galton were developed into arguments that the human gene pool should be improved by selective breeding policies, including incentives for reproduction for those of "good stock" and disincentives, such as compulsory sterilization, "euthanasia", and later, prenatal testing, birth control, and genetic engineering, for those of "bad stock". Another example of an extension of evolutionary theory that is now widely regarded as unwarranted is "Social Darwinism", a term given to the 19th century Whig Malthusian theory developed by Herbert Spencer into ideas about "survival of the fittest" in commerce and human societies as a whole, and by others into claims that social inequality, racism, and imperialism were justified.[63]
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See also
For a more comprehensive list of topics, see Category:Evolution and Category:Evolutionary biology
Abiogenesis
Behavioral ecology
Convergent evolution
Divergent evolution
Evolution of sex
Evolutionary algorithm
Evolutionary art
Evolution of multicellularity
Evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary tree
Experimental evolution
Gene-centered view of evolution
Genetics
Gradualism
Human behavioral ecology
Kin selection
List of publications on evolution and human behavior
Paleontology
Parallel evolution
Punctuated equilibrium
Sociobiology
[edit]

Footnotes
↑ 1.0 1.1 Futuyma, Douglas J. (2005). Evolution. Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer Associates, Inc. ISBN 0-87893-187-2.
↑ Gould, Stephen J. (2002). The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. Belknap Press. ISBN 0-674-00613-5.
↑ Lande, R., Arnold, S.J. (1983). "The measurement of selection on correlated characters". Evolution 37: 1210–1226.
↑ Haldane, J.B.S. (1953). "The measurement of natural selection". Proceedings of the 9th International Congress of Genetics 1: 480–487.
↑ 5.0 5.1 Mechanisms: the processes of evolution. Understanding Evolution. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved on 2006-07-14.
↑ Myers, PZ. "Ann Coulter: No evidence for evolution?", Pharyngula, scienceblogs.com, 2006-06-18. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
↑ IAP Statement on the Teaching of Evolution Joint statement issued by the national science academies of 67 countries, including the United Kingdom's Royal Society (PDF file)
↑ From the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general scientific society: 2006 Statement on the Teaching of Evolution (PDF file), AAAS Denounces Anti-Evolution Laws
↑ Stephen J. Gould (1997-06-12). Darwinian Fundamentalism. New York Review of Books. Retrieved on 2006-08-01.
↑ Created from PDB 1D65
↑ Beisson, J. & Sonneborn, T. M. (1965). Cytoplasmic inheritance of the organization of the cell cortex of Paramecium aurelia. Proc. natn. Acad Sci. U.S.A. 53, 275-282
↑ Snustad, P. and Simmons, A. 2000. Principles of Genetics, 2nd edition. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New-York, p.20
↑ Aminetzach YT, Macpherson JM, Petrov DA. (1992). "Pesticide resistance via transposition-mediated adaptive gene truncation in Drosophila.". Science 309 (5735): 764-7..
↑ Carroll S.B,. Grenier J.K., Weatherbee S.D. (2005). From DNA to Diversity: Molecular Genetics and the Evolution of Animal Design. Second Edition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-4051-1950-0.
↑ enmicro.pdf
↑ Pennisi_2003.pdf
↑ Rieseberg LH, Raymond O, Rosenthal DM, Lai Z, Livingstone K, Nakazato T, Durphy JL, Schwarzbach AE, Donovan LA, Lexer C. (2003). "Major ecological transitions in wild sunflowers facilitated by hybridization.". Science 301 (5637): 1211-6..
↑ Grant, P.R., and Grant, B.R. (1992). "Hybridization in bird species". Science 256 (4061): 193-7..
↑ Gompert Z, Fordyce JA, Forister ML, Shapiro AM, Nice CC. (2006). "Homoploid hybrid speciation in an extreme habitat.". Science 314 (5807): 1923-5.
↑ Dzidic S, Bedekovic V. (2003). "Horizontal gene transfer-emerging multidrug resistance in hospital bacteria". Acta pharmacologica Sinica 24 (6): 519-526.
↑ Andersson JO (2005). "Lateral gene transfer in eukaryotes". Cellular and molecular life sciences 62 (11): 1182-1197.
↑ Katz LA (2002). "Lateral gene transfers and the evolution of eukaryotes: theories and data". International journal of systematic and evolutionary microbiology 52 (5): 1893-1900.
↑ Evolutionary Theory by Peter Gogarten, Ph.D.
↑ Hoskin et al (Oct 2005). "Reinforcement drives rapid allopatric speciation". Nature 437: 1353-1356.
↑ Savolainen et al (May 2006). "Sympatric speciation in palms on an oceanic island". Nature 441: 210-213.
↑ Barluenga et al (February 2006). "Sympatric speciation in Nicaraguan crater lake cichlid fish". Nature 439: 719-723.
↑ Leakey, Richard and Roger Lewin, 1996, The Sixth Extinction : Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind, Anchor, ISBN 0-385-46809-1.
↑ Nowak et al. "Evolutionary dynamics of biological games"Science"'303'", 793-799 (2004), see also Nowak's book Evolutionary Dynamics
↑ Nowak et al. Five Rules for the Evolution of Cooperation Science 314, 1560 (2006)
↑ Sachs, J.L. Cooperation within and among species Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19, 1415 (2006)
↑ Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium (2005). "Initial sequence of the chimpanzee genome and comparison with the human genome". Nature 437: 69–87.
↑ Britten, R.J. (2002). "Divergence between samples of chimpanzee and human DNA sequences is 5%, counting indels". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99: 13633–13635.
↑ Schweitzer M.H. et al (2005). "Soft-tissue vessels and cellular preservation in Tyrannosaurus rex". Science 307 (5717): 1952-1955.
↑ Feduccia, Alan (1996). The Origin and Evolution of Birds. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-06460-8.
↑ Daeschler, Edward B., Shubin, Neil H., & Jenkins Jr, Farish A. (April 2006). "A Devonian tetrapod-like fish and the evolution of the tetrapod body plan". Nature 440: 757–763. DOI:10.1038/nature04639. Retrieved on 2006-07-14.
↑ Two sources: 'Genomic divergences between humans and other hominoids and the effective population size of the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees'. and 'Quantitative Estimates of Sequence Divergence for Comparative Analysis of Mammalian Genomes' "[1] [2]"
↑ The picture labeled "Human Chromosome 2 and its analogs in the apes" in the article Comparison of the Human and Great Ape Chromosomes as Evidence for Common Ancestry shows how humans have a single chromosome which is two separate chromosomes in the nonhuman apes.
↑ The New York Times report Still Evolving, Human Genes Tell New Story, based on A Map of Recent Positive Selection in the Human Genome, states the International HapMap Project is "providing the strongest evidence yet that humans are still evolving" and details some of that evidence.
↑ Pseudogene evolution and natural selection for a compact genome. "[3]"
↑ Okamoto N, Inouye I. (2005). "A secondary symbiosis in progress". Science 310 (5746): 287.
↑ Okamoto N, Inouye I. (2006). "Hatena arenicola gen. et sp. nov., a Katablepharid Undergoing Probable Plastid Acquisition.". Protist Article in Print.
↑ Oklahoma State - Horizontal Gene Transfer: "Sequence comparisons suggest recent horizontal transfer of many genes among diverse species including across the boundaries of phylogenetic 'domains'. Thus determining the phylogenetic history of a species cannot be done conclusively by determining evolutionary trees for single genes."
↑ Bowler, Peter J. (1989). The Mendelian Revolution: The Emergence of Hereditarian Concepts in Modern Science and Society. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
↑ Rincon, Paul. "Evolution takes science honours", BBC News, 2005. Retrieved on 2006-07-16. According to the BBC, Colin Norman, news editor of Science, said "[S]cientists tend to take for granted that evolution underpins modern biology [...] Evolution is not just something that scientists study as an esoteric enterprise. It has very important implications for public health and for our understanding of who we are" and Dr. Mike Ritchie, of the school of biology at the University of St Andrews, UK said "The big recent development in evolutionary biology has obviously been the improved resolution in our understanding of genetics. Where people have found a gene they think is involved in speciation, I can now go and look how it has evolved in 12 different species of fly, because we've got the genomes of all these species available on the web."
↑ BBC Report on Biology Education in North America "In a study of 1,200 college freshmen, Professor Alters found that 45% of those who doubted the theory of evolution had specific misunderstandings about some of the science that has been used to support it."
↑ Constance Holden (1998). "SCIENCE EDUCATION: Academy Rallies Teachers on Evolution". Science 280 (5361): 194.
↑ Miller JD, Scott EC, Okamoto S. (2006). "Science communication. Public acceptance of evolution.". Science 313 (5788): 765-766.
↑ Stephen Hawking A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes New York: Bantam Books 1988.
↑ Five Major Misconceptions about Evolution, Mark Isaak, Talkorigins, 2003
↑ Stephen Jay Gould, " Evolution as Fact and Theory"; Discover, Volume 2, Number 5, May 1981, p. 34-37, reprinted in Speak Out Against The New Right, Herbert F. Vetter (Editor), Beacon Press, 1982, ISBN 0807004863, Beacon Press, January 1982, ISBN 0807004871 and by Fenestra Books, October 31, 2004 ISBN 1587363577 and also in Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, Stephen Jay Gould, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, editions printed April 1983, November 28, 1984 and April 1994, pp. 253-262 ISBN 0393017168
↑ "Evolution: Fact and Theory", Richard E. Lenski, American Institute of Biological Sciences, 2000.
↑ Morton, G.R. (2002). The Imminent Demise of Evolution: The Longest Running Falsehood in Creationism
↑ Scientific American; Biology: Is the human race evolving or devolving?
↑ Index to Creationist Claims, Claim CC150 edited by Mark Isaak. The TalkOrigins Archive, 2005
↑ Boxhorn, Joseph. Observed Instances of Speciation. Talk Origins Archive.
↑ Theobald, Douglas L. '29+ Evidences for Macroevolution: The Scientific Case for Common Descent.' The Talk.Origins Archive. Vers. 2.83. 2004. 12 Jan, 2004
↑ Evolution and Information: The Nylon Bug. New Mexicans for Science and Reason.
↑ An overview of the philosophical, religious, and cosmological controversies by a philosopher who strongly supports evolution is: Daniel Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995). On the scientific and social reception of evolution in the 19th and early 20th centuries, see: Peter J. Bowler, Evolution: The History of an Idea, 3rd. rev. edn. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).
↑ [4]
↑ Spergel, D. N., et al. (2003). "First-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 148: 175—194. DOI:10.1086/377226.
↑ Wilde, S. A., Valley J. W., Peck W. H. and Graham C. M. (2001). "Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the Earth 4.4 Gyr ago". Nature 409: 175—178.
↑ Darwin strongly disagreed with attempts by Herbert Spencer and other to extrapolate evolutionary ideas to all possible subject matters; see Mary Midgley The Myths we Live By Routledge 2004 p62.
↑ On the history of eugenics and evolution, see Daniel Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (New York: Knopf, 1985).
[edit]

References
Carroll, Sean B (2005)., Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom, W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-06016-0
Futuyma, D. (2005). Evolution. Sinauer Associates, Inc.. ISBN 0-87893-187-2.
Garcia-Fernàndez, Jordi. Amphioxus: a peaceful anchovy fillet to illuminate Chordate Evolution. Int J Biol Sci (May, 2006).
Gigerenzer, Gerd, et al., The empire of chance: how probability changed science and everyday life (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
Larson, Edward J. Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (Modern Library Chronicles). Modern Library (May 4, 2004). ISBN 0-679-64288-9
Mayr, Ernst. What Evolution Is. Basic Books (October, 2002). ISBN 0-465-04426-3
Menand, Louis. 2001 The Metaphysical Club. New York: Farar, Straus and Giraux. ISBN 0-374-19963-9
Williams, G.C. (1966). Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of some Current Evolutionary Thought. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Zimmer, Carl. Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea. Perennial (October 1, 2002). ISBN 0-06-095850-2
[edit]

External links
Understanding Evolution from University of California, Berkeley
National Academies Evolution Resources
National Academy Press: Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science
Charles Darwin's writings
EvoWiki, a wiki dedicated to education about evolution
Evolution (provided by PBS)
Everything you wanted to know about evolution (provided by New Scientist)
Howstuffworks.com — How Evolution Works
Synthetic Theory Of Evolution: An Introduction to Modern Evolutionary Concepts and Theories
Evolution News from Genome News Network (GNN)
Understanding Evolution: History, Theory, Evidence, and Implications Deals heavily with the history of evolutionary thought
Becoming Human - Journey through the story of human evolution
Timeline of Evolutionary Thought The life and work of notable people who have contributed to evolutionary thought
Talk.Origins Archive — see also talk.origins
Dispelling the Top Ten Myths About Evolution Endorsed by Ann Druyan and the American Association for the Advancement of Science: introduces the top ten common myths and misunderstandings about evolution and includes a sample chapter, "Survival of the Fittest".
Evolution simulators
Isolated species evolves to interact more efficiently with its environment (java applet)
Evolution in a predator-prey relationship (java applet)
Watch small creatures evolve into more efficient swimmers
Blind Watchmaker Applet (java)

Astrology

Astrology
The art of judging the influence of planets and stars on human beings—in the past, in the present, and, by extrapolation, in the future.
India and China have had astrological systems for a long time. These are highly developed, and regarded with respect. The Western version has its ancestry in Babylonia, where astronomers were listing constellations and prominent stars in the second millennium b.c. With the passage of time, they came to distinguish seven “planets,” counting the five true ones visible without telescopes plus the Sun and Moon—in other words, the seven bodies that were not fixed like stars. All seven were associated with divine beings. They were seen to travel through sections of the sky that astronomers defined by twelve constellations, the signs of the Zodiac.
In the sixth century b.c., Babylonians developed a theory that these celestial orbs influenced the world below. Greek advances in astronomy presently refined the possibilities, and the Western form of astrology took shape. Earth was located at the center of the universe, with seven transparent spheres rotating around it, one outside another, each carrying a planet. The Moon’s was nearest to Earth; concentrically outside it, in order, came the spheres carrying Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Outside Saturn’s sphere was a larger one bearing the stars, and outside that was an even larger one that imparted motion inward to all the others. The planets exerted influence on the world at the center, and, in their varying relations to the Zodiac and each other, were “interpreters” of destiny. As in Babylonia, deities were associated with them. “Mercury,” “Venus” and the rest are the Roman names of the divinities that were assigned to these planets by classical astrologers because they were thought to be the appropriate ones. The fifth planet’s influence, for example, tended towards strength, assertiveness, and anger, so it was taken to be the planet of the war god Mars.
Astronomically, the system is no longer viable, and astrologers are quite aware of the fact. But they still tacitly assume it, in its essentials, as a kind of operating fiction, its use justified by results. In practice—supposedly—it does work. A horoscope can be drawn up on the basis of the planets’ positions at someone’s birth. The most important is the Sun, which is in Aries (the Ram) during part of March and part of April, then in Taurus (the Bull) during the rest of April and part of May, and so on. The date of birth determines the person’s Sun-sign or birth-sign: Aries, for instance, if the Sun was in that portion of the sky at the time, Taurus if it was in the next portion, and so on. The Sun-sign is said to have a crucial bearing on the personality.
Complex calculations about the positions of the other six planets—sometimes, today, computerized—can be expressed on a birth-chart, and add further insights into the individual’s character and destiny. On the basis of the inferred destiny and perhaps also of the planets’ foreseeable positions at some future time, events yet to come can be predicted; or, at any rate, probabilities—the celestial bodies, to quote an astrologer,“influence but do not compel.” Auspicious and inauspicious days can be identified in advance for some
important action. The technique is not confined to individuals. It can be applied to cities, states, institutions, or whatever, preferably at the time of their foundation, the equivalent of birth. Projections into the future can be made similarly. A horoscope of the city of Liverpool, in England, is said to have shown that it will become the capital of England in the twenty-third century—an extreme case but not inconsistent with the logic of the system.
An astrologer casting a client’s horoscope in 1617. The progress of astronomy was beginning to raise doubts about astrology, but astrologers were still being consulted.
(Ann Ronan Picture Library)
To revert to history, Romans were hesitant about embracing this production of Greek cleverness, but early in the Christian era, it was growing popular at high social levels, and the casting of a horoscope at a child’s birth was becoming customary. An astrologer named Thrasyllus was an adviser to the emperor Tiberius. When some of his predictions failed, Tiberius lost patience and was about to push him off a cliff, but he managed to make a good one just in time.
After the Roman Empire became officially Christian in the fourth century, astrology began to be frowned upon. Augustine, the most influential of the Church fathers, offered rational arguments against it and argued that even when astrologers got predictions right, this was probably due to inspiration by evil spirits. For a long time, it was in disfavor. However, it began to come back in the early Middle Ages as a quasi-scientific technique. Planets could no longer be gods, but in some mysterious way, they might still play a part in earthly affairs. Scholars in the Church kept it off the list of forbidden arts, and Saint Thomas Aquinas, the leading medieval philosopher, allowed it a strictly limited validity. Its practitioners worked freely, though they stressed character reading and medical diagnosis rather then prediction. It became very popular in the sixteenth-century Renaissance. John Dee, in England, was allowed to draw up horoscopes for royalty and to set a date for Elizabeth I’s coronation. Nostradamus, in France, published hundreds of prophecies, some of them remarkable, though for him, astrology seems to have been subordinate to another method of forecasting that remains obscure.
The waning of Earth-centered astronomy was naturally adverse to astrology, and it declined again, but it never expired, and eventually, it began to recover. It could be rationalized, as it still can, by the argument that it reads the heavens as they appear to be, and no astronomical proof of what they actually are can make any difference. Its Western revival had its origin in Theosophy. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the founder of the movement, endorsed it in her book Isis Unveiled, published in 1877. One of her followers, writing under the name Alan Leo, was its first popularizer and produced a handbook entitled Astrology for All. In England, France, and the United States, interest gradually revived. However, it was only in Germany that astrology became a serious field of study, thanks partly to another Theosophist, Hugo Vollrath. The suffdrings of Germans in the great inflation of 1923–1924 and in the ensuing years of mass unemployment contributed to a longing for a doctrine that would make sense of events and perhaps foreshadow a better time ahead. An Astrological Congress in Munich was the first of a series. Germans of academic standing tried to make astrology an authentic system.
During this interwar period, astrology also enjoyed a vogue on radio and in newspapers. Exponents in English-speaking countries, such as Evangeline Adams and R. H. Naylor, made forecasts on topics of public interest. However, their occasional successes were outweighed by numerous failures. Later in the twentieth century, while astrology of a sort still flourished in the press, it was more cautious and largely confined to minihoroscopes for the day (or week or month) giving vague advice to readers born under each sign and avoiding specific detail about the future. In 1967, a well-informed writer on astrology, Ellic Howe, pronounced, in the light of his own negative findings, that prediction was its “Achilles’ heel.”
The astrology of a more responsible kind that continues to be practiced is concerned chiefly with character and destiny. Howe’s adverse verdict on prediction might be allowed to stand if it were not for an exceptional case history, that of Germany under the Nazi regime, from 1933 on. Seemingly, the activities of Vollrath and other enthusiasts showed predictive results that cannot be dismissed. Someone had cast the horoscope of the German republic on the basis of the date of its proclamation in 1918, and several attempts had been made to cast Hitler’s. There is evidence—some of it indisputable, some of it circumstantial but good—for correct long-range forecasts of Hitler’s career and the fortunes of Germany in World War II and its aftermath. Hitler, it was foretold, would be triumphant at first, and Germany would be victorious for two years, but in 1941, the tide would begin to turn. There would be major disasters in 1943 and a cataclysmic end, including the Führer’s downfall, in 1945, though a recovery would be under way after three years of peace. All of this was right. Hitler did not believe in astrology, but his awareness of its prediction for 1941 as a threat to morale was shown by a clampdown on astrologers in June of that year.
The German successes raise a problem. Can astrology predict after all? If so, how to make sense of these facts? Whatever astrologers may say in defense of their art, it remains the case that the universe is not what it looks like from below. They have done their best to fit in the three planets added to the traditional seven, but much more is involved than that. The crystal spheres and their resident deities have gone. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, together with the three latecomers, are barren globes moving through a void at vast distances from Earth and from each other. Medieval astronomy recognized greater distances than is commonly thought, but came nowhere near the remoteness of the stars, which are not only remote but in spatial relationships to each other that have nothing to do with the Zodiac: its constellations would disappear for an observer from a different vantage point.
An astrologer today might speak of correlations or synchronisms rather than influences. If such a claim were borne out by results, it would deserve to be investigated, but results are lacking. The German phenomenon may be thought to hint at some quite separate factor. The same could be said of the rare but documented triumphs of character reading by horoscope (or ostensibly by horoscope), such as one recorded at the University of Freiburg, where an astrologer named Walter Boer diagnosed the problems of a juvenile delinquent unknown to him in virtually the same way as a team of psychologists. Ellic Howe, who draws attention to this case, takes the view that such successes are not really produced by the subject’s birth-chart as such but by a kind of intuition making use of it, which few would-be astrologers are capable of. Jung, as is well known, took an interest in astrology, but he used patients’ horoscopes chiefly as therapeutic aids rather than sources of information.
One quasi-astrological finding has stood up to scrutiny, often very hostile. In 1955, a French statistician, Michel Gauquelin, proved that a significant number of people with certain abilities were born when certain planets were either just clearing the horizon or at the apex of their passage across the sky. Many outstanding athletes, for instance, were born when Mars was either rising or “culminating.” Jupiter seemed to be connected with famous actors in the same way. The ironic fact is that Gauquelin’s correlations are totally unrelated to traditional astrology, for which he found no support whatever.

Doesn't Have A Clue

This is a real life story, so bear with me as I give somebackground information.We have a "free ad" section at our web site where people canplace a free ad for their business. Ads are submitted weekly andpublished on the web. Now, to place an ad, someone has to visitour web site and fill out a form containing their email addressand the copy of the ad. We try to make it as easy as possible,but the bottom line is many people are not serious, and don'thave a clue as to how to run a business on the web.When the ads are received, we send an automatic response to theperson who sent it. Perhaps one out of ten has an incorrectemail address and the response is returned as undeliverable.What a waste of time.How do these people think that people can respond to their ad iftheir email address is incorrect?Going through our archives, I found some real gems - what do youthink about these offers?"Join our MLM and earn beg income". This is either a typo orthey are promising very little in the way of earnings. Thisperson obviously didn't proof their copy before submitting thead.Another ad promised huge earnings, but gave no contactinformation. Not a web site URL or an email address to befound. Guess they figure it is so powerful an offer, we willfind them - another waste of time."Make Money! Turn $10 into $40,000 CASH like I did" - but wait -this guy is using a free email account. If he's making all thatmoney, wouldn't you think he could afford one for ten bucks amonth - maybe he is saving all those $10 bills so he can earn$40,000 CASH with each one."You can make 500% Profit without investing any money" - need Isay more!"Tired of the "Rat Race"? Free online training and no capitolneeded!" Did this guy mean "capital"? I'll hang on every wordhe has to say."Exciting,EasyandProfitable" - guess this person never learnedhow to use that big bar on the bottom of the keyboard. I thinkyou see where this article is going.If you are going to advertise a business on the web, and youpresent less than a professional image - you're not going to dobusiness. If you present yourself like the above examples, enjoyyour "walk on the quiet side". Most people are not idiots, andI'm sure the authors of the above ads are not either. But whygive that impression? I sure wouldn't do business with any oneof them.I read another ad for Web Design and the HTML coding in his adwas wrong. That sure built a lot of confidence.Most people scan poorly constructed ads and simply "click away".Guess they feel like I do. If you don't care enough to write acredible ad, why should I think you'll care about me if I buyfrom you?Many people rely too heavily on the spell checker on theircomputer. This is a mistake. After you do spell check, getsomeone else to read it. When writing something, many times youget so close to the article, you miss mistakes that someone elsewould quickly find. Many words that are being used incorrectlywill pass spell check.Remember - you usually only get one "shot" when a person seesyour ad. If it is well written, and has an attention gettingheadline, you just might make that sale. If you want to dobusiness on the web, get serious or people will come to theconclusion that you are someone who "Doesn't Have a Clue" andlook elsewhere.

Test, Test and Re-test

We could all take a lesson from children. As they are growingup, and learning right from wrong, they are constantly testing tosee what they can do, and what is not acceptable.I see hundreds of ads everyday on the web, and while there aresome good ones, most fall into the "ho-hum" variety, and some aredownright awful. Now this isn't bad, if they are testing to seewhat is going to work, and what isn't.Many put up an ad with no idea as to whether it will produce ornot. They let the same ad run for a period of time, and wonderwhy they didn't get results. They then do one of two things.They either blame the publication for not generating business forthem, or give up entirely and go out of business. Others will runan ad once, and when the world doesn't beat a path to their door,they react the same way.It is a proven fact that an ad must be seen five to seven timesbefore someone can be expected to take action. If your ad istargeted to your market, and you are not getting responses, theodds are you have a "crummy ad". It is not then time to quit orblame the publication. It is time to change the ad.All successful marketers have one thing in common. They areconstantly testing the effectiveness of their ads. One of themost successful that I know, almost always runs more than one adin the same or similar publication at the same time. You couldput the ads side by side, and not realize they were from the sameperson for the same thing. She lets each ad run five times,always keeping careful track of the drawing power of the ads, andkeeps the strongest and changes the weakest.Mechanically, her method is really quite simple. She uses adifferent email address in each ad, and a different websiteaddress as well. Both websites are exactly the same, but havedifferent URL's. She got her websites from a low cost web spaceprovider where she not only reserved the name of her site, butgot web space as well for less than the cost of her ads. Thereare several low cost web space providers. I can recommend and - You reallyshould go with the one that meets your needs at the best price.Don't fall for the "hoopla" that you get "jillions" of charactersof online storage for a few bucks more. You don't need all thatroom. I have dozens of web sites, and they are all under 10MBof storage. Capabilities being equal - price is boss.She uses a popular ISP, but doesn't use that address in her ads.She feels, and I agree, that an ISP email address does notconjure up a strong "business image". Your choice of an ISP isimportant if you hope to do business on the web. Be sure yoursprovides an industry standard POP3 email capability. While AOLis great for many things, it does use their own proprietary emailsystem, and isn't, in my judgement, the best choice for running a business.She got a POP3 email address with each of her web sites, so sheuses those. She also uses a different email address on her websites - most web space providers give you unlimited emailaliases. She then installed the Eudora email package with adifferent folder for each address she uses. When she gets anemail, which was sent to one of those addresses, she has Eudoraautomatically file it in the appropriate folder, and send animmediate response. This lets her prospect know she got the message, but more importantly, allows her to track which ad it came from. If the email address was one of the addresses in her ads, she knows which one. If it came from one of the web sites, she knows which ad sent the prospect to that site.But what has happened here? A quick count of the emails in eachof the folders reveals which ad is pulling, and where theprospect is coming from. Now, remember the unlimited aliases,she got with her web space. If she is going to try to test theeffectiveness of several publications, she simply uses adifferent alias for that ad in each publication, and sets up aseparate folder in Eudora for it.There are other ways of course to track the ads by forcing thesubject in your email address, and having a different subject foreach ad. The cost of web space however, and email addresses hascome down so much in the last few years, that having separateemail addresses is most likely the easiest way to track theresults of your ads, and present a professional image.You must test, test, and retest your ads. If you do, you willfind the winning combination, and realize the power of the web.

The Trap

ot a day goes by that I don't hear about someone lamenting their decision to leave corporate America and work at home.Maybe they were laid off, opted for early retirement, or justdecided that commuting four hours on the train, coupled with aneight hour workday was simply too much. Possibly, they will keeptheir job and work part-time at home to earn extra income. Whoknows what the reasons are, but that is not important.With "visions of sugarplums" dancing in their head, they decidedto start their own home business. They believed the ads aboutworking in their pajamas when the spirit moved them, and after amonth or so woke up to reality. They weren't making a dime.Where did they go wrong? Well, when they worked for someoneelse, they were expected to be at work at a certain time everyday. Depending on the business, there was a certain dress code,and they had goals to meet. Granted, these goals were usuallydetermined by someone else, but they were the ones who had tomeet them.It is easy to work for someone else, as they are the ones callingthe shots. They actually lived under an umbrella of discipline.Granted it was someone else's umbrella, and maybe they didn'trealize this. Possibly they did, and that was the reason theydecided to work on their own.One of the most common problems behind the failure of a homebusiness, is the lack of discipline. Some think they can workwhen (and if) they want to, and their mailbox will "overfloweth"with twenty dollar bills. Well, I got news for you!Running your own business, whether it is a brick and mortarestablishment, or a home business, requires work. It usuallyrequires more effort than if you worked for someone else. Youwill also have to do some things you don't enjoy. But, if youare the chief (or only) "honcho", you had better be able tohandle all facets of your business.So, how do you go about working at home? First and foremost, youhave to have a regular schedule and adhere to it. This isespecially true if you expect people to contact you by phone. Ifpeople try to call you, and don't get an answer, they quicklymove on. You have to be available during normal business hours.If you are in an online business, this is usually from 9:00 AM to8:00 PM. Yes there are three time zones in the USA. If you liveon the east coast like I do, when you are getting ready to packit in for the day, folks on the west coast may just be returningfrom lunch.If you are not tied to a telephone, it is still important tomaintain regular hours. More importantly, you should have dailygoals. If you meet those goals, the rest of the day is yours.But many people always think there is tomorrow.For far too many, tomorrow never comes, and things that shouldhave been done aren't. Maybe when the kids are at school willwork for you, or possibly late at night. You might even have topass up on your favorite "soap". Don't deal with hours - you'renot being paid by the hour - deal with goal oriented results.Working in your pajamas sounds great, and many of the offers youmay hear state that you can. If I get an idea in the wee hours,I may hop on the computer dressed like that, but for normalbusiness hours that is simply a myth. Who wants to spend theirlife like that?You must have an effective work space, which is free ofdistractions. You should have quiet office space in your house,which is out-of-the-way, and off limits during your work hours.Treat this like an office. Keep it neat. While I am not theneatest person in the world, I do know where everything is. If Iget a call from a client, I'm not fumbling about looking for theinformation I need. A filing cabinet next to your desk goes along way.When you get an email, take appropriate action the same day, thenfile it in a place where you can find it. Delete all emails inyour "in-basket" older than 30 days. If they're older than 30days, they're not worth anything anyway.If you don't fall into the "trap", which many folks do, you justmight make it in your own home business.

FIVE FANTASTIC WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR AFFILIATE PROGRAM

If you belong to any affiliate program, you know that beingsuccessful at the affiliate game hinges on one simple concept:getting as many people to join as you possibly can.There are a lot of different programs out there and even moreways promote them, so I've narrowed things down to what I believeare the five absolute best ways to get the word out about YOURaffiliate program. So, without further ado, here they are:1) ON EVERY PAGE OF YOUR WEB SITEThat's right... every page. After looking through your site andseeing that link on every page, they're just bound to click on atleast one of them. Promoting your program on every page will notonly utilize the proven marketing method of repetition, but willalso display your enthusiasm, which is also a great tool.2) IN YOUR NEWSLETTERSince most of your core customers are already looking at it, yournewsletter is a terrific place to promote your affiliate program.Position an ad with a link right at the top of your newsletter,again somewhere in the middle, and also at the bottom.3) EZINE ADSEzines like DEMC and AIM have huge numbers of subscribers, andboth cater mostly to an audience of online businesspeople andopportunity seekers. Therefore, ads placed in these newsletterscan reach literally tens of thousands of the right kind ofpeople. Reaching a targeted audience like this is key if youwant a good return on your investment.4) PRESS RELEASESIf your affiliate program is new, unique, or especiallyprofitable, a press release sent to the right audience can reallygive you a boost. A well-written press release just placed onyour web site can give your program a "newsy" feel that mightreally impress people.5) WORD OF MOUTHI can't say enough about word-of-mouth advertising. If you'reexcited about your affiliate program, talk about it. Tell yourfriends, your family, your co-workers, and people on the bus allabout how you're making money. People who know you are morelikely to take you on your word, and if they tell their friendsand family... you get the picture.Promoting your affiliate program really isn't very hard, and itcan make the difference between success and failure. Use thesemethods, and you're likely to go far.

Make This One Change To Your Web Page... and Double and Triple Your Profits

Are you getting visitors to your web site but nobody wants tobuy? Do people come to your site once, but never return? I'vegot a simple change you can make to your opening web page thatcan quickly turn your luck around.By far the biggest reason most web sites don't sell as much asthey could is due to a single problem. The words on theiropening page don't do their job.On the Web, you only get a few seconds to grab new visitors andkeep them. If the wording on your opening page is falling downon the job, no one will stick around long enough to buy. Yoursite is finished before it even gets started.Over and over again, everywhere I go on the Web, I see sites thatare shooting themselves in the foot. The opening page has toolittle information to hold a visitor. Or the opening page hasplenty of information, but it is too hard to make heads or tailsof. Or the opening page has too much information, so much thatnew visitors get lost.Given the few seconds visitors spend on a new site, they justdon't have time to carefully study a site's copy to figure outwhat the owner intends for them. Your copy needs to IMMEDIATELYhit visitors squarely between the eyes.Here's how to do it.Distill what you have to offer down to your most popular andpowerful product or service. Don't throw a whole selection ofproducts at new visitors. Just give them one good one they cansink their teeth into.Next figure out the one most powerful advantage your product orservice gives customers. Also think about what kinds of visitorsare most likely to buy. Once you have these two things in mind,you're ready change your copy so it grabs visitors and makes thembuy.Give Your Page a Headline.Start your page with a headline in big type. Begin your sentencewith an action word. Look at the title of this article. "Makethis one change to your web page and double and triple yourprofits."I don't say "here are 27 ways," I just promise you one. Then Igive you a powerful benefit this change can bring. Do you wantto double and triple your profits? Absolutely. Most peoplecontinue to read the article.The same principle works for your opening web page. A big, fat,exciting headline is quick and easy to read. It pulls peopleinto the copy that follows it.Feel The Reader's Pain.People only buy when they feel you can solve a problem that iscausing them pain. People want to save money, save time, get alife, feel sexier, and more.Don't follow your headline with a diatribe on how good yourproduct is. Instead, talk about the thing readers care aboutmost. Make your copy describe a problem the reader has. Tellhow the problem affects the reader's life. Show the reader howthe problem will get worse, much worse, over time if it is notfixed.Now Dole Out The Medicine.Present your product or service as the solution to the customer'sproblem. Describe its most important features, then connectthem with the benefits they will bring.Most of your customers don't automatically understand how yourproduct's great features can help them. You have to describe thebenefits. It helps to give real life examples of how the featurehelps people.Try not to bury your reader in features. If you have more thanthree, list them in bulleted form. Bullets help readers digest abatch of related points.Trot Out The Raves.Next is a good time to add several enthusiastic testimonials fromsatisfied customers. Have the customer talk about how she gotthe results you promised in your benefits section.If your product will save the customer time and hassles, have areal life customer talk about how he now has time to go to hisson's baseball games...now that he can get work finished faster.If your product or service is new, have several people try it,then give you their comments. Most people are delighted to help,especially if they know you will be publishing their opinions.Tell Them HOW TO BUY.This is the one thing so many sites miss. Give people a bigorder button they can't miss. Make it easy for them to buy.Easy ordering should include information on how customers cancontact you. Include your email address (which you check often),your phone number, and your physical location. Also include yourguarantee if you have one.Let customers know how long it will take for you to deliver theproduct or service. And be sure to tell them how much extrashipping and handling will cost. Stating these things right upfront helps customers make a decision to buy, NOW.Make these changes to your opening web page today. Thisimprovement is the one thing that can turn your sales aroundimmediately. I've seen sites double and triple their sales afterwe put this changes in place. One man called to say his saleswent up "ten fold" within a couple of days.
About the Author

Give Your Affiliate Program A Lift With A New Or Improved Product

If an affiliate program is an important part of your business,your profits are only as good as your affiliate members. Salesdrop like a rock when they get discouraged or lose interest.You will see the dreaded signs if you frequently visit youraffiliates' sites. The banner or enthusiastic endorsement theyonce had on their opening page is now relegated to a link on thesecond or third tier of their site. Something as simple as thatcan cut the number of hits you get by a factor of ten or twenty.Two things usually account for members giving you the back burnertreatment: Your product or service isn't selling as well as itonce did for them. Or members are simply losing interest becausenewer, more exciting affiliate programs are grabbing theirattention.You can immediately solve both problems by offering a new orimproved product or service. Spend time to make sure your newproduct is a big improvement over what has come before. The moreyou can insure your product is a big deal, the more excited youraffiliates will get.Make your roll-out a big production. Give your new creation awhole new area with a fresh new look on your web site.Two weeks before you unveil your new product, start sendingannouncements to your affiliates. Let them know somethingimportant is about to happen and they will be the first to hearabout it.After you bring out your product, do a quick follow-up withmembers. Get comments on how they expect the new product tosell. Harvest early accounts of how some members are doing wellwith the product. Include these comments in your weekly emailupdates to members.A word of warning--try not to veer completely away from what hasworked for you before. If you have always sold software, don'tbring in a new line of office furniture as your new product foraffiliates. An exciting new software application will workbetter and will not dilute the brand identity your business hasenjoyed.Got a major product you don't want to ignore? Good! It'salmost always easier to get affiliates and customers excitedabout an improvement to an old favorite than it is to make afavorite out of a completely new product.Keep a file of customer complaints and ideas about your product.Over time you can use these as ideas starters for ways to buildimprovements that customers and affiliates will appreciate andvalue.When interest in your product or service starts to diminish, pullour your file and make requested improvements. Add in enoughimprovements and you have a new issue, a next generation, or afresh edition you can sell as a replacement or upgrade to yourlong list of previous customers.Affiliate programs are still the number one way to market on theWeb. It pays to keep your program exiting and top-of-mind. Formany companies, it is unlikely that a better way to boost profitswill come along any time soon.

REVISITING THE 'BENEFITS' FACTOR

If you are in the business of making sales (as mostonline marketers are, in one form or another) then youknow that it is a basic tenet that you must appeal toone of people's basic NEEDS if they are going topurchase your product or service.So what are those basic needs, anyway?Well, the most obvious needs are for shelter, food andwarmth. But there's a different kind of 'warmth' thatmany people need, too, and that's where you come in.People need to feel needed, or they need to have comforts,or they need to have their problems solved, or they needto BELONG - these are all needs for a different kind of'warmth' that we can appeal to in our sales campaigns,in our advertising materials, and on our websites.The bottom line is that potential customers are onlyinterested in what your product or service can do forthem - what NEED your offering will fill. Period. So youcan try to convince them that your widget is prettierthan someone else's widget, or faster, or whatever...but only if that can be shown to benefit them.I'm not talking about features, here. There's a bigdifference between 'features' and 'benefits'. A bettermousetrap might have the 'feature' of a more reliablespring-loaded mechanism - but that makes it a bettermousetrap because it has the 'benefit' of being ableto get rid of more mice! See the difference?We've all heard the phrase 'to keep up with the Joneses.'Ad agencies have long used our need to belong, to fit in,to be a 'part of' rather than apart from, to sell us onvarious products or services. You can take advantage ofthis human drive to sell your offering, too.The important thing, then, is to make a point of addressingthe benefits right up front. On the front page of yourwebsite, or in big letters on your ad copy, make sure youtell the reader 'what's in it for them' if they purchaseyour product or service. Which basic human need will itmeet? Figure that out first, and the whole rest of yourmarketing campaign will come so much easier to you.If you can discover what 'problem' your product or serviceis the answer to, then you're on your way to success. Willyour product make your customers sexier, allow them moreleisure time, make them lots of money..? Will it give themone of the many kinds of 'warmth' that we all crave?Make sure you say so, loud and clear, and prospectivecustomers will be sure to hear you!

REVISITING THE 'BENEFITS' FACTOR

If you are in the business of making sales (as mostonline marketers are, in one form or another) then youknow that it is a basic tenet that you must appeal toone of people's basic NEEDS if they are going topurchase your product or service.So what are those basic needs, anyway?Well, the most obvious needs are for shelter, food andwarmth. But there's a different kind of 'warmth' thatmany people need, too, and that's where you come in.People need to feel needed, or they need to have comforts,or they need to have their problems solved, or they needto BELONG - these are all needs for a different kind of'warmth' that we can appeal to in our sales campaigns,in our advertising materials, and on our websites.The bottom line is that potential customers are onlyinterested in what your product or service can do forthem - what NEED your offering will fill. Period. So youcan try to convince them that your widget is prettierthan someone else's widget, or faster, or whatever...but only if that can be shown to benefit them.I'm not talking about features, here. There's a bigdifference between 'features' and 'benefits'. A bettermousetrap might have the 'feature' of a more reliablespring-loaded mechanism - but that makes it a bettermousetrap because it has the 'benefit' of being ableto get rid of more mice! See the difference?We've all heard the phrase 'to keep up with the Joneses.'Ad agencies have long used our need to belong, to fit in,to be a 'part of' rather than apart from, to sell us onvarious products or services. You can take advantage ofthis human drive to sell your offering, too.The important thing, then, is to make a point of addressingthe benefits right up front. On the front page of yourwebsite, or in big letters on your ad copy, make sure youtell the reader 'what's in it for them' if they purchaseyour product or service. Which basic human need will itmeet? Figure that out first, and the whole rest of yourmarketing campaign will come so much easier to you.If you can discover what 'problem' your product or serviceis the answer to, then you're on your way to success. Willyour product make your customers sexier, allow them moreleisure time, make them lots of money..? Will it give themone of the many kinds of 'warmth' that we all crave?Make sure you say so, loud and clear, and prospectivecustomers will be sure to hear you!

REVISITING THE 'BENEFITS' FACTOR

If you are in the business of making sales (as mostonline marketers are, in one form or another) then youknow that it is a basic tenet that you must appeal toone of people's basic NEEDS if they are going topurchase your product or service.So what are those basic needs, anyway?Well, the most obvious needs are for shelter, food andwarmth. But there's a different kind of 'warmth' thatmany people need, too, and that's where you come in.People need to feel needed, or they need to have comforts,or they need to have their problems solved, or they needto BELONG - these are all needs for a different kind of'warmth' that we can appeal to in our sales campaigns,in our advertising materials, and on our websites.The bottom line is that potential customers are onlyinterested in what your product or service can do forthem - what NEED your offering will fill. Period. So youcan try to convince them that your widget is prettierthan someone else's widget, or faster, or whatever...but only if that can be shown to benefit them.I'm not talking about features, here. There's a bigdifference between 'features' and 'benefits'. A bettermousetrap might have the 'feature' of a more reliablespring-loaded mechanism - but that makes it a bettermousetrap because it has the 'benefit' of being ableto get rid of more mice! See the difference?We've all heard the phrase 'to keep up with the Joneses.'Ad agencies have long used our need to belong, to fit in,to be a 'part of' rather than apart from, to sell us onvarious products or services. You can take advantage ofthis human drive to sell your offering, too.The important thing, then, is to make a point of addressingthe benefits right up front. On the front page of yourwebsite, or in big letters on your ad copy, make sure youtell the reader 'what's in it for them' if they purchaseyour product or service. Which basic human need will itmeet? Figure that out first, and the whole rest of yourmarketing campaign will come so much easier to you.If you can discover what 'problem' your product or serviceis the answer to, then you're on your way to success. Willyour product make your customers sexier, allow them moreleisure time, make them lots of money..? Will it give themone of the many kinds of 'warmth' that we all crave?Make sure you say so, loud and clear, and prospectivecustomers will be sure to hear you!

YOU CAN DO THE WORK OF 100 PEOPLE!

It's an old cliche - "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day.Teach him to fish, feed him for a lifetime."That's been true forever. But, there's a new game in town andtheir motto goes like this - "Sell a man a fish, earn 10 bucks,feed yourself a happy meal. Teach a man to fish, take part ofevery catch, and HE will feed YOU for a lifetime."They're trying to tell you that the secret to business success ismultiplication - if you can find something that's profitable, doit over and over again, and you will get paid each time you doit.But if you can multiply your efforts by creating a group ofpeople who are doing your something, and if they pay you (just alittle bit) for each something, you get paid 5, 50, 500 timesmore rewards.That's the key to financial security and the freedom to do whatyou want in life - multiplying your efforts.Everybody's heard of the old fashioned way - multi-levelmarketing - where you sign up, then you sign up your friends andthey sign up their friends, and on and on. Problem is, you runout of friends VERY fast, because everyone in your group knowsmany of the same people. In addition, doing both the teaching andpromotion of the business takes up too much of your time andmoney.With the advent of the world wide web, you can now increase thatpool of potential recruits to include everyone on the net -hundreds of millions of people! And the best part is, thepromotion and teaching can be automated by computers.It's called "remote control selling" and it's the biggestopportunity to hit the world since the telephone gave us instantvoice to voice contact. Many companies now have networks that aretrue turnkey systems.That means you get everything you need, like one-stop shopping atthe supermarket. As an affiliate, you can take advantage of allof all the company's resources: banner ads; classified ads; yourown website; a library of articles, training materials, salesletters, and much, much more. Once a proven way to recruit andteach a prospect into successful affiliates is found, let thecompany do the work for you, automatically. You just sign on,turn the key on the system and refer prospects to it!An additional benefit is that getting prospects will becomeeasier because they will trust you because YOU have the image,prestige and resources of the major player behind you.Choose carefully-look over the websites of several companies.Sign up for one that offers a free trial period. Make an informeddecision about the program. Then, be prepared to work. Turn onthe keys and find the prospects and the system will take care ofthe rest.A real network marketing opportunity is NOT a get-rich-quickscheme. It isn't free. If you want the system to work for you,then put in the effort, cultivate prospects, bring people intoyour group and help them to be successful. Can you find 100people that want a new, better life? Yes, and you'll be glad youdid. You take chances every day - stop taking chances that rewardothers, and take a chance on yourself!