The Science of Life

The Full on definitions of the word theory from the five texts referenced in my Theories video.  The citations are in the format ("Title"; Principle Author (there may or may not be secondary authors); ISBN; page number referenced; which UNLV course the book is for).   See the video here . These books may be obtained through any public library or digitally through your  favorite  means of obtaining digital copies of books. (“Biology: A Guide to the Natural World Fifth Edition”; David Krogh; 978-0-321-61655-5; p. 6; for UNLV's course BIOL 189 - Fundamentals of Life Sciences) It is unfortunate but true that the word theory means one thing in everyday speech and something almost completely different in scientific communication. In everyday speech, a theory can be little more than a hunch. It is an unproven idea that may or may not have any supportive evidence. In science, meanwhile, a theory is a general set of principles, supported by evidence, that expla...

I will begin with a conclusion which is... uncomfortable to say the least.  Then I will walk through how this conclusion was reached.  It is something which will have you call bullshit on me off the bat, but please hear me out (or read me out?).  I have written a theoretical ecology paper last summer which shows that the human population will stop growing no later than 2031, and will drop (not plateau) shortly thereafter.  The cause?  Resource depletion.  Please, read me out. Now, how did I come to this conclusion?  By the power of maths! In ecology, there is a situation where, when a major cause of death for a species is removed, the population of that species goes through what is called exponential growth .  This is where the rate of change (percent change) is constant, and since the population today is more than it was yesterday, the greater the net change.  Let's say the percent change is 1% and we started with $100.  Tomor...