bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Jet Lag Can Be A Drag
Authors: Palmer John D
Published: November 2023

We are creatures of habit. Most people’s day is organized around the eating of three meals, with each meal pretty much scheduled to the same time of day. We also tend to retire and arise on the same schedule.

On top of these basic biological dictates is the imposition of earning a living, an endeavor usually accomplished from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. There are several niggling reinforcements associated with this schedule. Steady employment is difficult if one habitually comes late to work or leaves early; and long lunches are out unless you happen to be eating with the boss. I guess it is safe to say that individuals and society have forced themselves and itself into a rut ... but this is not necessarily bad. Following a routine makes life a bit easier and much more efficient: It is not necessary to make decisions over the timing of fundamental events like eating and sleeping, and much more can be accomplished when we work in focused groups. And notice how a routine benefits older people, especially those whose minds are not functioning as well as they used to; they stick pretty much to rote behavior and thus glide through each day with only a minimal need for decision making and leadership. Of course, the rigidity can be overdone: Try and find a restaurant that will serve you a bowl of breakfast cereal at 7 P.M.
Leuctra [July 37] B.C.
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

After Athens’ defeat in the Peloponnesian Wars in 404 B.C., Sparta assumed the dominant role among che Greek poleis, or city-states. Although chat may have been a good thing from a military point of view-Sparta had long fielded the finest army in Greece-it was not a good ching politically or socially. The discipline practiced in Spartan society did not translate to other regions, and the ocher poleis began chafing under Spartan domination. When Sparta, as defender of the Greeks, began experiencing some setbacks in a conflict in Asia Minor against their former ally Persia, citystates such as Athens and Thebes saw an opportunity to strengthen their positions.
Metaurus River 207 B.C.
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

Carthage, near the site of modern Tunis, started as a colony of Phoenicia. As the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon waned because of invasions, many of their wealthy citizens emigrated to Carthage. Soon, it was the dominant city in northern Africa, controlling western Mediterranean trade and the grain production of the region. Carthage’s wealthy merchant class fielded armies of mercenaries recruited primarily from Spain. With these, they subdued local tribes and enforced their trading monopoly. Economic rivalry with the Greek colony of Massilia (Marseilles) led to raids on the city and its shipping, but Massilia’s ties to Rome led to war.
Zama 202 B.C.
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

In 218 B.C., the Second Punic War had just gotten under way. Hannibal Barca, Carthaginian commander in Spain, had challenged Roman power in 219 B.C. by laying siege to the city of Saguntum. According to the treaty concluded at the end of the First Punic War, the city lay within a region recognized as under Carthage’s suzerainty, but the fact that Saguntum had a pro-Roman government brought a Roman declaration of war. Hannibal responded by capturing the city and then staging a brilliant forced march through the Pyrenees, southern Gaul (France), and through the Alps into northern Italy.
Alesia July October 52 B.C.
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

In 60 B.C., Julius Caesar entered into the Triumvirate, a political alliance with the two most powerful men in Rome, Crassus and Pompey. All three worked together to wield power in the Roman Empire, while each at the same time worked to maneuver himself into a dominant position within the government. To do this, it was necessary for each man to have not only wealth and political influence, but military experience and support as well. Crassus already was an experienced general, making himself famous by putting down the slave uprising led by Spartacus. That was insufficient for his ambition, however, and he had himself appointed governor of Syria so he could win more laurels and wealth in a war against the Parthians. He died in the attempt, however. Caesar, meanwhile, took the position as governor of Gaul, both Cisalpine and Transalpine (northern Italy and southern France). In Gaul, Caesar hoped to gain the military and financial power that he needed to improve his political position.
Pharsalus 9 August 48 B.C.
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

In the wake of the Punic Wars, Rome under went significant changes. Politically, the Senate, which had long ruled the city of Rome and immediate areas, found itself unable to deal with foreign possessions, as if in the United States a city council found itself governing all of America. This coincided with a shift in the economy of Rome as well because the huge influx of slaves in the wake of the wars against Carthage transformed a nation of freehold farmers into a nation of estate owners, working slaves instead of peasants. The country folk, without employment, moved to the cities and caused a severe drain on public resources while the rich got richer with the newly expanded overseas trade.
Milvian Bridge 21 October 312
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

Rarely has the course of events followed such a convoluted path to a single decisive event as those that took the forces of the western Roman Empire to the battle at Milvian Bridge. In the 49 years between 235 and 284, Rome was ruled by no less than 26 emperors. Almost anyone with the support of a legion or two battled for, seized, and lost the position of supreme ruler of the Roman Empire. Finally, in 284, Diocletian seized and kept power. Although a soldier from Illyria (along the eastern Adriatic coast), Diocletian, once in power, spent most of his time trying to institute reforms that would stabilize the empire. This involved increased taxation, but the collection was done in a much more equitable fashion than in previous decades. The money was spent on increased bureaucracy and military to the point that some believed there to be more employees of the government than there were taxpayers.
Lechfeld 9August 955
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

Aside from the legend of a Middle Eastern origin, the Magyars in reality seem to have had FinnUgaric origins with traces of TurcoTartar elements. They had long practiced a nomadic lifestyle in central Asia and finally migrated westward past the Ural, Volga, Don, Dnieper, and at last the Danube Rivers. In chis movement, they had to successively fight and defeat ocher nomadic tribes, such as the Bulgars, Khazars, and Pecchenegs. le was finally the pressure of the Pecchenegs and Bulgars who drove the Magyars into Europe. As they entered eastern Europe, they encountered the power of the Byzantine Empire, which hired them as mercenaries and introduced them to Christianity; likewise, Germanic kings hired chem to aid in fighting the Slavs.
Hastings 14 October I 066
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

When King Edward the Confessor died in January 1066, his succession was disputed. The witan, the governing council of English nobles and religious leaders, named Harold God­winsson as the next king because he was the strongest of the nobles and his sister was Edward’s wife; further, Edward on his deathbed apparently named Harold as his successor. Almost immediately, a challenge to this announcement came from across the English Channel. Duke William of Normandy claimed that Edward had years earlier named him as successor. Edward had spent 30 years in Normandy before his ascension to the English throne and was heavily influenced by that long stay, introducing many aspects of Norman society into England.
Second Battle Of Taraori 1192
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

The first time a Moslem set foot in India was shortly after Mohammed the Prophet established the faith. The original practitioners of Islam that visited India were merchants, whose voyages along the northern rim of the Arabian Gulf had been taking them to India for some years. Not until the reign of the caliph Omar, second successor to Mohammed, was a military expedition launched (637), not only to spread the faith but also to pillage the Indian wealth, of which the merchants had so long spoken. For the next several decades, only raids were conducted, with no intent at conquest or colonization. In 712, however, Chaldaean governor Al-Hajjaj sent his 17-year-old cousin Mohammed ibn Kasim to establish a Moslem presence in India. He invaded the province of Sind, bordering the mouth of the Indus River. After some brilliant campaigning, he succeeded in conquering the region, but it proved poor in both economy and prospects. Unsupported to any great extent from home, however, the colony slipped from the notice of chose who had dispatched it. A few centuries later, Moslem families still dominated the government of Sind, but had become Indianized and had spread neither their faith nor their power into the Indian interior.
Hsiang-Yang 1268-1273
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

The Sung dynasty in China began in 960, succeeding theT’ang dynasty. For a time, the Sung controlled territory stretching from the southern reaches of modern Manchuria to the northern borders of Vietnam, with their power extending westward 1,000 miles from the China Sea. In 1127, they lost their northern lands to the Jurchen Mongols and concentrated their authority in the richer southern China by building a new capital city at Hangchow, at the mouth of the Yangtze River. The Southern Sung dynasty came to be regarded as something of a golden age in China, with expanding trade routes bringing in immense wealth as well as from Annam a new type of rice, which led to improvements in agriculture. Culturally, they reintroduced an interest in Confucianism, which had gradually been losing popularity to Buddhism and Taoism; that in turn led to a new form of bureaucracy, with examinations on Confucian principles becoming the basis of gaining a position in the civil service, a practice that was maintained almost until the twentieth century.
Brusa 1317-1326
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

The peoples known as Turks originated not in the Turkey of today but in Turkestan in central Asia. In the middle of the sixth century A.O., they formed themselves into a large tribal confederation and then shortly thereafter split into eastern and western factions. The eastern Turkic tribes interacted strongly with the Chinese, most notably the T’ang dynasty, and alternately aided or were defeated by the Chinese. The western Turkic tribes, however, were better known as conquerors for their occupation of territory stretching from the Oxus River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Cajamarca 16 November 1532
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

Francisco Pizarro was a conquistador, one of the warrior class that emerged in Spain during the wars between the Christians and Moors. After the Christians came to power in 1492, Spain was lucky enough to almost immediately sponsor Christopher Columbus, whose discovery (from the European perspective) of the Americas led to Spain being the most powerful nation on earth. Pizarro was a soldier in the expedition ofVasco Nufiez de Balboa to Panama in the 1520s, but found himselflittle richer for the experience. Hearing rumors of a land to the south with immense wealth and, like all conquistadors, fired by the stories of the success of Hernan Cortes in Mexico, Pizarro formed a partnership with three other men to explore the west coast of South America. His confederates were Diego de Almagro, Fernando Luque (the vicar of Panama), and Pedrarias Davila (the governor of Panama). All were in their fifties by this time, and, if they were going to be rich, they needed to do something soon. Pizarro was more the soldier; Almagro, the supplier; and Luque, the diplomat. They entered into a contract with Bartolome Ruiz, an experienced ship captain, to sail along the coast and find what they may.
Spanish Armada 29 July 1588
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

When Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne of England in 1558, she ruled a disjointed and rather weak nation, having many discontented factions within and few friends without. One of those friends, however, was the most powerful nation in the world at the time: Spain, ruled by Philip IL Philip had lately been tied to the English throne through his marriage to Elizabeth’s predecessor, Mary. When she died, Philip proposed marriage to her surviving sister to maintain his influence in a country with a number of Protestants (which he hated) and a burgeoning naval strength (which he coveted). Elizabeth turned down his proposal, but at first the two kept friendly relations, Philip even offering to aid in recovering Calais, England’s last possession on the Continent. It was not long before the two countries became bitter enemies.
Battle Of The Dunes 14June 1658
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

In January 1649, the Catholic House of Stuart lost its hold on the monarchy of Great Britain. In that month, King Charles I was executed by Parliamentary forces commanded by Oliver Cromwell who, since the battle of Naseby in 1645, had been expanding his military and political power. Charles II, next in line to the throne, attempted to continue the Royalist, or Cavalier, war against the Parliamentarians, or Roundheads, after his father’s death. Unfortunately for him, his forces lost to Cromwell on 3 September 1651 at the battle of Worcester; Charles was forced to flee for France. As Cromwell proceeded to act like a king (although he never took the title) in England, on the Continent Charles looked for supporters to aid his return to the throne. He finally threw his lot in with the Spanish, who controlled the Spanish Netherlands (modern Belgium and Flanders) at the time. The Spanish had long had hostile relations with England, ever since Protestant Queen Elizabeth Is navy had defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Culloden 16 April 1746
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

The story of Culloden stretches back two centuries before the battle to the time of England’s King Henry VIII. Because of a dispute with the pope over Henry’s desire for an annulment, the English king announced that he himself was to be the head of the Catholic Church in England. That lasted until his death, when he was succeeded by his young son, Edward VI. Edward was succeeded by his strongly Catholic older half sister, Mary. Mary reasserted the pope’s authority in England and married Spain’s Catholic King Philip II to show her support for the faith. When she died childless 5 years later, her sister Elizabeth assumed the throne. Her father’s daughter, Elizabeth not only reinstituted her father’s antipapal policy but she completely banned the Catholic Church and named herself head of the Church of England. This set her at odds with Catholic monarchs on the Continent, but she was their equal if not their superior in the game of power politics.
Valmy 20 September 1792
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

On 14 July 1789, Parisian citizens stormed the prison at the Bastille, freeing only a few prisoners, but marking the beginning of the French Revolution. Not long afterward came the publication of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen and the call for a constitutional, rather than absolute, monarchy. In June 1791, King Louis XVI attempted but failed to escape France to rally monarchical forces around Europe to his cause. This failure convinced many aristocrats to either withdraw from public life or to flee the country, and among the emigrants were some 6,000 army officers. Louis for a time was reinstated as a constitutional monarch and reluctantly worked with a new legislative assembly.
Manila Bay I May 1898
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

Little in the events that led to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898 would have indicated that the first battle of that conflict would take place anywhere else but Cuba. Since 1895, Spanish forces had been struggling with yet another Cuban revolt, but this one was particularly nasty. The Cubans decided on a guerrilla campaign employing a scorched-earth policy. The theory seemed to be that if the island was economically useless, then the Spanish would leave. In response to that guerrilla campaign, Spanish General Victoriano Weyler introduced the policy of reconcentrado. Working on the theory that for a guerrilla movement to succeed it must have the support of the population, Weyler decided to make sure that the population could give no support. To accomplish that, he rounded up all the civilians on the island and placed them in a number of barbed-wire enclosures, hence the term, concentration camp. Once the Cubans were rounded up, anyone outside the camps was by definition a guerrilla and could be shot on sight. Although the camps were effective, the lack of clean water, sanitary facilities, medical care, or an adequate food supply guaranteed that the inmates suffered horribly. Some 250,000 Cubans died in the camps. By early 1898, the revolution was failing.
Mukden 19 February-IO March 1905
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

In the last part of the nineteenth century, China was economically dominated by foreign powers. Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Japan had claimed economic spheres of influence, and each held a virtual monopoly in its sphere. In 1899, U.5. Secretary of State John Hay proposed the Open Door Policy, which would have broken up the sectional dominance in favor of free trade. All the powers agreed in principle to this plan, but Russia was the least cooperative. It continued to exclude foreign competition in its economic zone of Manchuria. Japan, a country with great ambition but little in the way of natural resources, looked at Manchuria as the best source of coal, iron, etc., for its burgeoning industry and military. Japan attempted to negotiate with Russia over trade issues in Manchuria, but made little headway. Russia made promises, but took no action and in the meantime built up its armed forces in Manchuria. By 1904, Japan realized that further talks were pointless, so it began preparing for war.
Verdun 21 February-18 December 1916
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

After the opening weeks of rapid movement, World War I in France settled into trench warfare. Boch the Germans on one side and the allied British and French on the other dug into parallel lines of trench works that stretched from the Swiss border to the English Channel. With neither side able to execute a successful flanking movement before this entrenchment, the goal of both armies was co punch a hole in the enemy’s lines through which they could pour sufficient forces to wreak havoc in the enemy rear. Although both Germans and Allies used massive amounts of artillery fire to break their enemy’s lines, the only result was an everincreasing number of dead. The Germans had entered the war convinced that they could easily overcome the French army. They found it impossible to defeat both French and British armies together, so in lace 1915, after a year in which each combatant power had lost approximately a million men dead, wounded, and missing, the German high command decided on a strategy that was frightening in both conception and execution.
Poland I September-5 October 1939
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

In the spring of 1933, German Chancellor Adolph Hitler began dismantling the Versailles Treaty, the peace agreement that ended World War I, and imposed impossible financial burdens on Germany. After he refused to continue payment of reparations for damages caused during the First World War, and the western Allies failed to force compliance, the treaty had become another in a long line of history’s scraps of paper. In violation of the Versailles Treaty, he rebuilt the armed forces and embarked on a mission to return Germany to greatness by acquiring territory where German speaking people lived and lands that Germany needed for lebensraum, living space. Hitler proceeded to implement his plans by reoccupying the Rhineland in 1936, acquiring Austria in March 1938 and the Czech province of the Sudetenland in September 1938, and then occupying the remainder of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. The western Allies, Britain and France, stood back and watched, refusing to honor their defense agreements with the Czechs.
Moscow 30 September-5 December 1941
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

After Adolf Hitler failed to bend Great Britain to his will in the summer and fall of 1940, he postponed the invasion of that country and turned his attention toward the east. Hitler had long despised communism. In spite of the convenient nonaggression pact that Germany had signed with the Soviet Union before the invasion of Poland in 1939, Hitler was determined not only to wipe out the hated political system, but to acquire for Germany much-needed lebensraum, or living space, as he had outlined in his 1925 book Mein Kampf To chat end, Hider in December 1940 issued Directive 21, which laid out his operational goals. He stated chat capturing Moscow, the Soviet capital, was a secondary objective. Instead, the more important targets were Leningrad and Stalingrad. The capture of these two cities, named for the leading lights of the Soviet state, would surely bring communism tumbling down.
Huai Hai (Suchow) 1 November 1948-10 January 1949
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

The Chinese Communist Parry (CCP) was formally established in 1921 as the Chinese government was recovering from Japanese domination during World War I. In the midl 920s, the CCP cooperated with the ruling Kuomintang, or Nationalist Parry, but in 1927 started a civil war that raged until 1937. In that year, the Japanese invaded out of Manchuria and drove deep into China down the coast toward Hong Kong. This external threat convinced Communist leader Mao Tse-rung to conclude a wary alliance with Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek. Mao’s forces operated in the northern part of China, whereas Chiang’s armies, aided by the Americans, fought in the southern and western parts. Mao’s forces, never well equipped, did their best to harass and pin down Japanese troops while Chiang held the south and cooperated with U.S. and British activities in Burma.
Inchon 15 September 1950
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

In January 1950, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson spoke to the National Press Club. In his presentation, Acheson laid out the primary security interests of the United States, that is, those countries that the United States would immediately defend if threatened. In Europe, that included the countries involved in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); in the Pacific region, Acheson described the “defense perimeter” of the United States. This stretched from the Aleutians to Japan to the Philippines to Australia.
Desert Storm 24-28 February 1991
Authors: Davis Paul K
Published: November 2023

By early 1990, Iraq was in a delicate situation. It had recently ended a long war with Iran in which it had received a large amount of military support from both the Soviet Union and the United States, both of which feared Iranian domination of the Middle East. This support, although able to bring about only a draw in the Iran-Iraq war, gave Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein the fourth largest military force in the world. It also made him deeply in debt, primarily to other Arab states, which had floated large loans to finance his war. The largest creditor was Kuwait, just south of Iraq on the Persian Gulf. Assuming that no nation would seriously contest him, Hussein decided to use his large military to erase his large debt. An invasion of Kuwait would both remove the government to which he owed the money and place him in control of their huge oil reserves. Claiming Kuwait to be in reality a province of Iraq, Hussein massed his army on the border. After several weeks of threats and no significant international counteraction, Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait on 3 August 1990.
Introduction
Authors: Alcock John
Published: November 2023

On 15 February 1978, a young woman carefully poured a pitcher of ice water onto the head of Edward 0. Wilson while he sat waiting to address an audience at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A band of accomplices joined their pitcher-pouring confederate on stage to wave placards and chant, “Wilson, you’re all wet.” After repeating this modest witticism for a few minutes, Wilson’s assailants left the field to their victim, who dr:led himself as best he could with a paper towel and then delivered his talk without further interruption [345].

In a world characterized by much more exciting and dramatic violence, this brief aquatic and acoustical assault was nevertheless moderately newsworthy because of its setting—a scientific get-together—and its target—a Harvard professor. Academics are a contentious group and academic arguments can get loud and nasty on occasion, but physical confrontations are rare. Even if fights were fairly common in scientific meetings, Wilson would hardly interest anyone fond of hand-to-hand combat. He is a worlld authority on ants and the other social insects, a tall, thin person with a passion for entomology, not fisticuffs. By his own account, he was utterly surprised to have achieved the kind of notoriety that evidently inspired his band of youthful opponents [345].
Sociobiology and Genes
Authors: Alcock John
Published: November 2023

For the sociobiologist, explaining the behavior of the whirligig beetle, the worker ant, and the pet-loving human being involves figuring out how these creatures’ behavior, or the proximate mechanisms underlying their behavioral abilities, genernte higher net gains in genetic success than other possible behaviors or different underlying physiological systems. The fact that genes get mentioned rather often by sociobiologists has led some critics to focus on the sociobiology-genetics connection. A considerable number of these critics think, or would like you to think, that sociobiologists have their genetics all wrong—because if sociobiology were founded on a fundamentally flawed version of genetics, dismissing the entire discipline would be relatively easy. To this end, some opponents of sociobiology have claimed that the discipline is founded on “genetic determinism,” which also goes by the label “biological determinism.”
Sociobiology and Human Culture
Authors: Alcock John
Published: November 2023

Had I been born in central Papua New Guinea a century ago, odds are that I would have considered myself humiliated had I been an adult seen in public without my penis sheath, despite the fact that my penis sheath would have constituted essentially my only “clothing.” I was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, however, and if I were to wander around my current neighborhood in Tempe, Arizona, outfitted in traditional New Guinean fashion, I would be arrested in short order. ou do not need to be told that the difference in what constitutes appropriate attire varies enormously, and that is true even within Papua New Guinea today, where a great many men have traded in their penis sheaths for shorts and T-shirts.

The diversity of cultural traditions, the rapidity of cultural change, and the capacity of children transferred from one society to another to adopt the local customs and local language all demonstrate that human behavior is highly flexible and dependent upon the capacity to learn. As a result, many persons have accepted the non sequitur that the genes which have survived past episodes of natural selection have little or no role to play in the development of our behavior.
The Practical Applications of Sociobiology
Authors: Alcock John
Published: November 2023

The critics of sociobiology have long been worried about the application of sociobiological research to human affairs. And as we have seen, they do not like what they envision. As discussed in chapter 4, some critics have claimed that certain forces in society can subconsciously impress themselves on scientists, or at least some subset of scientists, to such an extent that these individuals can become inadvertent spokesmen for the rich and powerful. Gould, for example, has declared that “these speculative stories about human behavior [produced by sociobiologists] have broad implications and proscriptions for social policy—and this is true quite apart from the intent or personal politics of the storyteller” (p. 532 in [1481). If Gould is right, the effects that society at large has on scientists would lead to positive feedback loops in which bogus scientific “findings” are used to promote the political goals of persons whose views shaped the conduct of science. The result would be a science that served the interests of the rich and powerful by undercutting challenges to the status quo.
Introduction
Authors: Furman Jan
Published: November 2023

Toni Morrison’s Sons of Solomon appeared in 1977 to a standing ovation. Anne Tyler of the Washinston Post called it “a stunningly beautiful book.” “Morrison dazzles,” declared the Nation. The Philadelphia Enquirer described Morrison as “the most sensible lyrical writer around today.” John Leonard, writing in the New York Times, considered it his honor to review Sons of Solomon. Cataloging his reviewer’s canon of admirable books-among them Nabokov’s Lolita, Heller’s Catch-22, Lessing’s The Golden Note book, Grass’s The Tin Drum, Cheever’s Bullet Park, Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Kingston’s The Warrior Woman Leonard added Morrison’s novel to the list. “The first two-thirds of Sons of Solomon are merely wonderful,” he wrote. “The last 100 pages are a triumph.” The year following its publication, Sons of Solomon won both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award and was also chosen as a Book-of-the-Month Club selection.
People Who Could Fly
Authors: Lester Julius
Published: November 2023

It Happened 1 oNc , 1 oNG ago, when black people were taken from their homes in Africa and forced to come here to work as slaves. They were put onto ships, and many died during the long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Those that survived stepped off the boats into a land they had never seen, a land they never knew existed, and they were put into the fields to work. Many refused, and they were killed. Others would work, but when the white man’s whip lashed their backs to make them work harder, they would turn and fight. And some of them killed the white men with the whips. Others were killed by the white men. Some would run away and try to go back home, back to Africa where there were no white people, where they worked their own land for the good of each other, not for the good of white men. Some of those who tried to go back to Africa would walk until they came to the ocean, and then they would walk into the water, and no one knows if they did walk to Africa through the water or if they drowned. It didn’t matter. At least they were no longer slaves.
Song of Solomon Rejecting Rank’s Monomyth and Feminism
Authors: Brenner Gerry
Published: November 2023

Around Milkman , the hero of her much-admired SonB of Solomon, Toni Morrison wraps various collective fictions: a riddling nursery rhyme that presages his birth and, later chanted by children, leads him to discover his heritage; fables, like the one his father, Macon Dead, tells of the man who rescues a baby snake only to be poisoned to death by its bite; fairy tales, like “Rumpelstiltskin,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” and “Hansel and Gretel”; a common black folktale, like “People Who Could Fly” (as collected by Julius Lester); and family legends, like that of Milkman’s great-grandfather’s ability to fly. Even through family names and nicknames Morrison underscores a preoccupation of all four of her novels: for better and worse, humans use and make fictions to give their lives meaning and significance. Underlying these commoner fictions, however, is Otto Rank’s powerful monomyth: the myth of the birth of the hero. Its features with only minor glossing-attach to Milkman and categorically lay claim to his place among the heroes from whose stories Rank extrapolates his monomyth:
Doe Hunting and Masculinity Song of Solomon and Go Down, Moses
Authors: Duvall John N
Published: November 2023

We are not surprised when we discover traces of classical mythology, slave narratives, or biblical poetry in Song of Solomon.' Yet to speak of the way a text of Toni Morrison and one of William Faulkner enter into dialogue is to run a decided risk of a racism that conjures up vivid images of domination in our American past. Are you not, after all, implying that without this white, southern male’s seminal text, that of the African-American woman would never have come to fruition? But in positing an intertextual relation between Song of Solomon and Go Down, Moses, I am not granting the latter any privilege as master text.2 The critical dialogue in which Song of Solomon engages Go Down, Moses suggests rather that Morrison’s novel reclaims Faulkner’s in ways that question the male-centered world of the hunt and that refuse the gambit of tragedy.
Introducing Reverence
Authors: Woodruff Paul
Published: November 2023

Reverence is an ancient virtue that survives among us in half forgotten patterns of civility, in moments of inarticulate awe, and in nostalgia for the lost ways of traditional cultures. We have the word “reverence” in our language, but we scarcely know how to use it. Right now it has no place in secular discussions of ethics or political theory. Even more surprisingly, reverence is missing from modern discussions of the ancient cultures that prized it.
Prophage Genomics
Authors: Brüssow Harald
Published: November 2023

At the time of this writing, the GenBank phage database comprises 200 complete phage genome sequences. An equivalent number of phage sequences were passively acquired as prophages in bacterial genome sequencing projects. The scientific value of these prophage sequences was only recently recognized (13, 14). It goes beyond their potential to double the content of the current phage database and to correct a bias of the database towards selected phage systems (coliphages, dairy phages, mycobacteriophages) (7, 9). These prophage sequences allowed a first insight into the evolution of phage^host genome interactions at a molecular level. This analysis turned out to be especially fruitful for bacterial pathogens (1, 5, 49).
DNA Packaging in Double-Stranded DNA Phages
Authors: Jardine Paul J , Anderson Dwight L
Published: November 2023

Imagine trying to stuff a string more than 6mm long into a sphere that is fifty nanometers in diameter. The hole in the sphere that the string must enter is only twice as wide as the string itself. The string is stiff, with a persistence length on the order of 50 nm. It is also negatively charged and self-repulsive. The string must be organized such that it can be pulled out easily, so no knots or tangles are permitted. When the sphere is full, the string will have a near crystalline density. You have several minutes to complete this task. This difficult feat is the challenge presented to dsDNA phages during DNA packaging, a pivotal event in the assembly cascade. The task of compacting the double-stranded DNA chromosome into a protein capsid is a dramatic endeavor. DNA by its nature does not want to be in condensed form, but rather is dispersed, occupying a volume more than 100 times its volume inside the virion (47, 54). Therefore, in order to be packaged, energy must be invested in the DNA. The DNA packaging event must also be coordinated with the replication of the phage DNA that is to be packaged, as well as the assembly and maturation of the protein capsid. Numerous investigators, using a battery of model phage systems, have made a concerted effort over four decades to resolve the components and mechanism of DNA packaging.
PRD1: Dissecting the Genome, Structure, and Entry
Authors: Grahn A Marika , Butcher Sarah J , Bamford, Jaana K H , Bamford Dennis H
Published: November 2023

There are six extremely similar phage isolates, from different parts of the world, that all infect Gramnegative bacteria harboring a conjugative plasmid. One of these viruses is PRD1. Viruses with this morphology (protein capsid surrounding a membrane vesicle containing the linear double-stranded DNA genome) also infect Grampositive hosts. These viruses have been classified together forming the Tectiviridae family (2). There have been two characteristics that have drawn considerable interest to these viruses. Firstly, the linear, DNA genome has inverted terminal repeats, a covalently bound terminal protein at the50 ends, and replicates by a protein-primed, sliding-back mechanism. Secondly, due to their membranes, these viruses are considered to be relatively simple model systems for the study of membrane biogenesis, structure, and assembly in a well-characterized Escherichia coli background. As knowledge of the PRD1 structure accumulates, a third line of interest is building up. It appears that the replication mechanism, capsid architecture, major coat protein fold, and vertex structure strongly resemble those of human adenovirus (9, 11, 13, 19, 55). This has led to a proposal that these two viruses belong to the same lineage originating from a common ancestor that precedes the division of the bacterial and eukaryotic domains of life (12). This would mean that viruses are old, maybe older than the divergence of cellular life into three domains. It also appears that there are other viruses, infecting gram-positive bacteria, lower eukaryotes, and maybe archaea that are candidates for this adeno-PRD1 virus lineage. Using this structure-based comparison it has been possible to propose additional viral lineages that have members infecting hosts from different domains of life (4, 12). It should be noted that sequence comparison does not allow the identification of these functional and structural similarities due to the long evolutionary time span involved.
Lipid-Containing Bacteriophage PM2, the Type Organism of Corticoviridae
Authors: Bamford Dennis H , Bamford Jaana K H
Published: November 2023

Bacteriophage PM2 is the only described member of the Corticoviridae family (1). It was isolated from seawater collected from a polluted bay off the coast of Chile (13). The original host was a common marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas espejiana BAL-31 (originally Pseudomonas BAL-31; 14, 18), which is the source of the DNA exonuclease BAL-31. Alternatively, Pseudoalteromonas sp. ER72M2 obtained from the East River, New York, by Leonard Mindich (26) can be used as a host for PM2. PM2 is the first bacteriophage in which the presence of lipids in the virion was firmly demonstrated (7, 15). The mass of the virion ( 4.5 107 Da) is distributed among nucleic acid (14%), lipid (14%), and protein (72%) constituents (8, 9). The sedimentation coefficient (S20,w) of the particle is 293 S and buoyant density in sucrose and cesium chloride is 1.26 g/cm3 and 1.28 g/cm3, respectively (8, 26). The stability of the virion is dependent on sodium and calcium ions and the virion equilibrated in sucrose is inactive (26). The viral membrane is located internally (7, 20) and it forms, together with the phage-encoded membrane-associated proteins and the phage DNA, a lipid core particle (25). An icosahedrally ordered capsid, about 60 nm in diameter, surrounds the lipid core. Thus the overall architecture of PM2 resembles that of bacteriophage PRD1, a tectivirus, which has a membrane vesicle surrounding the linear double-stranded DNA genome and an outer icosahedral capsid of approximately 65 nm in diameter (see chapter 13).
T4 and Related Phages: Structure and Development
Authors: Mosig Gisela , Eiserling Fred
Published: November 2023

History Bacteriophages T2,T4, and T6 were among seven Escherichia coli phages selected by Max Delbrück to study fundamentals of viral replication in a limited number of model viruses. These studies led to the first formulation of many concepts that are now accepted foundations of molecular biology: the fundamental differences between growth of viruses and cells (figure 18-1) (109); the demonstration that nucleic acids of virus particles suffice to establish infection and to direct synthesis of complete virions (163); the concept of the gene, including distinctions between units of recombination, mutation, and function (30); genetic recombination as exchange between DNA molecules involving ‘‘heterozygous’’ overlaps (91, 164, 165); the demonstration of messenger RNA (mRNA) (55, 414) and the non-overlapping triplet code (83, 390) with nonsense triplets as termination signals (31); the repair of DNA damage in the light (103) and in the dark (149); restriction and modification of DNA (247); the presence of spliced and nonspliced introns in prokaryotes (25, 171); the definition of pathways leading to the assembly of complex macromolecular structures (105); and the importance of protein complexes (machines), which change composition during various DNA transactions (9, 275).
Phage ϕ29 and its Relatives
Authors: Salas Margarita
Published: November 2023

Phage f29 and the related phages PZA, PZE, f15, BS32, B103, Nf, M2Y, and GA-1 are lytic phages that belong to the Podoviridae family. Most of them infect Bacillus subtilis and other related species such as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus pumilus, and Bacillus licheniformis. The host range of phage GA-1 differs from those of the other phages. Thus, GA-1 infects the Bacillus strain G1R. The f29-related phages have been classified in three groups based on serological properties, peptide maps, DNA physical maps, and DNA sequences (11, 90, 153). The first group includes phages f29, PZA, PZE, f15, and BS32; the second includes phages B103, Nf, and M2Y; and the third group contains phage GA-1as the only member. The genome of the f29-related phages, which are the smallest of the Bacillus phages isolated so far, consists in a linear double-stranded DNA of 19^21 kb with a phage-encoded protein, named terminal protein (TP), covalently linked to each 5 end. The complete DNA sequence of phages f29 (19,285 bp), PZA (19,366 bp), B103 (18,630 bp), and GA-1 (21,129 bp) are known (90, 109, 112, 149). Phage f29 and its relatives have a short, inverted terminal repeat, six nucleotides long (50-AAAGTA) for f29, PZA, f15, and B103 DNAs, eight nucleotides long (50-AAAGTAAG) for Nf and M2Y DNAs, and seven nucleotides long (50-AAATAGA) for GA-1 DNA. The remainder of the DNA sequence of phages f29 and PZA is very similar, and different from that of phage B103. The sequence of GA-1 DNA is less related to that of the other phages.
Bacteriophage P22
Authors: Prevelige Peter E
Published: November 2023

Bacteriophage P22, a relative of bacteriophage l, is a temperate phage of Salmonella typhimurium and has played key roles in the development of molecular biology. Originally isolated as a lysogen of Salmonella, it was with P22 that Zinder and Lederberg discovered the phenomenon of generalized transduction (113). In subsequent years, P22 has proven to be an important tool in Salmonella genetics, and equally importantly has served to illustrate key components of genetic and morphogenetic regulation (45). P22 shares many similarities in genetic structure and regulation with phage λ and there are excellent reviews of P22 biology (63, 88). The genome of P22 has been sequenced (11, 24, 61, 72, 100) and 65 genes have been annotated. The sequencing results support the hypothesis that phage P22 is a mosaic that has evolved through extensive recombination with other viruses. Significant progress has been made over the past 15 years in understanding the structural biology of P22 infection and replication which, after a brief overview, will be the focus of this chapter.
Phage-Based Expression Systems
Authors: Murray Noreen E
Published: November 2023

Phage, and plasmid, derivatives that had ‘‘picked up’’ genes from the Escherichia coli chromosome led Campbell (12) to propose his influential model based on recombination between circular genomes (see chapter 7). According to this model, segments of bacterial DNA were added to a phage genome if excision of the prophage was by an ‘‘aberrant’’ recombination event. These unexpected, or illegitimate (2, 27, 96) events fortuitously created the early recombinant clones that became tools at the cutting edge of research in the pioneering days of molecular biology. They, for example, facilitated the analyses of bacterial operons (30, 61) and enabled the amplification of the Lac repressor (60). Monitoring the bacterial enzymes specified by ltrp phages enhanced our understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of bacteriophage λ (18, 28, 29), telling us much about the control of transcription from the early λ promoters and suggesting how a phage promoter might be harnessed to amplify gene products. While these first ‘‘recombinant clones’’ of phages and plasmids were of unpredictable content, by 1974 it was possible to design and make new combinations of genes from any source in either plasmid (15) or phage λ vectors (62, 76, 92). This article will introduce the use of λ promoters within the context of the phage genome and follow the use of these and other phage promoters as components of genetically engineered plasmids, where they are relieved of their essential roles in the normal life cycle of the phage and instead used to amplify gene products.
Bacteriophage as Pollution Indicators
Authors: Gerba Charles P
Published: November 2023

Because of the difficulty and cost of detecting waterborne enteric pathogens, indicator organisms have been used since the beginning of the twentieth century. Much of the work in this area has focused on bacterial indicators, such as coliform and fecal coliform bacteria. However, it has been recognized in the last 30 years that these traditional indicators do not always reflect the waterborne occurrence of human pathogenic viruses and protozoa. Thus, bacteriophages have been investigated as a better indicator of these groups of pathogens in water, as models of enteric virus removal by treatment processes, and to examine the fate and transport of enteric viruses in the environment (12). The term ‘‘indicator organism’’ is often not clearly defined. By contrast, an ‘‘index organism’’ is usually defined as one related to the occurrence of a selected surrogate microorganism or microorganisms (table 45-1). The relationship may be direct, such as an index of human viruses, or indirect, such as an index of fecal pollution or types of fecal pollution (i.e., human or animal) (27). The criteria for an index organism are very similar to those commonly used for bacterial fecal indicators. An indicator organism, on the other hand, is measured to check the performance of a treatment process against previously set standards. For example, an indicator is used to evaluate the performance of drinking-water disinfection for the inactivation of enteric viruses. To serve as an effective indicator, the resistance of the indicator organism and the pathogen to the disinfectant should be similar.