UNL graduate disputes Darwin
Scholar presents
research in book
unveiled last week
By Steve Smith
Senior Reporter
A University of Nebraska-Lincoln
graduate has challenged Charles Dar
win’s evolutionary theory in her re
cently published book.
Dorothy Kurth Boberg’s “Evolu
tion and Reason — Beyond Darwin”
was unveiled last week. Boberg said
she spent seven years writing the book.
The research, however, took her en
tire adult life.
“Darwin wrote his theories down
134 years ago,” Boberg said. “We
should appreciate his works, but we
should realize that at the same time,
they are simply inadequate today.”
Boberg was in Lincoln in the mid
dle of a two-week tour to promote her
book and new idea.
A 1951 UNL graduate, Boberg
discussed her theories Thursday with
various organization leaders and uni
versity ana city and state government
officials. She was given the gover
nor’s appointment to admiral in the
Nebraska Navy at the Wick Alumni
Center.
New insight into the roles of virus
es, which were unknown to Darwin,
led Boberg to speculate on the broad
er role of microorganisms in evolu
tion, she said.
In her book, Boberg says a natural
interaction of microorganisms exists
in evolution. It dispels the “exclu
sive” basis of Darwin’s theory, she
said, by broadening its scope.
After graduating from UNL,
Boberg lived in Lincoln until she
married. She moved to California in
1954 when her husband was offered a
position in the Lockheed Corp.
Boberg said she d idn ’ t cxpcc t to be
unleashing a new way of reasoning
when she graduated from the univer
sity.
“f didn’t expect to get far,” she
said. “(The new evolution theory)
was just an interest of mine that I
never expected to follow up on.”
Everything changed for her when
she moved to California and devoted
much of her time to research, she said.
“I f anally came to a place in my life
when I felt 1 had something signifi
cant to offer,” she said. •
An independent scholar, the Lin
coln native’s new ideas concerning
new thinking on evolution are gaining
nationwide notoriety.
Boberg said she gained respect by
studying hard in school — not focus
ing on any one subject, but taking a
broad-based approach to education.
Boberg’s book takes a similar
broad-based approach. The bibliog
raphy cites more than 700 authors.
She said her method of drawing
from all available sources was an
important ingredient for success.
“I guess my advice to today’s stu
dents would be to try to get as broad
based an education as you can,” she
said. ‘‘Get a broad background, but
also be very specific. Don’t wear your
self thin.”
Books
Continued from Page 1
that people stop writing?” Rickerl
asked.
Rickerl said he thought other me
diums were more offensive than books.
“It’s silly in a way,” he said.
“There’s so much violence on TV;
comparati vely, books aren’t a big deal.
People need to keep open minds, and
-44
If people didn't go off
from the norm, we'd
still be reading half
truths and non-truths,
not what people think
and feel. —Higgins
UNL student
-f» "
- if a book offends them, they shouldn’t
read it.”
Higgins agreed.
“An author doesn’t real izc the pow
er he has — the power of words,” he
said. “I f people d idn ’ t go off from the
norm, we’d still be reading half-truths
and non-truths, not what people think
and feel.”
The banned-book display runs
through Saturday.
-—ri-1
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Graduate student Brett Fessel! separates two species
of minnows from holding tanks for a project to test
the thermal tolerances of three species of minnows
that live in the Platte River.
Aquatics
Continued from Page 1
Important research would be dif
ficult to do without the aquatics
lab, he said.
“The firstcxperiment run in here,
for example, addressed a question
that is important to the state,” he
said, “What is the biological im
pact of mixing pesticides in
streams?”
The majority of the work that
has been done in the last six months
and that will be done in the next two
years addresses questions of spe
cific importance to this state, and
that's just the stuff that’s planned
right now,” Hoagland said.
For example, one of the first
experiments done at the lab was a
study of the effects of two herbi
cides in a stream.
“If you go to a typical agricul
tural stream in Nebraska during a
storm and run a pesticide scan to
see what’s in the water, you dpn’t
usually just find one (herbicide),”
Hoagland said.
That raises questions for aquatic
ecologists, Hoagland said.
“When two herbicides are in a
stream at one time are they acting
independently or in concert with
each other?” he asked.
The effects of two herbicides,
suchasatrazineandalachlor.coex- 1
isting in a stream could be studied
by putting variants of the stream
water in different tanks, he said.
The master’s student conduct
lng inc experiment pui aucoju wa
ter with no herbicides in a control
tank, stream water with just atra
zine in one tank, stream water with
just alachlor in another, and stream
water with both in a fourth tank.
“With 32 tanks we can run that
kind of experiment here,” Hoagland
said. “We can run that easily, and
we can do it in an environmentally
realistic way.”
Other studies at the facility in
clude looking at the effects of light
on stream algae and of current ve
locity on snail grazing on algae in
rocks.
“It may sound trivial, Hoagland
said. “You know, ‘whocares?rBut,
algae in streams form the base of
the food chain and drives the whole
system, ecologically speaking.
“Doing that kind of experiment
in the field would be very difficult
and far more costly.”
Hoagland said another part of
the lab was set up for fish holding.
Two of Peter’s graduate students
arc doing an experiment to deter
mine the critical fftaximum tem
perature fish in the Platte River can
tolerate.
Although the lab is used prima
rily by students in the forestry,
fisheries and wildl ife programs who
are working on their master’s or
doctorate degrees, Hoagland said
the lab is open to other depart
ments.
“There are lots of possibilities
here,” he said.
Ultimate
Continued from Page 1
possession of the oppos ing team. Even
then, the oppos i ng team member picks
the disc up immediately and action
continues.
Just 1 ike football .teams score when
someone catches the disc in the
cndzonc.
Generally regarded as a West Coast
sport, Vincent said, ultimate is catch
ing on in Lincoln.
This weekend’s sectional tourna
ment, which will be played at a field
near First Street and Cornhuskcr H igh
way, features 15 teams from Kansas,
Iowa and Missouri. The teams will
compete to win a trip to the regional
tournament.
Competition will begin at9:30a.m.
Saturday and last until about 5 p.m.
Sunday games will begin at 10 a.m.
This year is the first for a women’s
club, Keiko Matsui, a player on the
team, said. Eight women play in the
UNL club.
“A lot of tough women want to
play ultimate/’ she said.
Ultimate is a much different sport
from football and basketball, said Dan
Ryan, president of the UNL^Ultimate
Club. Ultimate, he said, is a much
friendlier sport than the Midwestern
usuals.
However, as with any sport, ulti
mate players fight to win, Vincent
said. The sport is not for pansies, he
said.
“It’s supposed to be a noncontact
sport, but itgets pretty brutal,” Vincent
said. “People think i t’s pretty whimpy,
but it’s pretty intense.
Team member Pat Adams said ref
erees were not used in ultimate.
Games are self-governed using a
method cal led the “spirit of the game,”
he said, where players rely on their
own honesty to make the calls.
“You’ll never see people pushing
each other around saying, ‘Oh yeah,
you’re lying/” Adams said.
One of the best aspects about the
game, Adams said, is that it’s open to
everyone.
“Anyone can throw a Frisbee,” he
said.