Critically appreciating Ernest Everett Just’s Biology of the Cell Surface (1939) and related research: A literature review and annotated bibliography

Volume 9, Issue 1, February 2024     |     PP. 13-36      |     PDF (300 K)    |     Pub. Date: May 7, 2024
DOI: 10.54647/biology180367    33 Downloads     5415 Views  

Author(s)

Theodore Walker Jr., Southern Methodist University, Dallas Texas USA

Abstract
The Biology of the Cell Surface (1939a) by Ernest Everett Just is focused on marine egg cells and egg cell surfaces. By observing, experimenting with, and theorizing about egg cells, and cell surface mediated co-operation with sperm, other cells, and environment, E. E. Just contributed to developmental biology, evolutionary biology, ecological developmental (eco-devo) biology, evolutionary developmental (evo-dev) biology, and evolutionary bioethics. According to Just, from cells to humans, development and evolution require co-operative behavior, and, in accordance with the “law of environmental dependence,” this is the natural evolutionary “origin of man’s ethical behavior” (Just and Just 1941). My hypothesis is that observing with a light microscope may have induced corresponding overestimates of ectoplasmic potence.

Keywords
Stammzell, stem cell, common unicellular ancestor, egg cell, cell surface, law of environmental dependence, eco-devo, ecological developmental biology, evo-dev, evolutionary developmental biology, evolutionary bioethics, ethical behavior.

Cite this paper
Theodore Walker Jr., Critically appreciating Ernest Everett Just’s Biology of the Cell Surface (1939) and related research: A literature review and annotated bibliography , SCIREA Journal of Biology. Volume 9, Issue 1, February 2024 | PP. 13-36. 10.54647/biology180367

References

[ 1 ] Abzhanov, Arkhat. (9 October 2013). “von Baer's Law for the Ages: Lost and Found Principles of Developmental Evolution” in Trends in Genetics, volume 29, issue 12, ISSN:0168-9525, pp. 712-722, December 2013, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2013.09.004.
[ 2 ] Abzhanov, Arkhat. (23 January 2014). “Evolutionary Developmental Biology - Arkhat Abzhanov” on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZuQWvg0FBI&t=520s | Source - http://serious-science.org/videos/425.
[ 3 ] Aktipis, Athena. (2020). The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer. Princeton University Press.
[ 4 ] Aktipis, Athena. (January 2021). “Malignant Cheaters: Cells coexist by cooperating. When some break the rules, cancers result” in Scientific American, volume 324, number 1, pages 62-67.
[ 5 ] Bains, Ajeet. (2005). “Perspectives on the Properties of Stem Cells” (2005) by Ernest McCulloch and James Till" in Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2020-06-30). ISSN: 1940-5030, http://embryo.asu.edu/handle/10776/13158.
[ 6 ] Bostrom, Nick. (2002). Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy. New York: Routledge.
[ 7 ] Brunet, Thibaut, and Nicole King. (23 October 2017). “The Origin of Animal Multicellularity and Cell Differentiation” in Developmental Cell, volume 43, issue 2, pages 124–40, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2017.09.016.
[ 8 ] Brunet, Thibaut, and Nicole King. (5 November 2020). “The Single-Celled Ancestors of Animals: A History of Hypotheses.” Preprints 2020, 2020110302 (doi: 10.20944/preprints202011.0302.v1), online at https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202011.0302/v1.
[ 9 ] Burbidge, E. Margaret with Geoffrey R. Burbidge, William A. Fowler, and Fred Hoyle. (October 1957). “Synthesis of the Elements in Stars” in Review of Modern Physics, volume 29, issue 4, pages 547-650 [doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.29.547].
[ 10 ] Burr, H. S. (March 1939). Book review of The Biology of the Cell Surface (Philadelphia: Blakiston’s, 1939) by Ernest Everett Just, in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine (YJBM), 11(4): 405, PMCID: PMC2602111
[ 11 ] Byrnes, W. Malcolm. (2009). “Ernest Everett Just, Johannes Holtfreter, and the Origin of Certain Concepts in Embryo Morphogenesis” in Molecular Reproduction & Development, 76: 912-921, online at http://europepmc.org/article/PMC/3371230. 
[ 12 ] Byrnes, W. Malcolm. (25 January 2010). “Ernest Everett Just: Experimental Biologist Par Excellence,” via the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, online at https://www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/people/012510/ernest-everett-just.
[ 13 ] Byrnes, W. Malcolm. (December 2013). “The Genius of Ernest Everett Just” in Howard University Graduate School (HUGS) Research Magazine and Graduate School Research Archive, issue 002, online at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259196977_The_Genius_of_Ernest_Everett_Just. (Accessed 17 September 2021.)
[ 14 ] Byrnes, W. Malcolm. (March-April 2015). “The Forgotten Father of Epigenetics.” American Scientist, volume 103, pp. 106-109, online at https://biology.howard.edu/sites/biology.howard.edu/files/2019-07/Byrnes.2015.pdf.
[ 15 ] Byrnes, W. Malcolm. (24 June 2015). “E. E. Just and Creativity in Science: The Importance of Diversity” in Journal of African American Studies, (2015): 19:264-278. [DOI 10.1007/s12111-015-9305-1]. [(Dario Vargas, TC 8360, Summer 2020)]
[ 16 ] Byrnes, W. Malcolm. (23 September 2019). "E. E. Just's broad, yet hidden, influence on modern cell and developmental biology" in Molecular Reproduction and Development, https://doi.org/10.1002/mrd.23270.
[ 17 ] Byrnes, W. Malcolm, and William R. Eckberg. (1 August 2006). “Ernest Everett Just (1883-1941) – An early ecological developmental biologist” in Developmental Biology, volume 296, issue 1, pp. 1-11, online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2006.04.445.
[ 18 ] Byrnes, W. Malcolm (Introduction) and others. (20 August 2009). Molecular Reproduction & Development, volume 76, issue 10, October 2009 Special Issue: In Honor of E.E. Just
[ 19 ] Byrnes, W. Malcolm, and Stuart A. Newman. (June 2014 [Epub 24 March 2014]). “Ernest Everett Just: Egg and embryo as excitable systems” in the Journal of Experimental Zoology, Part B, Molecular and Developmental Evolution, volume 322, issue 4, pages 191-201, doi: 10.1002/jez.b.22567, PMID: 24665037; PMCID: PMC4277254, online at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24665037/. [Dario Vargas, TC 8360, Summer 2020]
[ 20 ] Casuso, E. and J. E. Backman. (5 October 2019). “Analytical approach in the time evolution of rotation of galaxies” in SCIREA Journal of Physics, volume 4, issue 5, pp. 163-175.
[ 21 ] Cobb, John B., Jr. (1988). “Ecology, Science, and Religion: Toward a Postmodern Worldview” in The Reenchantment of Science: Postmodern Proposals, edited by David Ray Griffin. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press.
[ 22 ] Cobb, John B., Jr., editor. (2008). Back to Darwin: A Richer Account of Evolution. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing.
[ 23 ] Darwin, Charles. (1859). [Chapter I “Variation Under Domestication,” and chapter II “Variation Under Nature,” chapter III “Struggle for Existence,” and chapter IV “Natural Selection; Or the Survival of the Fittest” …] in On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection; or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: John Murray.
[ 24 ] Darwin, Charles (1871 [1874 new edition]). The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. London: John Murray.
[ 25 ] Denning, Kathryn. (2009). “Social Evolution: State of the Field,” chapter 3 in Cosmos and Culture: Cultural Evolution in a Cosmic Context, edited by Steven J. Dick and Mark L. Lupisella. Washington, DC: NASA Office of External Relations.
[ 26 ] Dick, Steven J. and Mark Lupisella, editors. (2009). Cosmos and Culture: Cultural Evolution in a Cosmic Context. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Office of External Relations.
[ 27 ] Dover, Cedric. (1954). “The Significance of the Cell Surface (The Work of E. E. Just)” in Journal of the Zoological Society of India, 6, no. 1, pp. 3-42.
[ 28 ] Forgacs, Gabor, and Stuart A. Newman. (2005). Biological Physics of the Developing Embryo. Cambridge University Press.
[ 29 ] Gould, Stephen Jay. (1977). Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Harvard University Press.
[ 30 ] Grinnell, Frederick. (August 1975). “Cell Attachment to a Substratum and Cell Surface Proteases” in Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, volume 169, issue 2, pages 474-482, online at https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-9861(75)90190-3.
[ 31 ] Haeckel, Ernst. (1868). Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte. Berlin: Georg Reimer. [Google Scholar]
[ 32 ] Haeckel, Ernst. (1874). Anthropogenie, 1st edition. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann. [Google Scholar]
[ 33 ] Haeckel, Ernst. (1877). Anthropogenie, 3rd edition. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann. [Google Scholar]
[ 34 ] Hoyle, Fred. (1947). “On the Formation of Heavy Elements in Stars” in Proceedings of the Physical Society, volume 59, issue 6, pages 972-978.
[ 35 ] Hoyle, Fred. (5 February 1949). “Stellar Evolution and the Expanding Universe” in Nature, volume 163, pages 196-198 [doi:10.1038/163196a0].
[ 36 ] Hoyle, Fred, and N. Chandra Wickramasinghe. (1981). “Convergence to God” (chapter 9, pages 129-45) in Evolution from Space: A Theory of Cosmic Creationism. New York: Simon and Schuster.
[ 37 ] Jahr, Fritz. (1927). “Bio-Ethics: A Review of the Ethical Relationships of Humans to Animals and Plants.” Kosmos 24: 4 [as cited in (Sass, December 2007)].
[ 38 ] Jenkins, Lillie R. (3 April 2021). “Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just - Summarizing Timeline, Sumitography and Concept Poster” (Alternative title: “E. E. Just: Administrative and Fund-seeking Pioneer”), online via SMU Scholar at https://scholar.smu.edu/theology_research/27/.
[ 39 ] Jonas, Hans. (2001, originally 1966). “Epilogue. Nature and Ethics” (pages 282-284) in The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology, with Foreword by Lawrence Vogel. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.
[ 40 ] Just, Ernest Everett. (1919a). “The fertilization reaction in Echinarachnius parma: I. Cortical response of the egg to insemination” in The Biological Bulletin, 36, 1-10 [(Byrnes 2019)].  
[ 41 ] Just, Ernest Everett. (1919b). “The fertilization reaction in Echinarachnius parma: II. The role of fertilizing in straight and cross fertilization” in The Biological Bulletin, 36, 11-38 [(Byrnes 2019)].  
[ 42 ] Just, Ernest Everett. (1919c). “The fertilization reaction in Echinarachnius parma: III. The nature of the activation of the egg by butyric acid” in The Biological Bulletin, 36, 39-53 [(Byrnes 2019)].  
[ 43 ] Just, Ernest Everett. (1920). “The fertilization-reaction in Echinarachnius parma: IV. A further analysis of the nature of butyric acid activation” in The Biological Bulletin, 39, 280-305 [(Byrnes 2019)].  
[ 44 ] Just, Ernest Everett. (1921). “The susceptibility of the inseminated egg to hypotonic seawater. A contribution to the analysis of the fertilization-reaction” in Anatomical Record, 20, 225-227. [(Byrnes 2019)].  
[ 45 ] Just, Ernest Everett. (1922a). “Initiation of development in the egg of arbacia: I. Effect of hypertonic sea-water in producing membrane separation, cleavage, and top-swimming plutei” in The Biological Bulletin, 43, 384-400. [(Byrnes 2019)].  
[ 46 ] Just, Ernest Everett. (1922b). “Initiation of development in the egg of arbacia: II. Fertilization of eggs in various stages of artificially induced mitosis” in The Biological Bulletin, 43, 401-410. [(Byrnes 2019)]. 
[ 47 ] Just, Ernest Everett. (1922c). “Initiation of development in the egg of Arbacia: III. The effect of Arbacia blood on the fertilization-reaction” in The Biological Bulletin, 43 [(Just 1939b)].  
[ 48 ] Just, Ernest Everett. (1932). “On the Origin of Mutations” in American Naturalist, 66, no. 702: 61-74.
[ 49 ] Just, Ernest Everett. (1933). “Cortical Cytoplasm and Evolution” in American Naturalist, 67 (708), 20-29.
[ 50 ] Just, Ernest Everett. (1937). “The significance of experimental parthenogenesis for the cell-biology of to-day” in Cytologia, Fujii Jubilaei, 540-550. [(Byrnes 2019)].  
[ 51 ] Just, Ernest Everett. ([January] 1939a). The Biology of the Cell Surface. Philadelphia: P Blakiston’s Son [New York: Garland Publishing, 1988 reprint].
[ 52 ] Just, Ernest Everett. ([June] 1939b). Basic Methods for Experiments on Eggs of Marine Animals. Philadelpia: P. Blakiston’s Son.
[ 53 ] Just, Ernest Everett. (April 1940). “Unsolved Problems of General Biology” in Physiological Zoology, 13 (2): 123-42.
[ 54 ] Just, Ernest Everett and Hedwig Schnetzler Just. (October 1941 [July 2020]). The Origin of Man’s Ethical Behavior. 
[ 55 ] King, Nicole. (September 2004). “The Unicellular Ancestry of Animal Development” in Developmental Cell, volume 7, pages 313–325, online at https://www.cell.com/developmental-cell/pdf/S1534-5807(04)00288-6.pdf
[ 56 ] Kropotkin, Peter [Petr Alekseyevich Kropotkin]. (1902). Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, edited by Charles Aldarondo. Kindle Edition: Amazon Digital Services, based upon print edition ISBN 1502589664; CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014.
[ 57 ] Levin, Michael. (24 May 2022). “Michael Levin | Cell Intelligence in Physiological & Morphological Spaces | SPACIOUS SPATIALITY 2022.” SEMF’s 2022 Spacious Spatiality https://semf.org.es/spatiality | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK2o_ObVt-E.
[ 58 ] Lin, Haifan. (19 May 2020). “Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine: Progress and Prospect,” a Yale University Stem Cell Center Lecture, posted on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u79_3pQJVDk.
[ 59 ] Long, Charles H. (1963). “Creation from Chaos and from the Cosmic Egg” (chapter 3) in Alpha: The Myths of Creation. Chico, California: Scholars Press.
[ 60 ] Lovelock, James E. (1972). “Gaia as seen through the atmosphere” in Atmospheric Environment, volume 6, issue 8, pages 579-580 [doi:10.1016/0004-6981(72)90076-5.
[ 61 ] Lovelock, James E. and Lynn Margulis. (1974). “Atmospheric homeostasis by and for the biosphere: the gaia hypothesis,” Tellus, 26:1-2, 2-10, DOI: 10.3402/tellusa.v26i1-2.9731
[ 62 ] Mangal, Mélina; illustrations by Luisa Uribe. (2018). Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just. (LC classification – Juvenile literature [with colorful graphic illustrations and scholarly notes]). Minneapolis: Millbrook Press.
[ 63 ] Manning, Kenneth R. (1983). Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[ 64 ] Manning, Kenneth R. (16 July 2009). “Reflections on E. E. Just, Black Apollo of Science, and the Experiences of African American Scientists” in Molecular Reproduction and Development, 76 (10): 897-902 [https://doi.org/10.1002/mrd.21087]. 
[ 65 ] Margulis, Lynn. (1981). Symbiosis in Cell Evolution: Life and Its Environment on the Early Earth. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.
[ 66 ] Margulis, Lynn. (c1993). Symbiosis in Cell Evolution: Microbial Communities in the Archean and Proterozoic Eons, 2nd edition. New York: Freeman.
[ 67 ] Marlow, Jeffrey and Rogier Braakman. (November 2018). “Team Players: Long thought mostly to compete with one another, microbes turn out to form partnerships that rule the planet” in Scientific American, volume 319, number 5, pages 32-39.
[ 68 ] McCulloch, Ernest, and James Till. (1 October 2005). “Perspectives on the Properties of Stem Cells” in Nature Medicine, 11, 1026-1028, https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1005-1026.
[ 69 ] Newman, Stuart A. (2006). “The Developmental-Genetic Toolkit and the Molecular Homology-Analogy Paradox.” Biological Theory, volume 1, no. 1, pp. 12-16
[ 70 ] Newman, Stuart A. (2013). “Evolution is not mainly a matter of genes” (pp. 26-33; 288-290) in Genetic Explanations: Sense and Nonsense, edited by Sheldon Krimsky and Jeremy Gruber. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[ 71 ] Newman, Stuart A. (c. 25 May 2023). “What is Evolutionary Developmental Biology” via The People’s Forum NYC on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15lKz2s0GS8.
[ 72 ] Potter, Van Rensselaer. (1971). Bioethics: Bridge to the Future, edited by Carl P Swanson. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Biological Science Series.
[ 73 ] Potter, Van Rensselaer. [University of Wisconsin] (1984). “Bioethics and the Human Prospect” (pages 124-137) in The Culture of Biomedicine: Studies in Science and Culture, volume 1, edited by D. Heyward Brock. Newark: University of Delaware Press. [Here Potter calls for “Evolutionary Bioethics” (p. 135).]
[ 74 ] Potter, Van Rensselaer. (1988). Global Bioethics: Building on the Leopold Legacy. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press.
[ 75 ] Prum, Richard O. (2017). The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World and Us. New York: Doubleday-Penguin-Random House.
[ 76 ] Ramalho-Santos, Miguel, and Holger Willenbring. (7 June 2007). “On the Origin of the Term ‘Stem Cell’” in Cell Stem Cell, volume 1, issue 1, pages 35-28, online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2007.05.013.
[ 77 ] Sass, Hans-Martin. (December 2007). “Fritz Jahr’s 1927 Concept of Bioethics” in Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, volume 17, number 4, pp. 279-295, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18363267/.
[ 78 ] Schroeder, Doris. “Evolutionary Ethics” in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (IEP) (ISSN 2161-0002), online at https://iep.utm.edu/evol-eth/.
[ 79 ] Shah, Hiral, Gautam Dey and Omaya Dudin. (5 January 2021). “Tracing the History of Animal Origins” is a review of the posted on 10 November 2020 preprint of “The Single-Celled Ancestors of Animals: A History of Hypotheses” (5 November 2020) by Thibaut Brunet and Nicole King, in preLights, Preprint Highlights Selected by the Biological Community, online at https://prelights.biologists.com/highlights/the-single-celled-ancestors-of-animals-a-history-of-hypotheses/.
[ 80 ] Slate, Nico. (2014). The Prism of Race: W. E. B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and The Colored World of Cedric Dover. New York: Palgrave Macmillian.
[ 81 ] Stevens, Tina, and Stuart Newman. (2019). Biotech Juggernaut: Hope, Hype, and Hidden Agendas of Entrepreneurial BioScience 1st Edition. New York: Routledge.
[ 82 ] Takahashi Kazutoshi, and Shinya Yamanaka. (25 August 2006). “Induction of pluripotent stem cells from mouse embryonic and adult fibroblast cultures by defined factors” in Cell, volume 126, pages 663-676, online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2006.07.024.
[ 83 ] Tung, Angela, with Megan M. Sperry, Wesley Clawson, Ananya Pavuluri 1, Sydney Bulatao1, Michelle Yue, Ramses Martinez Flores, Vaibhav P. Pai, Patrick McMillen1, Franz Kuchling, and Michael Levin. (17 January 2024 [22 June 2023]). “Embryos Assist Morphogenesis of Others through calcium and ATP signaling mechanisms in collective teratogen resistance.” Nature Communications, pp. 1-22, Article https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44522-2.
[ 84 ] Tyson, Neil de Grasse, and Donald Goldsmith. (2004). Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution. New York; London: W. W. Norton.
[ 85 ] Walker, Theodore, Jr. (January 2020). “The Bioethical Significance of ‘The Origin of Man’s Ethical Behavior’ (October 1941, unpublished) by Ernest Everett Just and Hedwig Anna Schnetzler Just” in the Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science, volume 18, issue 1, article 4, online at https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/jscas/vol18/iss1/4.
[ 86 ] Walker, Theodore, Jr. (February 2020). “Ernest Everett Just (1883-1941): Hero in Cell Biology and in Evolutionary Bioethics” in the Meharry Medical College Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, volume 31, number 1, pages 4-10. | Johns Hopkins University Press. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/hpu.2020.0002, online at http://muse.jhu.edu/article/747768 and at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32037311/.
[ 87 ] Walker, Theodore, Jr. (29 April 2020). "Interdisciplinary Convergences with Biology and Ethics via Cell Biologist Ernest Everett Just and Astrobiologist Sir Fred Hoyle" (chapter one, pages 11-35) in Panentheism and Panpsychism: Philosophy of Religion Meets Philosophy of Mind Series: Innsbruck Studies in Philosophy of Religion, Volume: 2, edited by Godehard Brüntrup, Benedikt Paul Göcke and Ludwig Jaskolla. Leiden, Netherlands: Mentis Verlag | Brill, 2020, online at https://brill.com/view/title/55646.
[ 88 ] Walker, Theodore, Jr. (16 November 2021). “Reviewing Ernest Everett Just’s Biology of the Cell Surface (1939) and related literature, plus annotated references, hereby advancing evolutionary biology and evolutionary bioethics” in SCIREA Journal of Health, volume 5, issue 6, pages 123-144, online at https://www.scirea.org/journal/PaperInformation?PaperID=6569. [DOI: 10.54647/pmh33179]
[ 89 ] Wickramasinghe, Chandra, editor. (2015). Vindication of Cosmic Biology: Tribute to Sir Fred Hoyle (1915-2001). New Jersey: World Scientific.
[ 90 ] Williams, Katelyn M. with Bryan A. Wilson, Wendi G. O’Connor, and Monte S. Willis. (18 July 2013). “Ernest Everett Just, PhD: Pioneer in Ecological Developmental (Eco-Devo) Biology” in the Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science, volume 11, issue 1, article 5, online at https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/jscas/vol11/iss1/5/.
[ 91 ] Wilson, Edmund B. (1896). The Cell in Development and Inheritance. New York: Macmillan.
[ 92 ] Wilson, Edward O. (1975). Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
[ 93 ] Yamanaka, Shinya. (14 June 2012). “Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells: Past, Present, and Future” in Cell Stem Cell, volume 10, issue 6, pp. 678-684, online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2012.05.005.