Welcome to the website of William S. Moore PhD Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University
This site provides access to my (1) professional publications as an evolutionary biologist, (2) articles and images I’ve published related to my hobby of model railroading and (3) occasional reflections on philosophical issues. Evolutionary biology, model railroading and philosophy is a rare if not unique combination of interests that I can justify only by saying I have gone where my interests pulled me.
I am foremost an evolutionary biologist working at the genetic level. Most of my research in the past 30+ years has been on birds because they provide the best models for studying speciation processes and related phenomena that are of interest to me.
Model railroading is a multifaceted hobby that assuages a compulsion I have to transform visions in my mind’s eye into something tangible. I would like to build a Gothic cathedral, but that would be impractical; so, I settle for models of railroad locomotives, cars and structures. I suspect model railroading is a release for a compulsive behavior that is evolutionarily adaptive in humans— the urge to craft objects.
Philosophy, Science and Religion: Sometime in junior high or high school I began to ask the question: Why do I exist? Two avenues to very different answers became apparent: religion and science. By the end of my sophomore year at university, as I learned of the Spanish Inquisition, endless wars fought between competing cultures all claiming God was on their side and the “scopes Monkey Trial” on one end of campus, and comparative anatomy, genetics and biochemistry on the other end, it was clear which avenue I should take: science! The book review and essay accessible through this link concern the science-religion conflict.
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