Could someone explain what PARADOX means?

Question

The sentence is "Describe the paradox of deep sea biological diversity and discuss some possible explanations for it"
Thanks!

Answer 1

A paradox (Gk: παράδοξος, "aside belief") is an apparently true statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition. Typically, either the statements in question do not really imply the contradiction, the puzzling result is not really a contradiction, or the premises themselves are not all really true or cannot all be true together. The recognition of ambiguities, equivocations, and unstated assumptions underlying known paradoxes has led to significant advances in science, philosophy and mathematics.

The word paradox is often used interchangeably and wrongly with contradiction; but where a contradiction by definition asserts its own opposite, many paradoxes do allow for resolution of some kind, though many remain unresolved or only contentiously resolved, such as Curry's paradox. Still more casually, the term is sometimes used for situations that are merely surprising, albeit in a distinctly "logical" manner, such as the birthday paradox. This is also the usage in economics, where a paradox is a counterintuitive outcome of economic theory

Answer 2

The questioner is using English rather loosely: a "true paradox" is a statement (or collection of statements) which have no logical resolution, true or false - for example "This sentence is false".

Deep sea diversity is only an "apparent paradox" - it can't be a true one, because no true paradox can exist in the real world, only as a construct of language or logic. The apparent paradox is that this environment which seems so hostile to life - no daylight, extreme pressure, and so on - is actually teeming with different forms of life.

However, it can be resolved: life adapts to fill any niche that provides everything which is truly essential to life. The deep sea has enough room, food and oxygen - so there is life. In some ways, the harshness of the environment promotes more diversity: there is no one answer to all the problems it poses, so a number of "solutions" can all compete without one dominating.

Answer 3

A paradox is something that cannot happen such as atoms going faster then the speed of light, or military intelligence (snicker snicker).

As for Describing the paradox of deep sea biological diversity, and some possible explinations; The sea is a microcosm with very limited space. Most of the creatures that live at the bottem of the sea cannot survive anyplace else, even higher water because there is not enough water pressure. Another problem is the polution at the bottem of the sea due to deep sea natural gas vents. How is it bioligical organisms can live in this tremendous heat, and pollution science still has not figured out. Sea sponges live prosperous down there by filtering out small organisms... Even though the deep sea is a small Microcosm that logically should not have much life, it is booming with life, and this in itself is a paradox, ( such as military intelligence snicker snicker )

Answer 4

This is a paradox. A horse is running in a one mile race. Now it takes a certain finite time to reach the half mile point, and a certain time to reach the three quarter mile point. If you keep on dividing the remaining distance in half, it is possible to argue that the horse never actally finishes the race, because the remaining distance can always be halved. Clearly the horse does finish the race, and therein lies the paradox. You can always divide the distance still to go, to infinity, but the horse completes the mile. This paradox was resolved fairly recently with the theory of infinite sets. This means that yes, the distance remaining can be halved ad infinitum but this happens within a finite time.

Answer 5

What people have said, (in that it a paradox defies intuition) is true but to answer your question, the paradox of deep sea bio-diversity is that, with very little, if any light, high pressure and other circumstances that are normally detrimental to the presence of life, how is there a vast diversity in the flora & fauna at this level?

And what are the traits/characteristics that animals and plants have developed to allow life to flourish in what you would, on the face of it, normally consider to be a very demanding and otherwise uninhabitable environment.

The rest of the answer is up to your own research…

Answer 6

A paradox is an inconsistency, as when two facts appear to conflict or when things don't work out the way they should. Resolving life's paradoxes can be frustrating at best.

A paradox is a situation in which something seems both true and false.
Example:
When you increase your knowledge, you see how little you know. You see how much you still have to learn. When you really know a lot, you can say: "I know that I know nothing." This is a paradox.

http://www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2002/07/10/FrontPage/Professor.Given.Fellowship.For.DeepSea.Biology.Diversity-518182.shtml?norewrite200612181215&sourcedomain=www.thebatt.com

Answer 7

A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself, but is perhaps true. I can't help you with the paradox of deep sea biology diversity because I haven't read your textbook.

Answer 8

A paradox is an inconsistency, as when two facts appear to conflict or when things don't work out the way they should. Resolving life's paradoxes can be frustrating at best.

Answer 9

Paradox is puzzle, anomaly, oddity, enigma, so in your sentence its about the puzzle of so much diversity at such depths, I guess this is part of a biology text so the answer might be already within your text book or research papers.

Answer 10

It comes from Greek root and it means aside belief. It is an apparently true statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition.