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Moore’s Law, The Origin Of Life, And Dropping Turkeys Off A Building

I’ve already mentioned the nonsensical paper “published” in (surprise, surprise) arXiv in...

Genome Reduction In Bladderworts Vs. Leg Loss In Snakes

In one sense, I am happy that there is enough interest in the concept of “junk DNA” (and by...

Send This To Anyone Who Writes Or Reports On A Badaptationist Story

...

Another Just-So Story, This Time About Fists

“It is demonstrable,” said he, “that things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for as...

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T. Ryan GregoryRSS Feed of this column.

I am an evolutionary biologist specializing in genome size evolution at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Be sure to visit Evolver Zone

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The Science of Spore

The Science of Spore

Oct 25 2008 | comment(s)

Is Spore meant to be just a game, with no suggestion that it has scientific content?
PZ Myers is coming to town.

PZ Myers is coming to town.

Oct 25 2008 | comment(s)

In support of my hypothesis that PZ Myers had several clones of himself produced so that he could travel all around while still teaching courses, I noted a poster on my way to the lab yesterday that indicates that he will be in Guelph on Saturday Nov. 1, speaking in Thornbrough 1200 at 2 pm. Cost will be $2 (that's a bargain -- only $1.60 US!). This time I will actually try to attend, having skipped the Evolution 2008 conference in his part of the world.
Science on Spore.

Science on Spore.

Oct 24 2008 | comment(s)

The current issue of Science features a new installment of "The Gonzo Scientist" by writer John Bohannon. This edition is all about Spore, the game that is based on "evolution" from primordial ooze to interstellar society [Flunking Spore]. I had heard about the game on blogs, but I had not really planned to play it until John asked a few of us to give our perspective on the science behind it.
Small Genomes In Pterosaurs Too.

Small Genomes In Pterosaurs Too.

Oct 23 2008 | comment(s)

My colleagues Chris Organ and Andrew Shedlock, who provided evidence that theropod dinosaurs already had (somewhat) reduced genome sizes prior to the evolution of birds (Organ et al. 2007) have followed up their study by estimating the genome sizes of several species of pterosaurs.

Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight, having taken to the air 70 million years before birds and 150 million years prior to bats. Interestingly (though perhaps not surprisingly at this point), they seem to have possessed reduced genome sizes, and these downsizings of DNA amount began before flight arose.
Evolution: Education And Outreach Special Issue - Eye Evolution

Evolution: Education And Outreach Special Issue - Eye Evolution

Oct 22 2008 | comment(s)

I was planning to wait until the issue was actually in print, or at least until all the articles were available in preprint, but there is already some buzz starting so here it is. The upcoming issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach, of which I was editor, is a special issue dedicated to eye evolution. The table of contents:

Evolution: Education and Outreach
Volume 1 Issue 4
The evolution of eyes
Edited by T. Ryan Gregory

Editorial

Evolution vs. creationism in the classroom: evolving student attitudes.

Evolution vs. creationism in the classroom: evolving student attitudes.

Sep 12 2008 | comment(s)

The August 2008 issue of Integrative and Comparative Biology has the following papers in a special section entitled Evolution vs. creationism in the classroom: evolving student attitudes. Teaching evolution: challenging religious preconceptions by Eric C. Lovely and Linda C.