Evolution

What Is So Wrong About Intelligent Design?

In a thought-provoking paper from the March issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology, Elliott Sober (University of Wisconsin) clearly discusses the problems with two standard criticisms of intelligent design: that it is unfalsifiable and that the many imp ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 22 2007 - 7:42pm

New Study Rewrites Evolutionary History Of Vespid Wasps

Scientists at the University of Illinois have conducted a genetic analysis of vespid wasps that revises the vespid family tree and challenges long-held views about how the wasps’ social behaviors evolved. In the study, published in the Feb. 21 Proceedings ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 9 2007 - 2:13am

Human Pubic Lice Acquired From Gorillas Gives Evolutionary Clues

Humans acquired pubic lice from gorillas several million years ago, but this seemingly seedy connection does not mean that monkey business went on with the great apes, a new University of Florida study finds. Rather than close encounters of the intimate k ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 9 2007 - 2:12am

Go Low- These Legs Were Made For Fighting

Your football coach always told you that the low man wins. Seems that ape-like ancestors may have evolved that way for the same reason. Australopiths maintained short legs for 2 million years because a squat physique and stance helped the males fight over ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 11 2007 - 11:00pm

RNA Enzyme Structure Offers A Glimpse Into The Origins Of Life

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have determined the three-dimensional structure of an RNA enzyme, or "ribozyme," that carries out a fundamental reaction required to make new RNA molecules. Their results provide insight i ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 15 2007 - 3:58pm

Mitochondrial Genes Move To The Nucleus-- But It's Not For The Sex

Why mitochondrial genes ditch their cushy haploid environs to take up residence in a large and chaotic nucleus has long stumped evolutionary biologists, but Indiana University Bloomington scientists report in this week's Science that they've unc ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 22 2007 - 10:50pm

What Was The Biggest Dinosaur?

If you’re a palaeontologist you’ve heard this question a thousand times. And if you’re not a palaeontologist you might wonder why you never get the same answer twice. Well you see the annoying part of palaeontology is that the most spectacular animals are ...

Article - Sarda Sahney - Mar 30 2007 - 6:23pm

CSI: Garfield County

I have been watching way too much CSI. For those who haven’t seen the popular American television show, it is about a team of highly skilled Crime Scene Investigators who use keen observational skills and high tech gadgetry to solve crimes each week in La ...

Article - Sarda Sahney - Mar 29 2007 - 1:50am

Macrocosmos And Microcosmos: White Tigers And The Humble Amoeba

Recently week pictures were released by Taman Safari Indonesia Animal Hospital & Zoo of two Sumatran tiger cubs and a pair of orangutan babies who have been sharing a home over the last month. All four were orphaned, rescued and are now being housed t ...

Article - Sarda Sahney - Mar 29 2007 - 5:12pm

Denizens Of Deep Seas And Deep Time: Part 1: The Frilled Shark & Goblin Shark

‘Living Fossil’ is often a term applied to an animal that has a fossil record very far back in time but no close living relatives. This is a loose definition and taxonomists will argue about its specifics but we aren’t going to hash it out. ...

Article - Sarda Sahney - Mar 30 2007 - 6:22pm