Evolution

Whenever one discusses the underlying genetic influences on human behavior, one is opening themselves up to being labelled a determinist. Part of the reason for that is a total misunderstanding of what the word “gene” actually means (not to mention the l ...

Blog Post - Nicholas Horton - Jan 8 2009 - 11:40am

There's Never Been A Better Year to Learn About Evolution

That's because there is going to be so much great, non-technical writing in honor of Darwin's 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On The Origin of Species. We're going to have some great Darwin Day writing here at ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Jan 8 2009 - 11:50pm

Science vs. Speculation on the Origins of Life

"Raw materials were not an issue" for the evolution of the first life on earth, argues Henderson Cleaves, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution, quoted in Carl Zimmer's Science essay on origins of life research (subscription required for ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Jan 9 2009 - 11:59am

Researchers Reverse Evolution Of Fruit Fly- In Real Time

In his book, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, Stephen Jay Gould speculated about an experiment of ‘replaying life’s tape’, wherein one would go back in time, let the tape of life play again and see if ‘the repetition looks at al ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 11 2009 - 6:19pm

Science Writing That Drives Me Crazy: The Beak Of The Finch

Can you tell why this passage comparing Darwin's finches and humans is wrong? Many paths lay open when the finches first arrived, and the smallest flights and trials of their descendants were rewarded. That is why they have traveled in more directions ...

Article - Michael White - Jan 17 2009 - 2:28am

What Is Life?

In 1943 the eminent physicist Erwin Schrodinger gave a series of lectures in Dublin that were later published in book form under the title What Is Life? Its success was considerable as it kick-started the new field of molecular biology, but Schrodinger del ...

Article - Steve Davis - Jan 17 2009 - 2:27am

Zebrafish, Skin Pigmentation And The Evolution Of Race

A series of papers in the journal Zebrafish provides a comprehensive look at future directions of research on pigment biology, stating that model organisms such as zebrafish can advance the scientific understanding of the genetic basis of human skin color ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 14 2009 - 5:44pm

Synthetic Biology 2.0

While the scientific community, and most of the intelligent world, has widely accepted that the theory of natural selection is underlying mechanism of organic evolution, until recently our studies of evolutionary processes have been confined to the example ...

Article - Michael Windelspecht - Jan 15 2009 - 9:06pm

Darwin Year gear

Two years ago, I had t-shirts made up for my evolution course that depicted Darwin's notebook sketch of a simple tree diagram capped by the words "I think". In total, we generated about $500 for conservation charities, and the students got a ...

Blog Post - T. Ryan Gregory - Jan 31 2009 - 2:04pm

Body Size and Evolutionary History- No it Does Not Prove Intelligent Design

Is a recent PNAS paper a knock against evolution? Does it support a "the concept of a preexistent design, with front-loaded genetic programs"? Nonsense. PZ explains why. Go read this if you're at all tempted to believe the intelligent design ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Jan 16 2009 - 12:03pm