Evolution

Modern Human-Like Gripping Capabilities Existed In Ancestors 500,000 Years Ago

A technique used to produce stone tools that were first found 500,000 years ago is likely to have needed a modern human-like hand, according to new research. The technique is called 'platform preparation'- preparing a striking area on a tool to r ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 20 2018 - 9:00am

Denisova 11- Girl Had A Neanderthal Mother And Denisovan Father

In the 1800s, critics of evolution insisted there had to be fossil evidence for everything, which neglected the idea that fossilization is already difficult, finding the fossil is even more difficult, and something like an eye will not fossilize at all. Bu ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 23 2018 - 10:38am

3 Million Year Old Footprints Suggest Human-Like Walking Evolved Long Before Humans Did

The transition from ape-like shuffling to upright walking (bipedalism) as we do has long fascinated scientists. Why did it happen? When?  The second question is a little closer to being solved. An analysis of 3.6 million year old hominin footprints in Tan ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 13 2018 - 6:37am

Oxygen-Producing Photosynthesis Could Have Been Happening A Billion Years Earlier

Oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere is necessary for complex forms of life, which use it during aerobic respiration to make energy. The levels of oxygen dramatically rose in the atmosphere around 2.4 billion years ago, and speculation is that is when organism ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 27 2018 - 7:01pm

A Science Mystery 700 Years In The Making: Origin Of Plant Sperm Uncovered

An ancient genetic mechanism needed for plant fertility is helping to solve a science mystery 700 million years in the making. The researchers discovered how a gene called DUO1 known to control sperm production inside pollen grains of flowering plants, is ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 7 2019 - 6:51pm

Environmental Antibiotic Resistance Linked To Feces- Evolution Or Sewage Plants?

Fecal pollution can explain a lot of the increase in resistant bacteria where humans live, but not all of it. In some cases resistance genes were common without the presence of “crAssphage”, a bacteriophage common in human feces - environments polluted wit ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 8 2019 - 11:16am

Using Artificial Intelligence On The Genome Uncovers New Missing Link In Evolution

A recent study using deep learning algorithms and statistical methods discovered the footprint of a new hominid who cross bred with the ancestors of Asiatic individuals tens of thousands of years ago. Modern human DNA computational analysis suggests that t ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 16 2019 - 2:23pm

Hybridization, Associated Gene Exchange In Baboons: How New Species Emerge

Through our evolutionary history, change is the one constant. 99.9999% of species that have ever existed are extinct and new ones emerged that adapted to constantly changing environments.  Baboons, with six species widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, are a ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 31 2019 - 10:34am

The Magic of 10's of Billions in Complex Systems?

Why is it that large important complex systems often have about 10-100 billion (or 1E10 to 1E11 give or take an order of magnitude) objects? This seems to apply to the number of stars in the Milky Way (3E11), the number of galaxies in the observable univer ...

Blog Post - David LePoire - Feb 16 2019 - 12:10pm

Grasses Have Been Genetically Modifying For Millenia- By Stealing

Grasses have been able to short cut evolution by taking genes from their neighbors, finds a new study. Since Darwin, much of the theory of evolution has been based on common descent, where natural selection acts on the genes passed from parent to offspring ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 20 2019 - 12:50pm