In case you have missed them, two issues are now available for each of the new evolution journals: Evolutionary Applications Evolution: Education and Outreach Both are accessible online…

I had mentioned GraphJam on the old Genomicron. It's like LOLcats for nerds. Erm, for even bigger nerds. This one seems highly apt, though ALL CAPS alone is usually sufficient.  …

Throughout the history of Earth there have been numerous mass extinctions and there are just as many theories as to why they occurred. The largest we know of occurred some 250 million years ago, give…

'Clone' is an odd term culturally. Thanks to science fiction on one side and ethical hysteria on the other, people tend to overstate the meaning of it. Back before genomes, to 'clone a gene' was to…

It makes sense that massive black holes lurking in galactic nuclei and weighing millions of Suns can disrupt stars that come too close. Astrophysicists say that the black hole’s gravity pulls harder…

Yes, witness that we are promoting an old media company (Wiley-Blackwell) but only because they aren't charging anyone ridiculous subscription fees and convincing you your career is over if they're…

It seems rumors of the greater dwarf cloud rat's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Sure, he stayed low key for the last 112 years but he really never left his natural habitat. Seeing the…

A new model of inner Earth constructed by Arizona State University researchers pulls past information and hypotheses into a coherent story to clarify mantle motion. “The past maybe two or three years…

Why would a professor in Denver examine one county in Texas and conclude there is a race issue in death penalty cases? It's hard to say. There is extrapolation and then there is just a question…

Researchers at McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) have performed the world’s first totally automated administration of an anesthetic. Nicknamed “McSleepy,” the new…

Fewer caribou calves are being born and more of them are dying in West Greenland as a result of a warming climate, according to Eric Post, a Penn State associate professor of biology. Post, who…

Evolution is like the mafia, according to Omar Tonsi Eldakar and David Sloan Wilson at Binghamton University. Altruists(the exploited) ‘pay’ the the punishers of the selfish(exploiters) by allowing…

In Phylogenetic Fallacies: Early Branching Must Mean Primitive I focused on the misconception that an "early branching" lineage was necessarily "primitive" (i.e., very similar to a distant ancestor).…

There has been greatly increasing attention given to the potential of ‘biochar’, or charcoal made from biological tissues (e.g., wood) to serve as a long term sink of carbon in the soil. This is…

In a series of mate choice experiments with Phintella vittata (the Chinese jumping spider), a group researchers has found that female spiders would rather mate with males that reflect ultraviolet B…

As marine pollution continues to rise, various interesting solutions have been proposed to remove toxic contaminants. Various species of seaweed are able to extract toxic compounds from seawater,…

Biomedical research in developing countries is the kind of ethical condundrum we all think about. On one hand, infectious diseases may cause up to half of all deaths in undeveloped nations(1), so…

Scientists probing volcanic rocks from deep under the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean have discovered a special geochemical signature until now found only in the southern hemisphere. The rocks…

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered a new climate pattern called the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation. This new pattern explains changes in the water that are important…

The electromagnetic fields produced by incubators alter newborns’ heart rates, says a small study published in the Fetal and Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood. The research team…