Author: David Tyler

Genome sequencing has allowed families of genes to be mapped across the phyla, and it is presumed that the presence of a specific gene in different animal groups signifies a shared common ancestor. Over the years, it has become apparent that many significant genes are widely shared in the animal kingdom, and this blog is Read More…

Over the years, samples of amber recovered from numerous sites around the world have been found to contain petrified insects, plants and a variety of other exotic inclusions. Invariably, we get an insight into a past world where the flora and fauna look very modern. A recent discovery has identified mammalian hair in amber, whose Read More…

Most of the time, scientific research seeks to build on theoretical foundations that have been carefully constructed by the wider research community, often over many years. If a theoretical framework is found to be robust, it gains widespread assent, with few interested in challenging it. Those who are attracted to the idea that science develops Read More…

It is well known that orb-weaving spiders put droplets of adhesive all over their webs to catch prey. Although there have been many attempts to study the nature of these adhesives, it is only recently that experiment designs have allowed the mechanism of adhesion to be analysed properly. Single adhesive droplets have been probed at Read More…

Conspiracies to suppress, manipulate and distort information undoubtedly occur. Society needs to be vigilant to guard against deception. An increasing number of alleged conspiracies are being covered by the media, all reflecting in some way on the integrity of politicians, or business leaders or the scientific enterprise. Conspiracy theorists are skilled in appealing to emotion, Read More…

Our knowledge of the fossil record has changed immensely since 1859, when Darwin felt obliged to explain why his hypothesis of gradualism was not confirmed by the study of fossil successions. His argument was, as is well known, that the fossil record exhibits extreme imperfection. The abrupt appearance of macrofossils at the base of the Read More…

Although geographically widespread, the genus Pelecanus has only 7 or 8 species extant (depending on the classification system used). A similar number of fossil species have been identified, although the morphological differences are quite small. Until recently, the earliest fossil form was dated as Early Miocene. Newly published work pushed the first appearance back to Read More…

Today, there seem to be many vested interests in scientific consensus. Universities and science associations often make use of the concept when explaining the importance of science in society and in making pronouncements on issues of public significance. Consensus is relevant to funding agencies, who focus their awards on science that appears to be building Read More…

It took 20 skilled people working for a decade, and an estimated $40 million of funding, but the outcome is spectacular. It is described as “a defining moment in the history of biology and biotechnology” by Mark Bedau, editor of the journal Artificial Life. The BBC News headline was succinct: ‘Artificial life’ breakthrough announced by Read More…

The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) exhibits numerous adaptations to cold environments, fur, foot pads, head shape, exclusively carnivorous diet, heightened sense of smell, etc. Their close relationship to the brown bear (Ursus arctos) has long been recognised. Fertile hybrids are well-documented in captivity and there are rare examples of hybrids in the wild – the Read More…

It was 15 months ago that Science carried a story about the completion of a rough draft of the Neandertal genome. Palaeogeneticist Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig was reported as saying “he can’t wait to finish crunching the sequence through their computers”. It has been quite a long Read More…

A previous blog drew attention to Glial (or Muller) cells that conduct light from the surface of the eye’s retina to the photoreceptor cells. These cells provide a low-scattering passage for light from the retinal surface to the photoreceptor cells, thus acting as optical fibres. Their function was reported to “mediate the image transfer through Read More…

John Avise commences his paper with a quotation from Michael Behe affirming that research into the molecular workings of the cell leads unambiguously to the conclusion: “design!” To counter this, Avise presents the human genome as clear evidence for non-sentient design. He thinks that conventional evolutionary mechanisms are perfectly capable of explaining complexity, declaring: “it Read More…

There has been a complexity explosion in biology – the fuse was lit in 1953 when the structure of DNA was discovered, but during the past two decades we have witnessed a dramatic expansion of data pointing to unanticipated levels of complexity. The hype surrounding the Human Genome Project suggested it would give us the Read More…

The Laetoli trackways from Tanzania were first reported in 1979 and immediately attracted attention because they provided evidence of bipedalism. The tracks were preserved in volcanic ash dated at 3.6 million years. Many at the time thought they looked exactly like human footprints, but few of the researchers were willing to adopt this interpretation. The Read More…