Evolutionary biology
At Phys.org: How giant-faced owls snag voles hidden in snow
At Science Daily: Fossil overturns more than a century of knowledge about the origin of modern birds
At Science News: This ancient worm might be an important evolutionary missing link
At Phys.org: New study finds our ancient relatives were not so simple after all
At Phys.org: Learning to better understand the language of algae
Evolution and Imagination
At Science Daily: Study finds unexpected protective properties of pain
At Phys.org: The thinking undead: How dormant bacteria calculate their return to life
At Phys.org: Discovery of new microscopic species expands the tree of life
At Evolution News: Gene Sharing Is More Widespread than Thought, with Implications for Darwinism
David Coppedge writes: Evidence is growing that organisms share existing genetic information horizontally, not just vertically. This has immense implications for neo-Darwinian theory that are not yet fully recognized. If traits can be shared across species, genera and even phyla, they are not being inherited from common ancestors. The findings might also cast stories about convergence and co-evolution in a completely different light. Let’s look at some of the news on this front. Introgression Last month, Current Biology posted a Primer on Introgression by four authors. Introgression refers to “lasting transfer of DNA from one of the species into the genome of the other” by means of hybridization and backcrossing. Basically, it describes “the incorporation of the DNA from one species into Read More ›
At Science Daily: What makes the human brain different?
At Phys.org: Discovery of new types of microfossils may answer age-old scientific question
The Intelligent Design Audiopaper Project
I was thinking recently, about how many audiobooks are consumed by people these days. I would guess that the main reason behind this consumption is convenience. Many people just don’t have the time, or don’t create the time, to really sit down and get their head in a book. But I understand that for many, it can also be due to personal preference, financial considerations, lack of space, being visually impaired, or learning difficulties. If non of these issues are barriers, I would always encourage reading (and ideally taking notes), rather than simply listening. On balance, the evidence does suggest that good reading is a much more efficient way of retaining information than listening, on its own. In general, listening Read More ›