Evolution

Evolution art exhibit at the University of Guelph- October 9 to 30

Like many institutions, the University of Guelph is hosting a series of events in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species. Two of them, a teachers' workshop and ...

Blog Post - T. Ryan Gregory - Sep 14 2009 - 9:04am

Molecular Evolution- 'Irreducible Complexity' Gets Reduced

An international team of researchers say they have discovered a blueprint for a general understanding of the evolution of the "machinery" of our cells providing more evidence, at the molecular level, in support of one of the key tenets of Darwin& ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 30 2011 - 2:38pm

In Plants, Polyploidy And Genomic Change Can Improve Evolutionary Fitness

A mystery of evolution is why an extra chromosome can be common across plants and animals yet have such drastically different results.    A human with an extra chromosome may have Down syndrome while a cat may just be a male Calico.  And plants may not onl ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 14 2009 - 3:04pm

Ringside Seats For Man Versus God

Where does evolution leave God? This question has been debated for over a century, and it likely isn't going anywhere any time soon. Some may feel, myself included, that the glut of fighting among the camps should just be put to rest, like the new son ...

Article - Becky Jungbauer - Sep 16 2009 - 9:00am

Evolution of the nervous system

To the list of special issues dealing with the evolution of eyes (E:EO, Phil Trans R Soc B), you can now add one on nervous systems in Nature Reviews Neuroscience. Nature Reviews Neuroscience Vol. 10, Oct. 2009 ...

Blog Post - T. Ryan Gregory - Sep 19 2009 - 7:20am

Looking For Life As We Don't Know It

Scientists at a research institute in Austria are trying to figure out how life might evolve under different biochemistry conditions and with exotic solvents than what would exist on a world similar to Earth- think sulphuric acid instead of water. Traditio ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 19 2009 - 10:46pm

Research Team Claims First Evolutionary Branching For Bilateral Animals

Acoelomorpha, a collection of worms which comprises roughly 350 species, is part of a much larger group called bilateral animals, which are organisms that have symmetrical body forms and include humans, insects and worms. Apparently there has been a quest ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 6:57pm

Reversibility Of Evolutionary Processes

An article in LiveScience entitled " Evolution Can't Go Backward " has highlighted an experiment done to determine whether a protein could be "unmutated" (i.e. returned to its original state) and regain its ancestral functions. The ...

Article - Gerhard Adam - Sep 25 2009 - 9:34pm

Junk DNA and Susumu Ohno- video

Just came across this nice video by C0nc0rdance summarizing the work of Susumu Ohno and the original concept of junk DNA. (Oh, and it gets bonus points for using one of my figures!) ...

Blog Post - T. Ryan Gregory - Sep 24 2009 - 2:44pm

Are We Descended From Monkeys?

Today I gave my lecture on mammal diversity and evolution in the 4th year vertebrate course. We have been talking a fair bit about paraphyletic groups, common vs. scientific names, and so on. Within this context, we explored the issue of whether we're ...

Article - T. Ryan Gregory - Sep 25 2009 - 11:43pm