Evolution

Modern Brains Of Humans And Worms Linked

Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory now reveal that the hypothalamus and its hormones are not purely vertebrate inventions, but have their evolutionary roots in marine, worm-like ancestors. Hormones control growth, metabolism, reprod ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 29 2007 - 10:42am

A First-Principles Model Of Early Evolution

In their study, A first-principles model of early evolution: Emergence of gene families, species, and preferred protein folds, Shakhnovich et al present a new model of early biological evolution – the first that directly relates the fitness of a population ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 12 2007 - 12:07am

Very Recent Evolution: Up To 10 Percent Of Human Genome Has Changed

A Cornell study of genome sequences in African-Americans, European-Americans and Chinese suggests that natural selection has caused as much as 10 percent of the human genome to change in some populations in the last 15,000 to 100,000 years, when people beg ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 12 2007 - 2:06pm

Did Man Learn To Walk Upright To Save Energy?

Early man was on a constant quest for food. The demands of nourishment and conserving as much energy as possible may even have changed the course of evolution. While no one has an authoritative answer, anthropologists have long theorized that early humans ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 17 2007 - 12:50am

Pre-Dinosaur Fossils Reveal Early Evolution

The abundant diversity of characteristics within species likely helped fuel the proliferation and evolution of an odd-looking creature that emerged from an unprecedented explosion of life on Earth more than 500 million years ago. “From an evolutionary pers ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 26 2007 - 6:03pm

Genome Study Tells Us How Endurance Running Evolved

A new report from researchers at the University of Colorado and Stanford University speculates how unique, lineage-specific gene copy number expansions and contractions in humans may underlie traits such as endurance running, higher cognitive function, and ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 31 2007 - 1:31pm

Molecular Arms Race Shows Darwinism In Action

A research team has found experimental evidence that supports a controversial theory of genetic conflict in the reproduction of those animals that support their developing offspring through a placenta. The conflict has been likened to a “battle of the sexe ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 31 2007 - 5:09pm

Latent Memory Means Genetic Learning

Learning to fly is easy, if you are a bird. But why is it that birds learn so easily how to fly? It is well known that birds learn through practice, and that they gradually refine their innate ability into a finely tuned skill. According to a new theory by ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 1 2007 - 10:04am

How To Be A Grown-up About Evolution

Spy magazine had a wonderful column by Ellis Weiner called “How to Be a Grown-up”. (In one column, Weiner pointed out that homeless, applied to beggars, should be houseless.) Gordy Slack, a Bay Area science writer, has written the first book that might be ...

Article - Seth Roberts - Feb 3 2008 - 1:18pm

The Hand Of Hispanopithecus And The Mysteries Of Evolution

Even small fossils, such as bones from the hand or foot can tell us much about our ancestor’s and their behavior. Such may be the case with an ape that lived more than nine million years ago. A study published in the latest journal issue of Proceedings of ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 8 2007 - 5:11pm