Evolution

Invasive Species Can Produce "Hotspots of Evolutionary Novelty"

Biological invaders are organisms that rapidly spread and multiply after being introduced out of their native range. They are considered one of the most...

Syphilis Origins Solved?

A new paper in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases attempts to tackle a rather sensitive topic......

Turbocharged Human Evolution

I’ve heard people say that selection pressure on humans has relaxed–or we have slipped from its grip to some degree–and that as a result human evolution...

Did a Starchy Diet Fuel Gene Copying in Early Humans?

Biologists usually think of gene mutations as the raw material for evolution. But a wide-ranging analysis of a correlation between genes and diet across...

Bacterial Genomes and Evolution

The seminar that I give most often when I am invited to speak at other universities begins with a brief introduction to genomes, sets up some comparisons...

Fodor on Natural Selection

Philosopher Jerry Fodor offers up the latest example of a familiar genre: essays declaring the forthcoming demise of natural selection, coupled with very...

Why Care About Species Extinction?

The New Republic has a piece titled The Greatest Dying by Jerry Coyne & Hopi E. Hoekstra (see below the fold for how to read it for free if you don't have...

Diet & brain evolution: another item on the menu

At some point in the distant past, there was a dramatic increase in brain size in our hominid ancestors. From approximately 2 million years ago, to the...

Hobbit: "The Wrist ends the debate!"

A new study published today in Science attempts to resolve the Hobbit argument. The report states that the so called Hobbit fossils found in Flores, Indonesia...