evolution

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Princeton Team Adds Twist to Darwin's Theory

It's not random, they say: Organisms can control own evolution

(Newser) - Princeton scientists say they have found evidence that organisms can essentially control their own evolution, a finding that could provide a fundamental shift in our understanding of Darwin's theory, reports the university's news service. The research suggests that evolution isn't entirely random, as Darwin believed. Rather, proteins within organisms constantly...

Young Island Is Scientists' Playground

Surtsey, formed off Iceland in 1963 eruption, is no-tourists-allowed model of evolution

(Newser) - On Surtsey, off Iceland's coast, scientists take life one species at a time, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Since the island erupted from the ocean in 1963, only researchers have been permitted to visit and catalog its colonization by external species. With 2½ acres of land eroding each year, they’...

Ancient Fish Grew a Neck, Began Move Toward Land

(Newser) - Meet the newest member of the family tree: a 9-foot fish that lived 375 million years ago. Scientists say its fossil is providing the best look to date at how creatures made the transition from water to land, the New York Times reports. The “fishapod”—thought to be...

100M-Year-Old DNA Regions Baffle Experts

Mice, humans share mysterious code immune to evolution

(Newser) - Certain regions of mammalian DNA with no discernible purpose have one perplexing characteristic in common: They have survived, without mutation, for as long as 100 million years, LiveScience reports. Scientists speculate that the areas have some deep purpose, but for now they know only that they are “ultraconserved regions,...

Anglicans Making Nice With Darwin
Anglicans Making Nice With Darwin
Sep 15, 2008 12:04 PM CDT

Anglicans Making Nice With Darwin

Church's essay series aims to repair evolutionist's reputation

(Newser) - When Charles Darwin came out with his theory of evolution by natural selection nearly 150 years ago, the Church of England opposed it. But now, 200 years after the celebrated scientist's birth, the church has launched a website exploring its history with Darwin, and the church's head of public affairs...

Americans Seek Immune Genes in Mates: Study

Nigerians don't marry for DNA diversity, but may not need to

(Newser) - Americans pick mates with different immune genes while Africans prefer the genes they already have, New Scientist reports. A study of 60 couples from Utah and Nigeria showed that the Americans hitched up with partners whose genes recognized pathogens that theirs couldn't. The African marriages, however, appeared to be genetically...

Invasive Species Getting Bad Rap: Scientists

Exotics can cause extinctions, but spur diversity, evolution, too

(Newser) - Invasive species don’t always spell disaster for native ecosystems and animal life, scientists say after a study of the process and its effects on New Zealand. More than 22,000 non-native plants have been introduced to the islands, the New York Times reports, and only three native species have...

Octopus Has How Many Legs? Guess Again

New research shows denizens of the deep show specialization, and handedness

(Newser) - Octopuses may not be eight-legged creatures after all, new research suggests. They do indeed have eight limbs, but some function more like arms, AFP reports. It breaks down like this: the front two are the most nimble and armlike, and are used for exploration; the back two are used mostly...

Phelps' Victory Dance: It's Evolutionary
 Phelps'
 Victory Dance:
 It's Evolutionary
OLYMPICS
Aug 12, 2008 10:36 AM CDT

Phelps' Victory Dance: It's Evolutionary

All primates share body language of pride, shame: researchers

(Newser) - The classic chest-out, arms-outstretched victory dance Olympic champ Michael Phelps performed after Sunday's 4-x-100 relay final is older than humanity, the LA Times reports. The same display of pride is instinctive to all primates, researchers say, and the body language of victory and defeat is rooted in the age-old need...

Roots of Speech Found in Humming Fish

All vocalizing creatures share common brain circuit, researchers find

(Newser) - The songs of birds, the hums and grunts of toadfish, and the lofty speech of humans all use the same ancient brain circuit, despite an evolutionary split 400 million years ago, reports National Geographic. Researchers have discovered that the base of the hindbrain and upper spinal cord is the starting...

Devils Breed Earlier to Stave Off Cancer

Attempt to outlast disease could be evolutionary

(Newser) - Tasmanian devils are reproducing at a younger age to offset a contagious cancer epidemic, the Daily Telegraph reports. The ill-tempered marsupials, suffering from tumors that cut their lifespan in half, are now breeding at age 1 instead of 2 or 3. "We could be seeing evolution occurring before our...

Beer: Cause of, and Solution to, Civilization

Americans aren't likely to cut back on the suds—and history tells us why, Will writes

(Newser) - Recently, Investor’s Business Daily had the effrontery to suggest that Americans might cut down on beer “and other non-essential items.” It was a statement that sent Washington Post columnist George F. Will into a frothy rage. Beer is completely essential—without it civilization as we know might...

Study Rewrites Birds' Family Tree

DNA research reveals new information about bird relations

(Newser) - A five-year study of bird DNA is turning the world of ornithology on its head. The study revealed such drastic new information about the evolution of birds that dozens will need new scientific names, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Notable finds: Falcons are not related to hawks or eagles; hummingbirds—colorful...

Scientists Find Fossil of Most Primitive 4-Legged Creature

Fish-eater likely a product of extinct branch of 4-legged family

(Newser) - Scientists have found a partial skeleton of the world's most primitive four-legged creature— a water-dwelling tetrapod—in Latvia, AP reports. The four-foot-long fish eater resembles a small alligator and likely belongs to an extinct offshoot of the four-legged family tree. The fossil is 365 million years old—predating dinosaurs by...

Anti-Evolution Groups Change Texas Tactics

Curriculum may allow for Darwin's 'strengths and weaknesses'

(Newser) - Evolution opponents are adapting. Now that “intelligent design” and “creation science” have failed in court, the new catch phrase, the New York Times reports, is “strengths and weaknesses.” It might seem innocuous, but critics say it’s yet another tactic to undermine the teaching of evolution...

Here's Why Platypus Look So Goofy
Here's Why Platypus Look So Goofy
May 7, 2008 7:00 PM CDT

Here's Why Platypus Look So Goofy

Scientist decode its DNA, see part mammal, part reptile

(Newser) - Scientists have decoded the genome of the duck-billed platypus, National Geographic reports, with their findings as interesting as they expected. Research, published in Nature, confirms that the platypus is the earliest living offshoot of mammalian evolution, yet retains many genetic throwbacks to reptilian ancestors thought to have lived 300 million...

Darwin's Papers Now Online
Darwin's Papers Now Online
Apr 17, 2008 4:48 PM CDT

Darwin's Papers Now Online

Once-private drafts, notes and even recipes of evolutionary scientist are free to public

(Newser) - A vast collection of the papers of Charles Darwin is now online, providing public access to volumes once restricted to Cambridge scholars, the BBC reports. 20,000 items are available, including the first draft of his seminal book on evolution, travel notes and personal pieces such as family recipes, Reuters...

Study Links Sex and Gambling
 Study Links Sex and Gambling 
Apr 5, 2008 7:46 AM CDT

Study Links Sex and Gambling

Financial risk-taking lights up brain's pleasure center

(Newser) - Taking risks with money lights up the same parts of the brain as sexual arousal, a "neuroeconomics" study has found. Men shown sexy pictures gambled more daringly than those shown scary pictures—spiders and snakes—or neutral pictures, reports the AP. The study of 15 heterosexual Stanford students focused...

Cheating, Corruption Rampant in Ant Society

Secret elite exploits workers with its DNA

(Newser) - A power-mad elite is secretly rigging the system so their offspring rise to power, LiveScience reports. That’s the situation a team of researchers has discovered in ant society—not exactly the epitome of community collaboration once thought. Until now, it appeared that any properly-fed larvae could hatch into a...

Stop Temper Tantrums Like a Caveman
Stop Temper Tantrums Like
a Caveman
Feb 22, 2008 12:28 PM CST

Stop Temper Tantrums Like a Caveman

Smart parents talk to kids like the vicious little primitives they are

(Newser) - When your kid has a temper tantrum, they’re a lot like a Neanderthal, reports LiveScience. Two-year-olds are still driven by instinct and emotion, explains one pediatrician, not the higher reasoning of mature adults. So don’t try to logic away a tantrum (“But honey you already have that...

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