jorolat's blog
Small changes in Earth's orbit and tilt may have regulated the cyclical rise and fall of many prehistoric mammal species, new research suggests.
Earth's orbital patterns are believed to drive long-term climate change.
Over millions of years these climatic shifts may have regularly spawned events that give rise to new mammal species.
They may have also caused the periodic extinctions that doomed other mammal lineages to oblivion.
A New mammal species - thought to be the first discovered in Europe for more than a century - has been identified by a scientist based at the University of Durham. The grey mouse, found in Cyprus by Thomas Cucchi, has been confirmed as an entirely new species by genetic tests, overturning the widespread assumption that Europe had no mammals left to be discovered.
Scientists revealed today that a prolific parasite is helping shape the destiny of a species it does not even infect. The complex relationship between the parasite, its host, and the unconnected species is the first known example of evolutionary pressure from such a remote source.
From the New Scientist: The gut bacteria of the humble stinkbug could reveal intriguing insights into the evolutionary origins of disease-causing bacteria, researchers say.
...To their surprise, the stinkbug DNA family tree pattern proved identical to the bacterial DNA family tree pattern, revealing that the bacteria and the stink bugs evolved in lock-step.
Based on a PLoS Biology open access paper (link supplied).
UPDATE: Friday, 13th October - Unfortunately Google are no longer hosting these videos - I will look for an alternative source.
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"Jonathan Miller meets up with some of the key contributors from his three-part Brief History of Disbelief (watch it here) in these half-hour extended conversations."
Discussions with: Arthur Miller, Richard Dawkins, Steve Weinberg, Colin McGinn, Denys Turner and Daniel Dennett.
UPDATE: Friday, 13th October - Unfortunately Google are no longer hosting these videos - I will look for an alternative source.
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A three-part BBC TV (UK) documentary on atheism hosted by Google since August 11th, 2006: Program Title "A Rough History of Disbelief" but more commonly known as "Jonathan Miller's A Brief History of Disbelief" (Director: Richard Denton*; Running time: 3 hours approx)
Wikipedia: "The series includes extracts from interviews with various academic luminaries including Arthur Miller, Richard Dawkins, Steve Weinberg, Colin McGinn, Denys Turner and Daniel Dennett. The series also includes many readings from the works of atheist, agnostic and deist thinkers, read by Bernard Hill, and has an original percussion score by Evelyn Glennie."
Evidence for punctuated equilibrium lies in the genetic sequences of many organisms, according to a study in this week's Science. Researchers report that about a third of reconstructed phylogenetic trees of animals, plants, and fungi reveal periods of rapid molecular evolution.
...Since its introduction by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge in the 1970s, the theory of punctuated equilibrium - that evolution usually proceeds slowly but is punctuated by short bursts of rapid evolution associated with speciation - has been extremely contentious among paleontologists and evolutionary biologists.
Online audio webcast of 'Science Friday' for the 6th October 2006 (Update: The show has now been archived - links are provided):
Hour One: Winners of the 2006 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine were announced this week. Join Joe Palca in this hour of Science Friday for a chat with some of this year's winners about their science and what it's like to win the prize.
Hour Two: Join Joe Palca in this hour of Science Friday for a talk with evolutionary biologist - and famous atheist - Richard Dawkins.
"The Intelligent Design The Future podcast carries on Discovery Institute's mission of exploring the issues central to evolution and intelligent design."
No matter which side of the 'Cultural Wars' you are on - or even if you're just an innocent bystander with a passing interest - the embedded podcast player at the "read more" link will almost certainly contain something of interest.
Featuring double-click access to audio interviews with Jonathan Wells, Michael Behe (etc., etc.), the scrollable archive list is updated every week so make sure you bookmark the page!
The journal Nature is providing open access to a 'web focus' on RNA Interference:
"Cells utilize RNA interference (RNAi) to regulate protein expression in many contexts. The discovery of RNAi has transformed our understanding of gene regulation as well as our ability to manipulate it. Gathered here is a selection of research and comment on RNAi published in the pages of Nature, including groundbreaking research from today's issue. This focus also brings together news and reviews from across the Nature Publishing Group, and a fantastic animation offers the chance to view the RNAi process in action."
Alas, poor Coelophysis! We thought we knew him well.
Birdlike dinosaur.
Prehistoric inhabitant of New Mexico.
And above all, a cannibal. So heartless, so cold, it ate its own young.
Or so the story went...
Not very much, when you look at our DNA. But those few tiny changes made all the difference in the world:
...Just a year ago, geneticists announced that they had sequenced a rough draft of the chimpanzee genome...
...And sometime in the next few weeks, a team led by molecular geneticist Svante Paabo (homepage) of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, Germany, will announce an even more stunning achievement...
Plus
An extract from (and link to) a relevant Matt Ridley article: "Re-Reading Darwin"
Scientists are attempting to extract DNA for the first time from the fossilised bones thought to be of a Neanderthal man who roamed Britain 35,000 years ago.
Experts plan to use a tooth from an upper jaw to establish whether the closest relative of modern humans lived on the British Isles later than it was once thought.
...Chris Stringer, research leader in Human Origins at the Natural History Museum in London, said it was a critical test that could have historic results.
From the Front Page:
"Welcome to the Directory of Open Access Journals. This service covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. We aim to cover all subjects and languages. There are now 2401 journals in the directory. Currently 697 journals are searchable at article level. As of today 109840 articles are included in the DOAJ service."
A continental crash that raised one of the biggest mountain chains in the Earth's history may be responsible for the explosive diversification of animals more than 500 million years ago.
...Rick Squire suggests the trigger for the Cambrian Explosion was the collision of a series of three large continental blocks - now called Arabia, India, and Antarctica - with the eastern edge of Africa.
