Natural Science Forum / Biology / Evolution / April 2005

WATERLOO, Ont. -- A new study by researchers at the University of Colorado
at Boulder (CU-Bolder) and the University of Waterloo (UW) indicates that
Earth in its infancy probably had substantial quantities of hydrogen in its

A little known paper by Linda Mealy in a journal partly edited by L. Van
Valen: Evolutionary Theory 4: 221-222 (April,1980) highlights some of my
own arguments namely: the overriding importance of fitness _totals_ in
order to make a _rational_ judgement about the evolution of ...

Can anybody update me in the advancements that have been made to
replicate the original organic soup in a lab?

     SURVIVAL OF THE FATTEST
     The Key to Human Brain Evolution
     by Stephen Cunnane (Canada Research Chair in Brain Metabolism,
Research Center on Aging, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada)

Here is a new book with Evolutionary Perspectives on Female Longevity:
Grandmotherhood
The Evolutionary Significance of the Second Half of Female Life
Edited By Eckart Voland, Athanasios Chasiotis, Wulf Schiefenhoevel

In "Origins - A Skeptics Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth",
Shapiro says, regarding the Miller experiment:
 Harold Urey had been asked, in advance of Miller's experiment,
 what he expected would be produced, and answered "Beilstein".

One tiny little question about DNA/RNA transcription...( if that's what
i'm talking about...??? ) is when the RNA string comes out of the
Nucleus, how do the Enzymes know where to start along the triplets to
Read a Protean Code...

PIP,
I may not have summarized it as you like but the following
was the idea of yours that I liked:
Hmm, another new idea just now: In polar regions where the water tends

Here are some ideas:
1. A 'purine world' would have only A, and G bases.
In order to go further you would have to add U, but
U is liable to  UV caused dimer damage So some type of

Heres a scenario for the first cell.
A replicating RNA finds its way into a proto-cell and begins
to replicate itself into multiple copies.
It continues replicating so well that at some

I recently completed a series of ten postings containing some of my
ideas regarding the later stages of the origin of life.  I will soon
resume the series with another ten postings or so regarding the
earlier stages of the origin - a period I refer to as the "lipid world".

I don't want to seem dogmatic, so I'll express it as a question.  Isn't
it possible that DNA was the first genetic polymer?  First DNA made
RNA?  Then RNA made protein?
There are two arguments usually given for the historical primacy of

These texts now available online (watch out for the long lines!):
Cain, A.J. - The perfection of animals
Carson, H.L. - "Chromosomal sequences and interisland colonizations in Hawaiian Drosophila"
Coyne, J.A. & Orr, H. A - Patterns of speciation in Drosophila

Reading last month's Discover, two questions about dinosaurs struck me:
why they were so big, and why they (as opposed to others who survived)
died at the K-T extinction event. One of the reasons this struck me is
that, for mammals during the Tertiary, for the most part maximum ...

What is the difference between speciation and evolution?