Natural Science Forum / Biology / Evolution / April 2006

Can humans nurture outside of their gene relatives?
Of course they can. It's clear that we can nurture other non family
humans, other species - pets, any favorite species in our world.
We can even nurture our environment - or try.

I'd like to know which, among those organisms whose genomes have
been analyzed and that are *not* intracellular parasites (such as
viruses, mycoplasmas, etc.), has the smallest genome?  By "smallest"
I mean "fewest genes" (not fewest bases, or smallest chromosomes).

The embryo at a very early stage, as everyone knows is a blastocyst, but not
yet committed stem cells ES embryonic stems cells. This inner cell mass have
not begun any step in forming differentiated cells. There mission is to lock
on to the uterus wall and ultimately bud into ...

I am not a biologist myself, but I've been always interested in the
topic. Recently, I have read an article from
http://www.stemcellresearchfoundation.org ("Researchers Discover Key To
Human Embryonic Stem Cell Potential"), where the discussion of Oct4,

Darwin believed that parants could somhow influence the genotype of
their offspring. When i would become very good at running 100 yards, my
children would provit from all my hard training and would be good
runners too. this theory is called pangenesis (in 3 lines).

Stephen Oppenheimer
OUT OF EDEN
The peopling of the world
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The Evolutionary Biology Lecture of the Week for April 17, 2006 is now
available at:
     http://aics-research.com/lotw/
The talks center primarily around evolutionary biology, in all of its

Can anyone recommend some works or books, regarding early scientific
theories on sexual reproduction. Or primitive thoughts on sexual
reproduction? Before the microscope, I would like to know how the
scientific community thought human beings reproduced.

Been trying to find the definition of a "polymorphic gene."  First did
a search for "genetic polymorphism" and got definitions that talked
about "in a population" when I want to know what it means in an
individual.  Then I tried to search for "polymorphic gene" and found a

Controversial Findings Help Explain Evolution of Life
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Chemists at Oregon State University have pioneered a
controversial theory about how supposedly-stable DNA bases can be pushed
into a "dark state" in which they are highly vulnerable to damage from

I recently found a basic definition of population genetics as follows,
"Population genetics is the study of the allele frequency distribution
and change under the influence of the four evolutionary forces: natural
selection, genetic drift, mutation, and migration. It also takes

why do people have wisdom teeth?

Editor's Summary
Nature - 30 March 2006
Here's a subject guaranteed to cause controversy: the
relationship between intelligence, measured by IQ tests,

Why Is Biology Different?
It may have occurred to you at one time or another that there are some
subtle differences between Biology as a science and Chemistry, Physics,
and Mathematics.  Obviously, the main difference is that Biology deals

Evolutionary Scrap-heap Challenge: Antifreeze Fish Make Sense Out Of Junk
DNA
Scientists at the University of Illinois have discovered an
antifreeze-protein gene in cod that has evolved from non-coding or 'junk'