Natural Science Forum / Biology / Evolution / May 2006

Yet more from
Science 22 August 1997:
Vol. 277. no. 5329, pp. 1034 - 1035
DOI: 10.1126/science.277.5329.1034

Small Molecule Interactions Were Central To The Origin Of Life
In an important new paper forthcoming in the June issue of The Quarterly
Review of Biology, Robert Shapiro (New York University) argues against the
widely held theory that the origin of life began with the spontaneous

Accepted 1 March 2006
Embryological evidence for developmental lability during early angiosperm
evolution
William E. Friedman

Joan RoughGarden in her book Evolution's Rainbow
brings up the question about sex -
Is the benefit of sex because it is diversity affirming and
allows more diversity in the offspring;

I have read that some people think that the rapid appearance of
different body plans in the cambrian 'explosion' was due to the
evolution of body parts that were hard enough to fossilize. It's not
unreasonable, but since there are fossils of earlier, Vendian,

Re: What's smallest known "self-sufficient" genome?
"feedbackdroid" feedbackdroid@yahoo.com wrote:-

Methane-belching Bugs Inspire A New Theory Of The Origin Of Life On Earth
12 May 2006 --Two laboratories at Penn State set out to show how an obscure
undersea microbe metabolizes carbon monoxide into methane and vinegar. What
they found was not merely a previously unknown ...

Hi, folks -
I've created a simple cladistic program for use in my paleontology
class as a lab exercise.  Please try it out and let me know what you
think.  It's freely available at:

Learning The Lessons Of The World's Oldest Ecological Experiment
Ecologists are getting ready to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the
world's oldest ecological experiment. The Park Grass Experiment was set up
at Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire in 1856 -- three years before ...

From:
Science 22 August 1997:
Vol. 277. no. 5329, pp. 1034 - 1035
DOI: 10.1126/science.277.5329.1034

More stuff from this
Science 22 August 1997:
Vol. 277. no. 5329, pp. 1034 - 1035
DOI: 10.1126/science.277.5329.1034

Evolution Gets Hot and Steamy
By Katherine Unger
ScienceNOW Daily News
1 May 2006

Males, who react to stress with 'fight or flight' responses - see life as a
struggle,
a survival of the fittest.
Females, who react to stress with 'tend and befriend' responses - see life as

is the title of a book by science journalist Kathy Sawyer.
Definitely worth reading.  Doesn't go very deep into the science,
but provides excellent coverage of the personalities and the
chronology of the controversy.

Sergei Gavrilets' book "Fitness Landscapes and the Origin of Species"
has been mentioned several times in this group.  I finally got
around to reading it.  I'm impressed.  It is basically an
openminded survey of models of speciation.  For the most part,