Natural Science Forum / Biology / Evolution / March 2007

""
Some animals are surprisingly sensitive to the plight of
others. Chimpanzees, who cannot swim, have drowned in zoo moats trying
to save others. Given the chance to get food by pulling a chain that

'Life everywhere' (D. Darling) has some smart comments about
selection pressure.
Snowball earth episodes may have coincided with major
changes (just as the asteroid impact coincided with major changes).

No sex for 40 million years? No problem
A group of organisms that has never had sex in over 40 million years of
existence has nevertheless managed to evolve into distinct species, says =
new

Darwin's take on Gray's anatomy
24 March 2007
From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issue
"My Dear Darwin,

Have any new varieties (?) of fruit been created by radiation induced
mutation?

This is my response to an e-mail from Robert
Shapiro:
RS.
I understand your points, but I believe there is a basic unstated premise

RNA enzyme structure offers a glimpse into the origins of life
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have determined the
three-dimensional structure of an RNA enzyme, or "ribozyme," that carries
out a fundamental reaction required to make new RNA molecules. Their ...

This can be a breakthrough for RNA world thinkersRNA enzyme structure offers
a glimpse into the origins of life
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.nl.html?pid=22137
"Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have

Guy A Hoelzer hoelzer@unr.edu wrote:-

I recently read an artical on evolution in a nontechnical magazine. In
it, the author explained that the motivating force behind evolution is
natural selection applied to the results of random mutation. A gene
mutates, a trait is modified, and natural selection works by

Gene Transfer Between Species Is Surprisingly Common
Science Daily - Bacteria are known to share genes, spreading drug
resistance, for example. But how common is it in other organisms, including
mammals like us? Two new studies show that most bacteria have genes or large

Back in 1998 or so I saw a couple of TV documentaries, where they were
showing jellyfish species featuring a lens-type eye on the top of the
jellyfish's bell.
Now, googling on the subject words, I only seem to find the case of the box

Robert Shapiro has posted a general response at
the listed url below.  He is the author of some of the
quoted papers we've all discussed on SBE.
Here is the top portion of his e-mail response to me

Mixing with the ancestors
AFTER the boy died, he was buried in a shallow grave along with some pierced
shells and red ochre, as was customary among his people. There he lay for
24,000 years until his near-complete remains were unearthed by

This from Discovery Magazine's Top 100 Sci Stories of "06:
The results of a decadelong experiment, published in June, indicate
that biological diversity helps make ecosystems stable and productive.
(Conducted in the Cedar Creek Natural History Area in Min.)