Natural Science Forum / Biology / Evolution / December 2008

"Evolution myths: Natural selection leads to ever greater complexity"
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This article isn't right in the head. It starts by attacking what must
/surely/ be a straw man - that no species becomes simpler - and then

There seems to be a major restriction on all life that many don't consider. Only a planet about the size of Earth will hold in an atmosphere that would lead to the origin of life. A planet with a larger atmosphere like Jupiter retains too much of the wrong gasses. A smaller ...

New Scientist article - in preparation for 2009...
"Darwin's dangerous idea: Top 10 evolution articles"
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16322-darwins-dangerous-idea-top-10-evolut
ion-articles.html
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Nanotechnology offers the unprecedented and paradigm-changing
opportunity to study and interact with normal and cancer cells in real
time, at the molecular and cellular scales, and during the earliest
stages of the cancer process. Through the concerted development of

Biggest problem or impasse in the origin of life, or the RNA world for me is
this:
1. Life began as the most stable chemical reaction to the environment
(stable in both keeping what works and altering what needed fixing for more

Origin Of Life On Earth: Simple Fusion To Jump-start Evolution
ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2008) - With the aid of a straightforward experiment,
researchers have provided some clues to one of biology's most complex
questions: how ancient organic molecules came together to form the basis ...

Life got bigger in two, million-fold leaps, scientists say
December 22nd, 2008 in Space & Earth science / Earth Sciences
(PhysOrg.com) -- Extremes are exciting. Does anyone really think dinosaurs
would capture our imagination the way they do if they hadn't been so huge?

"Penelope Boston: Life on Mars? Let's look in the caves"
- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NWvXyobH9fg
I share Penelope's interest in caves - for me they represent a
possible OOL location.

Earth's Original Ancestor Was 'LUCA'
ScienceDaily (Dec. 19, 2008) - An evolutionary geneticist from the
Université de Montréal, together with researchers from the French cities of
Lyon and Montpellier, have published a ground-breaking study that

A simple fusion to jump-start evolution
December 18th, 2008 in General Science / Biology
With the aid of a straightforward experiment, researchers have provided some
clues to one of biology's most complex questions: how ancient organic

Nature 456, 942-945 (18 December 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature 07393; Received
5 March 2008; Accepted 1 September 2008; Published online 26 November 2008
Parallel adaptations to high temperatures in the Archaean eon
Bastien Boussau 1,3, Samuel Blanquart 2,3, Anamaria Necsulea 1, ...

Why Life Originated (And Why it Continues)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Today, scientists understand pretty well how life evolves,
by mechanisms based on Darwin's theory of natural selection for survival of
the fittest. However, Darwin's 1859 classic, On the Origin of Species,

December, 2008 in History of Science
Why Everyone Should Learn the Theory of Evolution
Evolution should be taught as a practical tool for understanding drug
resistance and the price of fish

According to the NeoDarwinian doctrine, evolution results from the
accumulation of small random changes (gene mutations) in populations
of organisms under the action of natural selection. Other contributing
factors are gene drift and, in sexually reproducing organisms, genetic

Channel 4 TV in Britain is currently broadcasting a series on
catastrophes that are supposed to have affected evolution. Last week we
had Snowball Earth -- the hypothesis that the earth was completely
covered by glaciers some 600 million years ago. This was presented as if