Genetics – Page 62

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Darwinizing Sex Causes Pain

June 15, 2009

Sex brings pleasure to many, but pain to Darwinists. Why? Because they can’t figure it out. Nick Lane is a case in point. In New Scientist, he wrote, Sex is the ultimate absurdity. Forget the hormonal rushes, the sweat and the contorted posturing. Forget about the heartache, the flowers, the bad poems and the costly […]

Genetics

Animals Become Tame with Minor Genetic Changes

June 9, 2009

“In what could be a breakthrough in animal breeding, a team of scientists from Germany, Russia and Sweden have discovered a set of genetic regions responsible for animal tameness,” began a report in Science Daily. Groups of tame rats and aggressive rats were bred separately, then mated. Scientists identified genetic regions responsible for the different […]

Cell Biology

Is Horizontal Gene Transfer a Force for Evolution?

April 13, 2009

Two more genomes were published last week: the information libraries of two tiny microbes. They are members of Micromonas, green algae less than two microns across. The original paper and summary both bragged about how the genetic information is helping shed light on evolution, but did the data really contain any light? If so, the […]

Genetics

Natural Selection Studies Based on Bad Statistics

March 30, 2009

Hundreds of studies claiming to show natural selection may be wrong, say scientists from Penn State and Japan. PhysOrg reported today that “several statistical methods commonly used by biologists to detect natural selection at the molecular level tend to produce incorrect results.” Many studies of human evolution have relied on these flawed methods. If the […]

Genetics

More Functional Non-Coding DNA Found

March 12, 2009

Another finding undermines the concept of “junk DNA.” A team of scientists in Massachusetts found over a thousand functional RNA transcripts from intergenic sequences. These RNA transcripts, coming not from genes but from regions earlier thought to be non-functional, take part in diverse functions from stem cell pluripotency to HOX gene developmental processes to cell […]

Genetics

Darwin Had Genetic Blinders

March 4, 2009

Darwin was a contemporary of Mendel, so why did he get inheritance wrong? That question was addressed on Science Daily by Jonathan Howard of the University of Cologne, Germany. His thesis is that Darwin had philosophical blinders on that prevented him from recognizing the significance of evidence before him. “Why Didn’t Darwin Discover […]

Early Man

Language Is Not a Simple Genetic Matter

February 18, 2009

It sounds so simple. The title on an article in PhysOrg announced, in Kipling Just-So Story Format, “How gorilla gestures point to evolution of human language.” Because gorillas have an extensive repertoire of over 100 gestures, human conversation was only a matter of evolutionary time. Is this mere storytelling, or do such explanations have scientific […]

Cell Biology

Disease Genes Play the Wrong Tune

February 18, 2009

How did disease originate? It might seem that large changes in genes would be required to turn a benign cell into a pathogen, but an article on Science Daily says it might just be a good cell playing a bad tune. Bacteria have more genes than they use at any one time. What […]

Early Man

What Mean These Observations?

February 5, 2009

Science news outlets report many interesting findings every week. It’s not always clear, though, whether the conclusions drawn from them are warranted by the data. Here are some recent cases: Jaws of steel: A skull labeled Australopithecus robustus was studied for the force its jaws could generate. Interpretation: “Early humans had jaws of steel.” With […]

Genetics

New Genetics Revolution Underway

January 27, 2009

The genetics of the 1950s was that DNA is the seat of all inheritance, and that genetic information traveled one way: from DNA to protein. That “central dogma” has been changing after decades of further researchers. Theories of epigenetics (inheritance not limited to DNA) have been gaining attention with increasing frequency. Science Daily […]

Birds

Nature Struts Darwin Gems

January 2, 2009

Like a showcase of pearl-handled revolvers, an armory of evidences Nature calls “Darwin’s Gems” have been exhibited to warn creationists that Darwin Day will be defended next month with a show of force. The authors, Henry Gee (former editor of Nature), Rory Howlett and Philip Campbell have made their 15 Evolutionary Gems freely available “and […]

Cell Biology

Applying the Scientific Method to Prehistory

December 10, 2008

What could be more scientific than the scientific method? A scientist observes an unexplained phenomenon. He or she gathers data, analyzes it, proposes a hypothesis to explain it, and tests it. The results are published in a peer-reviewed journal. Mission accomplished, right? Here are two papers on very different phenomena – one dealing with the […]

Genetics

Unique “Orphan Genes” Are Widespread; Have No Evolutionary Explanation

November 19, 2008

We often hear about the similarities between genomes, but what about the differences? There’s a growing realization that groups of animals have genetic orphans – genes that are unique to that line (see 01/02/2003). These genes have no evolutionary homology or kinship to genes from other lineages. How did they arise? And what do they […]

Cell Biology

Biological Complexity Continues to Astound

November 3, 2008

There’s more going on in your thinking apparatus than you think. New scientific discoveries continue to unfold new layers of complexity and control. Here are a few examples: Meta-code: Your body has codes directing codes. Geneticists were initially dismayed to find only 20,000 to 30,000 genes in the human genome. “We were expecting that something […]

Amazing Facts

Plants Have Thermostats

October 13, 2008

Plants, being stuck in the ground, have few options when it gets hot. They may not be able to move into the shade like animals, but they know how to cope. They have a built-in thermostat that acts like a fire prevention department. Science Daily tells the story. Researchers at Michigan State identified […]

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