I have been putting together a free resource about evolution which I am proud to say is now up at www.evolverzone.com.

For those of you who still are not reading Evolution: Education and Outreach, here's another reason to check it out.

Two years ago, I had t-shirts made up for my evolution course that depicted Darwin's notebook sketch of a simple tree diagram capped by the words "I think". In total, we generated about $500 for conservation charities, and the students got a pretty cool shirt (I still see them around campus fairly frequently). Had I been teaching the course this semester, I probably would have produced the t-shirts again. This is Darwin Year, after all. But I'm not, so I won't.

Nature recently provided a list of "15 evolutionary gems".

...the document summarizes 15 lines of evidence from papers published in Nature over the past 10 years. The evidence is drawn from the fossil record, from studies of natural and artificial habitats, and from research on molecular biological processes.

In a year in which Darwin is being celebrated amid uncertainty and hostility about his ideas among citizens, being aware of the cumulatively incontrovertible evidence for those ideas is all the more important. We trust that this document will help.

I won't get into this in detail, in part because I wrote about it in my paper The evolution of complex organs in the special issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach about eyes.

The peppered moth, Biston betularia, has been used as a classic example of natural selection in action. This moth (like many others) includes both light and dark forms that change in frequency under conditions of higher or lower pollution. Anti-evolutionists have challenged this, and unfortunately they gained ammunition in this regard from a book review by Jerry Coyne.

From The Evolution&Medicine Review, a notification about the special issue of the Lancet on evolution. (And don't forget the special issue of E:EO!).

Sometimes while doing science, one is struck by something in the same way that one is affected by beautiful art.

Not that these are the most amazing images ever (they weren't meant to be artistic, just routine work), but I enjoyed them. They're from a project on rotifers by one of my undergraduate thesis students. They're both of Adineta vaga: the first is of the whole animal (the pink spots are the DNA), the second is the musculature on a confocal laser microscope. (Photos by K. Ashforth).

Calling fellow bio bloggers -- help get the word out for the special issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach
all about eye evolution. The content is free to access online and the
authors include many of the world's top eye evolution researchers. A
handy table of contents with links is provided below for easy copy and
paste maneuvers.

Evolution: Education and Outreach
Volume 1 Issue 4

Editorial

The most recent issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach is now available free online. This is a special issue devoted to the evolution of eyes. You may recognize some of the names in the table of contents, as several of these authors are also bloggers. Enjoy.


Evolution: Education and Outreach
Volume 1 Issue 4
The evolution of eyes
Edited by T. Ryan Gregory

Editorial

As indicated by the popular vote totals, there is little support for the claim that a coalition government between the Liberal and NDP parties in Canada would be undemocratic. However, this represents a very rough analysis because the Canadian system, like many others, is a first-past-the-post process in which the candidate with the most votes is elected regardless of the margin.

Ok, so Canada elected a conservative government again, meaning that the Conservative Party of Canada
(a merger of the former right-centre Progressive Conservative Party and far-right Canadian Alliance) won more seats than the other parties. However, they did not win more than all other parties combined, which means that they have a minority government. In such a parliamentary system, the Prime  Minister is the leader of the party who won the most seats, although his party may still be a minority in parliament.

There is an interesting story in New Scientist about The Science&Entertainment Exchange, a program initiated by the National Academy of Sciences to improve the science in movies and TV [New project aims to unite science and Hollywood]. It would be hard to make it worse, so this strikes me as a very positive development!

The project is described thus:

This comment by Andy was too good not to repost.

Generic press release for genome sequencing

Scientists map genome of (insert name).

A team of researchers from (insert university/institute/lockup garage) has completed mapping the genome of (animal/plant/squashy deep-sea thing).

"We were amazed how (strike one) similar/dissimilar it is to the human genome," said (insert name of lead scientist/grad student/custodian who happened to answer the phone).

The discovery should help scientists (strike all but one) cure cancer/end world hunger/prevent hair loss).

With apologies to Jonathan Eisen for encroaching on his annoyance specialty, here is yet another case of science via press release.

Big hop forward: Scientists map kangaroo's DNA

Taking a big hop forward in marsupial research, scientists say they have unraveled the DNA of a small kangaroo named Matilda. And they've found the Aussie icon has more in common with humans than scientists had thought. The kangaroo last shared a common ancestor with humans 150 million years ago.

There are many beneficial aspects to reading and writing blogs about science. I have found that they are often much better than news feeds (which generally are uncritical repetitions of press releases) for learning about research in areas other than my own specialization. This also makes them very useful for teaching, as new examples that otherwise might be overlooked can be found and added to the course material.

My feeling about science news reports is decidedly mixed. On the one hand, I read most of the main news services in order to keep up with research outside of my own discipline. On the other hand, I would say that about once every two or three days I find a story so silly that it makes me physically uncomfortable. This is one of those.

Evolution's new wrinkle: proteins with 'cruise control' act like adaptive machines

It opens:

A team of Princeton University scientists has discovered that chains of proteins found in most living organisms act like adaptive machines, possessing the ability to control their own evolution.

(Repost from one year ago on the older Genomicron -- this got a nice
response from readers and family, so I am posting it once again.)

In Canada, as in many countries around the world, November 11 is a day of remembrance for the sacrifices made during wartime. In Canada, this refers in particular to World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945), but also to smaller engagements in which Canadians were (or are) involved, such as Korea and Afghanistan.