| Title | Brief |
|---|
| Ancient skull raises questions about human evolution | A recently discovered skull found in a cave in Europe displays both modern and Neanderthal traits, suggesting the two species may have hybridized. |
| Ant highway repair | Army ants forage faster when some workers use their bodies to plug "potholes". |
| Bioprospecting in Venoms | Evolutionary links reveal a plethora of venomous fish for bioprospecting. |
| DNA Dumpster Diving | Two studies hunt for useful junk in the human genome, and come up with different answers. |
| Environmental Factors Reveal Genetic Variation | Scientists studying horn worms, a common biological model, showed that a population of tobacco horn worms carried a hidden genetic ability to change color; the source of variation. |
| Evolution and Medicinal Uses of Leeches | This article summarizes recent research on leeches, interesting aspects of their evolution and some current medicinal applications. |
| Evolution featured in Stanford University Medical School Magazine | The Stanford University's School of Medicine has chosen the topic of Evolution as the theme of its quarterly magazine, with a variety of articles on the topic, its role in society and medicine, and its most well-known proponent - Charles Darwin. |
| Evolution in invisible life | New methods reveal how habitat influences microbial evolution. |
| Evolution of Skin Color | A mutation in zebra fish, named golden, results in pale fish compared to "wild type". By searching sequencing databases, the gene responsible was found to be very similar to a gene found in humans. |
| Evolving like a weed: mustard adapts quickly to climate fluctuations | While humans are trying to decide whether global warming is really happening and what to do about it, plants are just trying to keep up with environmental changes. And some of them doing so by evolving fast, according to a study conducted at the University of California-Irvine and released in the January 12 online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). |
| Family Tree? | Plants can recognize their siblings and change their growing patterns in the presence of family. |
| From foe to friend | Bacteria evolve quickly from insect parasites to mutualists. |
| Gene Expression and Differences Between Chimp and Human | The differences between the chimp and human genome may lie primarily in areas which control gene expression. |
| Genetic Link Between Primitive and Advanced Compound Eyes | Scientists find the genetic link between primitive and advanced compound eyes. |
| Giant penguins once swam the tropical seas | Newly discovered fossils reshape the penguin family tree |
| Hominid Ancestry | New fossils link an ancestral and descendent hominid species. |
| Honey Bee Genome | Recent completion of the honey bee genome has provided information about bees and people! |
| Intestinal Bacteria | We rely on bacteria in our guts to feed us, but what kinds of bacteria are we carrying around? |
| Keeping Good Mutations | Mutations are not always bad as seen in a recent study where researchers showed that inactivating the caspase-12 gene, involved in the immune system, actually improves one type of immune response. As a result, the mutation has become fixed in humans. |
| Lectures on Evolution and Medicine | The National Institutes of Health (NIH) hosted four talks on evolution and medicine in May. These lectures are now available online. |
| Listening for love | Some voices may sound sexier than others, but what does a sexy voice have to do with evolution? |
| Monkey Business | Rhesus monkeys have told us a lot about ourselves over the course of medical and genetic research, and they're about to tell us even more. |
| NESCent - Biodiversity in Madagascar | The catalysis meeting "Historical Perspectives on the Distribution of Biodiversity in Madagascar" organized by Claire Kremen and Anne Yoder was held at NESCent on June 13-17, 2006. |
| Not just fertilizer... | DNA extracted from bison feces reveals genetic differentiation. |
| Orang-utan charades foreshadow evolution of language | Orangutans communication by gestures demonstrates how the "speaker" adjusts communication depending on the "listener's" comprehension. |
| Origins of Artificial Selection | Agriculture, especially the domestication of wild grains (or cereals) and legumes, is a key component of developing civilization. Understanding how this happened can provide valuable information about the origins of civilization. |
| Poised for flight: Avian flu threat could widen | This article provides an overview of the current state of Avian flu (or "bird flu"). |
| Rapid Evolution in Cane Toads | Speeding Up Evolution |
| Scientists Discover World's Smallest Fish | Scientists have discovered the world's smallest fish on record in an acidic peat swamp in Indonesia. |
| Scientists Figure Out How Honeybees Fly" | Until recently, biologists did not fully understand the dynamics of honeybee flight. |
| Selective Pressures Generated by Humans | The Tibetan snow lotus is a recent example of "evolution by natural selection". |
| Sequencing ancient DNA | Scientists have tried to extract DNA from these ancient sources and analyze it. |
| Sexual selection under duress | Safety from predators puts female crabs in the mood |
| Speedy Evolution in Galapagos Finches | Trait changes in Darwin's Finches can be observed in short time periods. |
| That New Shrew That's Not... | Not a shrew, that is. If you flipped through the newspaper's Science and Technology section last month, you might have spotted this adorable imposter: big eyes, dainty feet, and a long, flexible snout resembling an anteater's or an elephant's. Formally known as Rhynchocyon udzungwensis, the giant elephant shrew made the news because it is fuzzy, photogenic, and new to science. Most elephant shrew species were first described in the 1800s by scientists who classified them as shrews because of obvious physical similarities. But recent genetic evidence has confirmed that elephant shrews are not shrews at all... |
| Tiktaalik roseae: A Fish-Amphibian Intermediate | If you were a fish and you wanted to escape predators, wouldn't it be great to be able to jump out of the water and lie on land until they went away? |
| Tools for Teaching Evolution | A one-day workshop to introduce educators to the evolution education materials available from NESCent and BioQUEST. |
| When Chimps and Humans Diverged | Recent studies out of Harvard and MIT shed new light on the “split” between humans and chimpanzees, including when and how these species diverged. |
NESCent and Understanding Evolution collaborate to bring you monthly Evolution in the News stories and podcasts. The stories, along with links to background literature and classroom resources are available on the Understanding Evolution site, and the podcasts are available here.
