Portside

Experiments in evolution are exploring what would happen if we rewound the tape of life.

According to a new finding, described as a "shock" by its discoverers, a single mutation 600 million years ago may be responsible for the emergence of complex organisms -- including all of the plants and animals that we are familiar with -- from a single-celled ancestor. This evolutionary accident enabled cells to communicate with each others and therefore to cooperate.

Nature offers a panoply of ways to determine an organism’s sex. How can such a fundamental property be so variable?

Cooperative colonies — ants, termites, and some wasps and bees — have fascinated scientists for more than a century because they pose an evolutionary conundrum. Only a very small number of insects actually get to reproduce: the queens and their mates. The rest give up their chance to contribute to the gene pool, caring for the offspring of others instead. How did this lifestyle, known as eusociality, evolve?

That's what computers are really good at, relentless grinding. I can't call it intelligence, and I can call it artificial intelligence only in the sense that an inflatable palm is an artificial tree. I realize that we do have to call it something, though, but the term "artificial intelligence" probably confuses more than it illuminates.

Jon Stewart challenges Fox to a lie-off. Beethoven and the epigenome. The evolution of religion. Men in skirts protest violence against women in Turkey. 'Chuy' Garcia for mayor of Chicago.

Analyzing page views of Wikipedia articles could make it possible to monitor and forecast diseases around the globe.

Reader Comments - Darren Wilson Acquittal - Reader Responses; Black Friday Protests; Election Lessons for the Left; Immigration Reform; Ursula K. Le Guin, Pension Reform(?); Water Grab; Facebook Drivers Vote Union; Berlin Wall's Fall - Reflections from the GDR; Israel Lobby and Ukrainian Fascists; Mexico - 43 students murdered; Israel, Palestine and Rasmeah Odeh; The Selfless Gene; Announcement - New Politics Forum on the Environmental Crisis - New York - Dec. 9

Nations Be Spying, Yo. Crash Course: History of Life on Earth. Wendy Davis, in Her Own Words. Stop Watching Us. Fortunate Son. Movie: 12 Years a Slave.