Today is Darwin Day (Charles Darwin was born February 12, 1809). A new book explores Darwin's public and private views on women. Apparently his views on women had not evolved as far as his views on the origin and development of life.
With advances in genome sequencing and computational tools to analyze genomic information, researchers are able to estimate that about 8 percent of the human genome is made of sequences that originated as invasive retroviruses. To put that number in perspective, genes make up about 1 percent to 1.5 percent of your genome.
Daryl Davis, Race & America | Movie Trailer. Everybody Knows | Leonard Cohen. ¡Cuba! Exhibition Now Open. The Brilliant Life of Ada Lovelace #OrdinaryWomen. My President Was Black.
Its complex politics and vibrant music have attracted the attention of the world. But Cuba, the largest island nation in the Caribbean, is also home to the unexpected. It’s a place of stunning contrasts: mysterious caves and bright boulevards, sweltering fields and cool forests, hard challenges and high energy.
At first, the biologist Richard Lenski thought his long-term experiment on evolution might last for 2,000 generations. Nearly three decades and over 65,000 generations later, he’s still amazed by evolution’s “awesome inventiveness.”
John Oliver | Third Parties. Leonard Cohen | You Want It Darker. Where Does Complexity Come From? The Park of Friendship in Tijuana. Monkeys Can Make Stone Tools Too.
Stone flakes made by capuchin monkeys look remarkably similar to stone tools made by early humans 2-3 million years ago, raising questions about the archaeological record.
In past research, apes consistently failed on tasks designed to assess their understanding of others’ false beliefs. They did’t seem to know when someone has an idea about the world that conflicts with reality. But in a new study involving 40 bonobos, chimpanzees and orangutans the apes were able to anticipate that an actor would behave in accordance with a false belief.
Just like taxonomists have debated over which physical characteristics warrant a new species designation, they’re conflicted over how much genetic variation you need to prove differentiation.
In 1953 scientists investigating Piltdown Man, an alleged "missing link" between modern humans and apes, concluded that it was a fake. But their investigation couldn't answer the question: Who had done it, and why? Many suspects have been proposed, but we now finally know the culprit in this long-standing mystery.
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