Here's a link to a post by science writer Ann Finkbeiner on why she likes science.
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2011/10/ann-finkbeiner-why-i-like-science/
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Timeline of recent research into positive selection
Experimented with a timeline format to summarise key developments in the debate regarding the importance of positive selection, particularly in human evolution, and how to detect it. If anyone wants to add entries to help the timeline grow (which would be great) I believe you can do so by creating a free Dipity account and viewing the timeline through their website. A work in progress...
Friday, March 11, 2011
The bits that we are missing
Here's a little bit about a new article in Nature:
http://public.iwork.com/document/?a=p1059453001&d=What_we_left_behind.pages
The authors looked for regulatory regions of the genome that are conserved across several species (and therefore likely to be functionaly important) but which appear to be missing in all humans. By studying what these regions do in other species they try to figure out if any of these deletions might have been important during human evolution. I won't spoil it encase you haven't read it, I'll just say brain growth and penile vibrissae...
The original paper (it's only a couple of pages):
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v471/n7337/full/nature09774.html
Another commentary on the paper, with some good critical discussion at the end:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/03/09/control-altered-by-deletion-%E2%80%93-is-lost-dna-behind-our-bigger-brains-and-spineless-penises/
http://public.iwork.com/document/?a=p1059453001&d=What_we_left_behind.pages
The authors looked for regulatory regions of the genome that are conserved across several species (and therefore likely to be functionaly important) but which appear to be missing in all humans. By studying what these regions do in other species they try to figure out if any of these deletions might have been important during human evolution. I won't spoil it encase you haven't read it, I'll just say brain growth and penile vibrissae...
The original paper (it's only a couple of pages):
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v471/n7337/full/nature09774.html
Another commentary on the paper, with some good critical discussion at the end:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/03/09/control-altered-by-deletion-%E2%80%93-is-lost-dna-behind-our-bigger-brains-and-spineless-penises/
Monday, February 21, 2011
After a period of reading journal articles I put together some disparate thoughts on positive selection, which is a central issue for my PhD. I started writing with the intention of making something short, maybe three paragraphs at most, that encapsulated a key debate in evolutionary biology, namely 'how does natural selection effect the genome?' Then I discovered how hard it is to explain complex ideas succinctly... The link below will take you to the article, where you can learn about one of the great debates in population genetics. Anyway, enjoy, if that's the right word:
http://public.iwork.com/document/?a=p1059453001&d=Natural_Selection.pages
Cagan
http://public.iwork.com/document/?a=p1059453001&d=Natural_Selection.pages
Cagan
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