Free Republic

Picturing how our species might appear in the far future often invites wild speculation over stand-out features such as height, brain size, and skin complexion. Yet subtle shifts in our anatomy today demonstrate how unpredictable evolution can be. Take something as mundane as an extra blood vessel in our arms, which going by current trends could be common place within just a few generations. Researchers from Flinders University and the University of Adelaide in Australia have noticed an artery that temporarily runs down the centre of our forearms while we're still in the womb isn't vanishing as often as it...

The human species began as the hybrid offspring of a male pig and a female chimpanzee, a leading geneticist has suggested. The startling claim has been made by Eugene McCarthy, of the University of Georgia, who is also one of the worlds leading authorities on hybridisation in animals. He points out that while humans have many features in common with chimps, we also have a large number of distinguishing characteristics not found in any other primates. Dr McCarthy says these divergent characteristics are most likely the result of a hybrid origin at some point far back in human evolutionary history....

Microevolution, Macroevolution; Chance, Necessityby Jean F. Drew A friend asked me the other day, “What’s your understanding of the mechanism that causes microevolution, and how would that mechanism differ in the case of macroevolution?” The question struck me as loaded. So I thought it might be good to unpack its elements, beginning with an analysis of the terms microevolution and macroevolution. As Doron Aurbach, Professor of Chemistry at Bar Han University, Israel, has pointed out, “When we examine what is universally known as evolution theory, we need to distinguish between two distinct aspects of the theory, namely, micro- and macro-evolution.”...

above-average intelligence in Ashkenazi Jews — those of northern European heritage — resulted from natural selection in medieval Europe, where they were pressured into jobs as financiers, traders, managers and tax collectors. Those who were smarter succeeded, grew wealthy and had bigger families to pass on their genes, they suggested. That evolution also is linked to genetic diseases such as Tay-Sachs and Gaucher in Jews. The new study was funded by the Department of Energy, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Aging, the Unz Foundation, the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin.

A difference of only a few percent in DNA sequence is thought to separate the human and chimp genomes. New research published in Genome Biology identifies the subset of sequences that may have driven the evolution of our two species.The researchers propose that the key changes lie in regions of our genome that control the activity of genes. It is managers of the genome, rather than the workforce, that have been most responsible for differences between chimps and humans.A team led by scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute looked at DNA elements called conserved non-coding regions (CNCs) in human,...

Crucial presidential debates are coming soon. For Republicans they can be a problem, especially when it comes to evolution. Often reporters ask questions designed to do irreparable harm to conservative candidates. That was exactly the intent of the evolution question in the first GOP candidate forum on MSNBC on May 3. --snip-- Here's what I believe the best answer would have been to the evolution trap: "I can't answer until I understand your question. Are you asking about microevolution or macroevolution?" This forces an airing of the... --snip-- "Well, if you mean microevolution, where an organism adapts to its environment...

WASHINGTON -- In a nation where 91 percent of citizens profess to believe in God, it's a safe bet we won't see an atheist in the White House anytime soon. But what about a president who doesn't believe in Darwin? And are Darwin and God mutually exclusive? These are the questions that (still) trouble men's souls. And still cause trouble for presidential candidates forced unfairly to essentially choose between God and science. In the "gotcha" question of the first GOP debate, journalist Jim VandeHei, relaying a citizen's question, asked John McCain: "Do you believe in evolution?" A natural response might...

For some a battle between science and religion is being fought for the soul of America. The Creationists argue God created the world in six days and want their beliefs given equal status to evolutionary science. Across the divide - evolutionist Scott with creationist Ham Petersburg, Kentucky, is in the middle of North America. It is supposedly within a day's drive of two-thirds of the US population. For the rest, it is just 10 minutes from Cincinnati International Airport. That is why it was picked as the site for a new museum, due to open in a couple of...

Charles Darwin, the 19th century geologist who wrote the treatise 'The Origin of Species, by means of Natural Selection' defined evolution as "descent with modification". Darwin hypothesized that all forms of life descended from a common ancestor, branching out over time into various unique life forms, due primarily to a process called natural selection. However, the fossil record shows that all of the major animal groups (phyla) appeared fully formed about 540 million years ago, and virtually no transitional life forms have been discovered which suggest that they evolved from earlier forms. This sudden eruption of multiple, complex organisms is...

The spate of stories about school boards considering modifying their policies regarding biology textbooks and how they deal with evolution has obviously reignited my interest in this argument. Recently I have read and reread books and articles about evolution, and I would like to explain more about what is being discovered and what I think it all means. There are two kinds of evolution: microevolution and macroevolution. Microevolution refers to very small changes in the forms of living creatures that are inherited and passed on. No-one seriously questions that this is a fact. Macroevolution (the major part of Darwin’s concept)...

LONDON -- Monkey business proved to be lucrative Monday when paintings by Congo the chimpanzee sold at auction for more than $25,000. The three abstract, tempera paintings were auctioned at Bonhams in London alongside works by impressionist master Renoir and pop art provocateur Andy Warhol. But while Warhol's and Renoir's work didn't sell, bidders lavished attention on Congo's paintings. An American bidder named Howard Hong, who described himself as an ''enthusiast of modern and contemporary painting," bought the lot of paintings for $26,352, including a buyer's premium. The sale price far surpassed predictions. "We had no idea what these things...

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers at Stanford University are closer to understanding one of evolution's biggest questions: How do genetic changes contribute to the generation of new traits in naturally occurring species? By studying related populations of small fish, called sticklebacks, the scientists have learned how a variety of animals might have lost their hindlimbs during evolution. The researchers discovered that relatively small changes in the regulation of specific genes can lead to a phenomenon called hindlimb reduction. The work demonstrates that rapid skeletal changes can occur in one body structure without disrupting the essential role of the same genes...