Neuroscience
A book review in the Oct. 24, 2005 issue of the New Yorker by H. Allen Orr explains a bit about “evo devo” (evolutionary developmental biology), and finally clarifies for me what “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” means.
Last things first: the growth of a single organism from embryo to adult may be connected to the growth of a species from the beginning of time (my words, not Orr’s). In his words: “Organisms show two kinds of change through time: during the lifetime of a single animal (you don’t look much like the egg you started as) and during the evolutionary history of a biological lineage (you don’t look much like your three-and-a-half-billion-year-old ancestor).”
The review focuses on Sean Carroll’s book “Endless Forms Most Beautiful”, which supports evo devo, and argues that genes might work like switches. For example, “The same gene, for example, that triggers eye development in fruit flies also triggers eye development in mice. Indeed, genetically engineered flies will happily build eyes if supplied only with the mouse gene. (They build fly eyes, not mouse eyes.)” Wow!!
There's also some cool stuff about modularity looking at stickleback fish as well as an understandable present-day analogy.
Orr reviews a few other books, too, and doesn’t suggest that evo devo is the be all and end all. But it might be an important theory. And Orr explains it in a sophisticated way that non-scientists can understand.
(in our house, evo devo is a cat food, referring to Innova Evo)
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From the Nobel Assemble press release: The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2007 jointly to Mario R. Capecchi, Martin J. Evans and Oliver Smithies for their discoveries of...
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From The Globe and Mail:Rampaging mice made more human By CAROLYN ABRAHAM Wednesday, July 6, 2005 Updated at 8:57 AM EDT From Wednesday's Globe and Mail A breakthrough experiment has used a human gene to turn vicious mice into very gentle creatures...
- Towards Scientific Literacy
Steven Pinker reviews Natalie Angier's The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science in last Sunday's New York Times Book Review, using the review to promote general scientific literacy. Pinker starts with some examples of scientific...
- "an Evolving Collection"
The Sept. 1 issue of Library Journal addresses Evolutionary Biology in its Collection Development feature. It includes older books that shouldn't be weeded such as Ronald A. Fisher's The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection and Julian S. Huxley's...
Neuroscience
Evo Devo Explained
A book review in the Oct. 24, 2005 issue of the New Yorker by H. Allen Orr explains a bit about “evo devo” (evolutionary developmental biology), and finally clarifies for me what “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” means.
Last things first: the growth of a single organism from embryo to adult may be connected to the growth of a species from the beginning of time (my words, not Orr’s). In his words: “Organisms show two kinds of change through time: during the lifetime of a single animal (you don’t look much like the egg you started as) and during the evolutionary history of a biological lineage (you don’t look much like your three-and-a-half-billion-year-old ancestor).”
The review focuses on Sean Carroll’s book “Endless Forms Most Beautiful”, which supports evo devo, and argues that genes might work like switches. For example, “The same gene, for example, that triggers eye development in fruit flies also triggers eye development in mice. Indeed, genetically engineered flies will happily build eyes if supplied only with the mouse gene. (They build fly eyes, not mouse eyes.)” Wow!!
There's also some cool stuff about modularity looking at stickleback fish as well as an understandable present-day analogy.
Orr reviews a few other books, too, and doesn’t suggest that evo devo is the be all and end all. But it might be an important theory. And Orr explains it in a sophisticated way that non-scientists can understand.
(in our house, evo devo is a cat food, referring to Innova Evo)
- The Trouble With Tephritidae
A True Fruit Fly - Tephritidae (via Myrmecos Blog) Bjoern Brembs has written extensively about the latest anti-science commentary by VP candidate Sarah Palin, who said... Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You've heard about...
- Nobel Knockout!
From the Nobel Assemble press release: The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2007 jointly to Mario R. Capecchi, Martin J. Evans and Oliver Smithies for their discoveries of...
- Genetics And Aggressive Behavior In A Mouse Model
From The Globe and Mail:Rampaging mice made more human By CAROLYN ABRAHAM Wednesday, July 6, 2005 Updated at 8:57 AM EDT From Wednesday's Globe and Mail A breakthrough experiment has used a human gene to turn vicious mice into very gentle creatures...
- Towards Scientific Literacy
Steven Pinker reviews Natalie Angier's The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science in last Sunday's New York Times Book Review, using the review to promote general scientific literacy. Pinker starts with some examples of scientific...
- "an Evolving Collection"
The Sept. 1 issue of Library Journal addresses Evolutionary Biology in its Collection Development feature. It includes older books that shouldn't be weeded such as Ronald A. Fisher's The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection and Julian S. Huxley's...