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+8 +1
Caught in the act: microbes do have sex
There is no denying that humans think sex is important, but it also matters for microbes. Sex allows genes from two parents to be mixed, leading to new combinations of genes in the offspring. In the past…
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+26 +6
Dogs' interbreeding with wolves clouds lineage of man's BFF
A new study says genomic analysis shows dogs and wolves diverged from a common wolf-like ancestor 11,000 to 16,000 years ago, although repeated interbreeding between the animals has clouded their evolutionary history.
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+24 +6
Evolution vs Natural Selection
Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics - all in a minute!
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+13 +4
Swarthy, blue-eyed caveman revealed using DNA from ancient tooth
DNA taken from the wisdom tooth of a European hunter-gatherer has given scientists an unprecedented glimpse of modern humans before the rise of farming. The Mesolithic man, who lived in Spain around 7,000 years ago, had an unusual mix of blue eyes, black or brown hair, and dark skin, according to analyses of his genetic make-up.
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+11 +2
How Farming Reshaped Our Genomes
Before farming began to spread across Europe some 8500 years ago, the continent’s occupants were hunter-gatherers. They were unable to digest starch and milk, according to a new ancient DNA study of a nearly 8000-year-old human skeleton from Spain. But these original occupants did already possess immune defenses against some of the diseases that would later become the scourge of civilization, and they apparently had dark skin.
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+12 +1
When did humans really begin to control fire? It could be 300,000 years ago.
Scientists discovered in the Qesem Cave, an archaeological site near present-day Rosh Ha'ayin, the earliest evidence -- dating to around 300,000 years ago -- of unequivocal repeated fire building over a continuous period. These findings help answer the question and hint that those prehistoric humans already had a highly advanced social structure and intellectual capacity.
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+11 +3
Creationism Vs. Evolution: The Debate Is Live Tonight
After two weeks of hype about a football game that turned out to be far less exciting than expected and after what feels like two months' worth of reports about wicked winter weather, it's nice to have something completely different to talk about — even if it's a topic that sparks heated discussion: Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, it's evolution vs. creationism when Bill Nye "the science guy" and Ken Ham, founder of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., debate onstage
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+19 +2
Humanity's forgotten return to Africa revealed in DNA
Call it humanity's unexpected U-turn. One of the biggest events in the history of our species is the exodus out of Africa some 65,000 years ago, the start of Homo sapiens' long march across the world. Now a study of southern African genes shows that, unexpectedly, another migration took western Eurasian DNA back to the very southern tip of the continent 3000 years ago.
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+21 +4
A History of the Pigeon
One hundred and seventy-five years ago, Charles Darwin set out with a survey voyage, aboard the HMS Beagle, in what would be a groundbreaking expedition for his own theories, and the way the world would come to see the origin of species. Darwin brought this curiosity home to England, and found a way to test his thoughts on speciation, using an animal equally admired and despised: the pigeon.
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+16 +7
Bill Nye Won Last Night's Creationism Debate
Well, I watched most of the Ham/Nye debate last night on “Is creation a viable model of origins?” I stopped watching after both rebuttals, though, as I had work to do, so I have no idea how the audience Q&A session went. I expect readers who watched the whole thing will weigh in below.
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+13 +1
It's Darwin's 205th Birthday, and People Still Don't Accept Evolution
It is Charles Darwin's 205th birthday. New Republic contributor Jerry Coyne wrote this letter on the occasion of Darwin's 200th birthday. It remains all too relevant today.
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+17 +1
Ardipithecus ramidus: Study Links Ancient Hominid to Human Lineage
A new study confirms close relationship of Ardipithecus ramidus to the subsequent Australopithecus and humans.
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+16 +1
Evolution stuck in slime for a billion years
Tasmanian researchers have revealed ancient conditions that almost ended life on Earth, using a new technique they developed to hunt for mineral deposits. The first life developed in the ancient oceans around 3.6 billion years ago, but then nothing much happened. Life remained as little more than a layer of slime for a billion years. Suddenly, 550 million years ago, evolution burst back into action – and here we are today. So what was the hold-up during those 'boring billion' years?
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+2 +1
An astonishing achievement for creatures, such as we, whose earliest footsteps, 3.5 million years old, are preserved in the volcanic ash of E. Africa
We humans have set foot on another world in a place called the sea of tranquility. It's an astonishing achievement for creatures, such as we, whose earliest footsteps, 3.5 million years old, are preserved in the volcanic ash of East Africa. -Carl Sagan
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+8 +1
You share 98.7 percent of your DNA with this sex-obsessed ape
Earlier this month, just before the famed creationism debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, I published an article drawing attention to a stunning piece of evidence in favor of the theory of evolution—one that terrifies creationists. The article received so much attention that a follow-up seemed in order; after all, there's much more where that came from.
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+17 +1
AI Could Kill Us All: Meet the Man Taking the Threat Seriously
Thinking about the end of the world is something that most people try to avoid; for others, it's a profession.
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+14 +1
Selfish gene, dead or alive?
I can vividly remember reading The Selfish Gene in my local library as a teenager: it was both a page-turner and something of a conversion experience. Richard Dawkins’s explanation of the unsparing reality of evolution blew like a cold, refreshing wind through everything I thought I knew about human nature, and is one of the great pieces of scientific writing from the last century. I was hardly surprised then, that David Dobbs’s essay ‘Die Selfish Gene’ provoked a...
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+25 +1
Fossilized whale skull shows sonar existed 32 million years ago
In a study published in Nature this week, researchers now say that a fossilized whale skull discovered outside Charleston, SC presents all the tell-tales signs related to echolocation in present-day toothed whales, dolphins, and porpoises. The skull is approximately 28 million years old, belonged to what's now the oldest known creature to use echolocation to hunt.
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+16 +1
Competition May Not Be the Driving Force of Species Diversity After All
In Darwinian evolution, organisms compete for resources, and the winners get to pass their genome to future generations. According to these rules, two similar species using the same resources in the same environment will be forced to compete with each other. If both are to survive, they will need to become more distinct from each other over time.
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+16 +1
Our Virtual Horizon, why Virtual Reality will be the new frontier for human life
The notion that we humans are entering a scary new phase in our evolution… that a few million years ago we crawled out of the ocean and learned how to live on land … and now we are on the cusp of making another great evolutionary leap, leaving behind real life in the physical world for a virtual one.
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