Chain of life
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Lessons From the Origins of Life
I’ve been following discussions over at the Religious Naturalist Association about the origins of life and the research by scientists Terrence Deacon and Jeremy Sherman. Their ideas are complicated, drawn from physics, chemistry, biology, and philosophy. But as I’ve absorbed… Continue reading
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Stem Cells: How To Build a Body
Until recently I didn’t know much about stem cells except that they produce other kinds of cells and that the medical research on them was controversial. But in the context of the history of life, it turns out, their importance… Continue reading
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Summertime Blues
Mid July, and summer turns hotter and drier. Most plants slow their growth and soon leaves will turn a slightly duller green. But the peak season begins for the thin stalks of bright, light-blue flowers that grow close along the… Continue reading
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On The Cosmic Calendar, A Date To Remember
Back in 1977, the cosmologist Carl Sagan wrote a book called The Dragons of Eden. Sagan described the long evolution that preceded humans and argued for the likelihood of other intelligence evolving elsewhere in the cosmos during all that time.… Continue reading
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“We Are All Mutants”
In The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution (2016), Richard Dawkins writes: The word ‘mutation’ conjures up images of grotesquely distorted creatures, perhaps generated by unscrupulous experimenters, or springing up as a consequence of some radioactive catastrophe. The truth… Continue reading
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Genes Are Like Sentences, Genomes Are Like Books
It’s a little embarrassing to admit but sometimes I lose track of just how the common terms in genetics all fit together. I learned them late in life and never used them to make a living, and now I pay… Continue reading
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Life Before Fossils?
Seeing may not always mean believing, but when it comes to creatures from millions of years ago, we know it helps. Even a skeptic would have difficulty doubting the reality of dinosaurs after seeing the bones in museums and the… Continue reading
Lives on Earth 