DNA
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The Pioneers: Archaea and Bacteria
The most basic categories of living things are not what they used to be. In the past they included Plants and Animals, but no longer. Today the three Domains are all named for organisms too small to see. Plants and… 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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Our Actual “Eve”
She lived about 150,000 years ago in southern Africa. These days she is known as Mitochondrial Eve. The “Eve” part is a little misleading since unlike the Biblical Eve, Mitochondrial Eve wasn’t the first or only woman alive at the… Continue reading
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Is DNA Alive?
Is DNA alive? No, it’s not alive…mostly. The only sense in which a DNA molecule is a living thing is that it makes copies of itself, although it can’t even do that on its own. Otherwise, DNA fails all the… Continue reading
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Steven Pinker on Emotions and Genes
Steven Pinker’s How the Mind Works might well be subtitled “And the emotions too.” This terrific book offers a barrage of insights and connections about humans and evolution that can feel intoxicating. It stirs up the nature-nurture controversy with a… Continue reading
Lives on Earth 