Evolution Research - Personal Posts

It's nearly 1.00 am so just a quick note to say UCSD Study Shows 'Junk' DNA Has Evolutionary Importance has been posted to the Main Blog. It contains extracts of, and links to, a press release and to the paper it references (nb only links to free full-text articles are posted in the Main Blog except on those occasions where an author will supply a copy).

Researching the possibility of an internal evolutionary mechanism necessarily has to take the psychology of conventional evolutionary theory into account. The use of terms such as 'junk dna', for example, can be quite telling. Indeed, the above press release begins with:

"Genetic material derisively called "junk" DNA because..." (my emphasis - I'll be posting more on this topic)

Finally, an extract from yesterday's Another 'Topsy-Turvy' day in Cyberspace):

... and I also came across an interesting press release entitled 'Birds that make teeth' which begins:

Gone does not necessarily mean forgotten, especially in biology. A recent finding by researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and colleagues from the University of Manchester have found new evidence that the ability to form previously lost organs - in this case, teeth - can be maintained millions of years after the last known ancestor possessed them."

The rest of the article can be found here and I've also posted the Abstract of the paper the press release refers to in Wanted Papers (here) - it would be so much easier if every journal relating to evolution were open-access! :)

Today I received a copy of the paper from John F. Fallon (one of the authors). If anyone is interested his email address can be found here (email me via my profile page if you need any help or advice).

Goodnight!

John Latter

technorati tags: junk+dna, dna, internal, evolutionary, mechanism, psychology, biology, birds, teeth, theory, conventional

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 12:32 AM