Tag: evolution

Precambrian land life?

While many paleobiologists now accept Knauth’s premise that simple, unicellular life forms existed on land during the Precambrian, others recoil from his more radical proposal that complex, multicellular life — and even animal life — also thrived on land 600 ma BP. “In my old age, I am so disappointed that people close their minds and jump on whatever splashy, simplistic bandwagon is in vogue. But if you start with the rocks and work upward to an interpretation, it often reveals a reality that is not the one in vogue.”

A Troublesome Inheritance

The word “Denisovan” didn’t appear nearly enough. Ashkenazim Jews may have sacrificed visual and spatial skills for other forms of (superior?) intelligence, but what about all the great Soviet Jewish chess players and mathematicians? And did the shtetl really have so many more centuries of capitalistic training to offer than did Istanbul? I’m not suggesting anyone is required to answer these questions, but once you start playing the generalization game — especially on this particular topic — one ought to spend a lot of time picking up or at least recognizing all these loose ends and indeed there are many of them.

Bioretrosynthesis

evolution works even if your tiny brain can’t believe in it: careful, massively parallel mutation of key enzymes, a fitness function, repeat for a few times, and you get a cheap and clean way to make complex compounds out of simple sugars.

Coelacanth

The long story of sequencing the coelacanth genome, the fish most closely related to us (but not our direct ancestor)

When it turned up unexpectedly, the coelacanth was the biological find of the century. And now it is showing why. Its biographer tells the best fish story in 380 ma

Devolution

In 2009, 54% of Republicans and 64% of Democrats agreed humans have evolved over time. Today, 43% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats say humans have evolved.

The country is getting dumber faster than it is getting smarter

Cooking triples neurons

Humans can only afford 86b neurons (25% of daily caloric intake) due to cooking: more calories in less time. an orang utan can only afford 30b neurons with 9h of feeding / day, the practical max. proponents of all-raw diets are really saying 30b neurons is enough for everyone.