Today the New York Times devoted its entire Tuesday Science Times section to evolution,
here.
Fascinating articles, well worth reading. I read most of them this morning. The main article deals with new findings in evo-devo; another looks at the hope for a “paradigm shift” in evolutionary theory, and a third explores how humans continue to evolve, and the parallels between race (or ancestry) and geographical location. The latest information indicates that there are five main genetic “clusters”: Africa, Eurasia, East Asia, Oceania and America. Humans continue to evolve; cryptically the author writes at one point:
Quote:
Even more strikingly, Dr. Williamson’s group reported that a version of a gene called DAB1 had become universal in Chinese but not in other populations. DAB1 is involved in organizing the layers of cells in the cerebral cortex, the site of higher cognitive functions.
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I say “cryptically” because one would have hoped for a bit more fleshing out; is the implication here that Chinese might be
smarter? If not, what is the implication?
In another article – the section is just loaded with goodies – signs of a “soul” and trying to draw meaningful distinctions between humans and other animals, to put the former on some pedestal, are pretty much shot down; even a theistic biologist, Kenneth R. Miller, says, “As a scientist, I have nothing to say about the soul. It’s not a scientific idea.”
Another article discusses the breeding of 40,000 generations of bacteria; the experiment just
shows evolution in action, with some mind-bending results. In the face of this stuff alone, to deny the fact of evolution would be tantamount to denying the spherical nature of the earth.
Another good article discusses encoding information in genomes to serve as long-term archives of human knowledge.
Great stuff, well worth a read! Even P.Z. is writing it up at his blog; one has to wonder why, though, given that he has repeatedly accused The Times of pandering to the ID movement, while personally sliming some of its reporters and editors.