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Molecular Clocks Tick Too Slow?
Genetic analysis has become a staple of evolutionary research. Determinations of evolutionary relationships between species often rely on molecular clocks, or the idea that we can backtrack genetic mutations to their time of origin like counting days backward on a calendar. The notion of molecular clocks assumes that mutations happen like, well, clockwork. But scientists [...]

Disease Genetics: A Bankrupt Idea?
Last week DeCode Genetics, one of the top companies hunting for genetic keys to diseases, filed for bankruptcy. Despite years of studying Icelandic populations the company had failed to find any common genes for diseases such as cancer. This idea, known as common disease/common variant, has long held sway in the genetics community. Geneticists thought [...]

Have Scientists Understated Genetic Diversity?
We’ve all heard that humans and chimpanzees share about 98% of our DNA. If we flip that around, then we differ by only 2%. Yet the tiniest differences can make all the difference, it turns out. Most animals and birds have the gene called FOXP2, often erroneously labeled the “language gene.” Humans and chimps both [...]

Exploring the Eonic Effect
I recently had the chance to read World History and the Eonic Effect: Civilization, Darwinism, and Theories of Evolution by John Landon. In this book Landon proposes that cultural evolution advances in steps, much like the idea of punctuated equilibrium in biological evolution. Has human culture advanced in spurts, driven by nonrandom forces? Landon makes [...]