Showing 73–96 of 126 published commentaries.
A recent paper in the bioRxiv preprint server by Matthew J. Melissa and Michael M. Desai, titled "A dynamical limit to evolutionary adaptation," offers a sophisticated mathematical analysis of the interplay between…
The esteemed microbiologist Roger Stanier is rightly celebrated as a pioneer whose work brought microbiology into the mainstream of the biological sciences. The tribute article, "The genius of Roger Stanier," provides a…
In a paper titled "There's plenty of time for evolution," mathematicians Herbert Wilf and Warren Ewens present a model that purports to solve the longstanding "waiting time" problem that plagues evolutionary theory. The…
The 2010 paper "The population genetics of mutations: good, bad and indifferent" by Laurence Loewe and William G. Hill provides a comprehensive overview of a field fundamental to the modern evolutionary synthesis. The…
A central tenet of modern evolutionary theory is that gene duplication provides the raw material for innovation. The story goes that after a gene is copied, one copy is free to maintain the original function while the…
A 2018 paper in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution by Riyue Bao and colleagues examines the impact of gene duplication on the evolution of fruit flies and their relatives. The study is presented as evidence for a key…
A recent paper in Genome Biology and Evolution by Isaac H. Rossetto and colleagues details the discovery of multiple, functionally distinct opsin genes in sea snakes. The authors present this as a rare example of…
A recent paper in Genome Medicine by Hou et al. provides a fascinating, high-resolution look into the earliest moments of life, comparing the way 3D genome architecture is established in mouse and human embryos. The…
The review article "Prunus mume genome research: current status and prospects" by Fan et al. (2024) provides a detailed and valuable overview of the genetic tools being used to understand and improve the Japanese…
A recent paper in BMC Genomics by Zhai et al. presents the chromosome-level genome assembly of a drought-resistant grass, Pseudoroegneria libanotica . The authors claim their work "reveals a key Kcs gene" that "involves…
A recent paper in Nucleic Acids Research provides a fascinating high-resolution map of where spontaneous DNA replication "errors" occur in the E. coli genome. Using a clever experimental setup, the authors identified…
The 2010 publication of the draft Neandertal genome was a stunning technical achievement, offering an unprecedented glimpse into the genetics of an "archaic" hominin. The authors concluded that Neandertals contributed…
The Long-Term Evolution Experiment (LTEE) founded by Richard Lenski is frequently presented as the gold-standard demonstration of "evolution in action." By tracking generations of E. coli in a controlled lab…
The 1987 guppy introduction experiment by David Reznick and Heather Bryga is a celebrated study in evolutionary biology, frequently presented in textbooks as a direct, observable demonstration of "evolution in action."…
The long-term study of Darwin's finches on the Galápagos island of Daphne Major, conducted by Peter and Rosemary Grant, is widely celebrated in textbooks and popular science as a premier, real-time demonstration of…
In a 2016 paper in the journal Biosemiotics , researcher Alexei A. Sharov attempts to rescue evolutionary theory from the simplistic, gene-centric model of the 20th-century Modern Synthesis. He proposes a sophisticated…
Studies detailing the function of a single gene are often celebrated as snapshots of evolution. By understanding how a part works, the story goes, we can better understand how it came to be through an unguided process.…
The rapid advancement of technologies that manipulate biological materials is often presented as evidence for the plausibility of unguided, molecules-to-man evolution. By demonstrating our own growing ability to…
The quest to explain how complex biological systems could arise from simpler predecessors is a central theme of evolutionary theory. A 2017 paper in Nature Communications by Tamar Friedlander and colleagues, "Evolution…
The quest to find observable evidence for large-scale evolution—the fabled "molecules-to-man" journey—often leads proponents to the field of genetics, seeking a mechanism that can create genuinely new biological…
The origin of new genes containing novel, functional information is a critical requirement for any molecules-to-man evolutionary narrative. A 2015 review paper by Dan Andersson and colleagues, "Evolution of New…
Richard Lenski's Long-Term Evolution Experiment (LTEE) is one of the most celebrated studies in modern biology, often presented as definitive proof of "evolution in action." In a key finding from this experiment, one of…
The 2021 Nature paper "Chromothripsis drives the evolution of gene amplification in cancer" by Ofer Shoshani and colleagues is a landmark study in molecular oncology. Using a suite of advanced genomic and imaging…
The Master Framing Strategy: The Final Verdict The 2016 paper by Foley et al. provides a valuable collation of data on a series of fossil forms. The authors correctly observe that the record is complex and cannot be…