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Clues to the Origin of Snake Venom
By CARL ZIMMER, The New York Times, November 22, 2005
Which came first, the snake or the venom?
Bryan Fry, a biologist at the University of Melbourne who has spent the last few years reconstructing the evolutionary history of snake venom, decided to find out.
( Read More )
Camps on Cyprus May Have Belonged to Earliest Open-Water Seafarers
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, November 22, 2005
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 18 - Two ancient campsites on the coast of Cyprus, found this year by archaeologists, may be the earliest evidence of long-distance, open-water seafaring in the Mediterranean, long before the Greek frescoes of sailing craft in antiquity and the legendary peregrinations of Homer's Odysseus.
A preliminary analysis of the findings, including an abundance of crude stone tools comparable in style to mainland handiwork, suggests that people in small boats from what is present-day Syria and Turkey paid seasonal visits to the island of Cyprus possibly as early as 12,000 years ago, an archaeologist reported here on Thursday.
( Read More )
Vital Signs: Effects: When Mindful Awareness Goes to Your Head
By ERIC NAGOURNEY, The New York Times, November 22, 2005
People who meditate regularly appear to undergo changes in parts of the brain that handle perception and attentiveness, a new study suggests.
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In Give and Take of Evolution, a Surprising Contribution From Islands
By CARL ZIMMER, The New York Times, November 22, 2005
Islands hold a special place in the hearts of evolutionary biologists. When Charles Darwin visited the Galápagos Islands in 1835, he was stunned by the diversity of birds, which helped guide him to his theory of evolution by natural selection.
Beginning in the middle of the last century, the ornithologist Ernst Mayr laid the foundation for the modern understanding of the way new species evolve, arguing that they mainly emerged when populations became geographically isolated. Mayr based his theory on his studies of birds from Pacific islands.
Yet islands have generally been considered evolutionary dead ends. After animals and plants emigrated from the mainland, it was believed that they became so specialized for island life that they could not leave. They eventually became extinct, only to be replaced by new arrivals from the mainland.
"They were like baubles of the evolutionary past," said Christopher E. Filardi, a biologist at the American Museum of Natural History.
But Dr. Filardi and Robert Moyle, a colleague at the museum, have found evidence that islands can act as engines of evolution instead of dead ends.
( Read More )
By CARL ZIMMER, The New York Times, November 22, 2005
Which came first, the snake or the venom?
Bryan Fry, a biologist at the University of Melbourne who has spent the last few years reconstructing the evolutionary history of snake venom, decided to find out.
( Read More )
Camps on Cyprus May Have Belonged to Earliest Open-Water Seafarers
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, November 22, 2005
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 18 - Two ancient campsites on the coast of Cyprus, found this year by archaeologists, may be the earliest evidence of long-distance, open-water seafaring in the Mediterranean, long before the Greek frescoes of sailing craft in antiquity and the legendary peregrinations of Homer's Odysseus.
A preliminary analysis of the findings, including an abundance of crude stone tools comparable in style to mainland handiwork, suggests that people in small boats from what is present-day Syria and Turkey paid seasonal visits to the island of Cyprus possibly as early as 12,000 years ago, an archaeologist reported here on Thursday.
( Read More )
Vital Signs: Effects: When Mindful Awareness Goes to Your Head
By ERIC NAGOURNEY, The New York Times, November 22, 2005
People who meditate regularly appear to undergo changes in parts of the brain that handle perception and attentiveness, a new study suggests.
( Read More )
In Give and Take of Evolution, a Surprising Contribution From Islands
By CARL ZIMMER, The New York Times, November 22, 2005
Islands hold a special place in the hearts of evolutionary biologists. When Charles Darwin visited the Galápagos Islands in 1835, he was stunned by the diversity of birds, which helped guide him to his theory of evolution by natural selection.
Beginning in the middle of the last century, the ornithologist Ernst Mayr laid the foundation for the modern understanding of the way new species evolve, arguing that they mainly emerged when populations became geographically isolated. Mayr based his theory on his studies of birds from Pacific islands.
Yet islands have generally been considered evolutionary dead ends. After animals and plants emigrated from the mainland, it was believed that they became so specialized for island life that they could not leave. They eventually became extinct, only to be replaced by new arrivals from the mainland.
"They were like baubles of the evolutionary past," said Christopher E. Filardi, a biologist at the American Museum of Natural History.
But Dr. Filardi and Robert Moyle, a colleague at the museum, have found evidence that islands can act as engines of evolution instead of dead ends.
( Read More )
