Evolution, Morphology and Exobiology

heres a geological timeline i have created in photoshop. given a aged look just check it out at this link http://www.geocities.com/time_never_stops/geotime.jpg

Mutation refers to a sudden and permanent change of the DNA of a cell. Only those mutation occurs in gamete can bring along the effect to the filial generation, i.e. offspring. But, then, how does evolution continue as their parents are affected by the environment and cannot carry the varied gene to the next generation? Or Evolution does not involve mutation?

I've read alot of arguments for and against the theory of Neanderthal ancestry in modern Europeans and Near Eastern peoples, and I was wondering if anybody had good material on these arguments or arguments themselves on the theory.

Things that aren't very good for you tend to be the best tasting. This makes no sense to me at all. Evolution should have done the oposite: better foods tast better. The more healthy sugars like starch, lipids, polysaccharides, etc should be better then just plain sugar.

In a Devils Chaplain (a collection of Dawkins essays, but i dont recal if this proposition was his own our just something he was discussing) there was an idea put forth that differing physical features of races is due to sexual selection. This evidenced by the fact that two tall people of different races are found to have more genetic common compared to a tall and short person among the same race. I personally think its a case of sexual selection at the aid of natural selection. Those whose skin was best suited to an environment were healthier, more attractive, so sexually selected, thus accelerating natural selection. Only mention this case for the purpose of realiz…

My own hypothesis has always been that the rapid evolution of humans came about through tribal warfare in which one tribe would wipe out all the (male) members of the other tribe, thus the best thinkers who were able to outsmart their enemy and the best communicators who were best able to work together against their enemy were favored by evolution, as those who lost out died. Thus we are descended from the best thinkers and speakers among the proto-humans. Is this how it happened? Beyond that, I'd say socialization and forms of expression became intermingled with sex, and thus appreciation of music, dance, etc was genetically favored because it became a sex-linked b…

http://forums.prospero.com/sp-bishopspong http://secure.agoramedia.com/spong/index_spong2.asp?sc=1&promo=8E8054FA-64A6-4100-9B08-37F4592A6F13&email= Here, in one of his weekly Q&A emails, he addresses Intelligent Design: Marion from Kansas writes: "In my state the Board of Education threw out the teaching of evolution a few years ago. Upon election of moderate members, the Board brought it back again. Now conservatives are in the majority again and the whole issue of universe origin is being debated again. This time the issue of "intelligent design" is being brought in as needing to be taught. Is this just another way of bringing in conservat…

humans will leave the earth or become extinct within 50 million years from now. current rates suggests that major mass extinction does really occurs every 100 million years. last one occured 65 million years ago so next may occur within 35 million years from now. just imagine only creatures less than 15 kg survive i.e very small lizards and insects and some mammals too and evolutionary arms race begins during post extinction period . so these small house lizards can again become large permian type reptiles like archeosaurs and dinosaurs like creature again come into existance like history repeats itself type phenomena? what do you think?

Is there really a clear difference between species* and breeds? An alsation looks a lot like a wolf, but they are seperate species. An alsation doesn't look a thing like a shi'tsu yet they are only different breeds. What's up with that? *Don't know the plural.

Ok, Dawkins is big and moreorless the deity of Evol Ecol Did anybody spot something questionable in his hypothesis? Anybody found anything?

The theory of The Red Queen's Race states that both prey and predator evolve at the same rate, and in doing so, stay the same ratio-wise, because as one becomes steadily harder to catch, the other becomes the better hunter. I was wondering if there was an experiment that could be created to test this theory in light of the way bacteria adapts in human or animal cells and if the theory applies to that as well. Any suggestions? (I know that in my lifetime, I probably couldn't test evolution- but would adaptation be synonymous enough with evolution to the extent that I could test the rates of their adaptation and see how it compares?)

Well, in my typical aloof ruminations I was thinking about expressions we teach parrots and other birds which can mimic human speech, and I was thinking about the birds who were able to pick up these phrases as they waited to be bought in a pet store. I mean, clearly these birds get enough exposure to the same phrases over and over that they are able to learn them. You know, the ones like "Polly wanna cracker?" and "Pretty bird." They're memes which are successful because they're a sort of universally agreed upon set of nonsense phrases between both humans and birds so that people repeat often enough for the birds to pick them up, and do so because they have so often h…

the earlier thread, which I started, was closed so quickly that I did not get a chance to post a comment on the banning of the Rev. does everyone know that de Bergerac, someone who enjoyed fencing with people and believed passionately in the Copernican heliocentric system, wrote a PHYSICS TEXTBOOK? And he also wrote several books envisioning interplanetary travel. Bergerac was a neat guy, who actually lived, not just someone in a play----he had exceptional abilities AND HE COULD WRITE. About the Rev, who was just permanently banned because he antagonized people, I never had much contact with him but I asked him recently what he believed: http://www.sciencefor…

http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?p=209231#post209231 I was asking revprez about his views on cosmology and evolution. I am still curious and would like to continue, if he would have the courtesy to reply. The end-segment of the thread we were in, has been moved to Metaphysics, which is fine with me. Except that it does not show up on the Homepage board, so revprez may not know where to look for it. So this post is intended to show up on the Homepage board and to provide a link to where the tailend of the thread we were in went to.

This was brought up in a recent thread and got me thinking: Have there been any studies attempting to figure out just what the long-term consequences are?

how simple does something have to be to not need a designer?

Is anyone out there able to give me a brief summary of the current theories of the origin of life?

I think I'm missing a key concept here. Do DNA mutations have to occur in gamete cells in order to be passed on to offspring? For example, if a cosmic ray tweaks the DNA in a cell on the end of my elbow - how could it possibly be passed on to future generations? When scientists speak of DNA mutuations that are inherited, they must be talking about mutations that occur in very specific cells, yes? I'm confused.

I'm having a little trouble figuring this out, can anybody help me understand how to do this? If A is dominant to a, in the cross between Aa x aa, what percentage of individuals will have the A phenotype? What are all the possible genotypes? Thanks!

I saw this one show on the science channel or Discovery about a monkey named Oliver. They thought it might be half human. It that possible?

every once and a while you get those bigotted people that say we are the pinnicle of evolution. frankly, i don't see where that is coming from. we suck. if it weren't for our thumbs and big brains, we would be screwed. our eyes suck(kinda odd how many creationists use the human eye as proof of irreducable complexity). most of us don't even have a furry coat. we even keep our genetically weak around long enough to reproduce.

Is it possible for humans to have too much sex? Is there any problems that arise from too much?

In case anyone's interested http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/longcomments/evolution_schmevolution/ ---quote from blog--- Evolution Schmevolution info PZ Myers • 21 Comments This is going to be good: Science vs. Religion. Evolution vs. Creation. It is an age-old battle whose time has come. "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" will gather together all the experts (or at least those who will talk to them), travel to the places that matter in the debate (basic cable budget permitting) and ultimately settle the controversy once and for all. "Evolution Schmevolution: A Daily Show Special Report" will premiere on Monday, September 12 and air nightly at 11:00 p.m. throug…

A recent paper indicates that the brain has undergone genetic changes during the history of modern humans. The researchers worked on two genes that cause microcephalopathy when inactivated by mutation, and tracked polymorphisms of each gene in study groups. They found that, for each gene, a particular goup of polymorphisms had been positively selected for. The actual function of the genes isn't known with certainty, and the authors are keen to avoid any ubermensch talk. Link