A Dutch Life

Very cool.

Italian wall lizards introduced to a tiny island off the coast of Croatia are evolving in ways that would normally take millions of years to play out, new research shows.

Those skeptical about evolution often struggle with how random mutation could possibly lead to adaptation in a species at a rate that could have delivered us the incredible diversity we enjoy on this planet.

In the past I have always reflected on the wonderful Peppered Moths or those little bacteria that evolved a capacity for eating Nylon. These offered good examples of evolution happening before our very eyes, but it’s nice to have another study.

Along with the ability to digest plants came the ability to bite harder, powered by a head that had grown longer and wider.

The rapid physical evolution also sparked changes in the lizard’s social and behavioral structure, he said. For one, the plentiful food sources allowed for easier reproduction and a denser population.

The lizard also dropped some of its territorial defenses, the authors concluded.

Such physical transformation in just 30 lizard generations takes evolution to a whole new level, Irschick said.

I will never be able to grow a beard. I’m 32, if puberty has not delivered by now, it is not likely to, ever. On the positive side though, with getting older comes a greater capacity to accept our humanly flaws. So, I’m glad I held out hope for as long as I did.

Interesting article of the use of drugs to enhance your brain function.

“Whatever company comes out with the first memory pill is going to put Viagra to shame,” said University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Paul Root Wolpe.

Makes me want to make a joke about those that already think with their Viagra, but this is a family blog.

While I suspect that the effect of these drugs today on a healthy brain is pretty minimal, this area will most certainly develop, and will throw up a huge range of ethical dilemmas.

Two ways of development strike me instantly. The first being the way of the sporting world, where those who take performance enhancing drugs are considered cheats, and when found punished by their sporting bodies.

The second would be the path followed by cosmetic surgery, where at first, those that had any “enhancement” went out of their way to hide the fact, but which has now become so socially acceptable as to be almost mundane.

I suspect drugs that enhance the brain will follow the second path.

However, what holds just as much interest for me, is just want impact the drugs these turn into in 10 or 20 years will have on the advancement of science.

This is a great example of what makes predicting the future so incredibly difficult.

If, and this is not to say it is even possible, we were to discover a drug that improved our ability to do X with our brain by X percent, and its use penetrated broadly enough, then it would follow that it would result in accelerated scientific progress.

It has just reminded me how much more potential lies in the human body, and that the ever more rapid advancement of technology is not only achieved through new technologies, but by using some of the old ones better!

Drugs to build up that mental muscle – Los Angeles Times

Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms – washingtonpost.com

It has been 50 years since scientists first created DNA in a test tube, stitching ordinary chemical ingredients together to make life’s most extraordinary molecule. Until recently, however, even the most sophisticated laboratories could make only small snippets of DNA — an extra gene or two to be inserted into corn plants, for example, to help the plants ward off insects or tolerate drought.

Now researchers are poised to cross a dramatic barrier: the creation of life forms driven by completely artificial DNA.

This, when finally taken, is another important step on the road that will lead us to unlocking one of the most important questions we face. How did life come about? What incredible combination of factors, however improbable, have had to come together in order to create this thing we call life.

When we do finally make such a discovery, and after a short period of reflection on just how incredible a discovery it is, we can get on with the import job of creating pet dragons.

Hard to believe this actually happened, its almost like it was scripted in Hollywood. What I would have given to see something like this unfold in front of me when I was in Kruger. 

Everyday I marvel at the world. I’m constantly and consistently in awe of the solutions nature has created to some of the most difficult and complex problems imaginable. I feel embarrassed by the elegance and simplicity of those solutions, and by the way each and every one of them compliments the broader fabric of life into which it is woven. I’m humbled by even the smallest of earths life forms, each of which demonstrates a depth of wisdom and intelligence that I cannot even begin to comprehend.

I see it all for what it really is, and what it really is, is beauty. Life, this planet, this universe, this galaxy, all of it, a complete wonder, and it gets ever more wondrous with every secret we manage to unlock.

With that introduction I bring you a series of blog posts titled “Great moments in evolution”. Each will be a quick look at one of natures simple solutions to the worlds most complex problems, and a tribute to Darwin’s engine of infinite innovation.

Bird Brains

I have to say that I was surprised to learn how little we know about the Crow. Apart from being the mascot for one of the worlds great football teams, and the title of a superb movie, it seemed to me to be one of the worlds most common species of bird. In my mind following closely the Pigeon and the Sparrow. It turns out though that the Crow is an uncommonly private bird, preferring to go about their day-to-day business beyond the gaze of humans.

As smart as these birds are, it seems they haven’t quite got to the point of being able to read the sign that says “CCTV”, and some crafty scientist have exploited this by fitting incredibly small cameras to their tails. The result has been a never before seen, reality TV style look at their incredible use of tools. They are the only non-primate animal known to have been able to connect A) Hunger to C) Food via B) Tool. In fact they are able to use different tools, for different jobs, based on the type of habitat and food they are looking for. The BBC reports:

We found them using grass stems – and that is interesting because these stems have very different physical properties from the sticks and leaves that we knew they use.

“They are using the grass stems on the forest floor, probing the leaf litter, possibly fishing for ants.”

So, here’s to the amazing New Caledonian crow, whose brain belies its reputation.