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Category Archives: Evolution 101
Avida-ED in Action
BEACON scientists and educators featured in MSU Today reporting on a recent publication highlighting the use of Avida-ED in a newly developed undergraduate biology course. The course IBIO150 Integrative Biology: From DNA to Populations, was developed with non-Biology STEM majors … Continue reading
Posted in BEACON in the News, Education, Evolution 101
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Evolutionary Trade-offs
This Evol 101 post is by MSU grad student Tyler Derr Before even jumping into the evolutionary biology material, what is a trade-off? Well, a trade-off is when a choice must be made between multiple things that are either incompatible or an … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution 101
Tagged Biological Evolution, Evolution 101
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Exaptation
This Evol 101 post is by MSU grad student Alex Lalejini A Conceptual Analogy Technological innovations throughout the history of human invention are often the result of co-opting an existing technology to develop something new. The invention of the microwave depended on … Continue reading
Culture, Sociality, & Evolution
This Evolution 101 post is by MSU grad student Alex Lalejini Culture and Chimpanzees Our species is incredibly social, and one of the major products of our sociality is culture. People typically imagine culture to be exclusive to humans. The idea … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution 101
Tagged animal behavior, Cooperation, Evolution 101
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Genetic Drift
This Evolution 101 post is by MSU grad student Ali Tehrani Darwinian evolution suggests that the pattern of changes in populations is driven by natural selection, i.e. those individuals that are more fit survive and reproduce. Does that mean populations of … Continue reading
Evolution of Reliable Signals
This Evolution 101 post is by MSU grad student Thassyo Pinto The ownership of goods such as luxury cars, expensive boats and conspicuous consumption, and showing it off to others, transmits a signal informing that owner is capable of bearing expenses. … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution 101
Tagged animal behavior, Evolution 101, fitness, predator-prey, sexual selection
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Artificial selection and correlated traits
This Evolution 101 post is by MSU grad student Tyler Derr One of the basic mechanisms of evolutionary change is natural selection. It was in Charles Darwin’s famous book, On the Origin of Species, where he defined natural selection to be … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution 101, Uncategorized
Tagged Biological Evolution, Domestication
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It’s a (Selective) Sweep for the Good Genes!
This Evolution 101 post is by MSU grad student Douglas Kirkpatrick In baseball, ice hockey, and basketball, when a team wins all of the games in a playoff series, they are said to have swept the other team out of the … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution 101
Tagged antibiotic resistance, Biological Evolution, Evolution 101, genetics, genomics, mutations
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Pseudogenes
This Evolution 101 post is by MSU grad student Tyler Derr I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that our DNA is the “blueprint” of who we are. Well, our genes are the sequences in our DNA that actually encode instructions for … Continue reading
Evolution 101 – Mutations: From the X-Men to the X-Chromosome
This Evolution 101 post is by MSU grad student Douglas Kirkpatrick Everyone knows what mutation is, right? It’s that magical scientific hand-wave that gives the X-Men their powers. Almost certainly the result of interaction with gamma radiation or toxic substances, mutation … Continue reading