Tag Archives: Biological Evolution

BEACON Researchers at Work: How the chicken crossed the sea

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog post is by MSU postdoc Eben Gering. Biotic invasions (the Disney version) Some ecologists have likened invasive species to the army of enchanted brooms in Disney’s Fantasia. In the movie, Mickey Mouse portrays … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: Outreach in the lion’s den – An evolutionary biologist at a creationist conference

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog post is by MSU graduate student Carina Baskett.  Imagine that you are a construction worker, and one day a group of people set up a tent outside the house you are building. In … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: Evolving ways to switch genes on and off

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog post is by MSU graduate student Kurtulus Kok. “In considering the Origin of Species, it is quite conceivable that a naturalist…might come to the conclusion that each species…had descended, like varieties, from other … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: Coach, Put me on the bench! A Novice’s Journey into Old-Fashioned Experimental Evolution

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog is by MSU graduate student Jay Bundy. As a kid I played a lot of basketball. I loved almost everything about the game. But there was one thing I hated: spending time riding … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: How fast can hyenas learn?

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog post is by MSU postdoc Agathe Laurence. “If monkeys could reach the point of being bored, they could turn into human beings,” said Goethe. More than a philosophical essay about boredom, that comparison … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: Seeing double? Genome duplication and the teleost fish retina

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog post is by University of Idaho graduate student Joshua Sukeena. The sense of vision is mediated by a specialized projection of the central nervous system located in the back of the eye, the … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: Of Milk and Microbes

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog post is by University of Idaho graduate student Janet Williams.  Milk and microbes, what do these two things have to do with each other? For many years, milk was thought to be sterile … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: Can't we all get along? Overcoming evolutionary conflict

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog post is by University of Washington postdoc Sylvie Estrela. Conflict is widespread in nature and that is no exception in the microbial world. Examples of competitive interactions between microbes include competition for shared … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: Engineering life

This week’s blog post is by University of Washington graduate student Leandra Brettner. All living organisms share a universal programming language—DNA. Long strings of unit molecules A’s, T’s, C’s and G’s dictate the unique traits of each individual, but the … Continue reading

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BEACON Researchers at Work: Spatial dynamics of evolution

This week’s BEACON Researchers at Work blog post is by MSU graduate student Emily Dolson. All biological organisms must occupy a single location in physical space. This idea is so obvious that most people don’t give it much thought, but … Continue reading

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