Craig Venter made a new life form (a bacterium) from scratch – essentially from computer database, and a few bottles of chemicals: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0521/J.-Craig-Venter-Institute-creates-first-synthetic-life-form http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/science/21cell.html If these and other such DNA-based technologies become widely used, how might they change the way evolution proceeds, as compared with the natural evolutionary mechanisms of the past almost 4 billion […]

There is a fierce competition among individuals within any species, humans included, to gain access to reproductive privileges. The “fittest” – a term that signifies the largest, prettiest, and most sexually attractive members, succeed in predominantly mating and having offspring, while the less attractive ones often do not. What is the role of such sexual […]