… which is not as easy to say as you might think, since my “o” key has turned up faulty …

Anyway, there is some great, substantive material out there in the Blogosphere that I wanted to point to.

The Hox Code

The Hox genes are a set of transcription factors that exhibit an unusual property: they provide a glimpse of one way that gene expression is translated into metazoan morphology. For the most part, the genome seems to be a welter of various genes scattered about almost randomly, with no order present in their arrangement on a chromosome — the order only becomes apparent in their expression through the process of development. The Hox genes, on the other hand, seem like an island of comprehensible structure….

At Pharyngula.

Genome Size, Complexity, and the C-Value Paradox

Forty years ago it was thought that the amount of DNA in a genome correlated with the complexity of an organism. Back then, you often saw graphs like the one on the left. The idea was that the more complex the species the more genes it needed. Preliminary data seemed to confirm this idea.

In the late 1960’s scientists started looking at the complexity of the genome itself. They soon discovered that large genomes were often composed of huge amounts of repetitive sequences. The amount of “unique sequence” DNA was only a few percent of the total DNA in these large genomes…

at Sandwalk. It’s about Junk DNA.

The Bonding Brain

Social conservatives are fond of linking morality with monogamy and will be quick to condemn the moral crimes of adulterous felatio while ignoring the moral crimes of cutting social programs for poor mothers. However, in a bizarre twist, it seems that morality and monogamy are closely intertwined, though it’s doubtful many conservatives will champion the reasons why….

At Michael Johnson’s site.

A Vew on Human Differences

I’m doing some research for an essay, which relies quite a bit on the work of Dobzhansky and a few of his contemporaries. There are some great quotes that I won’t be using, but thought it would be worth passing on. Probably to the greatest extent among the architects of the Synthesis, Dobzhansky concerned himself with the relationship between genetic evolution and human cultural evolution.

at John Hawks weblog.

The Branching Bush of Horse Evolution

When the name of O.C. Marsh is invoked, it is often to tell of his participation in the great “Bone Wars” of the late 19th century, sparring with fellow osteophile E.D. Cope in the pages of the New York Herald. Twisted tales of deceit and sabotage were promulgated in the sensationalist paper, and while both men helped to bring about an American revolution in vertebrate paleontology, the scars of their bitter squabbling have yet to fully heal. Such scientific in-fighting might seem worthy only of a historical footnote or an introduction to the stereotyped image of “smash-and-grab” paleontology of the time which is almost romantically referred to, but the truth of the matter goes far deeper than the public beard-pulling that is so often remembered.

at Laelaps.