Genetic Drift

Frog populations remained pretty much the same in Podville until the Great Fire of 2015. After the fire the population of blue frogs increased. Welcome to genetic drift, the subject of this week’s episode of ‘Evolution Talk’. Evolution Talk is also a...

Non-Overlapping Magisteria

In 1997 Professor Stephen Jay Gould published an essay in Natural History which also appeared in his book Rocks of Ages. This essay was titled ‘Non-Overlapping Magisteria’. It’s commonly referred to as NOMA. The concept behind NOMA is that science and religion operate...

Altruism

Where does altruism come from? How did it evolve in a world ruled by ‘selfish genes’? Evolution Talk is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the front page of EvolutionTalk.com, or call your local bookstore and ask...

Survival of the Fittest?

The term ‘Survival of the Fittest’ was unleashed on the world in 1864 by Herbert Spencer when he published his work Principles of Biology. It was later picked up by Charles Darwin who used it himself in the fifth edition of On the Origin of Species five...

Putting the Selection in Sex

For Charles Darwin, the idea of sexual selection explained a lot of what he saw in the animal kingdom. He gave sexual selection just as much importance as natural selection. Evolution Talk is also a book! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on...

Warm Blooded Dinosaurs

In 1986 Professor Robert Bakker, a paleontologist, published ‘The Dinosaur Heresies’. According to Professor Bakker there have been waves of extinction, and these extinction events mainly attacked, or affected, one particular type of animal… warm...