Category: Newsletter

Friday’s Elk, March 18, 2016

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Greetings–

It’s a quieter week this time around, but here are a few things for your enjoyment…
 

More Than Just A One-Night Stand

The study of ancient human DNA just keeps getting more interesting. In the New York Times, I write this week about a new survey of the Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA lurking in our genomes. It looks like there was even more interbreeding between our ancestors and these extinct humans than we previously thought. Here’s the story. P.S.: As a big fan of the comedian Harry Shearer, I was tickled to see on Twitter that the column inspired him to write a Neanderthal love song. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, March 18, 2016” →

Friday’s Elk, March 11, 2016

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Greetings–

An exciting week!

A Big Honor

Stephen Jay Gould, the late Harvard paleontologist, was a master of bringing evolution to a wide audience in books like Wonderful Life and The Panda’s Thumb. The Society for the Study of Evolution now honors his legacy with the Stephen Jay Gould Prize. I’m delighted to be this year’s winner. I’ll be giving a public lecture in conjunction with the award ceremony. If you’re in Austin on June 17, please come by. Details here. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, March 11, 2016” →

Friday’s Elk, March 4, 2016

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Greetings–

This week brings a virus double-header about strange ways to fight those pesky buggers…
 

A Virus With Its Own Immune System?

Over at Stat, I wrote about giant viruses, the weirdest viruses of all. For one thing, these viruses are so big, they get infected by their own viruses. This week giant viruses got even weirder, when scientists reported that they may have an immune system of their own to fight their viral enemies. (Image courtesy of American Scientist) Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, March 4, 2016” →

Friday’s Elk, February 26, 2016

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Greetings–

These days, I’m working on a book about heredity. This week I spent some time digging through the archives a historical society and came across this crazy pedigree from the early 1900s. At the time, the rediscovery of Mendel had set everyone abuzz, and a lot of scientists believed that everything was genetic–even boat building. (Note how some relatives were merely artistic, musical, mechanical, or literary. Heterozygotes, I guess…) Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, February 26, 2016” →

Friday’s Elk, February 19, 2016

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Greetings–

A great week for gene flow…
 

Humans and Neanderthals Get More Intimate

Over the past few years, I’ve written several pieces for The New York Times about how our ancestors interbred with Neanderthals and other extinct human populations (in 2010, 2013, 2015, and again in 2015). Now comes a cool study that appears to uncover even more gene flow–not going from extinct humans into our own gene pool, but in the other direction. I don’t know how many more of these big insights we will get in years to come. But it’s clear that our understanding about human evolution is becoming profoundly different from what you would have read in the textbooks twenty years ago. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, February 19, 2016” →