Friday’s Elk, August 19, 2016

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Front page news this week!
 

Hands and Fins, Twenty Years Later

Twenty years ago, scientists were starting to study evolution in a new way: by picking apart the genes that govern the development of animals. Reporting on their work for Discover at the time, I was incredibly excited to watch the research unfold. Scientists could generate hypotheses about genetic changes that occurred millions of years ago, giving rise to new structures like limbs and wings. This new field of “evo-devo,” as it was sometimes called, helped inspire me to write my first book, At the Water’s Edge. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, August 19, 2016” →

We’re all different in our DNA. We’re finally starting to understand when those differences matter

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STAT, August 17, 2016

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I know it sounds strange, but I feel very grateful to a database. It saved me from a lifelong fear of dropping dead because my heart will give out.

The database is known as ExAC, and I had my first experience with it after I got my genome sequenced. For a few weeks, I brought it from one lab to another to ask scientists to help me make sense of it.

Their analysis brought up a doozy of a finding. I have a variant in a gene for heart muscles, called DSG2. Some studies have indicated that having a variant in just one of your two copies of DSG2 can cause a rare condition called arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.

Continue reading “We’re all different in our DNA. We’re finally starting to understand when those differences matter” →

From Fins Into Hands: Scientists Discover a Deep Evolutionary Link

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The New York Times, August 17, 2016

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To help his readers fathom evolution, Charles Darwin asked them to consider their own hands.

“What can be more curious,” he asked, “than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include similar bones, in the same relative positions?”

Darwin had a straightforward explanation: People, moles, horses, porpoises and bats all shared a common ancestor that grew limbs with digits. Its descendants evolved different kinds of limbs adapted for different tasks. But they never lost the anatomical similarities that revealed their kinship.

Continue reading “From Fins Into Hands: Scientists Discover a Deep Evolutionary Link” →

Friday’s Elk, August 12, 2016

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Greetings after a week of vacation!
 

On the Origin of Orgasms (with a Surprise Cameo by JK Rowling)

Bet you never saw those words in that particular combination. Here’s the story:

Recently two scientists put together a new hypothesis about the evolution of the female orgasm. They argue that female mammals had orgasms, or at least precursors of them, 150 million years ago. And it started out with a function that was lost in our ancestors long ago. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, August 12, 2016” →

Scientists Ponder an Evolutionary Mystery: The Female Orgasm

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The New York Times, August 1, 2016

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An eye is for seeing, a nose is for smelling. Many aspects of the human body have obvious purposes.

But some defy easy explanation. For biologists, few phenomena are as mysterious as the female orgasm.

While orgasms have an important role in a woman’s intimate relationships, the evolutionary roots of the experience — a combination of muscle contractions, hormone release, and intense pleasure — have been difficult to uncover.

Continue reading “Scientists Ponder an Evolutionary Mystery: The Female Orgasm” →