The evolution of novelty through subtle tinkering

William the Conqueror, in his birth place Falaise.

The genealogies of European royalty are genuinely terrifying in their complexity. No matter which history book you open, someone is always marrying some cousin of the third degree. To give you an idea: there are at least 4,010 different lines of descent from William the Conqueror to Prince William. Go figure. Protein families might rival [...]

October 27th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: bioinformatics, evolution, molecular biology, science | 3 comments

Zip up and stick together...

… could have been a really cheesy line in an action movie. It’s also what cells in multicellular metazoans do! A little single-celled creature contains some clues about the origins of all this stickiness. You might not realize it, but being multicellular is quite a feat! Your cells need to divide and grow at exactly [...]

May 20th, 2010 | Tags: , , , | Category: evolution, microbiology, molecular biology, science | Leave a comment