Anthropology.net

This is a link to the news from Craig Venter that he has succeeded in changing one species of bacteria into another, as described here…

Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) today announced the results of work on genome transplantation methods allowing them to transform one type of bacteria into another type dictated by the transplanted chromosome. The work, published online in the journal Science, by JCVI’s Carole Lartigue, Ph.D. and colleagues, outlines the methods and techniques used to change one bacterial species, Mycoplasma capricolum into another, Mycoplasma mycoides Large Colony (LC), by replacing one organism’s genome with the other one’s genome.

“The successful completion of this research is important because it is one of the key proof of principles in synthetic genomics that will allow us to realize the ultimate goal of creating a synthetic organism,” said J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., president and chairman, JCVI. “We are committed to this research as we believe that synthetic genomics holds great promise in helping to solve issues like climate change and in developing new sources of energy.” Read the rest of this entry »

NYT has this story, documenting the unstoppable rise and rise of the domesticated cat, whose only serious rival is the domesticated dog; both these creatures have become part and parcel of the human domestic experience over the last 10 to 15 millennia, although the reasons for their respective acceptance into the welcoming arms of mankind were quite different. Here’s a look at how one theory envisages the first encounters between cat and human…

Some 10,000 years ago, somewhere in the Near East, an audacious wildcat crept into one of the crude villages of early human settlers, the first to domesticate wheat and barley. There she felt safe from her many predators in the region, such as hyenas and larger cats.

The rodents that infested the settlers’ homes and granaries were sufficient prey. Seeing that she was earning her keep, the settlers tolerated her, and their children greeted her kittens with delight.

At least five females of the wildcat subspecies known as Felis silvestris lybica accomplished this delicate transition from forest to village. And from these five matriarchs all the world’s 600 million house cats are descended.

By studying the mitochondrial DNA of various wildcats, house-cats and ‘fancy cats’, Carlos Driscoll and colleagues from the National Cancer Institute, spent six years travelling to various parts of the world in order to track down the closest relatives of today’s house cat community. Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Behe has recently published ‘The Edge Of Evolution: The Search For The Limits Of Darwinism‘, a descendant to his ‘Darwin’s Black Box‘, and as can be expected, there has been a fairly robust response to it from his many detractors within the scientific community, notably from Jerry Coyne, Sean Carroll, Michael Ruse and particularly Richard Dawkins, from whose review I’ve quoted various comments below. For his part, Michael Behe, of the Discovery Institute has addressed some of these reviews, excluding so far, Dawkins’, on his Amazon blog, and appears to be as convinced as ever that his ideas are correct, based as they are on his perceived inadequacies of scientific explanations as to how evolution works at the macro level. One of his earlier theories concerned irreducible complexity, which he describes thus in the afforementioned ‘Darwin’s Black Box…

By irreducibly complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning. An irreducibly complex system cannot be produced directly (that is, by continuously improving the initial function, which continues to work by the same mechanism) by slight, successive modifications of a precursor system, because any precursor to an irreducibly complex system that is missing a part is by definition nonfunctional. An irreducibly complex biological system, if there is such a thing, would be a powerful challenge to Darwinian evolution. (p. 39) Read the rest of this entry »

Just a quick post to report on developments in the ongoing saga of the Hadza tribe in Tanzania, and their struggle to hang on to their lands, which look set to be handed over to the Abu Dhabi royal family, in a lease agreement with the Tanzanian government – the royals already use another area in Tanzania for this purpose, but their fondness for hunting has meant that the area they currently lease is no longer sufficient to cater for their recreational needs.

Foremost to their defence in the blogosphere is Chris O’Brien at Northstate Science, who not only has written several pieces on this subject, but has also worked with the Hadza in the past – check his site for earlier posts, and for the time being, here’s an update on the situation from him,

Well, once again, thanks to all who took the time to spread the word about the current plight of the Hadzabe. Duane at Abnormal Interests actually took the time to call the US State Department and was successful in reaching two individuals in the Bureau of African Affairs. You can read more about it at Duane’s blog. I received an email from the State Department in response to my email inquiries, but it was the usual bureaucratic form letter along the lines of “thank you very much for your concern…the State Department values all feedback…should you require further assistance…yada, yada, yada…” – so, altogether not very helpful. Duane’s efforts I’m sure made more inroads. I have heard nothing from Cultural Survival nor Survival International.

A visit to Abnormal Interests revealed the following from Duane,

I decided to go to the website for the US Embassy in Tanzania to see if they have a public position on the attempt to displace the Hadza. They don’t. An Embassy will seldom react to a local issue without direction from Washington. Assistant Secretary Dr. Jendayi Frazer leads the Bureau of African Affairs and Barbara Yoder is the Country Officer in the Bureau of African Affairs for Tanzania and Uganda.

I decided to call Yoder. She indicated that she was unaware of the issue. She said that our conversation was the first she heard of it. As far as she knew, and she would know, there is no US Government position with regard to the possible displacement of the Hadza. She directed me to Joseph Sokoine, Political Counselor for Tanzania in the United States. He was aware of the issue and seeking a position from his government. He hoped that that position would be available within the next few days. He plans to make it public. Both Yoder and Sokoine where extremely polite and neither seemed at all defensive. But of course, those qualities are part of their job. Read the rest of this entry »