How Did Modern Humans Arrive in East Asia?

*Disclaimer: This post is a reworking of a short paper for a class on early China for which I was assigned the multiregional position of the mutiregional vs. out of Africa debate, so I am likely shortchanging the evidence for the out of Africa position. Multiregionalism is, however, an interesting and plausible position that hasn’t recieved much spotlight, so I am happy to present it to you here.…

How important is gene flow?

There’s a handy article available from the American Journal of Botany that’s caught my eye: Is gene flow the most important evolutionary force in plants? by Norman C. Ellestrand. It opens with a strong statement.

Some scientists consider the word “evolution” to be more or less equivalent with “natural selection” or adaptation. They would, of course, be wrong.

DNA. Photo by John Goode / Flickr.

Measuring the flow of transgenes from GM crops into wild plants

Gene flow under contrasting levels of human disturbance

Rapid development of biotechnology offers new opportunities to ensure our future food supply. Novel traits can be introduced into crops by transgene technology more efficiently than by conventional crop breeding. Since the first commercialization of a genetically modified (GM) crop in 1996, the global area of GM crops has grown steadily and…