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Reports on a study from the University of Sydney in New South Wales showing that genetic diversity among worker bees helps make a hive more stable, by better regulating temperature.

This article describes a science field called evo-devo which is the combined study of evolution and development. Evo-devo is the exploration of the process by which a fertilized egg transforms into an adult. Researchers are finding that the evolution of complex forms can be accomplished by a process requiring no more than tweaks to already existing genes. Further, it appears the number of genes that can be tweaked are relatively few.

This case dramatizes the discovery of a Mendelian trait in humans, namely the variation in the ability to taste the chemical phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). By examining data and questions, students draw connections between Mendel's principles of inheritance and variation at the DNA level by learning about the phenotypic differences due to the single nucleotide polymorphisms in a major gene influencing the ability to taste PTC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports that researchers have identified a genetic mutation directly linked to heart attacks. Results of a study examining members of one family with a history of heart disease, which will be published in the journal "Science"; Comments from Eric J. Topol, chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic, indicating that the gene is programmed for heart disease; View of author that the finding offers a new understanding of heart disease; View of scientists that the gene is unlikely to be in the general population; How rare genetic mutations can lead to discoveries benefiting the general population.

Some honeybees are known to be thrill-seeking adventurers -- the David Blaines of their hive, so to speak. Known as scouts, they fearlessly leave their hives and search for new sources of food and new hive locations for the rest of the colony. Now, a new study suggests that these scouts have genetic brain patterns that set them apart from other bees. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The gaudy brown Brazilian butterfly known as Heliconius numata has long puzzled geneticists. It has seven different wing patterns, each of which mimics that of a different local species of Melinaea, another group of butterflies. This genetic trick is as surprising as if people all grew to certain prescribed heights, like 5 feet, 6 feet or 7 feet, with nothing in between. To help perfect their imitation of the seven Melinaea models, the butterflies have somehow locked what should be a continuous range of natural variation into seven specific patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charles Darwin has had a remarkable record over the past century, not only in the affirmation of evolution by natural selection, but in the number of his more specific ideas that have been proved correct. He may, however, have been wrong about invasive species, at least where amphibians are concerned. Darwin believed that when an invasive species entered a region where a closely related species already existed, it would most likely be unsuccessful because of a competition for resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As with any other species, human populations are shaped by the usual forces of natural selection, like famine, disease or climate. A new force is now coming into focus. It is one with a surprising implication -- that for the last 20,000 years or so, people have inadvertently been shaping their own evolution. The force is human culture, broadly defined as any learned behavior, including technology. The evidence of its activity is the more surprising because culture has long seemed to play just the opposite role. Biologists have seen it as a shield that protects people from the full force of other selective pressures, since clothes and shelter dull the bite of cold and farming helps build surpluses to ride out famine. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The principal rationale for the $3 billion spent to decode the human genome was that it would enable the discovery of the variant genes that predispose people to common diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's. A major expectation was that these variants had not been eliminated by natural selection because they harm people only later in life after their reproductive years are over, and hence that they would be common. This idea, called the common disease/common variant hypothesis, drove major developments in biology over the last five years. Washington financed the HapMap, a catalog of common genetic variation in the human population. Companies like Affymetrix and Illumina developed powerful gene chips for scanning the human genome. Medical statisticians designed the genomewide association study, a robust methodology for discovering true disease genes and sidestepping the many false positives that have plagued the field. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports on a group of seven pharmaceutical companies called the International Serious Adverse Events Consortium that is designed to study genetic links to health problems associated with drugs. The first study to be conducted by the group will examine whether variations in a person's DNA influence the development of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome while the next study will look at genetic variations in drug-induced liver injury. Among the participating companies include Abbott Laboratories and GlaxoSmithKline PLC.

Reports that biologist W. Charles Kerfoot is hatching 300-year-old eggs that were deposited in a Michigan lake in order to compare generations and investigate evolutionary change. Focus of Kerfoot on the eggs of a water flea, Daphnia retrocurva; Evolution of the daphnia in order to escape its predators; Claim that whether a mutation takes hold depends on natural selection; Reference to an article by scientist Bruce Lahn in the July 2005 issue of "Trends in Genetics".

Reports on changes in the physical size and shape of barn swallows. How the tail feathers of the male have grown longer in the last 20 years; Significant of excellent tail feathers in the mating ritual; Growth of the outer tail feathers which has been half an inch; Other changes in wildlife such as larger beaks in finches believed to have been brought on by droughts on the Galápagios Islands; Research work of Anders Pape Moller in France; Disagreement between scientists on whether or not the changes in the birds are due to climate or evolution.

Presents an article about being a research assistant. Role in the research process; Discussion on the concept of natural variation and mutation; Reflections about the way of life in a laboratory.

Editorial. Discusses the coexistence of Darwinism and faith in the classroom. Belief that creationists are not dictating science education in America; How teachers will be discouraged from exploring natural selection by the removal of questions about evolution from Kansas state tests; Questions about the adequacy of Darwin's idea to explain all the complexities of life on Earth; Assumption that faith and Darwin's theory cannot coexist.

Opinion. Views the notion of human species being divided into biological units, races and certain basic differences. Effects of this notion; Relative performances on I.Q. tests; Findings of the book `The Bell Curve'; Human species evolution; Genetic diversity; Pattern of variation; Differences in intelligence.

Discusses the dramatic differences among male reproductive organs in insects. Observation of complexity and embellishment that seem to be beyond utilitarian need; Research of Goran Arnqvist of the University of Umea in Sweden indicating that male reproductive organs are equivalent to peacock feathers; The role of sexual selection in evolutionary change.