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Maybe intelligent design is not dead and maybe the proponents
will be back for another round somewhere. Nonetheless AAAS had
saluted Evolution as one of the 10 breakthroughs of 2005. Clearly,
evolution was not expunded in 2005 but there have been significant
achievements in understanding evolution and its relevance to our
lives as well as life sciences.
From the AAAS:
Evolution has been the foundation and guiding theory of biology since
Darwin gave the theory its proper scientific debut in 1859. But
Darwin probably never dreamed that researchers in 2005 would still be
uncovering new details about the nuts and bolts of his theory - how
does evolution actually work in the world of influenza genes and
chimpanzee genes and stickleback fish armor? Studies that follow
evolution in action claim top honors as the Breakthrough of the Year,
named by Science and its publisher AAAS, the nonprofit science
society.
In 2005, scientists piled up new insights about evolution at the
genetic level and the birth of species, including information that
could help us lead healthier lives in the future. Ironically, these
often-startling discoveries occurred in a year when backers of
"intelligent design" and other opponents of evolution sought to
escalate challenges to this fundamental concept.
This milestone, plus nine other research advances, make up Science's
list of the top 10 scientific developments in 2005, chosen for their
profound implications for society and the advancement of science.
Science's Top Ten list appears in the 23 December 2005 issue of the
journal Science.
Many of this year's breakthrough studies followed evolution at the
genetic level. In October this year, an international team of
researchers unveiled a map of the chimpanzee genome. Scientists are
already poring over the chimpanzee genome and another international
effort, the biggest map to date of single-letter variations in the
human genetic sequence, hoping to get a better glimpse of the human
species' evolutionary history. The two studies give scientists new
material for studying conditions from AIDS to heart disease, and may
lay the groundwork for a future of personalized genetic medicine.
This year's sequencing of the 1918 pandemic flu virus could have a
more immediate impact on medicine. The amazing story of flu genes
preserved in permafrost and painstakingly reconstructed has a
chilling coda: the deadly flu seems to have started out as purely a
bird virus. Understanding the evolution of last century's deadly bird
flu may help us predict and cope with the current bird flu threat.
Other studies showed how small changes in DNA can trigger dramatic
evolutionary events. Researchers found that a single genetic change
can be all it takes to turn one species into many, as in the case of
the Alaskan stickleback fish that lost its armor and evolved from an
ocean-loving species to a variety of landlocked lake dwellers.
Beyond the genome, researchers watched evolution in action among a
number of animals, from caterpillars to crickets, and found that
behavioral differences such as what to eat and when to mate may be
enough to turn a single population into two species. These
painstaking observations and other experiments showed that
evolutionary studies are as relevant to 2005 as they were to 1859.
Science also salutes nine other scientific achievements of 2005.
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2005/1222breakthrough.shtml
for articles in Science, 23 December, 2005 see
http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/btoy2005/ (subscription maybe
required).
Martin
--
Martin Weiss, Ph.D
Vice President, Science
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111 th Street
Corona, New York 11368
718 699 0005 x 356
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