Ooh, a veritable grab-bag of rea...

Ooh, a veritable grab-bag of reading and coffee break discussion in today’s Science Times! Don’t miss fun graphics, videos and other things high school science teachers might want to substitute for today’s curriculum.

I’m happy to see evo-devo getting the spotlight: From a Few Genes, Life’s Myriad Shapes. Here’s a teaser:

Since its humble beginnings as a single cell, life has evolved into a spectacular array of shapes and sizes, from tiny fleas to towering Tyrannosaurus rex, from slow-soaring vultures to fast-swimming swordfish, and from modest ferns to alluring orchids. But just how such diversity of form could arise out of evolution’s mess of random genetic mutations — how a functional wing could sprout where none had grown before, or how flowers could blossom in what had been a flowerless world — has remained one of the most fascinating and intractable questions in evolutionary biology. (more…)