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StephenMatheson's Documents
Glaucoma & Radiation
A summary of new research showing that radiation treatment can eradicate glaucoma in mice. Written for Dr. Simon John of the Jackson Laboratory.
Category:ScienceReads:15Uploaded:05 / 17 / 2012ShareAdd to collectionEvolution by weakening: how mutations work together
Molecular evolution: improve a protein by weakening it by Stephen F. Matheson Originally published on Quintessence of Dust, August 2011 In the cartoon version of evolution that is often employed by critics of the theory, a new protein (B) can arise from an ancestral version (A) by stepwise evolution only if each of the intermediates between A and B are functional in some way (or at least not harmful). This sounds reasonable enough, and it's a good starting point for basic evolutionary reasoning.
Category:ScienceReads:81Uploaded:08 / 08 / 2011ShareAdd to collectionA ruthlessly selfish piece of DNA
What a selfish little piece of... by Stephen F. Matheson Originally published on Quintessence of Dust, August 2011 "The Selfish Gene." "Selfish DNA." Oh, how such phrases can get people bent out of shape. Stephen Jay Gould hated such talk (see a little book called The Panda's Thumb), and Richard Dawkins devoted more time to answering critics of his use of the term 'selfish' than should have been necessary. Dawkins' thesis was pretty straightforward, and he provided real examples of "selfish" beh
Category:ScienceReads:57Uploaded:08 / 02 / 2011ShareAdd to collectionNew tricks for old enzymes: rewiring cell signaling systems
Evolution cheats, or how to get an old enzyme to do new tricks by Stephen F. Matheson Originally published on Quintessence of Dust, July 2011 It is of course a cliché to state that eukaryotic cells (i.e., cells that are not bacteria) are complex. In the case of an animal, tens of thousands of proteins engage in fantastically elaborate interactions that somehow coax a single cell into generating a unique and magnificent organism. These interactions are often portrayed as exquisitely precise, usin
Category:ScienceReads:68Uploaded:07 / 31 / 2011ShareAdd to collectionClonal interference and the speed limit of evolution
Clone wars, or how evolution got a speed limit by Stephen F. Matheson Originally published on Quintessence of Dust, January 2009. The standard simplified narrative of evolutionary adaptation goes something like this. A population of organisms is exposed to a challenge of some kind. Perhaps a new predator has appeared on the scene, or the temperature of the environment has ticked up a degree or two, or the warm little pond is slowly accumulating a toxic chemical. Some of the organisms in the popu
Category:ScienceReads:252Uploaded:05 / 26 / 2011ShareAdd to collectionReview of Inside The Human Genome by John C. Avise
Review of Inside the Human Genome: A Case For Non-Intelligent Design by John C. Avise Published in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 63:58-59, March 2011. Freely available online at the ASA website. 1 INSIDE THE HUMAN GENOME: A Case for Non- Intelligent Design by John C. Avise. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. 222 pages including notes, glossary, index. Hardcover; $19.95. ISBN: 9780195393439. Many of the readers of PSCF have heard this interesting story: a Harvard student si
Category:BookReads:133Uploaded:05 / 26 / 2011ShareAdd to collectionAlu elements and blindness
Alu need to know about parasitic DNA: Alu elements and blindness by Stephen F. Matheson Originally published on Quintessence of Dust, April 2011 Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness in humans, and the leading cause of visual impairment during advanced age. The condition comes in two basic forms, the most severe of which is untreatable. Called geographic atrophy (GA), this condition involves the steady destruction of the retinal pigment epithelium, a layer of tis
Category:ScienceReads:131Uploaded:05 / 26 / 2011ShareAdd to collectionAlu elements: introduction
Alu need to know about parasitic DNA: Introduction to Alu elements by Stephen F. Matheson Originally published on Quintessence of Dust, April 2011. Defenders of intelligent design theory often dwell on the topic of "junk DNA," which has been molded into a masterpiece of folk science. The ID approach to "junk DNA" involves a fictional story about "Darwinism" discouraging its study, and a contorted and simplistic picture of a "debate" about whether "junk DNA" has "function." The fictional story is
Category:ScienceReads:150Uploaded:05 / 26 / 2011ShareAdd to collectionWhich came first, the bird or the smaller genome?
Which came first, the bird or the smaller genome? by Stephen F. Matheson Originally published on Quintessence of Dust, August 2007. It’s easy to think of a genome as a collection of genes, perhaps because so many of the metaphors used to explain genes and genomes (blueprint, book of life, Rosetta Stone) can give one the impression that everything in a genome is useful or functional. But genomes are, in fact, packed with debris. Many genomes contain huge collections of fossil genes: genes that ha
Category:ScienceReads:157Uploaded:05 / 25 / 2011ShareAdd to collectionPhylotypic stages and evolutionary development: Part III -- Fish and more.
It’s just a stage. A phylotypic stage. Part III: Fish and more. by Stephen F. Matheson Originally posted on Panda's Thumb, December 2010. Given that disputes over the existence and meaning of the phylotypic stage and the hourglass model have simmered in various forms for a century and a half, the remarkable correspondence between the hourglass model and gene expression divergence discovered by Kalinka and Varga and colleagues would be big news all by itself. But amazingly, that issue of Nature i
Category:ScienceReads:142Uploaded:05 / 25 / 2011ShareAdd to collection
