Frozen Evolution book

Most biologists and biology students think that evolutionary biology is basically a closed chapter of science. But what if this is not the way things are? What if evolutionary biology underwent a quite fundamental revolution in the 70's and 80's of the past century, following which all the textbooks in this field should basically be rewritten?  >> Read more

Frozen plasticity theory

This theory suggests a mechanism of the origin of adaptive traits in sexual organisms. The classical Darwinian mechanism of the origin of adaptive traits by natural selection can explain the evolution of such traits only under a very special situation, e.g., in a genetically homogeneous population of asexual organisms. The frozen plasticity theory is much more general: It can also explain the origin and evolution of adaptive traits in a genetically heterogeneous population of sexual organisms. >> Read more

Watch out for Toxo! The Secret Guide to Practical Science.

XX. Toxoplasma prefers guys! How and why infected women give birth to more sons

When studying the effect of toxoplasmosis on the course of pregnancy we discovered another phenomenon, which we had not previously expected and whose existence shocked us. Šárka Kaňková, my undergraduate student at the time, noticed that latent toxoplasmosis also influences the sex ratio at birth (SRB); that is, the ratio of sons to daughters (92). Specifically, we found that Toxo positive mothers gave birth to more boys than girls (Fig. 45). But this relationship is only true for women with high or medium levels of antibodies, i.e. >> Read more

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