Evolution 'has stopped', or 'not stopped' ...

Not long ago, everyone was talking about how humans would evolve into the future .... now comes a claim by Professor Steve Jones that we are the peak of evolution. In a recent lecture (Tuesday 7 October 2008 at University College London) he posed the question of whether the human race is in decline?

His thesis is that, due to the way we now structure our societies, plenty of people are surviving who once did not, or are having children when once they would have stayed celibate, and medicine can now offer treatment for many with damaged genes, that can then be passed on.

Many people are worried about what this might do to future generations. Professor Steve Jones, argues that everything we know about the process of evolution tells us that - at least in the developed world, and at least for the time being - human evolution has slowed down or stopped.

This is the exact opposite of the theory of Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics who believes that humans are still evolving and in fact may be at the point of splitting again.

I guess, you pays your money and takes your choice.

"Its life Jim, but not as we know it"

Over Fifty Years ago, a chemist named Stanley Miller started a series of experiments ......

Its Life Jim, But Not As We Know It

..... to try and recreate the conditions on the early Earth, and to attempt to create the building blocks of life.

The Queen is Googled

HRH aka Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was Googled on the UK Google web site.

As this only happens once, I saved it for the peoples of the Empire, Commonwealth, and in the Breakaway colonies.

Silver Surfers Defy Ageing!

Good News!

If you are reading this you are halving your chances of developing Dementia ..... well according to this story ... if you are middle aged, not that I am .... ahem!

It has long been thought that activities which keep the brain active, such as crossword puzzles, may help minimise that impact - and the latest study suggests that surfing the web can be added to the list.


Areas activated by reading a book in the brain of an experienced web user


Web use stimulates much more activity in the same brain


Brain activity in web newcomers: similar for reading and Internet use.

The more you surf, the better the results .... so 'shine on', you "Silver Surfing" dudes and dudettes ....

One Is A Magic Number

This story completes my trilogy of blogs on a loose 'relationship' theme where "One is a magic number" if you are a 'Desulforudis Audaxviator' (Bold Traveller) bug, which is a recently discovered form of life which may be the the 'loneliest living species known to science', and was found 2.8km (1.74 miles) beneath the surface of the Earth, inside a gold mine near Johannesburg.

This form of life, lives in its own universe with just its compatriots for company, and lives in total darkness at 60C (140F) heat, using water, hydrogen and sulphate for its energy needs.

This discovery almost certainly means that life can, and will develop anywhere in the Universe where it can, because this is the second life form found on Earth that has developed independently from our Solar powered one.

In the last few years, we have also found that bacterium life appears to have developed independently from us, in the superheated sea vents on the deep ocean floors (where no solar light reaches and under tremendous pressures), and this now raises the possibility that life has developed elsewhere in the solar system, as well as in other Solar Systems in the Galaxy.

The fact that ice water is on the surface of Mars and is now being studied, just adds to the possibilities of life there, at least in the past .... I say that because conditions on Mars, may actually be, or have been, much better in some respects, than deep inside the planet Earth.

A sentence in Latin from Jules Verne's novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth: "Descende, Audax viator, et terrestre centrum attinges", which translates as "Descend, Bold Traveller, and attain the centre of the Earth" is the neat basis of the new life forms name, and with Vernes interest in the Deep Oceans and Space travel as well, makes a nice link for the possibilities this bug represents.