Here are the latest updates to Understanding Evolution. You can also sign up to receive alerts about updates via our monthly email newsletter or RSS feed.

		When fighting leukemia, evolutionary history matters - December 2011 In the next few months, college students across the country will be offered the chance to save a life by swabbing cells from the insides of their cheeks and registering as a potential marrow donor with Be The Match®. The Give A Spit About Cancer campaign, which launched in October, helps college students organize marrow donor registry drives. The cells collected in these drives are used to figure out who might be able to donate marrow or blood stem cells to a patient with a life-threatening disease like leukemia. While ethnicity is irrelevant to most medical procedures, marrow and blood stem cell transplants are an exception to this rule.

		An antibiotic that exploits evolutionary history - October 2011 This month, the World Health Organization announced that tuberculosis cases are on the decline for the first time in at least 20 years. We seem finally to be winning what has been a very long battle. Tuberculosis bacteria have been attacking us since modern humans began to migrate out of Africa around 40,000 years ago. If you enjoy classic literature, you'll be familiar with the cough, fever, and weight loss of consumption (the old-fashioned term for tuberculosis), which used to be a near certain death sentence. That changed when the aminoglycoside antibiotic streptomycin was discovered in 1943.

		The evidence lines up in early mammal evolution - September 2011 Back in the Jurassic, dinosaurs may have dominated terrestrial ecosystems, but they were not alone. Scurrying around their feet and clinging to the trees above them were the fuzzy ancestors of their successors. When most of the dinosaurs perished, the surviving mammals diversified into the dinosaurs' niches, where they remain today. Last month, scientists reported on the discovery of a fossil mammal from China that would have lived alongside the dinosaurs and that, at 160 million years old, represents one of the earliest mammals known.

		Sex, speciation, and fishy physics - updated July 2011 For the summer holidays, Evo in the News will be revisiting past news items to bring you up-to-date on recent research and developments. In March of 2009, we reported on how the physics of light seems to have spurred speciation in Lake Victoria's cichlid fish. This summer, we report on new evidence that backs up this hypothesis — and that highlights the threat posed to these fish by pollution that clouds the lake's waters.

		Quick evolution leads to quiet crickets - updated June 2011 For the summer holidays, Evo in the News will be revisiting past news items to bring you up-to-date on recent research and developments. In December of 2006, we reported on a bizarre case of evolution in action. Crickets on the Hawaiian island of Kauai were being parasitized by flies that track the crickets down by following their mating chirps. When a new mutation arose that caused male crickets to develop silent wings, it swept through the population since it helped male crickets avoid being eaten alive by the flies' larvae. In June of 2008, we reported on new research into the genetics of this mutation. This year, we continue to follow the story of the silent crickets. Researchers recently announced that they've looked more closely at the crickets' genetics in order to learn how crickets arrived on Hawaii in the first place and how the mutation might have gotten a foothold in the island population.

		"Error. Greed does not compute." - May 2011 Swarms of tiny robots have given up their selfish ways and started sharing resources for the greater good. Though this might sound like the plot of a bad summer blockbuster, it is real news. This month, a team of Swiss researchers announced that they've used robots to simulate biological evolution. The simple, mobile robots — each a little larger than a sugar cube — began their lives directionless, meandering aimlessly into walls. But after a few generations of natural selection, their computer programs evolved so that they became efficient foragers, purposefully collecting disks that represent food. None of that is particularly surprising. Scientists have long been able to simulate evolution through computer programs that mimic the processes of genetic inheritance, mutation, recombination, and reproduction. What is noteworthy is that many of these robots eventually evolved to help one another, sacrificing personal success to aid other robots in their group.

		Gender-biased bacteria throw off an evolutionary balance - April 2011 This month, biologists reported that a bacterial infection has run rampant in populations of a major crop pest in the Southwest. The bacterium (called Rickettsia) is a close relative of the species that causes typhus in humans. Its host is the sweet potato whitefly, a tiny bug that can occur in large enough numbers to form visible clouds. Whiteflies suck the sap from plants and spread crop diseases, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in a single season. In just a few years, the percentage of southwestern whiteflies infected with Rickettsia has skyrocketed from 1% to more than 90%. Unfortunately, this is not the boon for local farmers that it might seem.

		Toxic river means rapid evolution for one fish species - March 2011 Though we often think of evolution as occurring at a snail's pace, one fish species is highlighting just how quickly evolution occurs — in the right circumstances. Between 1947 and 1976, General Electric released more than a million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River. PCBs can kill fish and seabirds and have been linked to cancer and other serious health problems in humans. PCBs were banned in 1979, but the toxins have remained at high levels in the Hudson because they settle into the sediments on the bottom of the river and don't break down. Now, scientists have discovered that, over the past 60 years, one bottom-feeding fish species, the Atlantic tomcod, has evolved resistance to PCBs.

		Evo in the news: Bad at estimating? Blame evolution - February 2011 The next time you are in the kitchen, try this experiment: pick up a box of butter (four sticks) in one hand and a box of saltines (four packets) in the other. Which is heavier? If you said the butter, you are not alone. Most people would identify the box of butter as the heavier object — even though, if you look at the labels, you'll see that they both weigh exactly one pound! This is an example of the size-weight illusion, and it is incredibly common. Read more to see the evolution (and baseball) connection.

		Evo in the news: Genetic variation helps rescue endangered panthers - December 2010 This fall, biologists announced the apparent success of a last-ditch conservation effort: the Florida panther, once slated for extinction, has been given a second lease on life by the infusion of genetic variation. In the 1900s, this population nosedived because of hunting and habitat loss. By the 1990s, there were fewer than 30 Florida panthers left. Find out about the evolutionary basis of this successful conservation plan.

		Evo in the news: Spreading disease on evolutionary timescales - November 2010 If you are trying to stay healthy this cold and flu season, you may find yourself washing your hands frequently and avoiding crowded places like schools and airports. That's because most infectious diseases that we are familiar with are passed from human to human — and the more human germs you come into contact with, the more likely you are to have one make its home in your body. However, on evolutionary timescales, pathogens don't necessarily respect species boundaries. Find out how a deadly strains of malaria jump between chimp, gorilla and human hosts.

		Evo in the news: Evolving altitude aptitude - October 2010 If you live in the lowlands, you may have experienced the huffing and puffing that typically accompany a trip to higher altitudes. That's because oxygen levels go down as one goes up. Travelling to Denver from sea level means a 17% decrease in available oxygen. Our bodies compensate for even this small change with faster breathing and a higher heart rate — at least until we acclimate to the thinner atmosphere. And a loftier vacation spot (for example, La Paz, Bolivia at 11,942 feet) could bring on serious altitude sickness with insomnia, nausea, and swelling — but not for everyone. Read more about the adaptations of the Tibetan highlanders.

		Evo in the news: Bed bugs bite back thanks to evolution - September 2010 Bed bugs might sound like an old-fashioned problem, but now they are back — and with a vengeance. Fifty years ago, the blood-sucking pests were nearly eradicated in the United States thanks in part to the use of pesticides like DDT. Today, they are creeping over sheets — and tormenting hapless sleepers — across the country. Read about how bedbugs evolve to overcome control measures.

		Evo in the news: Making sense of ancient hominin DNA - May 2010 In the last two months, news outlets have been abuzz with the announcement of what many suggested was a new hominin species. In 2008, a 40,000 year old pinky bone from a child was discovered in a Siberian cave. The bone was not enough to identify the species of its possessor, but since both Neanderthals and humans are known to have lived in the area at the time, scientists assumed it belonged to one of these two species. That all changed in March of this year, when German researchers announced that they'd managed to extract DNA from the fossil — and it didn't match up to the known genetic sequences of either humans or Neanderthals. Find out more.

Subscribe to Understanding Evolution! Get free updates and news stories via email or RSS.