Sep 10
![Contents of the human genome [CC-BY-SA-3.0 Steve Cook]](https://www.polypompholyx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/genome_contents-267x300.png)
In 1972, the geneticist Susumu Ohno coined the term “junk DNA” to explain why the genomes of closely related organisms vary so much in size: The mammalian genome […] contains roughly […] 3.0 × 109 base pairs. This is at least 750 times the genome size of E. coli. If we take the simplistic assumption that …
Jul 26
![Angiosperm phylogeny stressing magnoliids [CC-BY-SA-3.0 Steve Cook]: thistle appears as an outgroup to the ((magnolia,bay),(pepper,birthwort)) clade](https://www.polypompholyx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/angiosperm_phylogeny_stressing_magnoliids-300x153.png)
T. Ryan Gregory has a great post at Genomicron on the ‘Platypus Fallacy’. He imagines a platypus professor explaining the wonders of the Human Genome Project to a group of student platypodes: “The lineage of which humans are a part is a very ancient offshoot of our mammalian family tree, so it was 166 million …
Apr 27
![Blue-tit feeding at bird-feeder, London 2012 [cc-by-sa-3.0 Steve Cook]](https://www.polypompholyx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Cyanistes_caeruleus-300x256.jpg)
I’m the proud owner of a Madagascan cycad. He or she (I won’t know until s/he gets older) gets an annual decking with baubles at Christmas, but spends most of the rest of the year getting in the way of the television. Cycads look a lot like palms, but rather than producing flowers and fruits, they make cones …