Evolution - Evolution Links

Evolutionary Links:

Evolutionary Strategies (Berlin)

A superb site. These people have thought about meta evolution in detail and used it as an optimisation technique. ALSO they study real examples of results of evolution. One 'must-visit' is the link from this page to a description of optimisations in bird flight - a design of the wing that reduces likelihood of stalling.

Evolution - Selected Papers and Commentary

This site is full of interesting material, both on the history of evolutionary thought and on up to date molecular biology.

Genetic Dominance and the Heat-Shock Response

This paper addresses the question of why functional alleles tend to be dominant over deleterious mutant alleles - an example of a non-random pattern of change that would not be anticipated from a naive interpretation of evolutionary theory.
The accepted explanation is that non-functional alleles tend to be absences. This 'answer', however, leaves open the question of how come the functional copy from the second chromosome is able to compensate for a 50% loss in function. Why do genes have an at-least two-fold safety margin?
Forsdyke's answer rests on an evolutionary pressure that is exerted by an internal mechanism, the heat-shock system.


Baldwin Effect - Bibliography

Excellent starting point for finding out what the 'Baldwin Effect' is, its history, and what other resources there are on the web about it.
The 'Baldwin Effect' is essentially about the evolution of adaptability in a creature. Adaptability tends to prefigure specific adaptations. The Baldwin Effect makes it easier for the evolutionary process to lock on to new strategies.

Creation Science

One interest in this site is the range of different arguments used that evolution is not a viable theory. Amongst other issues the site resurrects Darwin's own concerns (Chapter 6 of 'The Origin of Species') about how 'organs of extreme perfection' like the eye could have arisen.

www.talkorigins.org

This site addresses many supposed problems with the conventional theory of evolution, as well as clarifying common misconceptions, e.g. what is Gould really saying with 'Punctuated Equilibria'? I particularly liked the technical articles on:

Evolution of colour vision

Discusses relationships between 'opsins'.

Jury Rigged Design

Page which presents examples of adaptation of features. (But see my comments in Retina Back to Front? ).

Erratic Evolution

Abstract of a Proceedings of the National Academy of Science paper which seems to demolish the 'Molecular Clock' hypothesis; The rate of mutations in DNA is not constant.