Rhapsody in cyan

It isn't just the mussels. The Institute for Genomic Research reports some interesting results from the genomic sequencing of cyanobacteria. According to a report in Science Daily, TIGR's sequencing of the genome of cyanobacterium CC9311 discloses that this coastal dweller has adapted to a turbulent, polluted environment by learning to use metals in ways that open-ocean cyanobacteria cannot. CC9311 evidently processes iron, copper, and vanadium; its counterparts don't.

Why take notice? Because this entire division of life at one time rebuilt the earth's atmosphere by essentially poisoning it ... with oxygen. And as a nice lagniappe, cyanobacteria engaged in endosymbiosis with the eukaryotes we call plants and thereby enabled another atmosphere-altering process. You probably know it as photosynthesis.

Now that one big eukaryote is polluting the earth in its own way, cyanobacteria have responded in kind. As the only organisms that can reduce nitrogen and carbon in aerobic conditions, they must love what Homo sapiens sapiens is adding to the atmosphere and the earth's surface.

Teach it. Fund it. Learn it. Or die.

Given the broader Jurisdynamics Network's interest in evolution and its reception by the public, it seems eminently appropriate to note the New York Times' and Concurring Opinions' coverage of the Department of Education's apparent attempt to eliminate evolutionary biology from the list of fields suitable for study by recipients of a federal grant for low-income college students. The DoE calls the omission of category 26.1303 accidental.

Here's how the crucial passage in the DoE's list reports eligible subjects within the broader category, "26.13 Ecology, Evolution, Systematics and Population":

26.1301 Ecology
26.1302 Marine Biology and Biological Oceanography

26.1304 Aquatic Biology/Limnology
26.1305 Environmental Biology
26.1306 Population Biology
26.1307 Conservation Biology
26.1308 Systematic Biology/Biological Systematics
26.1309 Epidemiology
26.1399 Ecology, Evolution, Systematics and Population Biology, Other

Yes, this fair and balanced presentation of the document in question shows a blank line where category 26.1303 should appear. We report. You decide.

As for me, I've decided. This administration has demonstrated no restraint in playing politics with science. It deserves no presumption of good faith on matters of this sort. Evolutionary biology has become a special whipping boy for one of this administration's most rabid constituencies, so much so that pandering to antievolutionist sentiment has reached the highest judicial levels.

Perhaps it is apt, therefore, to remind this audience as well as this scientifically benighted administration and the public at large: Nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution.

I offer one final footnote. Deven Desai's otherwise excellent post at Concurring Opinions fell into the usual pattern of illustrating public disputes over evolution with a depiction of nonhuman primates. Let's try something different here. The graphic accompanying this post provides a hint on why it might be worth teaching, financing, and learning evolutionary biology. Never mind human origins. How about emphasizing human survival as a tactically astute change of pace?

Editor's note: This item is a cross-post from Jurisdynamics.

Dinosaur extinction at peak diversity supports Raup's hypothesis

By scientific and blogospheric standards, this item is ancient news. But it is sufficiently interesting to warrant recording for later use. The spectacular extinction of the dinosaurs at the K-T boundary evidently occurred at peak diversity. This finding strongly supports David Raup, who has long argued that extinction is more a matter of bad luck than of bad genes. The implications for contemporary biodiversity policy should be self-evident.