Comments on: Glimpses of the Fourth Domain?

By: Invisible aliens: they’re not life as we know it — yet | SmartPlanet

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:01:39 +0000

[...] one knows what organisms could be the bearers of those anomalous genes, but one possibility that Carl Zimmer has discussed in his eye-opening book A Planet of Viruses is that they come from the nucleocytoplasmic large DNA [...]

By: Visiones del Cuarto Dominio - LibreConocimiento.Com

Visiones del Cuarto Dominio - LibreConocimiento.Com — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:36:26 +0000

[...] Bueno, pues puede que estemos en ciernes de otra “revolución”. El reconocimiento de que hay un Cuarto Dominio de la vida. [...]

By: Trouble in the Fourth Domain? | The Loom | moregoodstuff.info

Trouble in the Fourth Domain? | The Loom | moregoodstuff.info — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:46:32 +0000

[...] March I wrote about two studies that raised the tantalizing possibility that the tree of life, which till now has [...]

By: Virus as Koosh ball: My favorite image of the day | The Loom | moregoodstuff.info

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 21:16:36 +0000

[...] they are indeed viruses, and perhaps the most interesting viruses on Earth. They may even represent an ancient branch of the tree of life, reaching back several billion [...]

By: Monster Viruses | Sinting Link

Monster Viruses | Sinting Link — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:05:16 +0000

[...] Zimmer previews his next [...]

By: William C Wesley

William C Wesley — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:57:29 +0000

The transfer of genes suggests there is more to evolution than purely random mutation, this sounds like a more highly evolved systemic way to introduce “mutations” on a regular basis without waiting for gene damage to accumulate. After all mutations are a required component of evolution. A species that only had random mutation would not be able to accumulate enough mutations quickly enough even given selection to match conditions on a suddenly changing earth yet there is evidence evolution can proceed rapidly at times. If genes can be transferred from one species to another then the speed of evolution would be greatly accelerated. This would constitute a process of evolution that was itself more highly evolved. Creative work proceeds in the exact same manner, parts of inventions are mixed and matched and then tested to see if and how they work. It does not matter if it is an artist or a scientist new ideas are unlikely combination’s of often dissimilar old ideas that just happen to work in actual practice.

By: Press release? We don’t need no stinking press release?

Press release? We don’t need no stinking press release? — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 02:29:07 +0000

[...] and paper were immediately picked up by a host of prominent and thoughtful science bloggers (e.g. Carl Zimmer and PZ Myers), who appreciated (I am speculating) not being talked down to. But more impressively, [...]

By: Canadian Ontario Wayne

Canadian Ontario Wayne — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:30:52 +0000

Is the fourth dimension as presented just what we have in the third dimension, that we think we understand from our perspective living in this third dimension? Would the fourth, fifth or even the tenth dimension not be in vibrations? We still don’t understand or know how to reveal these for our understanding or seeing!!! DO WE??

By: The largest known virus | Sinting Link

The largest known virus | Sinting Link — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:05:33 +0000

[...] stuff in there is just lovely, but I chose to highlight Mimivirus because, as luck would have it, Zimmer recently wrote a blog post about the family of viruses to which Mimi, here, belongs. Turns out, these viruses, called Nucleocytoplasmic Large DNA Viruses aren’t just big. [...]

By: MT-LA

MT-LA — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:58:37 +0000

Nordstrom’s is running a sale on Ed Yong Genes so that everybody can finally forget about Ed Hardy