_In News by Nature this week: Weird Science News looks at evolution through the eyes of an octopus-imitating fish. In our RSS Feeds below we have: the genetic grass is greener on the other side of the river, survival of the un-fittest in salmon farming, and the Galapagos tortoise Lonesome George finds a friend and possible relative.

_In matters of evolution NBN has timidly tread where no sane scientist would dare, suggesting Darwin’s theory does not explain all that we see in biodiversity. This week, no more timidity. Darwin’s theory of evolution—that random mutation in DNA helps some offspring more than others—just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore. We’re not talking Rick Perry-esque skepticism. Rather, we’re thinking learning, and other environmental influences, also drive genetic diversity, possibly a lot faster than could occur by random mutation alone. There are all kinds of ways to affect an individual’s fitness for survival. Take this Christmas cactus for example. Last year NBN cross-fertilized blossoms from this plant with another slightly different strain of the Christmas cactus sharing the same folding table in the window of the offices at NBN. This experiment in evolution produced two bright red buds and a few insights, among them that evolution does not favor species subject to experiments by amateur scientists. If you're looking for more scientific insight, in Weird Science News this week we look at a species of fish that is fairing a little better than our cactus in its own evolutionary experiment. Just below we have snippets on: the genetic grass being greener on the other side of the river, survival of the un-fittest in salmon farming and Lonesome George, the last known living Pinta Island tortoise finds a friend and possible relative. Have a great week folks and thank you for reading NBN.

We Read It So You Don't Have To, With The Hope That You Will Want To. Published Every Tuesday, Or There Abouts.

_ MIT’s Education Arcade uses online gaming to teach science While learning’s role in evolutionary survival may be up for debate, learning’s role in economic survival is set is stone. There’s a reason you don’t go to college to work at McDonalds. So this proposal by MIT to help teenagers learn math and science through video games presented something of a problem. Is it a reach to think kids attracted to video games are less attracted to math and science? Math and science require concentration and innovation. Video games require reflexes and whatever is the opposite of innovation. Can this MIT project take the hormone-charged minds of teenagers and put them back on an innovative track before they find themselves on the wrong side of the fast-food counter of life? A better question in today’s political climate is: how do we keep many of our wanna-be world leaders from changing this country into a place where there's plenty of work for expert video game players.

_Galapagos Giant Tortoise Species to be Brought Back from Extinction. We’re not sure why we’re posting this, other than so much of this issue is dedicated to evolution and genetics we felt compelled. Geneticists of all stripes are foaming at the mouth that a subspecies of giant tortoise long thought extinct might still be alive somewhere out on the Galapagos Islands. Apparently, another subspecies of the giant tortoise was recently found containing much of the DNA of the extinct species. That discovery is leading scientists to think that there must be living versions of the extinct species somewhere because there’s no other explanation for their DNA appearing in the hybrid. The real beauty of all this is these geneticists are making a living on these beautiful tropical islands chasing turtles around.

_Are you scientifically literate? Take our quiz The Christian Science Monitor, ran this science test at the beginning of this week and NBN got 23 of 37 correct when we noticed an sudden up-tick in the difficulty of the questions, like this one. “The mathematical constant e is defined as the base of the natural system of logarithms, having a numerical value of approximately what?”  We don’t know, maybe…2.718? Bingo! Now who the heck knows that? We figured it better to quit the quiz before we hit the depressing .500 mark. We admit to making a few lucky guesses but having many more near misses. The quiz if fun and more important an excellent insight into how science touches so many facets of our lives. Take the test. If nothing else it might bump NBN’s “visits duration” statistic for this week. Yeah, we’re addicted to our website stats.

_ Seals blamed for lack of cod recovery There are two thoughts to take away from this fairly straight forward article linking exploding seal populations to collapsing cod populations. First is these boom-and-bust population swings are increasingly becoming the new "system" in our ecosystems. The days of homeostasis are over.  Man’s influences keep the global environment in a constant state of change. Second, the damage the resurgent seal population is doing to cod populations pales in comparison to the damage some fishing boats do to the ocean-floor ecosystems that provide the nursery for cod populations. Which might explain why fishermen quoted in this story are tripping over themselves to propose way to curb seal populations.

_Hatcheries Change Salmon Genetics After a Single Generation The impact of hatcheries on salmonids is so profound that in just one generation traits are selected that allow fish to survive and prosper in the hatchery environment, at the cost of their ability to thrive and reproduce in a wild environment. This discovery is more than just another argument for aquaponics and moving fish farms inshore. It also illustrates just how aggressively humans are redefining "fittest" as it relates to evolution and just what is a "wild" population in a world where humans call the shots in most every ecosystem in the world. Hatchery born salmon have been released into the wild for decades. The results of this study suggest we haven't had a truly wild population of salmon in decades.

_This video shows just how readily an animal’s DNA changes to accommodate, or take advantage of, its surroundings. It says the same species of fish found on different side of the lower Congo River have variation in their DNA that’s greater than five percent. To put that in perspective that’s the same difference between chimp and human DNA. (Hey wake up, we’re not finished making our point) So, if evolution is so directly and quickly driven by the environment what’s the significance of man now adapting our environment to accommodate our DNA? Think about it.

_ Solar-powered Internet Connectivity in Lascahobas, Haiti We talk often about the internet playing a part in human evolution, so we thought this article on the Illinois Institute of Technology’s solar powered internet access project in Haiti might be a good illustration for this subject. The Haitian school being wired up has just two teachers who have ever used the internet. That means none of the students have. It will take some work by the students to fully understand just how powerful the internet is: many may get no further than the nearest online free video game. So just hooking-up the school isn’t enough bring the students up to speed. They will need some instruction. But so many of the minds that will be opened to this experience are quite literally blank slates. It’s one thing to be a second grader in Dayton Ohio who has never seen the internet, you’ve seen so many other elements of technology the shock is muted. But a Haitian? That’s a shock to the system that might just reach into the DNA in some fashion. Certainly any student so-exposed will stand a far better chance of survival in this world than one who isn't.