Evolution highlights

Here's a few recommendations for short reads about evolution:

Study examines the evolutionary fate of 'useless' traits, about relaxed selection, costly traits, and loss of function.

Scientists Use MicroRNAs To Track Evolutionary History For First Time, about how microRNA can improve our knowledge of phylogenetic relationships.

Ancient Fossils Shed New Light on Evolution of Humans, about how 1.8 million year old fossils from Georgia might change our understanding of the evolution of Homo erectus (i.e. not Homo sapiens).

Evolutionary constraints permeate large metabolic networks, about an approach showing that metabolic pathways are highly constrained. (This article is written by Andreas Wagner, who does great science, but is not my favorite science-writer.)