The Nova Online site is a very interesting and in depth site for those who are interested in learning all about the new scientific discoveries. It is just one part of the huge PBS site. The first part of this site shows the numerous postings exchanged between scholars over the debated question: "How did we get here." Kenneth R. Miller and Phillip E. Johnson, both renowned spokesmen in the evolution/creation debate discuss this question in letters that are 500 words or less. This debate will be continuous until December of 1998, with a new letter appearing online every 3-4 days.
You can also click on an Interview with Lennary Nilsson about the endoscope. This new instrument is used to visualize the interior of a body cavity or hollow organ. This whole interview is rather long and tedious, however, if the topic interests you, you should definitely take a look.
One of the most fascinating parts of this site was an article called "Timing is Everything." In this article, Joe Levine, a renowned scientific journalist, discusses how similarities among developing embryos contain important information. One such piece of information is that we all share common ancestors who evolved a successful body plan. This means that each major animal group has evolved a unique combination of particular body-parts that perform essential functions. The intriguing point is that among all the animals living today, there are only a couple who have really different body-part tool kits. The reason for this is because each body-part is assembled by a group of genes acting under the direct contol of another group of genes, under the control of another group of genes, etc. So, basically. the only way that these animals could have such unique body-part tool kits is that their whole complex genetic program was completely shaken up.
Finally, the last thing that I think you will really enjoy on this site is a series of action photos of developing embryos. There is a chicken, fish, and human embryo to observe. These are actually pictures taken at varioust times that are sped up so that you can view the whole process in a matter of minutes! So what are you waiting for, click on the NOVA bar above and take a look for yourself!
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