News this month from Imperial College London caught my attention with the provocative headline, “New study shows how bacteria evolved powered-up propellers.” An image caption goes on to say that “Dr. Morgan Beeby’s lab has discovered how some flagella — tiny ‘tail’ propellers used by bacteria for swimming — evolved to be more powerful.” As I read the body of the news item and the original paper on which it is based1, it quickly became apparent that the paper does not demonstrate this at all. This is a classic case of the media overstating the evidence for some evolutionary claim. What Was the Paper’s Key Finding? The study concerns the flagellum of Campylobacter jejuni, which has a wider ring of stator complexes relative to E. Read More ›
Evolution News and Science Today