Sexual Selection in Butterflies

Sexual selection is a natural selection among organisms in which specific genetic traits are preferred for reproduction. Sexual selection is special because it may cause domination of a desired trait like colorful feathers on a peacock, wings on a butterfly or even loud roars in lions.

There are two mechanisms of sexual selection: intersexual and intrasexual.
Intrasexual Selection involves characteristics which affect the outcome of competition among members of one sex for access to members of the other sex.
Intersexual Selection would influence the evolution of secondary sexual characteristics which determine the relative "attractiveness" of members of one sex to the other sex.

In this case, the developmental evolution of wing patterns lead to the diversification of butterfly species which intersexually, allows them to become more attractive when it comes to mating.

Sexual selection in Peacocks

Before

After

I decided to model sexual selection as a evolutionary process for my model.  I modeled the process by drawing the peacock before and after the evolutionary process took place. Before the evolutionary effect, the peacock had white feathers and after the process it had vibrant green and blue feathers. The white feathers were too bright for the peacocks and white peacocks were easily spotted by predators, therefore, many males would chose the colorful peacock over the white because they were more appealing. This made sexual selection a selective process as opposed to random since the males had to chose which female they would want to mate with.

Is Humanity Suicidal?

The human race is being "drowned" by the problems that it presents to the Earth.

First ever somatic stem cells obtained

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster, Germany, have successfully isolated and gathered somatic stem cells from skin cells. Hans Schöler and his team took unique protein growth factors that stimulated cell growth. The key was a growth factor never used before in this type of research, Brn4. Before this breakthrough, pluripotent stem cells were obtained from fully differentiated somatic cells. These cells can go as far to differentiate into every type of cell in the body. But, the pluripotency also presents many dangers. According to Schöler, "pluripotent stem cells exhibit such a high degree of plasticity that under the wrong circumstances they may form tumours instead of regenerating a tissue or an organ." Schöler's skin cells, however, can only be multipotent which eliminates the dangers of pluripotency. 


I found this very interesting because Schöler and his team found new stem cells that can be the cure to many fatal diseases and even cancer. These cells are multipotent which does not leave fear of tumors forming from them. It seems everyday we are coming closer and closer to the answer to many cellular diseases found commonly in humans. Each breakthrough is leading us to our goal of eliminating these horrible and deadly diseases.