100 years of primate paleontology

100 years of servitude.

Physics in 100 years

Here I indulge in wide-ranging speculations on the shape of physics, and technology closely related to physics, over the next one hundred years. Themes include the many faces of unification, the re-imagining of quantum theory, and new forms of engineering on small, intermediate, and large scales. When Leon Cooper, on behalf of Brown University, asked me to contribute to their 250th anniversary ...

100 years of sperm chemotaxis

Exactly 100 years ago, F.R. Lillie reported chemotaxis in animal sperm for the first time (Lillie, 1912). Chemo-taxis refers to the directed movement of a cell or organism to the source of a chemical gradient; the chemical agent that elicits this movement is called a chemoattrac-tant. Chemotaxis had previously been shown by Pfeffer (1884) for fern spermatozoids; however, attempts to demonstrate...

100 Years of Consolidation — Remembering

Introduction The origin of the concept of memory consolidation and the introduction of the term “consolidirung” (consolidation) to the modern science of memory are generally credited to Georg Elias Müller (1850–1934), professor at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and his student Alfons Pilzecker. Their seminal monograph “Experimentelle Beiträge zur Lehre vom Gedächtnis” (Experimental Contr...

The integration of quantitative genetics, paleontology, and neontology reveals genetic underpinnings of primate dental evolution.

Developmental genetics research on mice provides a relatively sound understanding of the genes necessary and sufficient to make mammalian teeth. However, mouse dentitions are highly derived compared with human dentitions, complicating the application of these insights to human biology. We used quantitative genetic analyses of data from living nonhuman primates and extensive osteological and pal...