Benefits of Cross-Species Sex Discovered and other Evolution News.
Scientists have discovered that mixing with another species of mouse made house mice resistant to a common rodenticide.
If you're a house mouse and all the good house mice are taken, why not choose an Algerian mouse? Sure, they're not the same species, but according to a new study, explained here in Science Now, such a dalliance might benefit your offspring. Scientists found that during sex between the two species, the Algerian mice were passing the house mice a gene that conferred resistance to a common rodent-poison. Whether "bastard" mouse is a scientific term isn't clear.
Unlike mice, or bears, humans don't have any other species of human to mate with. We used to, but somehow we ended up alone in our genus. As homo sapiens, we're the only homo still around.
And the National Center for Science education sent me this post on the textbook wars in Texas. Science triumphed over creationism.