Well, not only am I weaseling out of posting original content today but I'm going to direct you to an excellent repost by Bora Zivkovic at A Blog Around the Clock.
I am often asked why plants expend the bioenergetic capital to synthesize secondary metabolites. In his post, Bora notes that the synthesis of capsaicin by hot peppers results in selective avoidance by mammals but an interesting co-evolutionary relationship with thrashers.
And in other news, mosey on over to the newest member of the ScienceBlogs community, the superb ERV blog written by Abbie Smith, a graduate student in Middle America studying HIV evolution in patients and crafting some of the most magnificient takedowns of evolution denialists that I have seen on the intertubes. Welcome ERV!
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OOOOOhh. I am going to love ERV, living in the bible belt (well, not really but close enough) and being a biologist, we've got some similar issues...