Susan Bassham Featured in Scientific American
Susan Bassham was featured in Scientific American’s Sustainability 60-Second Science video series discussing our lab’s groundbreaking work on rapid evolution in stickleback populations.
Fish on Evolution’s Fast Track
The video, titled “Fish on Evolution’s Fast Track,” highlights our research showing that stickleback can evolve significant changes in less than 50 years - much faster than traditionally thought possible.
Susan explains how the 1964 Alaska earthquake created a natural experiment, isolating marine stickleback in newly formed freshwater ponds. These populations rapidly evolved traits typical of freshwater fish, demonstrating evolution in real-time.
Research Impact
This work has important implications for: - Understanding species responses to climate change - Predicting adaptation to environmental disruption - Conservation planning for rapidly changing habitats
The research was published in PNAS and has received widespread media attention for challenging traditional timescales of evolutionary change.