Michigan State University is Receiving $22.5 Million to Study Evolution

The National Science Foundation has awarded MSU $22.5 million to further evolutionary studies for the next five years.

The National Science Foundation is awarding Michigan State University about $22 million to further research into evolution. The University’s BEACON Center will use the funding to study how and why various organisms have changed over time. Center Director Erik Goodman says the institution usually has about a hundred different projects going on at once involving the evolution of different species.

“How for example in higher organisms, we deal with the concept of altruism—how organisms sacrifice their own individual, immediate benefit for the good of the whole group, and how did that evolve?”

-Erik Goodman, BEACON Center Director

Goodman says the center is also examining how multi-celled organisms evolved from single cells. He says the funding should cover the next five years of research.

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