VALENCIA. «Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution». With this quotation from evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky starts the monograph in the last issue of Mètode journal: Biotechnological Applications of the Theory of Evolution, coordinated by Fernando González Candelas, Full Professor of Genetics at the University of Valencia. Technological and methodological advances have situated biology in a prominent space among scientific disciplines. It has applications with direct impact on several daily life aspects like health, food or even justice. Evolution has a key role in these fields, as different contributions to this monograph show, accompanied by the works of Valencian artist Tania Blanco.
Animal breeding improvements, conservation genetics, evolutionary studies of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the fight against antibiotic resistance or evolutionary advances on the fight against cancer are just some of the topics approached in the monograph in Mètode's issue 78. Mètode is grateful to the contributions by Miguel Ángel Toro, Armando Caballero Rúa, Marianoel Pereira-Gómez, Joan B. Peris, Rafael Sanjuán, Fernando Baquero, Maria C. Turrientes, Iñaki Comas Espadas, Ana Lluch Hernández, José Alejandro Pérez-Fidalgo and Paloma Martín Martorell. In addition, the coordinator of the monograph introduces an interesting link between evolutionary theory and justice courts through forensic implementations of molecular phylogenies used, for instance, in the case against Valencian anaesthesiologist Juan Maeso.
