New phylogenomic methods have made it possible to obtain a robust phylogenetic tree of the animal kingdom. The resulting tree confirms much of what was already known but also contains some nice surprises.

A simple phylogenetic tree of the great apes provides many important teaching opportunities, both in the general skill of reading phylogenetic trees and in using them to explore evolutionary relationships.

The molecular basis of ABO blood groups is now known and presents an interesting and important teaching opportunity.

New phylogenomic tools have made it possible to construct a robust phylogenetic tree of mollusks. This tree can be used to teach important evolutionary principles.

The mutation that caused hemophilia in European royal families during the 19th century has been characterized and presents excellent teaching opportunities.

A point mutation in the MC1R gene, a G-protein-coupled receptor, has been found that could have led to the formation of two subspecies of Solomon Island flycatcher from a single ancestral population. I discuss the many roles that G-protein-coupled receptors play in vertebrate physiology and how one particular point mutation can have enormous evolutionary consequences.

The boiling point of water is 300°C higher than expected because of hydrogen bonds.

We are beginning to understand the biochemical nature of the genes that Gregor Mendel studied in his classic experiments with garden peas. This paper shows where Mendel's genes are located on the pea chromosome map, discusses the mutations involved in some of these genes, and shows how they can be used to teach classical genetics and the nature of the gene.

We present a tutorial for Cn3D, a molecular visualization program that allows students to see the tertiary structure of a protein and compare it with the primary structure of the same protein ( Sayers et al., 2009 ). Students can also use the program to visualize two major evolutionary mechanisms: duplication and divergence, and exon shuffling.

The beta hemoglobin protein is identical in humans and chimpanzees. In this tutorial, students see that even though the proteins are identical, the genes that code for them are not. There are many more differences in the introns than in the exons, which indicates that coding regions of DNA are more highly conserved than non-coding regions.

The Y chromosome is of great interest to students and can be used to teach about many important biological concepts in addition to sex determination. This paper discusses mutation, recombination, mammalian sex determination, sex determination in general, and the evolution of sex determination in mammals. It includes a student activity that illustrates how sex is determined in people.