Jablonski, David
Paleontologist and professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences of the University of Chicago. His research emphasizes combining data from living and fossil organisms to study the origins and fates of lineages and adaptations, to develop an understanding of the underlying dynamics of speciation and extinction that could lead to a general theory of evolutionary novelty. He is interested in the way evolutionary patterns are shaped by the alternation of extinction regimes, with rare but influential mass extinctions driving unexpected evoutionary shifts.

Johnston, Victor
Professor of biopsychology at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. His research interests include the evolution of consciousness and perceptions of beauty. He is the author of Why We Feel: the Science of Human Emotions.

Junk DNA
Stretches of DNA that do not code for genes; most of the genome consists of so-called junk DNA which may have regulatory and other functions. Also called non-coding DNA