Hi George and all,
JONATHAN
> Squonk, I agree with your take on the creationism issue, and believe
> the theory of evolution is grossly misrepresented by its opponents.
GEORGE
Stop right there. Try and reproduce evolution. Have I just
misrepresented anything?
Yes, you have misrepresented the nature of evolution.
Evolution is a move AWAY from a given state. If you start with a culture
of identical bacterial cells and split into two,
each of the subcultures will move away from the original composition
(due to "random" mutation"). This much is reproducible.
However, they won't necessarily change in exactly the same way.
You can bias things, and make them change in SIMILAR by applying a
selective pressure. SIMILARITY implies reproducibility.
I can give examples where completely different plant species
independently developed herbicide resistance, and when the genetic basis
of the resistance was developed, THE EXACT SAME MUTATION was found in
the different species. I believe that there is comparable evidence for
antibiotic resistances in bacteria.
Jonathan
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:02:27 BST