evolution is not imaginary

[mellowtigger]

Researchers managed to create a system that directs evolutionary changes in molecules. Essentially, they ran a chemical soup in a petri dish for 70 hours, slowly starved it for energy, then watched the molecules evolve into forms 90x more efficient than the starting molecules. Estimated cost for the device: $8.

Yes, order increases spontanously without direction, and it changes as a reaction to its environment. This is the central idea behind the title of the book, Darwin's Dangerous Idea. The author, philosopher Daniel C Dennett, argues that after more than a century people are still unable to grasp that concept and so that's why they still haven't come to terms with evolution as a reality. It's not that evolution contradicts religion, it's that it makes creationism an unnecessary complexity. The only thing it helps to contradict is the notion of a 6000-year-old earth. Evolution is real, it works, but it needs a lot more time than that.

The Scripps Research investigators who designed the device note that the findings provide an example of the Darwinian principle of selective pressure at work, seen in real time. "This is evolution at the level of molecules as a fact, not a theory,"...

These steps were repeated automatically for 500 iterations of 10-fold growth followed by 10-fold dilution. "The competition between the RNA enzymes to scrape up the few substrates became progressively stiffer, and the variants of RNA enzymes that could bind fastest and tightest to the substrate fuel molecules won out," Paegel says.

"We starved these enzymes, pushing them to become better and faster at forming a bond so they could reproduce themselves," Joyce says. "This is like the evolution of animals that can survive food famines. Only here we can see it happen in 70 hours and we know why the mutations that constitute evolution in these molecules occurred. We witnessed the entire story."

Very interesting. Coincidentally, the news arrives as "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" arrives in movie theaters. I don't understand the subtitle to that movie. It seems to insult the people meant to watch it, those wanting intelligent design?

Comments

[mellowtigger]

The ponysaur is my favorite. :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scalzi/1969216237/in/set-72157603091357751/

[nudewoody.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you went to the museum. Now I'm jealous!

[mellowtigger]

Oops! No, that wasn't me. Even better, it was done as a challenge by a guy who donated money to an organization devoted to the separation of Church & State, daring people to force him to visit the museum by raising more money for a better cause. *laugh* A nice twist that adds to the amusement value of the ponysaur photo (and the whole photo collection of his trip).