?Predictable evolution (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, February 21, 2013, 16:20 (4084 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: A new study of three types of bacteria in the lab followed mutational changes. The changes followed a similar pattern in all the species. In my mind it raises the issue of the flow of evolution being designed. What do you think?
http://phys.org/news/2013-02-evolution.html-Another version of the same story:-http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=predictable-evolution-trumps-randomnes...-HEADLINE: Predictable Evolution Trumps Randomness of Mutations 
Separate bacteria populations may respond to environmental changes in identical ways-"Although mutations, the driver of evolution, occur at random, a study of the bacterium Escherichia coli reveals that nature often finds the same solution to the same problem again and again.-Over time, random mutations enable organisms to adapt and diversify, often when geographically separated groups of the same species grow better suited to their local environment and less like members of the other group."-The authors don't seem to realize just how illogical this is, because everyone has become so used to the assumption that mutations are random. If organisms come up with the same solution, the mutations clearly aren't random! And how can random mutations enable an organism to adapt? Adaptation is not a matter of chance! And how do the authors think separated groups "grow better suited to their local environment"? There has to be a mechanism that innovates, adapts, comes up with solutions, makes organisms "better suited". The only possible explanation is some form of intelligence within the organisms themselves, i.e. what we have called the inventive, "intelligent" genome. How the intelligence got there is a separate issue. What these researchers are investigating is how evolution works, and they still cling to randomness as "the driver", even though their findings contradict their basic premise!