Contingent evolution (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Monday, June 23, 2014, 12:00 (3807 days ago) @ David Turell

Shades of Stephan Jay Gould. How chance mutations, against the odds, advance evolution:
"These "permissive" mutations had no effect on the protein's function, but without them the protein could not tolerate the later mutations that caused it to evolve its sensitivity to cortisol. In screening thousands of alternative histories, the researchers found no alternative permissive mutations that could have allowed the protein's modern-day form to evolve. The researchers describe their findings June 16, online in Nature.
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> "Thornton and Harms tested many thousands of variants but found none that restored the function of GR other than the historical mutations that occurred in actuality. "Among the huge numbers of alternate possible histories, there were no other permissive mutations that could have opened an evolutionary path to the modern-day GR," Thornton said.
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So, not one single other possible solution that could work, and nature somehow 'stumbled' upon the only one that could, not once, not twice, but three times in order to come up with a meaningful change.-That has 'purposeful intent' written all over it. Something done in a specific way for a specific purpose, in this case, cortisol sensitivity.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.