More Denton: Reply to David (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, August 15, 2015, 00:30 (3389 days ago) @ romansh

Rom: [Th]e bacteria do develop new capabilities like digesting nylon wastes that that have not existed until nylon was developed in the thirties.-Yes, but they are still the same bacteria. It is a metabolic adaptation of existing mechanisms
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> > David: Lenski's E. coli haven't changed in 20 years of generations every 20 minute. Frankly we seem to be in a pause, and there have been papers on the subject wondering if humans would control future evolution.
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> Rom: What pressures for evolution was Lenski applying to the bacteria ... either way we still have a few billion years until the end of the experiment.-He did apply some pressures with minor results. They still have all the characteristics of E. coli. What I am referring to is that we have not seen a new species with marked phenotypic changes from species we have known since before Darwin.