More on Spetner's views (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, October 26, 2015, 19:23 (3316 days ago) @ dhw

Spetner is an Orthodox Jew and he believes in a built-in mechanism for rapid adaptation which he calls a 'non-random evolutionary hypothesis':-http://www.uncommondescent.com/evolution/spetners-non-random-evolutionary-hypothesis/-"In 1997, “Not By Chance” by Lee Spetner was published. In it he argued for a “non-random evolutionary hypothesis” which had a mechanism of “built-in responses to environmental cues” at its heart. Some mutations happened just when they were needed. And some happened at just the right place to be effective. And even others, called transposons aka jumping genes, carried within its DNA coding sequence the coding for two of the enzymes required for it to be able to move around.-
"A transposon has in it sections of DNA that encode two of the enzymes it needs to carry out its job. The cell itself contributes the other necessary enzymes. The motion of these genetic elements about to produce the above mutations has been found to be a complex process and we probably haven't yet discovered all the complexity. But because no one knows why they occur, many geneticists have assumed they occur only by chance. I find it hard to believe that a process as precise and as well controlled as the transposition of genetic elements happens only by chance. Some scientists tend to call a mechanism random before we learn what it really does. If the source of variation for evolution were point mutations, we could say the variation is random. But if the source of variation is the complex process of transposition, then there is no justification for saying that evolution is based on random events. (Dr Lee Spetner “Not By Chance” page 44)-***-"Enter 2006 and the publication of “Evolution in Four Dimensions” by Eva Jablonka and Marion J. Lamb and the elucidation of epigenetics, ie “built-in responses to environmental cues”. I couldn't stop thinking about “Not By Chance” wondering if Lee Spetner had read it and if he felt vindicated by it. Organisms are designed with different levels of possible variation. For example there is a possible variation with how the existing genes get expressed and another is changing the actual genes such that it changes the proteins. Change the regulation of the gene or change the gene itself. Lenski's E. coli changed the regulation of a gene by duplicating it and putting it under control of a promoter that allowed for it to be expressed in an aerobic environment. It was an environmental factor, the presence of O2, which repressed the gene. It was another environmental factor, the presence of citrate, which made getting that gene expressed beneficial.-"“Evolution in Four Dimensions” is a good book to have around. They describe experiments of microsurgery onParamecium. A piece of the cortex was cut out, rotated 180 degrees and reinserted. The offspring inherited the change. (Lamarck 101)
 (my bold)
***-"Then came 2011 and the publication of “Evolution: A View from the 21st Century” by James A. Shapiro (a colleague of Dr. McClintock) and even more support for the “non-random evolutionary hypothesis” and “built-in responses to environmental cues”. Again I wondered about Dr Spetner and if he was reading this book too. The book starts out talking about “Sensing, Signaling, and Decision Making in Cell Reproduction” and has a table of “Examples of Targeted Genetic Engineering”. Of course he thinks it all evolved because obviously that is what evolution does or maybe due to coercion from fellow U Chicago Professor Jerry Coyne that is what he had to say to prevent being attacked. But I digress, the book is well worth the read and there is evidence that some mutations happen just when they are needed. They are not random with respect to fitness; it is the organism doing some rearranging to stay fit." (my bold)-Comment: Note that Spetner believes in God, and perhaps Coyne explains Shapiro.