David: at the same time the same events Carl Woese interview (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, May 18, 2016, 11:52 (3110 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Basically I believe he [Woese] means evolution is multilayered not a simple progression from one animal type to another, with many facets and influences in action only some of which we know about and understand. - Fair enough, but in that case he is building on Darwin, not refuting him, unless this refers specifically to random mutations and gradualism, and not to common descent. It's worth my repeating the quote below:
 
DARWIN: “A grand untrodden field of inquiry will be opened on the causes and laws of variation, on correlation of growth, on the effects of use and disuse, on the direct action of external conditions, and so on.” (Recapitulation and Conclusion) - Yes, we agree that he got some things wrong, and the actual mechanism for innovation remains unknown, but common descent is the starting point, and Darwin left it to others to trace the history and the causes of variation, and the effects of external conditions - a crucial element of modern epigenetics. And I do not think modern discoveries such as DNA, and indeed the whole science of genetics, have done anything to shake the theory of common descent, which most scientists including yourself now accept. Of course there is still a mountain of work to be done, but it is clear that even 150 years ago Darwin was fully aware that there were “many facets and influences in action only some of which we know about and understand.” - Incidentally, as I leafed through my Origin to find the above quote, I happened to spot this: “When the views advanced by me in this volume, and by Mr Wallace in the Linnean Journal, or when analogous views on the origin of species are generally admitted, we can dimly foresee that there will be a considerable revolution in natural history.” You have often complained that Wallace has been unjustly neglected. As we already know from our earlier discussions, Darwin himself fully acknowledged Wallace's work.