Evolution in our time?

[kinboshi]

This is an experiment with potentially huge implications, and yet I haven't seen too much written about it outside of specific scientific journals.  Basically it suggests that over the course of twenty years of the experiment, descendants of a single E. coli bacterium showed how a mutation can cause a species to evolve in a dramatic way. 

Taken from here:
On June 9th, 2008, an article was published on the New Scientist website describing the preliminary results of a long-running experiment. Lenski and his team had taken a single strain of the bacterium E. coli, separated its descendants into twelve populations, and proceeded to observe their mutations over the course of twenty years. At one point, one of the populations demonstrated a dramatic change, and evolved to become capable of utilizing citrate, a material in their petri dishes that E. coli cannot normally use under the growth conditions. Thus, evolution had been visibly observed, with an exquisite amount of proof establishing the timeline along the way. The paper also highlighted the role of historical contingency in evolution and the role of potentiating mutations.

There's an article about it here: http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn14094-bacteria-make-major-evolutionary-shift-in-the-lab.html

Lenski's page about the experiment can be seen at: http://myxo.css.msu.edu/ecoli/

[boldie]

interesting stuff...will read this after work. Thanks for the link, Kin.

[rex008]

Good stuff, and the comments afterwards of course descend into the usual creation vs evolution argument. One stood out though:

>The 'theory of evolution' is as much a theory as the 'theory of gravity'.

It's not Gravity, it's Intelligent Falling. Angels are pushing from above.

 

[boldie]

Good stuff, and the comments afterwards of course descend into the usual creation vs evolution argument. One stood out though:

>The 'theory of evolution' is as much a theory as the 'theory of gravity'.

It's not Gravity, it's Intelligent Falling. Angels are pushing from above.

 

lol

[AndrewT]

Some creationist guy tried to have a go at the scientist that did this.

He got pwned, hard.

http://www.badscience.net/2008/06/all-time-classic-creationist-pwnage/

[kinboshi]

Some creationist guy tried to have a go at the scientist that did this.

He got pwned, hard.

http://www.badscience.net/2008/06/all-time-classic-creationist-pwnage/

It's funny isn't it?  More about that on here:  http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Lenski_affair

[boldie]

[ quote]it’s not that we claim to have glimpsed “a unicorn in the garden” – we have a whole population of them living in my lab! [/quote]