Posted by CC on November 29, 1999, at 23:04:11
In reply to evolution addenda, posted by Bob on November 29, 1999, at 15:23:19
I still don't see how you could ever hope to accumulate favorable mutations. If one mutation in a thousand is beneficial, then there are 999 that aren't. With the bacteria developing antibiotic resistance, if there is one resistant individual in a million that one individual can repopulate the growing medium in ~24 hours. Plus bacteria have means of exchanging genetic material that higher animals don't and have you ever heard of someone developing a different species of bacteria starting with a known one? There are of course biological processes that can correct mutations but how could they tell a good one from a bad one? So if you had a million monkeys and they each accumulated a thousand mutations only one of which was favorable during the period they are able to breed, and they each have ten offspring to ten different mates, how many offspring have accumulated more favorable mutations than bad?
poster:CC
thread:14368
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991123/msgs/15971.html