Dr.GH
Posts: 2333 Joined: May 2002
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Quote (midwifetoad @ Nov. 16 2011,00:24) | Shapiro plays at being L'enfant terrible, but he doesn't seem stupid enough to assert that variation anticipates need.
He seems to take an extreme position on evolvability and seems to assert that there are mechanisms to increase certain kinds of mutations as a response to stress. |
There are in bacteria. Under heat stress, or antibiotic attack, error checking during DNA replication is turned (nearly) off in bacteria (and archaea?) generating huge mutation rates.
This could be why bacteria are so successful. But, this approach would obviously destroy any metazoans.
Edited by Dr.GH on Nov. 16 2011,05:09
-------------- "Science is the horse that pulls the cart of philosophy."
L. Susskind, 2004 "SMOLIN VS. SUSSKIND: THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE"
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