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Disclaimer: The opinions presented here are solely my own, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Lehigh University or any of its departments or employees.
July 1996
June 2007
Darwinism is a multipart theory. Some parts may be right, others wrong Common descent (interesting, but trivial)
Versus
Random mutation
The critical claim of Darwinism is the sufficiency of random mutation
Nursery tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is a word used to describe devices so small that the naked eye cannot see them. The Borg Collective is infamous for their use of nanotechnology to advance their goals, specifically assimilating new members and technologies with nanoprobes.
Nanotechnology
The Cell as a Collection of Protein Machines: Preparing the Next Generation of Molecular Biologists, Bruce Alberts Polymerases and the Replisome: Machines within Machines, Tania A Baker and Stephen P Bell Eukaryotic Transcription: An Interlaced Network of Transcription Factors and Chromatin-Modifying Machines, James T Kadonaga Mechanical Devices of the Spliceosome: Motors, Clocks, Springs, and Things, Jonathan P Staley and Christine Guthrie Molecular Movement inside the Translational Engine, Kevin S Wilson and Harry F Noller The Hsp70 and Hsp60 Chaperone Machines, Bernd Bukau and Arthur L Horwich
Taylor, H.C. and Holwill, M.E.J. 1999. Axonemal dynein a natural molecular motor. Nanotechnology 10: 237-243.
Bathybius Haeckelii
An idealized landscape
A realistic landscape
An idealized landscape
A realistic landscape
is substantially incoherent
Watson,R.A. 2006. Compositional evolution: the impact of sex, symbiosis, and modularity on the gradualist framework of evolution. MIT Press: Cambridge, Mass., p. 272.
In computer science we recognize the algorithmic principle described by Darwin the linear accumulation of small changes through random variation and selection as hill climbing, more specifically random mutation hill climbing. However, we also recognize that hill climbing is the simplest possible form of optimization and is known to work well only on a limited class of problems.
Dawkins R. 1986. The Blind Watchmaker. New York: Norton, Chapter 3, Accumulating Small Change, p. 43
We have seen that living things are too improbable and too beautifully designed to have come into existence by chance. How, then, did they come into existence? by gradual, step-by-step transformations from simple beginnings
What is our best evidence of what Darwinian processes can actually do?
The best evidence we have to assess the abilities of Darwinian processes comes from studies of malaria, both in genetic changes of humans and in the parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) itself. Reasons: Detailed genetic studies Sheer population sizes
Tishkoff,S.A., et al. 2001. Haplotype diversity and linkage disequilibrium at human G6PD: recent origin of alleles that confer malarial resistance. Science 293:455-462.
with the classic examples of sickle cell anemia and thalassemia, [G6PD deficiency] represents one of the best examples of natural selection acting on the human genome.
Pelosi,L., Kuhn,L., Guetta,D., Garin,J., Geiselmann,J., Lenski,R.E., and Schneider,D. 2006. Parallel changes in global protein profiles during long-term experimental evolution in Escherichia coli. Genetics 173:1851-1869.
expression of both the ribose operon and the maltose regulon decreased after 20,000 generations of experimental evolution. These changes may therefore reflect beneficial mutations in these regulons. Indeed, deletions of the rbs operon were found previously in all 12 of the evolved populations
Woods,R., Schneider,D., Winkworth,C.L., Riley,M.A., and Lenski,R.E. 2006. Tests of parallel molecular evolution in a long-term experiment with Escherichia coli. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A 103:9107-9112.
Behe, M. J., 2010 Experimental Evolution, Loss-of-function Mutations, and The First Rule of Adaptive Evolution. Quarterly Review of Biology 85: 1-27.
Break or blunt any functional coded element whose loss would yield a net fitness gain.
A Beneficial Mutation
Plasmodium falciparum
Chloroquine
22
22
+ +
51
22
51
17
Frequency of the development of antibiotic resistance of P. falciparum Resistance to atovaquone arises in every third patient (about 1 in 1012 cells)
(Looareesuwan,S., et al. 1996. Clinical studies of atovaquone , alone or in combination with other antimalarial drugs, for treatment of acute uncomplicated malaria in Thailand. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 54:62-66)
Scientific notation
This is not an argument that Darwinism cannot make complex functional systems; it is an observation that it does not.
Coyne,J.A. and Orr,H.A. 2004. Speciation. Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, Mass., p. 136.
The goal of theory, however, is to determine not just whether a phenomenon is theoretically possible, but whether it is biologically reasonable that is, whether it occurs with significant frequency under conditions that are likely to occur in nature.
Taylor, H.C. and Holwill, M.E.J. 1999. Axonemal dynein a natural molecular motor. Nanotechnology 10: 237-243.
Bostrom,N. 2002. Anthropic bias: observation selection effects in science and philosophy. Routledge: New York , pp. 11-12.
Some philosophers and physicists take finetuning to be an explanandum that cries out for an explanans. Two possible explanations are usually envisioned: the design hypothesis and the ensemble hypothesis.
Ward,P.D. and Brownlee,D. 2000. Rare earth: why complex life is uncommon in the universe. Copernicus: New York, p. 231, Figure legend 10.3.
To produce such a massive moon, the impacting body had to be the right size, it had to impact the right point on Earth, and the impact had to have occurred at just the right time in the Earths growth process.
Davies, P.C.W. 1999. The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life. Simon & Schuster: New York, p. 17. When I set out to write this book I was convinced that science was close to wrapping up the mystery of lifes origin. ... Having spent a year or two researching the field I am now of the opinion that there remains a huge gulf in our understanding. This gulf in understanding is not merely ignorance about certain technical details, it is a major conceptual lacuna. ... My personal belief, for what it is worth, is that a fully satisfactory theory of the origin of life demands some radically new ideas.
Laws of nature Physical constants Ratios of fundamental constants Amount of matter in the universe Speed of expansion of the universe Properties of elements such as carbon Properties of chemicals such as water Location of solar system in the galaxy Location of planet in the solar system Origin and properties of Earth/Moon Properties of biochemicals such as DNA Origin of life Cells Genetic code Multiprotein complexes Molecular machines Biological kingdoms Developmental genetic programs Integrated protein networks Phyla Cell types Classes Orders Families Genera Species Varieties Individuals Random mutations Environmental accidents
Laws of nature Physical constants Ratios of fundamental constants Amount of matter in the universe Speed of expansion of the universe Properties of elements such as carbon Properties of chemicals such as water Location of solar system in the galaxy Location of planet in the solar system Origin and properties of Earth/Moon Properties of biochemicals such as DNA Origin of life Cells Genetic code Multiprotein complexes Molecular machines Biological kingdoms Developmental genetic programs Integrated protein networks Phyla Cell types Classes Orders Families Genera Species Varieties Individuals Random mutations Environmental accidents
Laws of nature Physical constants Ratios of fundamental constants Amount of matter in the universe Speed of expansion of the universe Properties of elements such as carbon Properties of chemicals such as water Location of solar system in the galaxy Location of planet in the solar system Origin and properties of Earth/Moon Properties of biochemicals such as DNA Origin of life Cells Genetic code Multiprotein complexes Molecular machines Biological kingdoms Developmental genetic programs Integrated protein networks Phyla Cell types Classes Orders Families Genera Species Varieties Individuals Random mutations Environmental accidents
Laws of nature Physical constants Ratios of fundamental constants Amount of matter in the universe Speed of expansion of the universe Properties of elements such as carbon Properties of chemicals such as water Location of solar system in the galaxy Location of planet in the solar system Origin and properties of Earth/Moon Properties of biochemicals such as DNA Origin of life Cells Genetic code Multiprotein complexes Molecular machines Biological kingdoms Developmental genetic programs Integrated protein networks Phyla Cell types Classes Orders Families Genera Species Varieties Individuals Random mutations Environmental accidents
Laws of nature Physical constants Ratios of fundamental constants Amount of matter in the universe Speed of expansion of the universe Properties of elements such as carbon Properties of chemicals such as water Location of solar system in the galaxy Location of planet in the solar system Origin and properties of Earth/Moon Properties of biochemicals such as DNA Origin of life Cells Genetic code Multiprotein complexes Molecular machines Biological kingdoms Developmental genetic programs Integrated protein networks Phyla Cell types Classes Orders Families Genera Species Varieties Individuals Random mutations Environmental accidents
Laws of nature Physical constants Ratios of fundamental constants Amount of matter in the universe Speed of expansion of the universe Properties of elements such as carbon Properties of chemicals such as water Location of solar system in the galaxy Location of planet in the solar system Origin and properties of Earth/Moon Properties of biochemicals such as DNA Origin of life Cells Genetic code Multiprotein complexes Molecular machines Biological kingdoms Developmental genetic programs Integrated protein networks Phyla Cell types Classes Orders Families Genera Species Varieties Individuals Random mutations Environmental accidents
Laws of nature Physical constants Ratios of fundamental constants Amount of matter in the universe Speed of expansion of the universe Properties of elements such as carbon Properties of chemicals such as water Location of solar system in the galaxy Location of planet in the solar system Origin and properties of Earth/Moon Properties of biochemicals such as DNA Origin of life Cells Genetic code Multiprotein complexes Molecular machines Biological kingdoms Developmental genetic programs Integrated protein networks Phyla Cell types Classes Orders Families Genera Species Varieties Individuals Random mutations Environmental accidents
Laws of nature Physical constants Ratios of fundamental constants Amount of matter in the universe Speed of expansion of the universe Properties of elements such as carbon Properties of chemicals such as water Location of solar system in the galaxy Location of planet in the solar system Origin and properties of Earth/Moon Properties of biochemicals such as DNA Origin of life Cells Genetic code Multiprotein complexes Molecular machines Biological kingdoms Developmental genetic programs Integrated protein networks Phyla Cell types Classes Orders Families Genera Species Varieties Individuals Random mutations Environmental accidents
Contingency In Biology
Laws of nature Physical constants Ratios of fundamental constants Amount of matter in the universe Speed of expansion of the universe Properties of elements such as carbon Properties of chemicals such as water Location of solar system in the galaxy Location of planet in the solar system Origin and properties of Earth/Moon Properties of biochemicals such as DNA Origin of life Cells Genetic code Multiprotein complexes Molecular machines Biological kingdoms Developmental genetic programs Integrated protein networks Phyla Cell types Classes Orders Families Genera Species Varieties Individuals Random mutations Environmental accidents
Laws of nature Physical constants Ratios of fundamental constants Amount of matter in the universe Speed of expansion of the universe Properties of elements such as carbon Properties of chemicals such as water Location of solar system in the galaxy Location of planet in the solar system Origin and properties of Earth/Moon Properties of biochemicals such as DNA Origin of life Cells Genetic code Multiprotein complexes Molecular machines Biological kingdoms Developmental genetic programs Integrated protein networks Phyla Cell types Classes Orders Families Genera Species Varieties Individuals Random mutations Environmental accidents
The Tiger
TIGER, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
. . .
http://behe.uncommondescent.com/