Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: johnnyb_61820
I don't think you understand what "co-evolution" means. It has nothing whatever to do with the inheritance of acquired characteristics, or even (directly) with inheritance at all.

It simply means that two species have strong and mutual environmental impacts on each other, such that if one species evolves some new or improved capability, the other will be under an immediate selective pressure to respond in some way, and so their evolution is linked by a feedback loop via natural selection.

886 posted on 12/30/2005 12:31:40 PM PST by Stultis (I don't worry about the war turning into "Vietnam" in Iraq; I worry about it doing so in Congress.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 876 | View Replies ]


To: All
Would you consider the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Journal a peer-reviewed publication?

Yesterday I asked the above question. Several people fell into a rhetorical trap, making the unwarranted assumption that I was implying Granville Sewell had published his article in this journal. Then I got called away from the computer.

Now I'm back and here's the rest of it: Edward Cussler and Brian Gettelfinger of the University of Minnesota published an article in this journal (Vol. 50, no. 11, October 2004, pp. 2646-7) entitled "Will Humans Swim Faster or Slower in Syrup?"

This was apparently an experiment to settle the longstanding scientific question of whether people can swim faster in syrup or in water. LOL Now whether they were serious or silly (some scientists do have a sense of humor), most people would consider this a goofy experiment. So goofy it received the Ig Nobel Award from the people over at the Annals of Improbable Research.

click here

My point is a simple one: just because something is published in a "peer-reviewed scientific journal" doesn't mean it's carved in stone, and it certainly doesn't validate the information therein, any more than going to a movie makes you a movie critic.

By the way, I find it interesting that so many people jumped to conclusions without any supporting evidence and assumed I was talking about Mr. Sewell's article. Is that typical of the evolutionary approach?

892 posted on 12/30/2005 1:26:00 PM PST by Liberty Wins (Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of all who threaten it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 886 | View Replies ]

To: Stultis

"I don't think you understand what "co-evolution" means. It has nothing whatever to do with the inheritance of acquired characteristics, or even (directly) with inheritance at all."

You're missing the point. If co-evolution is happening within a hundred years, it must be Lamarckian, because otherwise the "random mutation" part would not have time to catch up.

"It simply means that two species have strong and mutual environmental impacts on each other, such that if one species evolves some new or improved capability, the other will be under an immediate selective pressure to respond in some way, and so their evolution is linked by a feedback loop via natural selection."

Exactly, but if this process can happen within a measley few generations, then the adaption process is not random in order for evolution to occur at that pace.


893 posted on 12/30/2005 1:32:32 PM PST by johnnyb_61820
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 886 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson