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

Skip to comments.

Origin of Vision Discovered
LiveScience ^ | 10/18/07 | Andrea Thompson

Posted on 10/22/2007 9:07:09 PM PDT by LibWhacker

You are reading these words right now because 600 million years ago, an aquatic animal called a Hydra developed light-receptive genes—the origin of animal vision.

It wasn't exactly 20-20 vision back then though.

Hydras, a genus of freshwater animals that are kin to corals and jellyfish, measure only a few millimeters in diameter and have been around for hundreds of millions of years.

Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara studied the genes associated with vision (called opsins) in these tiny creatures and found opsin proteins all over their bodies.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: hydra; origin; precambrian; vision
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 281-289 next last

1 posted on 10/22/2007 9:07:10 PM PDT by LibWhacker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

These findings, detailed in a recent issue of the online journal PLoS ONE, counter arguments by anti-evolutionists that evolution can only eliminate traits and cannot produce new features, the authors say.

“Our paper shows that such claims are simply wrong,”


2 posted on 10/22/2007 9:11:21 PM PDT by null and void (Franz Kafka would have killed himself in despair if he lived in the world we inhabit today.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

I couldn’t get past the first statement—as if anyone was around 600 million years ago to see this......


3 posted on 10/22/2007 9:12:20 PM PDT by exit82 (I believe Juanita--Hillary enabled Juanita's rapist.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: exit82

It’s only for those who have eyes to see...


4 posted on 10/22/2007 9:14:52 PM PDT by null and void (Franz Kafka would have killed himself in despair if he lived in the world we inhabit today.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: exit82
as if anyone was around 600 million years ago to see this......

As if you need an eye witness to prove everything that's ever happened.

5 posted on 10/22/2007 9:14:59 PM PDT by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: exit82

Of course they weren’t there 600 million years ago to see this, because if they were, they wouldn’t have had eyes to see it with, since the creature with the light-sensitive gene was just coming into being.

I’ve always thought a security camera would be a good featuer for my house, but I didn’t want to spend the money. Now I am holding out hope that my outdoor lamp’s photo-cell will evolve into at least a black-and-white security camera. Then I just have to run some wires.

Any suggestions on how I can speed up the process? I suppose I could just use the original process, and design and build a camera myself, but this evolution thing sounds so much easier.


6 posted on 10/22/2007 9:22:08 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

Yep, God said, let there be light, Jesus said, give them eyes to see, and the Holy Spirit said, may that “sight” lead them back to God.


7 posted on 10/22/2007 9:23:06 PM PDT by doc1019 (Fred Thompson '08)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alter Kaker

No, you just need an eyewitness to know HOW it happened.

On CSI, no matter how much they get the physical evidence, they always seem to end by getting the perp to CONFESS to the crime, thus providing the eyewitness testimony.

BTW, anybody catch the CSI where at the end, the woman who killed the scientist is given a pass because she THOUGHT the guy, and obvious environmentalist whacko, had killed her son?

When they figured out who really did it, and didn’t think they’d get him, I wondered why they didn’t just tell the woman who the real killer was, and let her go off and kill the guy, since apparently the CSI folks don’t think it’s their job to put killers in jail if they did it for the “right” reason.


8 posted on 10/22/2007 9:24:45 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: CharlesWayneCT
Now I am holding out hope that my outdoor lamp’s photo-cell will evolve into at least a black-and-white security camera. Then I just have to run some wires. Any suggestions on how I can speed up the process?

Yes, have your security camera reproduce sexually, and apply selective pressures to the offspring.

That isn't possible? Then maybe you need to find yourself a more suitable strawman.

9 posted on 10/22/2007 9:26:01 PM PDT by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: CharlesWayneCT

No problem. Give it a few million years, be sure to weed out ones with worse image detection (i.e. those with uniform sensitivity), and select ones with better imaging detection.


10 posted on 10/22/2007 9:26:26 PM PDT by null and void (Franz Kafka would have killed himself in despair if he lived in the world we inhabit today.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Alter Kaker

OK, that went random on me, sorry.

If you find a pencil on the floor, you can assert that there is a pencil on the floor. If you find 11 other pencils on the table above the pencil on the floor, and an empty package that says “12 #2 pencils”, you could assert factually that there are 11 pencils on the table. If they have the same serial number, you could assert as fact they came from the package.

But you can’t assert as fact that the one pencil rolled off the table and onto the floor. Sure, it looks like it, but what if I placed the pencil on the floor? It would look JUST like some natural process caused the pencil to be on the floor, but in fact it was a creative act.


11 posted on 10/22/2007 9:27:07 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: CharlesWayneCT
On CSI, no matter how much they get the physical evidence, they always seem to end by getting the perp to CONFESS to the crime, thus providing the eyewitness testimony.

Which is why CSI is a television drama, not real life.

In real life, people are convicted every day of the week for crimes for which there was no eye witness and no confession. The idea that we can't know anything if there wasn't a witness is really kind of strange, certainly 100 years after the discovery of modern fingerprinting. Fingerprinting works to solve crime scenes; likewise genetic "fingerprinting" can help us unravel the past.

12 posted on 10/22/2007 9:29:31 PM PDT by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

So I got eyeballs because some slimy paramecium had opsins. This is fantasy land


13 posted on 10/22/2007 9:31:04 PM PDT by dennisw (Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CharlesWayneCT
No, you just need an eyewitness to know HOW it happened. On CSI, no matter how much they get the physical evidence, they always seem to end by getting the perp to CONFESS to the crime, thus providing the eyewitness testimony.

Yet the case you mentioned, the dead boy, was solved without the help of any eyewitness.

14 posted on 10/22/2007 9:31:13 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: CharlesWayneCT
OK, that went random on me, sorry.
If you had the slightest clue about evolution you would have understood his argument.

Best to scoot along before you embarrass yourself anymore.
15 posted on 10/22/2007 9:31:16 PM PDT by ketsu
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

What’s a hydra’s vision like now?


16 posted on 10/22/2007 9:31:54 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (TAZ:Untamed, Unpredictable, Uninhibited.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TASMANIANRED

As good as it needs to be, why?


17 posted on 10/22/2007 9:33:29 PM PDT by null and void (Franz Kafka would have killed himself in despair if he lived in the world we inhabit today.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
So I got eyeballs because some slimy paramecium had opsins. This is fantasy land
Not really. But given the level of understanding on this board(with a few notable exceptions) you couldn't be expected to understand.
18 posted on 10/22/2007 9:34:15 PM PDT by ketsu
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
So I got eyeballs because some slimy paramecium had opsins. This is fantasy land.

Except hydra are animals and paramecia are protists, suggesting you don't know what the heck you're talking about.

Take even an intro bio course and you might be a little more able to avoid making yourself look like an under-informed dingbat.

19 posted on 10/22/2007 9:34:42 PM PDT by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: CharlesWayneCT

A really big Die Hard battery is a cinch to speed up the evolutionary process.

Oh, and really good jumper cables are a must;)


20 posted on 10/22/2007 9:35:17 PM PDT by exit82 (I believe Juanita--Hillary enabled Juanita's rapist.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 281-289 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

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