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From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,sci.bio,talk.origins
Subject: Re: Evolution vs.(?) Creationism
Message-ID: <1260@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Dec-86 10:44:38 EST
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.1260
Posted: Tue Dec  9 10:44:38 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Dec-86 05:24:26 EST
References: <2778@gitpyr.gatech.EDU>
Reply-To: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Followup-To: sci.bio,talk.origins
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 29
Keywords: experimental evolution God creation art time travel
Xref: mnetor talk.politics.misc:1188 sci.bio:44 talk.origins:186

Followups to sci.bio and talk.origins (definitely not the kids newsgroups!)

In article <2778@gitpyr.gatech.EDU> dts@gitpyr.UUCP (Danny Sharpe) writes:
> I've heard that, due to lawnmowers, dandelions in suburban areas are being
> selected for shorter stems.

This is probably not true.  The last I read about it (about 12 years ago),
our common weed dandelion is thought to be entirely one clone.  Its seeds are
produced apomicticly: a somatic cell becomes the embryo.  The great variation
of form we see in dandelions is not genetic, but developmental.  It is possible
for sports (mutations within clonal lines) to occur, but I don't know of any
research identifying sports in dandelions.

> And then there's all the diseases that have become
> resistant to the drugs used to treat them.

Yes, this is a good example of selection.

> These are all examples of natural selection at work.

Neither of these is natural selection, in that the selection pressures are
being applied by man.
--

"I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked
at it the right way, did not become still more complicated."  Poul Anderson
-- 

Mike Huybensz		...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh