Predictable evolution trumps randomness of mutations. - Polidicks

[TABLE="class: outer_border, width: 600, align: left"] [TR] [TD][TABLE="width: 550, align: left"] [TR] [TD][h2]Predictable evolution trumps randomness of mutations.[/h2][B]Separate bacteria populations may respond to environmental changes in identical ways.[/B][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][TABLE="width: 400, align: center"] [TR] [TD="align: center"][quote][IMG]http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.9020.1361293568!/image/1.12459_THINKSTOCK.jpg_gen/derivatives/fullsize/1.12459_THINKSTOCK.jpg[/IMG][/quote][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][TABLE="width: 550, align: center"] [TR] [TD]Although mutations, the driver of evolution, occur at random, a study of the bacterium Escherichia coli reveals that nature often finds the same solution to the same problem again and again. Over time, random mutations enable organisms to adapt and diversify, often when geographically separated groups of the same species grow better suited to their local environment and less like members of the other group. But that's not the only way that genetic diversity can arise. Researchers have reported cases of cichlid fish, palm trees and finches adapting to different ecological niches and splitting into different species despite living in the same place[SUP]1–3[/SUP]. In 2008, evolutionary biologist Michael Doebeli of the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver and colleagues reported that E. coli bacteria can also diversify while sharing a test tube4. In that study, they fed easy-to-digest glucose and a harder-to-stomach acetate to homogeneous populations of the bacteria, and let the bacteria chomp away. E. coli can switch between the two foods, but the team found that in each test tube two groups emerged, specialized in consuming either glucose or acetate. What they did not know was which genetic path each group took to achieve its specialisation.[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][B]Journal: [/B] Barluenga, M., Stölting, K. N., Salzburger, W., Muschick, M. & Meyer, A. Nature 439, 719–723 (2006).[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][B]SOURCE: [/B] [URL]http://www.nature.com/news/predictable-evolution-trumps-randomness-of-mutations-1.12459[/URL][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

I always understood evolution as evolving according to environment, not really something that is random in its solutions.

if this happens on the larger scale then maybe aliens will be as humanoid as in the movies after all [editline]20th February 2013[/editline] that is, if their home planet is earthlike

Well since 2 potential and viable energy sources are available, it would only make sense that those in which could utilize (even in small amounts) the acetate would continue to do so and maximize the effectiveness of that gene through it's generations. But since there is still the glucose, those that don't maximize acetate digestion wouldn't die, glucose is still there. Having two variations of the same bacteria in the same test-tube seems like a rather obvious result, but maybe I'm just tired. [editline]20th February 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Vasili;39653044]I always understood evolution as evolving according to environment, not really something that is random in its solutions.[/QUOTE] How mutations come about is rather random variations of the preportions of the expressions of genes within an individual. The environment just selects for those that have ones that are the most favorable to the individual's survival.

[QUOTE=Vasili;39653044]I always understood evolution as evolving according to environment, not really something that is random in its solutions.[/QUOTE] I've always understood it as: creature has yyyxx setup, while the environment is optimal for creatures closer to yyxxx, if creature yyyxx has a mutation which causes it to become yyxxx instead of yyyxx it survives and flourishes while creature yyyxx dies off and transitions into yyxxx.

Technically, the mutations are still random, it's just that we can predict which of the randomized mutations will survive better in the new environment.