IC evolved in the lab (Was: General response)

Rich Daniel (rwdaniel@dnaco.net)
Thu, 27 May 1999 19:38:51 -0400 (EDT)

Paracelcus wrote:

> ...Some of you have attempted to refute irreducible complexity by saying
> that it has been shown that IC systems can evolve, but I've never seen
> anything like that in the scientific literature. I see scenarios and
> speculations and just-so stories, but not one piece of hardcore evidence.
> Where for example are the IC systems being synthesized in the lab?...

First let's nail down the ground rules: Suppose we take a bacterium out
of its normal environment and let it evolve for a while, then put it back
and let it evolve some more. Suppose that in the end it outcompetes the
wild strain in the normal environment. Suppose that its increased fitness
depends on at least two mutations, and if you force either one of those
mutations back to the original, the result is less fit than the wild type
in the normal environment.

Would you accept that as an example of the evolution of an IC system?

Cordially yours,
Rich Daniel rwdaniel@dnaco.net http://www.dnaco.net/~rwdaniel/