Something for Viking

[Razgovory]

I came across this tonight, you guys may have read it since it was three years ago.  It's an email conversation between the esteemed doctor Richard Lenski (who has done extremely impressive work in evolutionary biology) and Andrew Schlafly who runs Conservapedia (and is presumably related to Phylis Schlafly, the women who spearheaded the effort to stop the Equal Rights amendment).

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lenski_dialog

Viking will like this, I imagine if he hasn't already read it.

[Syt]

[Eddie Teach]

That was disappointing.

[Viking]

Basically Lensky created an experiment which has been running for over 20 years now. He had 12 parallel strains of e.coli bacteria in a medium of glucose and citrate. The bacteria could digest the glucose but not the citrate initially. He then cultivated each strain every day in a test tube adding one drop of the previous days result to the next days test tube and then performing various test on each days strain. Eventually one strain started digesting the citrate. This is an example of observed evolution much like the natural evolution of a bacteria that could digest nylon (a synthetic material). He preserved samples from every single one of the tens of thousands of generations of bacteria in his experiment. It's a fascinating experiment in which evolution of a significant trait occurs (the ability to digest citrate) and is documented.

The science pwnage is nearly at Hitchens levels and highly enjoyable.

[Brazen]

*snigger* PNAS.

Thanks for sharing and thanks for the background, Viking.

SCIENCE!

[Razgovory]

Basically Lensky created an experiment which has been running for over 20 years now. He had 12 parallel strains of e.coli bacteria in a medium of glucose and citrate. The bacteria could digest the glucose but not the citrate initially. He then cultivated each strain every day in a test tube adding one drop of the previous days result to the next days test tube and then performing various test on each days strain. Eventually one strain started digesting the citrate. This is an example of observed evolution much like the natural evolution of a bacteria that could digest nylon (a synthetic material). He preserved samples from every single one of the tens of thousands of generations of bacteria in his experiment. It's a fascinating experiment in which evolution of a significant trait occurs (the ability to digest citrate) and is documented.

The science pwnage is nearly at Hitchens levels and highly enjoyable.

Yeah, the actual documentation and observation of evolution in action in laboratory conditions is very rare.  It's all but impossible to refute such solid work.  Which I guess is why the Conservapedia types felt the only course of action was to claim it was a hoax or something.  If the guy was mean, he could have sent a dangerous strain of E. Coli to Mr. Schlafly and made him spend the spend a few weeks in a hospital, which might give him some time to rethink his methods.

[The Brain]

Scientists playing God. Film at 11.

[Valmy]

Scientists playing God. Film at 11.

Jesus did say that someday we would do all and greater works than he did.  Deus Vult.

[Norgy]

Conservapedia

One of the many reasons it's hard to distinguish between a genuine conservative person of the rather reasonable sort most countries have been blessed with and the wild-eyed fanatics calling themselves that.

When you think The News, I mean the news you get from various sources, are just lies from some sort of Über Conspiracy which really puts all previous unproven conspiracies to shame, it's time to listen to Judas Priest's Suicide Solution on a vintage LP and play it backwards really, really slowly. Just so you get the whole message.

[Viking]

Basically Lensky created an experiment which has been running for over 20 years now. He had 12 parallel strains of e.coli bacteria in a medium of glucose and citrate. The bacteria could digest the glucose but not the citrate initially. He then cultivated each strain every day in a test tube adding one drop of the previous days result to the next days test tube and then performing various test on each days strain. Eventually one strain started digesting the citrate. This is an example of observed evolution much like the natural evolution of a bacteria that could digest nylon (a synthetic material). He preserved samples from every single one of the tens of thousands of generations of bacteria in his experiment. It's a fascinating experiment in which evolution of a significant trait occurs (the ability to digest citrate) and is documented.

The science pwnage is nearly at Hitchens levels and highly enjoyable.

Yeah, the actual documentation and observation of evolution in action in laboratory conditions is very rare.  It's all but impossible to refute such solid work.  Which I guess is why the Conservapedia types felt the only course of action was to claim it was a hoax or something.  If the guy was mean, he could have sent a dangerous strain of E. Coli to Mr. Schlafly and made him spend the spend a few weeks in a hospital, which might give him some time to rethink his methods.

Lensky still has the bacteria, he offered to send Schlafly anything he wanted. That is the proof.

Raz, you have about 1,000,000,000 e.coli bacteria in your gut at this moment.