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unidentifiedflyingobject's picture

week 3 post

So in regards to the photosynthetic sea slug, here are a couple of links:

A news story: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16124-solarpowered-sea-slug-harnesses-stolen-plant-genes-.html

And the original scientific paper:
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/46/17867

Evolution in action!

One of the things that struck me most about the section of Darwin's work that we read for this week was his discussion of the possible development of the eye (pgs 211-213 in the bookstore copy). I was so interested in it because 150 years after this book was published, this topic in particular remains so relevant today. Just a year or two ago I read an article debating the merits of a sort of creationist selection and the merits of natural selection, written half by a scientist supporting one theory and half by a scientist supporting the other. The scientist who supported the first theory believed that biological selection is controlled by God in a sort of "vast plan" and he used the eye as an example. The eye, he claimed, is something so intricate and complex that only a mind could have created it. Darwin battling with exactly this example 150 years ago reminded me of just how fresh and controversial his theory remains.

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