Percy writes:
Smooth Operator writes:
Not only that but this can be achived in 9 days in the lab. It doesn't take lots of time you see. You just place the bacteria in the presence of nylon, and they will get the ability to digest nylon every time. That's because of the mechanisms they have. Not because of chance.
The Japanese researchers you mentioned believe that the genetic change responsible for nylon-eating behavior was caused by random mutation, but you seem to believe that it's something else, that there's some mechanism already inherent in this bacterium that produces the necessary genetic changes when in the presence of nylon. That's an interesting idea. Is there any evidence for this mechanism?
Source
Another topic on the same theme - "AIG has an article up on the nylon-digesting bacteria"
I think the above quoted is an interesting question, best not buried in the quote source topic - Pre-existing mutation that became dominant vs. new mutation. I don't have the answer but I suspect it can be found upthread and/or at the other cited topic.
He who doesn't know, bumps a topic.
Moose