Interesting Experiment on Evolution

[Mandalore]

Came across a really cool experiment done by a university in my own state (Michigan State University) and thought it was pretty neat.
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2 ... ok-general

To summarize, basically this biologist has been breeding a form of bacteria (E. Coli) for about 25 years and thus has gone through almost 60,000 generations. Around the 20,000 generation a new "strain" of bacteria started showing very different signs than its predecessors...it had gained the ability, previously unseen, to use a compound called citrate. To create comparisons, the researchers froze ancestral strains in order to be able to observe them (E. Coli still remains viable in these temperatures). Can't wait to get some of this peer reviewed and see similar experiments done over the course of my life time!

[(SWGO)SirPepsi]

It is fantastic - I believe I referenced this same experiment in the other thread somewhere.

[haasd0gg]

Its a fraud, Mandy. Read the bible. God, I thought we just got through this...

[imaim]

I love stuff like this, thanks Mandy.

[Col. Hstar]

To summarize, basically this biologist has been breeding a form of bacteria (E. Coli) for about 25 years and thus has gone through almost 60,000 generations. Around the 20,000 generation a new "strain" of bacteria started showing very different signs than its predecessors...it had gained the ability, previously unseen, to use a compound called citrate. To create comparisons, the researchers froze ancestral strains in order to be able to observe them (E. Coli still remains viable in these temperatures). Can't wait to get some of this peer reviewed and see similar experiments done over the course of my life time!

I guess it would be useless to point out that this experiment and any other experiment like this required someone of intelligence to conduct it and make sure that the conditions were just right to continue the experiment.
Quote from the link

More strikingly, however, he found that one of the 12 bacterial lines he has maintained has developed into what he believes is a new species, able to use a compound in the solution called citrate — a derivative of citric acid, like that found in some fruit — for food.

Yet the evolution theory many believe in says that life came about on its own without an intelligent creator or designer…

No I'm not going to go into a long debate about this. People can look up the other 1000+ posts in various threads for arguments on both sides

[11_Panama_]

Mandy the troublemaker.

[(SWGO)DesertEagle]

I don't want to start up the debate again, but I will point out that if you read the article on Wikipedia, it actually says it "re-evolved" the ability to use citrate if this is indeed the same experiment, which I believe it is. Not really a new gene, but a re-activation of a deactivated one supposedly.

Speciation happens all the time, nothing new there.

[Mandalore]

Re read the article and didn't see any mention of reactivation. The only argument I saw was whether it was a single mutation or several spread out over generations with it leaning toward several gradual mutations.

[CommanderOtto]

to me this looks like genetic information that was there but resurfaced through time. Also, just because there were a few changes, doesn't mean it is a new species. There are white people and black people and asians... doesn't mean we are all different species, just variations of humans. So far it looks like a variation of E Coli. I don't know much about this though.

[(SWGO)SirPepsi]

to me this looks like genetic information that was there but resurfaced through time. Also, just because there were a few changes, doesn't mean it is a new species. There are white people and black people and asians... doesn't mean we are all different species, just variations of humans. So far it looks like a variation of E Coli. I don't know much about this though.

He never claimed it was a new species - you're missing the bigger picture. If such a significant change can occur in a colony of bacteria over this span of time, what do you think will evolve hundreds of years from now from that same colony? What if we separate them and expose them to different conditions and then see how they differ from each other in 300 years?

@Homestar - not all proponents of Evolutionary Theory claim that life originated with no Creator. You're again confusing Evolution and Abiogenesis.