linkedin post 2017-09-09 05:53:27

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EVOLUTION BY SALTATIONS. "Suggestions to the contrary (to gradualism) were met with ridicule: geneticist Richard Goldschmidt, in 1940, envisioned subtle developmental mechanisms producing great leaps of adaptation, but his use of the phrase "hopeful monsters" was misrepresented as extreme saltationism (perfection in one jump), and equated with belief in miracles." https://lnkd.in/dAC2mFa View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2017-09-10 06:01:35

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RISE OF THE HOPEFUL MONSTERS. "But through fish in the murky depths of a British Columbia lake and through bacteria in the flasks of a Michigan lab, the monsters have returned. Experimental evidence has shown that individual genetic changes can have vast effects on an organism without dooming it to the evolutionary rubbish heap." https://lnkd.in/dAC2mFa View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2017-09-09 05:47:35

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GRADUALISTIC EVOLUTION. "Since the origin of evolutionary science, biologists have insisted that adaptation is an achingly slow process. ' Natura non facit saltum ' (nature does not take leaps) was a favourite incantation of Charles Darwin. As the combined power of genetic mutation and natural selection became better appreciated in the 1930s and 1940s, theorists solidified a gradualist doctrine: adaptation must rely on innumerable genetic changes, each with effects so small that any attempt to catch them experimentally was considered futile." https://lnkd.in/dAC2mFa View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2017-09-09 05:43:15

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FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues the theme from last weekend of hybrids, but strays into the theme of gradual versus sudden leaps of evolution and the lovely concept of hopeful monsters. Hybridization as a source of genetic novelty and new species has long fascinated biologists, but many natural hybrids are sterile, making them ‘sports of transmutations’ (Wordsworth). Enjoy this partly historical view of the subject. View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2017-09-11 05:29:27

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BINARY FISSION. "Fission, also called binary fission, occurs in prokaryotic microorganisms and in some invertebrate, multi-celled organisms. After a period of growth, an organism splits into two separate organisms. Some unicellular eukaryotic organisms undergo binary fission by mitosis." https://lnkd.in/d_e3R-w View in LinkedIn
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