[2nsdammit]

At least you should read the initial post:

"One of our most surprising findings is that an estimated 20 million point mutations gave rise to just six populations that were capable of vying for dominance,"

[jwalsh07]

Perhaps you should have read the article?

"Though millions of mutations in the target gene are believed to have occurred, only about 700 of those were capable of creating a new variant of the target gene. In all, the researchers identified 343 unique strains, each of which contained one of just six variants of the critical gene."

Millions or 20 million. Estimate or guesstimate?

The conclusion reached by the researchers seems to be that " "The duplicate study suggests that the pathways of molecular adaptation are reproducible and not highly variable under identical conditions," Shamoo said.

Why?

[metmom]

"One of our most surprising findings is that an estimated 20 million point mutations gave rise to just six populations that were capable of vying for dominance,"

And this estimate was based on what?

"Though millions of mutations in the target gene are believed to have occurred, only about 700 of those were capable of creating a new variant of the target gene.

And they know this how? Where do they get the estimates for these figures? It doesn't sound like there is much to substantiate this.