Posted on 01/26/2006 11:47:13 AM PST by PatrickHenry
Jeffrey H. Schwartz's Sudden Origins closed Darwin's gaps; cell biology explains how.
An article by University of Pittsburgh Professor of Anthropology Jeffrey H. Schwartz and University of Salerno Professor of Biochemistry Bruno Maresca, to be published Jan. 30 in the New Anatomist journal, shows that the emerging understanding of cell structure lends strong support to Schwartz's theory of evolution, originally explained in his seminal work, Sudden Origins: Fossils, Genes, and the Emergence of Species (John Wiley & Sons, 2000).
In that book, Schwartz hearkens back to earlier theories that suggest that the Darwinian model of evolution as continual and gradual adaptation to the environment glosses over gaps in the fossil record by assuming the intervening fossils simply have not been found yet. Rather, Schwartz argues, they have not been found because they don't exist, since evolution is not necessarily gradual but often sudden, dramatic expressions of change that began on the cellular level because of radical environmental stressors-like extreme heat, cold, or crowding-years earlier.
Determining the mechanism that causes those delayed expressions of change is Schwartz's major contribution to the evolution of the theory of evolution. The mechanism, the authors explain, is this: Environmental upheaval causes genes to mutate, and those altered genes remain in a recessive state, spreading silently through the population until offspring appear with two copies of the new mutation and change suddenly, seemingly appearing out of thin air. Those changes may be significant and beneficial (like teeth or limbs) or, more likely, kill the organism.
Why does it take an environmental drama to cause mutations? Why don't cells subtly and constantly change in small ways over time, as Darwin suggests?
Cell biologists know the answer: Cells don't like to change and don't do so easily. As Schwartz and Maresca explain: Cells in their ordinary states have suites of molecules- various kinds of proteins-whose jobs are to eliminate error that might get introduced and derail the functioning of their cell. For instance, some proteins work to keep the cell membrane intact. Other proteins act as chaperones, bringing molecules to their proper locations in the cell, and so on. In short, with that kind of protection from change, it is very difficult for mutations, of whatever kind, to gain a foothold. But extreme stress pushes cells beyond their capacity to produce protective proteins, and then mutation can occur.
This revelation has enormous implications for the notion that organisms routinely change to adapt to the environment. Actually, Schwartz argues, it is the environment that knocks them off their equilibrium and as likely ultimately kills them as changes them. And so they are being rocked by the environment, not adapting to it.
The article's conclusions also have important implications for the notion of “fixing” the environment to protect endangered species. While it is indeed the environment causing the mutation, the resulting organism is in an altogether different environment by the time the novelty finally escapes its recessive state and expresses itself.
“You just can't do a quick fix on the environment to prevent extinction because the cause of the mutation occurred some time in the past, and you don't know what the cause of the stress was at that time,” Schwartz said.
“This new understanding of how organisms change provides us with an opportunity to forestall the damage we might cause by unthinking disruption of the environment,” added Schwartz. “The Sudden Origins theory, buttressed by modern cell biology, underscores the need to preserve the environment-not only to enhance life today, but to protect life generations from now.”
Schwartz, with his colleague Ian Tattersall, curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, also authored the four-volume The Human Fossil Record (Wiley-Liss, 2002-05). Together, the volumes represent the first study of the entire human fossil record. Volume 1 was recognized by the Association of American Publishers with its Professional Scholarly Publishing Award. In 1987, Schwartz's The Red Ape: Orang-utans and Human Origin (Houghton Mifflin Company) was met with critical acclaim.
Schwartz, who also is a Pitt professor of the history and philosophy of science, was named a fellow in Pitt's Center for the Philosophy of Science and a fellow of the prestigious World Academy of Arts and Science.
The journal, The New Anatomist, is an invitation-only supplement to the Anatomical Record.
A hypothetical is not visible. BTW people win the lottery, but I suspect anyone trying to sell me a sure winning ticket before the lottery.
No redefintions at all from me -- I have been clear, and have provided support from other sources.
I'll be sure to watch out for such characters, but I haven't seen them in these parts. I present possibilities to counter impossibilities - spinning possibility into certainty is your bugaboo, not mine.
The lawyer. Right.
What are you, running a seminar in pettifoggery? The definition is historical, common, and found widely within and without the scientific community.
Which is why your one cite is from a lawyer. Got it.
Your disrespect for my guild is noted. :)
No, you present fiction. A possibility is a head or a tail on flipping a coin or a single dot on rolling a 6 sided die.
How about we call it a recognition of expertise in some other area, rather than the one at hand? I don't call a lawyer when my appendix bursts - that comes later, after I wake up from the anesthesia and discover that my left foot has been amputated ;)
Yes, yes - I'm sure everyone understands by now that you don't like it. Fortunately for me, "impossible" and "AndrewC doesn't like it" are not yet synonyms, so I think I'm still relatively safe in calling it possible. Anyway, if you want to pitch Hoyle's silliness overboard and discuss something else - how likely my likelihood is, for example - be my guest, but let's try to pick a horse and stick to it - this straddling of the couldn't-happen-at-all/didn't-happen-that-particular-way fence is not the most impressively bold stance I've seen lately.
That's fine, so long as we understand that science is not a courtroom, and the rules of the courtroom do not necessarily apply outside it :)
One would certainly hope not. That is why hearsay testimony is just ducky in depositions. :)
Questions, questions. Alrighty, here's a question - if you had to argue this issue in court, which side are you more comfortable arguing? Setting aside the lawyer's conceit that even Ba'al deserves competent representation when needed, that is ;)
To the innocent bystander with some basic knowledge of mathematics and probability it appears impossible for the Histone H4 gene to have been constructed through a series of small steps since the evidence appears to be that it is so highly conserved for the past 2 billion years. Since the Histone 4 gene has seen only 2 base changes out of a total of 306 when comparing a cow and a pea in around 2 billion years, it is reasonable to ask how that gene had time to assemble and become almost impervious to mutation in the preceding 2 billion years through a series of small steps.
In fact, I think Hoyle is absolutely right. The gene is a problem for NDT. And btw, Korthof, a committed evolutionist, thinks it is as well.
The dark side of course! But God, the prep work would be a killer.
I don't have a clue what you are talking about, or what I am talking about, but hey, the histone forumula ran better than a Lexus, and differentiation over time had to come from other mutational or other mechanisms. We are at once all different and the same!
Hey take this on faith. No histones, no mechanisms, no you. :-} This one ain't about hair color.
How about federal judges?
Isn't it wonderful how the law got worked into this, allowing me something to say?
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