Free Republic

Something horrifying is happening in the waters off Brazil. Sharks are attacking surfers near the city of Recife at an unprecedented rate, scaring the locals and forcing the government to ban the sport at one of it’s most popular beaches. Over the past decade, 45 people have been attacked by bull sharks in the region, 16 were deadly. And while these attacks are not unheard of, the fact the port city had recorded only one in the 75 years prior, is perplexing. Are the sharks rebelling? Have they had enough of people overcrowding their home? Or is there something less...

Assuming macroevolutionary scenarios were possible (they aren't), the question arises, how much time would you actually need for them? The basic answer to that question is known as the Haldane Dilemma, after the famous mathematician and population geneticist J.B.S. Haldane who published his work in the mid 1950s. The basic answer is that you would need trillions and quadrillions of years, and not just the tens of millions commonly supposed. Walter Remine puts a simplified version of the idea thusly: Imagine a population of 100,000 apes or “proto-humans” ten million years ago which are all genetically alike other than for...