Unquiet Desperation » Science http://www.unquietdesperation.com To be awake is to be alive. Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:26:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 The Mass of Men Lead Lives of Quiet Desperation. Where's the Fun in That? Christopher T. Miller no Christopher T. Miller codeshaman@gmail.com codeshaman@gmail.com (Christopher T. Miller) 2006-2009 To be awake is to be alive. Unquiet Desperation » Science http://www.unquietdesperation.com/UDLogo150.png http://www.unquietdesperation.com/category/hobbies/science/ Evolution…observed http://www.unquietdesperation.com/2008/06/17/evolutionobserved/ http://www.unquietdesperation.com/2008/06/17/evolutionobserved/#comments Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:32:03 +0000 Chris Miller http://www.unquietdesperation.com/2008/06/17/evolutionobserved/ A major evolutionary innovation has unfurled right in front of researchers’ eyes. It’s the first time evolution has been caught in the act of making such a rare and complex new trait.

And because the species in question is a bacterium, scientists have been able to replay history to show how this evolutionary novelty grew from the accumulation of unpredictable, chance events.

Twenty years ago, evolutionary biologist Richard Lenski of Michigan State University in East Lansing, US, took a single Escherichia coli bacterium and used its descendants to found 12 laboratory populations.

The 12 have been growing ever since, gradually accumulating mutations and evolving for more than 44,000 generations, while Lenski watches what happens.


read more in Bacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab – life – 09 June 2008 – New Scientist

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