Julian

On Stephanie's board you said:

J>"if you are talking about a particular genetic trait being adventagous. That is not a mutation."

This is not true. Mutation - A permanent change, a structural alteration, in the DNA or RNA. The change I mentioned is a heritable trait, one passed on within a family. And it's advantagous. So, mutation is a change.

J>"We are talking about changes fundemental structures, which are there for a reason."

No, that's what YOU'RE talking about. I'm talking about what I've defined above.

J>"When these are not as they should be, the evidence shows it is to the detriment of the species. "

Not always. As I've shown you the evidence for.

scientists hope to be able to reproduce the effects of a natural mutation found in the family of Eero M�ntyranta, a Finnish cross-country skier who won two gold medals in the 1964 Winter Olympics. M�ntyranta�s mutation led to an excessive response to EPO, which resulted in very high levels of red blood cells (Sweeney, 2004). This high level of red blood cells and the accompanying increase in oxygen-carrying capacity helped him and several members of his family do well in endurance sports. A synthetic gene that produced the same effect would have obvious appeal to athletes and gene therapy patients alike.


J>"See the experiments on the common fruit fly (Drosophilia Melanogaster)fopr excellent scientific evidence that mutations, even when emcouraged by scientists over MANY years, does NOT produce any new species, just horrid mutations."

Seems the scientists performing the experiments disagree with you.

1. G Kilias, SN Alahiotis, and M Pelecanos. A multifactorial genetic investigation of speciation theory using drosophila melanogaster Evolution 34:730-737, 1980. Got new species of fruit flies in the lab after 5 years on different diets and temperatures. Also confirmation of natural selection in the process. Lots of references to other studies that saw speciation.

J>"Get the facts right Phred, we are not all uneducated here, I have stsudied this subject in detail for many years."

Seems you missed a few parts.