Re: Article] Stress, sex and evolution

Robert Karl Stonjek wrote:
> Stress, sex and evolution
> Pete Moore
>
> Despite the widespread view that the effects of mutations are
> exacerbated by environmental stresses, some stresses have been found
> to alleviate the effects of mutations in bacteria.
>
> Open any textbook on evolutionary genetics and you are bound to find
> phrases such as 'stress reveals genetic variation'. The implication
> is that while many stresses have a slight effect on an 'average'
> organism, if the organism has a mutation then the stress can have
> greater impact. For bacteria this would be revealed in reduced
> growth. At the very least you would expect growth of mutated
> organisms to be inhibited by stress to the same extent as that stress
> inhibits the growth of the non-mutated progenitor strain.
>
> Compare this with an engineering example and it makes obvious sense.
> A car drives faster down an urban road than across the stressful
> environment of rough terrain. If you 'mutate' the vehicle by removing
> a screw at random and it impedes the vehicle's ability to cope with
> the urban road, you would expect the effects of this 'mutation' to be
> similar, or exacerbated, when it is driven off-road. You would
> certainly not expect the deleterious effect to be reduced when
> driving off-road.

> restored under particular stresses. This really is surprising.

No its not. Its well known and expected for living matter.

>It is
> saying that if you take a damaged biological system and push it close
> to the extreme, somehow the damage becomes less deleterious.

Your comparing the equivalent to metal fatigue and weight training. It
is well understood and accepted that weight training involves partly
damaging the muscles, so that they will build up stronger to compensate
next time around. People have been doing this for many years.

One is living, one is dead. Big difference. If we didn't have self
repair, we wouldn't be here.

Kevin Aylward
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.anasoft.co.uk
SuperSpice, a very affordable Mixed-Mode
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"Understanding" itself requires consciousness,
therefore consciousness cannot be "understood"
without referring to itself for the explanation,
therefore the "hard problem" of consciousness,
is intrinsically unsolvable as it is self referral.