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Posted by Carlos on August 28, 1998 at 18:58:54:

In Reply to: Continuing from below posted by GaDS on August 28, 1998 at 16:26:58:

GaDS said:

"As regards my query "Why haven't scientists in labs been able to duplicate in labs what supposedly occurs in nature" I was referring to the creation of life from non-life.

As rpcman said, the question of abiogenesis is different than, and separate from, that of evolution. You are right, no life has been created. Nature, however, had hundreds of millions of years to accomplish it, and scientists have only been experimenting for a few decades. Some progress has been made. I'm sure you've heard of the experiment (I can't recall who did it) where amino acids were formed by putting an electrical current through a "soup" of chemicals. Also, I recall reading that a certain virus (the tobacco mosaic?) spontaneously assembles itself if its constituent chemicals are combined.

No matter how one chooses to consider it Nature at some point was supposedly capable of genetically isolating progeny of a common ancestor.

One mechanism that can and has been observed is a change in karyotype - the number of chromosomes. I quote from the Talk Origins archive:

"There are many different ways that the karyotype can change. The most drastic is polyploidy, where the entire genomic complement gets duplicated two or more times. Within that, there is allopolyploidy, which happens in crosses between organisms of different karyotype, and autopolyploidy, which happens in crosses within the species. Wait a minute, you might say, didn't I just get through saying that different karyotypes were usually a bar to reproduction? Yes, the "usually" does not include allopolyploidy. Other means of changing karyotype include fusion, the merging of two or more chromosomes into one; fission, where one chromosome is divided into two chromosomes; and replication of particular chromosomes. (Trisomy-21 is the name for the retention of an extra copy of the 21st human chromosome, which causes "Down's Syndrome."

Follow Ups:

• Thanks for the response GaDS 20:09:24 8/28/98 (14)
  • You should read a little more rpcman 20:56:53 8/28/98 (13)
    • I prefer going to the source GaDS 22:51:23 8/28/98 (12)
      • Question Carlos 10:58:28 8/31/98 (2)
        • Another question I remembered GaDS 16:02:12 9/01/98 (0)
        • Some Questions GaDS 12:16:00 8/31/98 (0)
      • What the "hell" difference does it make? Bob 2 03:02:50 8/29/98 (8)
        • AND Bob 3 03:16:53 8/29/98 (7)
          • The 100 monkeys at typewriters idea? GaDS 12:30:15 8/31/98 (6)
            • They're talking a lot but they're not saying anything Bob 2 23:54:39 8/31/98 (3)
              • What's your point? Or have you totally missed mine? GaDS 15:54:29 9/01/98 (2)
                • Hey, Hey, we're the monkeys Bob 2 22:48:53 9/01/98 (1)
                  • Sorry, but medicine shows are out of date GaDS 11:00:24 9/02/98 (0)
            • Mutation and diversity rpcman 13:31:35 8/31/98 (1)
              • Not surprising GaDS 15:34:15 8/31/98 (0)