Laboratory observed evolution

One major problem of proving evolution has been the ability to demonstrate inheritable genetic adaptations in a carefully controlled experimental environment. Since evolutionary traits often take thousands of generations to fulminate in a population, bacteria are a natural candidate for such experiments as many bacteria have dividing times of less than 30 minutes.

With that in mind, I'd like to introduce you to the citrate-metabolizing bacterium Escherichia coli. All you have to do is grow the bacteria for 44,000 passages. Importanty, Dr. Lenski's group grew out an earlier culture of the citrate-positive bacteria to confirm that this was an inheritable genetic alteration and not the cause of some random mutation occuring late in the experiments. Thus, we now have our first laboratory evidence of evolutionary patterns at work in bacteria in which proper controls were employed to test the hypothesis.

Taking into account their previous publications, this paper represents a significant step in Nobel Prize winning research. We'll see where the next few papers take them as I anticipate they'll further nail down these observations and cement these data as acceptable proof of the theory of evolution.

And where does this leave the creationists, er, intelligent design advocates? Well, in a pretty bad spot to be quite honest. I guess they're best chance of legitimate scientific credibility rests in their ability to show that evolution was the result of intelligent design. But even that argument is tenuous since this paper also shows that evolution does not always lead to the best possible outcome, an argument that would seem to be at odds with creationism.