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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: DieCommie]
    #8082622 -

DieCommie said:
Its not random that Polar Bears become white. White color is an advantage for procreation in the north pole. Pressures from other organisms drive polar bears to become white because it is white in the north pole. Thats what I mean when I say the pressures are not random.

Now the tint of a new generation's fur will randomly be some color around the old generations. That mutation is fairly random.



You're not quite up on why polar bears are white, I see.

They aren't actually white, the hair is actually translucent. It basically works like fiber optics, the light hits the end of the hair, and the hair (having a low angle of reflection) transmits this energy to the bear's skin as heat.

But you and I are more or less on the same page, I think.

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: imachavel]
    #8082625 -

It is not a coincidence that polar bears are white.  It would be a coincidence if one particular bear was the one who was born more white.  For the species as a whole though, the bears become white for a reason, not from chance or coincidence.

:boomboom:

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: imachavel]
    #8082633 -

Sorry. I forgot to reply to the right person.
I posted my original post when the thread only had 1 reply so I was originally addressing it to the thread starter.


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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: Entropymancer]
    #8082634 -

Entropymancer said:
DieCommie said:
Its not random that Polar Bears become white. White color is an advantage for procreation in the north pole. Pressures from other organisms drive polar bears to become white because it is white in the north pole. Thats what I mean when I say the pressures are not random.

Now the tint of a new generation's fur will randomly be some color around the old generations. That mutation is fairly random.



You're not quite up on why polar bears are white, I see.

They aren't actually white, the hair is actually translucent. It basically works like fiber optics, the light hits the end of the hair, and the hair (having a low angle of reflection) transmits this energy to the bear's skin as heat.

But you and I are more or less on the same page, I think.



very cool

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: Drise]
    #8082638 -

Drise said:
Environment is an important part of the evolution
The rest is natural selection. The modern hyena, Manatee and Elephant have all evolved from a single ancestor as well as a lot of other species. The modern synthesis says the population is the basic unit of evolution which is interbreeding individuals in a specific area, what causes them to move around are a number of facts, prey depletion, storms, if they can fly a group can migrate. When a population arrives in a new area an individual with alleles (traits) that are disadvantageous aren't going to survive and those with helpful, or not harmful traits will begin to evolve away from where ever their founder population is.Small changes over a long period make for graduate changes that create an entire new species, variation in traits is somewhat random in that the dominant and recessive genes that are inherited are paired on different odds every time. You can't have four kids and get one with each set of traits. Each time its a one in whatever chance. Mutations deletion and replication of genes can occur, the systems not perfect and those traits may be helpful, but 99% of the time its harmful.

Hope that helped a little.



i agree with this. so in a sense mutation is random, in another sense it's very specific. Unless there's tiny cellular variations we don't know about. maybe the color of someones eyes seems like a random trait, but it may have some difference to the absorption of sunlight.


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:kingcrankey: I did not say to edit my signature soulidarity! Now forever I will never remember what I said about understanding the secrets of the universe by paying attention to subtleties!

:facepalm: I'm never giving you the password again. Jerk

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: DieCommie]
    #8082645 -

It is coincidence though. The bears are white because they're in a cold environment, and happened to evolve a mechanism to more effectively collect heat.

But the fact that the bears are in a cold environment is pretty much random. Or based on the random wanderings of its ancestors

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: Entropymancer]
    #8082657 -

Eye color is due to a number of genes, we mapped the genome a while ago and eventually we will now exactly what every gene does and be able to control evolution on an entirely new level.

I personally don't like the idea.


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"It is only once we've lost everything, we are free to do anything."


Everything I think, say, or do is fictional

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: Entropymancer]
    #8082671 -

Entropymancer said:
It is coincidence though. The bears are white because they're in a cold environment, and happened to evolve a mechanism to more effectively collect heat.

But the fact that the bears are in a cold environment is pretty much random. Or based on the random wanderings of its ancestors



are you ever wrong? isn't this an argument of opinion at this point? that seems like such a specific thing to me. Ok, the bear living up north is random, that's only one half of the page, the fur being white isn't random, although, technically if they wanted to stay warm wouldn't they be black? to absorb heat? the whiteness probably helps them camoflauge, which help them catch prey more easily most likely.

anyway, the hair not being white but transluscent is probably true. but isn't that true of all colors? colors don't really exist, only the way the light bounces or is absorbed do they exist. Blue is the color of the sky because blue is the only color light doesn't absorb, right?


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:kingcrankey: I did not say to edit my signature soulidarity! Now forever I will never remember what I said about understanding the secrets of the universe by paying attention to subtleties!

:facepalm: I'm never giving you the password again. Jerk

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: imachavel]
    #8082682 -

Yeah I dont know I've seen a lot of polar bears
But I'd think their color is due to reflecting the sun
Since it's bearing down for months of end. Also for camouflage. As for the light something like what imachavel said


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"It is only once we've lost everything, we are free to do anything."


Everything I think, say, or do is fictional

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: Drise]
    #8082684 -

Drise said:
Eye color is due to a number of genes, we mapped the genome a while ago and eventually we will now exactly what every gene does and be able to control evolution on an entirely new level.

I personally don't like the idea.



i don't either. Although on another level, if we do play god with genomes, we could genetically evolve a plant to produce some powerful life saving medicine for masses of sick people with something like cancer or h.i.v. but then we could also recreate jurassic park, which is one fucked up idea, and yet so close to the concept of peoples minds, as if we wouldn't genetically evolve god if we could, to try and rearrange the molecular composition of the planet, how people think, an amazing thing.


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:kingcrankey: I did not say to edit my signature soulidarity! Now forever I will never remember what I said about understanding the secrets of the universe by paying attention to subtleties!

:facepalm: I'm never giving you the password again. Jerk

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: Drise]
    #8082688 -

Drise said:
Eye color is due to a number of genes, we mapped the genome a while ago and eventually we will now exactly what every gene does and be able to control evolution on an entirely new level.


No, not even close. Biologists do not know exactly what every gene does. The human genome project found what chemicals are that make up DNA, not how they manifest themselves as traits in a human.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Genome_Project

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: DieCommie]
    #8082719 -

I didn't say they know everyone I said they have begun to determine what the sequences mean and how they manifest themselves into heritable traits that you may or may not be able to see.
Don't reference me to wikipedia.


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"It is only once we've lost everything, we are free to do anything."


Everything I think, say, or do is fictional

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: imachavel]
    #8082758 -

imachavel said:
Entropymancer said:
It is coincidence though. The bears are white because they're in a cold environment, and happened to evolve a mechanism to more effectively collect heat.

But the fact that the bears are in a cold environment is pretty much random. Or based on the random wanderings of its ancestors



are you ever wrong? isn't this an argument of opinion at this point?



Yes, it's an argument of semantics, and I don't have any problem with people thinking of selection forces as non-random; obviously they select based on various populational pressures.

But I think it's an important distinction that these populational pressures are random.


imachavel said:
anyway, the hair not being white but transluscent is probably true. but isn't that true of all colors? colors don't really exist, only the way the light bounces or is absorbed do they exist. Blue is the color of the sky because blue is the only color light doesn't absorb, right?



The hair being translucent was only relevent to how it functions like a fiber-optic.

imachavel said:
Although, technically if they wanted to stay warm wouldn't they be black? to absorb heat? the whiteness probably helps them camoflauge, which help them catch prey more easily most likely.



The camoflauge factor probably helped to conserve the translucent hair trait. But no, black hair does not work as well. Black hair will absorb all the heat, and transmit very little to the body. The translucent hair absorbs practically no heat (just conducts it), and thus can heat the bear by passing the light energy along.

Looking up fiber-optics might clear up this point if you're confused.

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: Drise]
    #8082765 -

It's really not random at all. A trait will not be allowed to survive through natural selection if it is not beneficial to the species reproductive and survival capabilities. Sharks are never going to just randomly evolve wings, any mutation that would be a precursor to wings would never progress because there would be no correlation between wings and the survival of sharks.

On the genetic level it's random, but over a large timescale the environment works to make evolution follow a very logical pattern.


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check out my music!
drowse in prison and your waking will be but loss

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: g00ru]
    #8082781 -

guruu said:
On the genetic level it's random, but over a large timescale the environment works to make evolution follow a very logical pattern.



which is determined by a big long procession of circumstance and coincidence.

I'm not saying that sharks will evolve wings; there's no benefit. Obviously the selectional pressures determine what's lost and what's conserved.

I just don't see how the circumstances that dictate the selectional pressures on a particular species is anything but random.

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: Atheist]
    #8082790 -

Atheist said:
God made the earth 6,000 years ago :yesnod:




super evolution, FTW!

8 minutes, funny enough to watch


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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: g00ru]
    #8082791 -

And also, while the environment an animal lives in is sort of random due to divergent evolution and the changing of the continents, within one ecosystem it is not random at all.  Just as they evolve to meet their environments, animals will migrate to a more suitible environment if it helps them survive.  When you see animals living in inclimate ecosystems it is because they have evolved in such synergy with the environment that it has become advantageous for them to remain there as apposed to live anywhere else.  Either that or they have no choice, like with polar bears.

Honestly evolution is one of the most fascinating subjects on the planet because it's an absolutely perfect mechanism.  Nothing can beat it.  And yes, that does include humans. :wink:


--------------------
check out my music!
drowse in prison and your waking will be but loss

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: g00ru]
    #8082832 -

guruu said:
Honestly evolution is one of the most fascinating subjects on the planet because it's an absolutely perfect mechanism. Nothing can beat it.



Heheh it seems like it from our perspective, but long-term climate change will eventually destroy every trace of life on this planet. If somehow we survive long enough, the earth will be incinerated by the sun as it swells in its old age. Evolution is fascinating yes, perfect no.


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Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man.  For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire.  Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it.

~ R.W. Emerson, "Self-Reliance"

:heartpump:

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: g00ru]
    #8082837 -

We're bacteria from outerspace


--------------------
"It is only once we've lost everything, we are free to do anything."


Everything I think, say, or do is fictional

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Re: question about evolution..... [Re: Drise]
    #8082841 -

We will have made a way to send something to another planet, even if its just bacteria. Just keeps spreading


--------------------
"It is only once we've lost everything, we are free to do anything."


Everything I think, say, or do is fictional

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