Page 48 - The Evolution Impasse 2

46 Miller Experiment, The

In fact, present-day ev o lu tion ist nev er turn in to an oth er spe cies of
au thor i ties ad mit that the var i a tions mam mal, such as gi raffes or el e -
they re fer to as mi cro-ev o lu tion can - phants. The dif fer ent chaf finch es
not cre ate new ge net ic in for ma tion that Darwin saw on the Galapagos
and thus, can not give rise to ma cro- Islands are, in the same way, ex am -
ev o lu tion. The ev o lu tion ist bi ol o - ples of the var i a tion that con sti tutes
gists Scott Gilbert, John Opitz and no ev i dence for ev o lu tion.
Rudolf Raff de scribe this po si tion in Therefore, the or i gin of spe cies will
a 1996 ar ti cle pub lished in the jour - re main a ques tion that can nev er be
nal Developmental Biology: an swered in terms of ev o lu tion.
The Modern Synthesis [the neo-
Darwinist the o ry] is a re mark a ble
achieve ment. However, start ing in the MILLER EXPERIMENT, THE
1970s, many bi ol o gists be gan ques - Research in to the or i gin of life to
tion ing its ad e qua cy in ex plain ing ev -
which ev o lu tion ists at tach the great -
o lu tion. Genetics might be ad e quate for
est es teem is the Miller ex per i ment,
ex plain ing mi cro ev o lu tion, but mi cro -
car ried out by the American re -
ev o lu tion ary chan ges in gene fre quen -
search er Stanley Miller in 1953. (The
cy were not seen as able to turn a rep -
ex per i ment is al so known as the
tile in to a mam mal or to con vert a fish
Urey-Miller Experiment, due to the
in to an am phib i an. Microevolution
con tri bu tion made by Miller's
looks at ad ap ta tions that con cern on ly
the sur viv al of the fit test, not the ar riv - Chicago University su per vi sor
al of the fit test. As Goodwin (1995) Harold Urey.)
points out, "the or i gin of spe cies— Miller's aim was to es tab lish an
Darwin's prob lem—re mains un - ex per i men tal en vi ron ment to show
solved." 42 that ami no ac ids, the build ing blocks
The var i a tions that Darwinism of pro teins, could have formed by
has re gard ed for a cen tu ry or so as chance in the life less world of bil -
proof of ev o lu tion ac tu al ly have lions of years ago.
noth ing to do with the or i gin of spe - In his ex per i ment, Miller used a
cies. Horses may be cross bred in dif - com bi na tion of gas ses that he as -
fer ent com bi na tions for mil lions of sumed had ex ist ed in the Earth's pri -
years and dif fer ent strains of horse mor di al at mos phere (but which
may be ob tained. Yet hors es will were lat er de ter mined not to have
ex ist ed in it), such as am mo nia,

The Evolution Impasse II