Scientists obverse single cell yeast evolve in multicellular organism

[Turbo SS]

How significant is this study? I saw it and thought it was interesting  I know there are people with much better knowledge of evolution than me.  I also realize this isnt the aha all our theories about evolution are now fact.


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=test-tube-yeast-evolve

[One Above All]

It's impressive and should silence a few more creationists.
EDIT: Also, our theories are not fact simply because they cannot be. They are the explanations of facts. The theory of evolution explains evolution, the theory of gravity explains gravity, and so on.

[Turbo SS]

It's impressive and should silence a few more creationists.
EDIT: Also, our theories are not fact simply because they cannot be. They are the explanations of facts. The theory of evolution explains evolution, the theory of gravity explains gravity, and so on.

I am curious to see the creationist response to this.  Even though i am sure it will be similar to "this study proves nothing." Thank you for comparing the theory of evolution to the theory of gravity. I realize evolution is basically fact but I didnt really know why but that made the light bulb go off.  I have studied evolution in highschool and college despite living in Oklahoma.    Unfortunately, I am still basically a complete layman in my evolutionary knowledge compared to many others in here.

[Nick]

I don't remember where I saw this but here goes...science accepts that they might be asking questions that may never be answered.  Religion claims to have answers that may never be questioned.

[Turbo SS]

I still am really curious what creationists would say about this study. Not to pick on them, but I want to see how they legitamize this in their head.  Did the scientists lie about what they saw? did they do the experiment wrong?  Did they not really see what they thought they saw?

[jynnan tonnix]

Really interesting! Thanks.

It makes me wonder where they could ultimately take this. The article does state:

Although researchers agree that the yeast clusters could indeed be considered multicellular organisms, they remain relatively simple. "The researchers are not going to evolve sponges with this approach, but it's amazing what they’re able to do so quickly," Simpson says

So why is this? I'm not versed enough in this sort of science. Is it just that even with artificial selection the process of taking the extra step toward a more complex multicellular creature would be forbiddingly lengthy? Or is there something about yeast which places inherent limitations on how far they can evolve?

[One Above All]

Is it just that even with artificial selection the process of taking the extra step toward a more complex multicellular creature would be forbiddingly lengthy?

Pretty much.