[Sifmole]

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"Evolution would require that there were non-resistant strains which mutated and one of those mutations was resistance: such an environment should be reproducible and testable -- has it been?"

yeah, i did this in biology lab last semester. Its pretty simple really. You take a culture of bacteria and create a control environment- a plate of agar gel with antibiotics. A second plate with antibiotcs and a mutagenic substace. Using the same culture for both you will see colonies growing on the plate with the mutagenic substance.


"Has any scientist caused speciation in single-celled organisms?"
Speciation in single cell organisms is different from other organisms because they reproduce asexually, so you can't use traditional definitions of species on them- which is why "strains" are used and not species when describing bacteria and stuff.

"And yes most mutations are harmful" most mutations are not harmfull, most mutations are considered "neutral".

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Re: Experiment

So in no case did any student have colonies grow in the control plate? But colonies always grew on the mutagen plate? What was the mutagen? In what way did you confirm there were no resistant bacteria in either group prior to the introduction of/to the mutagen? Any chance you can provide a citation to any published article describing such an experiment?

Re: Speciation vs Strains

Great, thanks for the wording.

Re: Mutations, most neutral

Ok -- I was just going along with the other guys statement. I don't really know.