Poll: Does the Theory of Evolution have practical applications?

Does the Theory of Evolution have practical applications?

  • I'm an evolutionist: NO, the Theory of Evolution does NOT have practical applications.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I'm a creationist: I am unsure if the Theory of Evolution has practical applications.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I'm an evolutionist: I am unsure if the Theory of Evolution has practical applications.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    35
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FrumiousBandersnatch

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I don't think many are honestly unaware of the truth in any situation, at least they shouldn't be. After all we're in the information age.
Nevertheless, whether or not people honestly differ over what the right thing is to do, the problem remains...

As does my question (if we can't agree on what is the right thing to do, how do you think can it be taught, either at home or in school?)
 
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OldWiseGuy

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Nevertheless, whether or not people honestly differ over what the right thing is to do, the problem remains...

As does my question (if we can't agree on what is the right thing to do, how do you think can it be taught, either at home or in school?)

People should be reminded to do the right thing, they don't need to be taught per se.
 
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OldWiseGuy

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OK; so now you've changed your tune about that too... :doh:

OldWiseGuy said, "Doing the right thing must be taught, in school as well as at home"

You teach children but you remind adults.
 
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OldWiseGuy

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Are you suggesting adults can't be taught things? :scratch:

Adults should avail themselves of the information needed to make right decisions, and should not rely solely on others to do the study for them.
 
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pitabread

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Adults should avail themselves of the information needed to make right decisions, and should not rely solely on others to do the study for them.

So... does that mean you think adults *can* be taught things?

Your posts are seeming awfully contradictory.
 
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OldWiseGuy

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So... does that mean you think adults *can* be taught things?

Your posts are seeming awfully contradictory.

Or all statements are valid when taken separately.
 
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pitabread

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I like to make and discuss one statement at a time, building to a conclusion.

I've noticed. But if you're trying to present a conclusion derived in a logical manner, making contradictory statements is contrary to that.
 
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Alan Kleinman

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The post below is a kind of combination of three posts I posted on a different board, so it's not always consistent. Yet I think it's cool:
A simple and elegant way to show evolution in action was set up by professor Kishony and his team. A gigantic petri dish was divided in lanes with increasing concentration of antibiotics, from (0 , no antibiotics: 1 just enough to kill all bacteria, gradually up to 1000 x the concentration of 1). Different strains of Escherichia Coli were spotted in the 0 lane. As this lane got filled and the places for new bacteria got depleted the bacteria were pushing against the boundary of the 10 lane. Only those bacteria and their descendants that got the suitable mutations for surviving in a higher concentration of antibiotics made it to the next lane. The experiment filmed over 11 days shows clearly that bacteria can evolve a resistance to a 1000 fold stronger concentration of antibiotics than the wild type bacteria.


Here you have the same experiment, but with professor Kishony explaining the experiment



It shows that evolution is cumulative. Each mutation increases the resistance to the antibiotics in an incremental way (see how the growth of the culture pauses at every boundary and how the growth always start at one tiny spot).



It is also very good at refuting a misunderstanding about the phrase “Survival of the fittest”. This is often misunderstood as killing all other competitors. But that is more often not the case. The fittest here are obviously these bacteria that can survive in a more hostile environment (a petri dish with antibiotics), not against each other.

Finally it answers the “refutation” used by some creationists “if we descend from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?”. Well here we see that the resistant bacteria descend from lesser resistant bacteria, that continue to stay in the environment (the lane) in which they can survive.

a technical paper published by the team

Spatiotemporal microbial evolution on antibiotic landscapes

the website of Roy Kishony's research institue:

Home - Kishony lab

The OP described an experiment performed by Roy Kishony and his team in which bacteria (Escherichia coli) were gradually exposed to increasing concentrations of antibiotics; and the bacteria evolved a growing resistance to these antibiotics. There is a practical application to this experiment. The administration of medication to patients, and especially the administration of different drugs together.

The experiment as described in the OP confronted E coli with gradually increasing concentrations of antibiotics. Kishony et al tested the reaction of a bacteria population when confronted with a 2000 fold concentration in one single step. There the population wasn't able to evolve the resistance against the antibiotics. The adaptation had to be gradually.

But with a mix of medication drugs can have different effects. The can act additives, i.e. each drug contribute as if it acted alone (2 +3 = 5, so to speak). They can act synergistically, i.e; the two drugs reinforce each other (2 + 3 = 6). Or they can show an antagonism, weakening each other’s working, (2+3= 4). From different experiments it has been shown that when, for medical reasons, a small dose of medication needs to be applied for a longer time, the danger of having antibiotics resistance is the highest with drugs that act synergistically. Against all intuition, for small prolonged doses an antagonistic mix of drugs might work better.

To have better understanding of how drug resistance evolves in bacteria is a cool and useful application of the Kishony experiment, and will give medical staff better tools to cure patients and avoid the emergence of drug resistance in the batcteria they fight.


sources:

Accelerated evolution of resistance in multidrug environments

Spatiotemporal microbial evolution on antibiotic landscapes

(PDF) The Kishony Mega-Plate Experiment, a Markov Process Running Title: The Kishony Mega-Plate Experiment

Suppressive drug combinations and their potential to combat antibiotic resistance

https://www.researchgate.net/profil...ated-antagonistic-antibiotic-interactions.pdf
I think you are conflating the concept of the ToE with the physics and mathematics of evolution. What I mean by this is that you are not correctly understanding the Kishony Mega-Plate experiment if you think it supports the ToE.
 
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Kylie

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@OldWiseGuy I asked a week and a half ago if you could provide an example of one of these "mysterious, giant unexplained leaps" you claim evolution has made.

Since you haven't responded yet, I can only assume you've missed that post, so I'll ask again.

Can you provide an example of such a leap?
 
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Ken-1122

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Pretty straight-forward question for both creationists and evolutionists of the forum.

For the purpose of this poll/thread, I'm defining a creationist as someone who rejects the idea that species share common ancestry as per the modern Theory of Evolution. Evolutionists are defined as those who accept common ancestry of species.
Among other things, modern medicine is based on the idea that the Theory of Evolution is true. If the Theory were false, modern medicine would not work. I'd call that a practical application.
 
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Alan Kleinman

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Among other things, modern medicine is based on the idea that the Theory of Evolution is true. If the Theory were false, modern medicine would not work. I'd call that a practical application.
Using the Theory of Evolution, explain why combination therapy works for the treatment of HIV.
 
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Ken-1122

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Using the Theory of Evolution, explain why combination therapy works for the treatment of HIV.
I don’t know enough about combination therapy or HIV treatment to make such an argument. I do know enough about the flu vaccine, and the reason the vaccine has to be different every year is because the virus change via Evolution; so if the theory of evolution were not true, the same vaccine would work every year.
Is that good enough?
 
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Alan Kleinman

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I don’t know enough about combination therapy or HIV treatment to make such an argument. I do know enough about the flu vaccine, and the reason the vaccine has to be different every year is because the virus change via Evolution; so if the theory of evolution were not true, the same vaccine would work every year.
Is that good enough?
I'm not saying that evolution does not occur. You said:
Ken-1122 said:
If the Theory were false, modern medicine would not work.
I was just wondering if you think the ToE is true, that you could explain how evolution works such as why it takes 3 drugs to give a durable treatment for HIV and why 1 or 2 drug therapy is inadequate. Where in the ToE is the explanation for this?
 
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