"Last week.....a study published in PNAS, the journal of the National Academy of Sciences, that cast doubt on Darwinian evolution.
These findings are a challenge to the schoolbook view of evolution that underlies much popular culture but the PR team does not seem to know that.
Popular Mechanics, which covers the story in a way he found puzzling:
"The study showed that the organisms experienced changing selection pressures, but that they all eventually canceled out, meaning no dominant trait took over and influenced the organism’s evolution. In other words, this shows that evolution works on a level much more subtle than what scientists previously believed.
Darren Orf, “An Incredible Organism Is Evolving at Lightning Speed—Faster Than We Ever Imagined Possible,” September 18, 2024"Yes, that is what the researchers said. It’s a polite way of saying they didn’t find any evolution of the sort one would naturally expect. In short, if you were not already convinced, on other grounds, that Daphnia evolves, you would not deduce that from their findings.
In a variety of settings, the topic of climate change is a satisfying way to extricate oneself from an awkward subject:
"Of course, in an era of climate change, understanding these underlying evolutionary mechanisms is important. Because it’s impossible to perfectly recreate the evolutionary pressures on species in the wild, understanding the baseline functions on a species in a stable environment can help form a foundation for how other species could be well-suited for adaptation. Eventually, this could help scientists build resiliency in certain populations to protect vitally important food webs.
Orf, “Ever Imagined Possible,” September 18, 2024"Okay, but we haven’t established that anything happened here. How scientists are supposed to use this information to figure out how to “protect vitally important food webs” is not spelled out. But perhaps readers will feel that we are on the right side of science if climate change is emphasized.
It may be that an unwillingness or inability to see this finding for what it is, as evidence against Darwinian evolution, plays a vital role in quietly enabling further research."
Denyse O'Leary
