1. Darwin never believed that anyone could see natural selection take place in his own lifetime. What further discoveries have proved this belief to be incorrect?
Based on his observations of various morphologies (of both living and dead organisms), Charles Darwin was able to compile his discoveries to formulate the theory of natural selection. In his work, On the Origin of Species, Darwin stated, “We see nothing of these slow changes in progress … our view into the long past geological ages that we only see that the forms of life are now different from what they were.”
Although Liverpool minister and scientist William Dallinger was able to correspond with Darwin on this research, Darwin was unable to see the brilliance behind Dallinger’s work. It was only in the recent years after the Genome Project that we’ve grown a better appreciation for Dallinger’s work on E. coli and further understanding on how natural selection works over the life time of the species (though it is unnecessary to say that such a process cannot happen within one’s own lifetime).
2. Discuss the
…show more content…
Without knowing about DNA or genes, William Dallinger choose microbes as his research subject because of certain advantages. First, microbes are small in size. Compared to plants and animals, billions of microbes can coexist in a beaker. Secondly, their reproductive cycles are much quicker than those of other organisms. As stated in the article, “[A] thousand generations of bacteria may span only a few weeks.” In addition, Zimmer states in his article “A single E. coli can produce billions of descendants in a single day.” Notably, years after Dallinger conducted his studies, a microbiologist by the name of Richard Lenski was able to find a method to temporarily store these microbes away and use them again to compare genomes and modification of one generation of microbes to