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Re: Where are the zoologists?
Phillip Bigelow (n8010095@henson.cc.wwu.edu)
Fri, 16 Dec 1994 10:41:55 GMT
lmm5@cornell.edu (loopy ) writes:
>NOt everything needs or has an explanation. For
>instance Dawkins uses the example of the vertebrate eye. The photreceptor
>cells are wired "backwards"; that is, the light-receiving part of the cell
>faces the back of the eye, and the nerves come out of the cell at the end
>the faces the _front_. All vertebrates are wired this way. Why? is it
>because it was somehow advantageous? No, it is most likely there for what
>are known as "historical" reasons. It just happened that way, for no good
>reason, and since it was that way in our common ancestor, then all
>vertebrates have that eye structure.
>Lucie
Exactly so. Steven Jay Gould of Harvard has written extensively on the
"randomness" of the evolutionary history of life. His point is that
evolution doesn't _always_ have to have a driving force, or a driving
purpose. Sometimes, it just happens. Time usually sorts out the "good"
experiments from the "bad" experiments.
<pb>
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