Thanks. Is there a resource or a book on amazon that focuses on the testability of inter-species evolution ? I've been a bit frustrated by this as most people just allude to the fact that it took thousands or millions of years so hard to test it - but we should extra-polate some observed lab principles at a much tinier and then scale the intuition by a billion times to get inter species evolution.
Specifically are there any:
1. Simulations (i.e. code up the actors in the system and let it proceed it a accelerated time scale similar to what we do for space simulations for heavenly bodies)
2. Emulations (not computational but demonstrating using a real life model of some kind)
3. Lab demonstrations of this happening
4. Reproductions of the whole set of mechanisms that allow a species to evolve into something new that we would classify as a different species
that clearly show the evolution principles in effect for a reasonably complex inter-species case.
I have been frustrated from Richard Dawkins's accounts too. I once read his essay on how the eye might have evolved. His accounts tend to be so speculative and full of "should"s and "must"s, its very off putting.
But it completely skips the actual mechanism or testability of anything it says. So basically doesn't address the how at all. A resource that actually addresses the HOW and not just conjecture on the WHAT would be really cool.
Specifically are there any:
1. Simulations (i.e. code up the actors in the system and let it proceed it a accelerated time scale similar to what we do for space simulations for heavenly bodies)
2. Emulations (not computational but demonstrating using a real life model of some kind)
3. Lab demonstrations of this happening
4. Reproductions of the whole set of mechanisms that allow a species to evolve into something new that we would classify as a different species
that clearly show the evolution principles in effect for a reasonably complex inter-species case.
I have been frustrated from Richard Dawkins's accounts too. I once read his essay on how the eye might have evolved. His accounts tend to be so speculative and full of "should"s and "must"s, its very off putting.
Edit: This book in fact is the best writing on evolution of eyes: http://www.amazon.com/Evolutions-Witness-How-Eyes-Evolved/dp...
But it completely skips the actual mechanism or testability of anything it says. So basically doesn't address the how at all. A resource that actually addresses the HOW and not just conjecture on the WHAT would be really cool.