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Bioscience 2010: Problems with evolution of mimicry “huge”

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… if the only possibility is Darwinism. From Bioscience, 2010:

The balance of Dazzled and Deceived focuses on the genetics and development of mimetic patterns, as revealed mostly through work with butterflies. The problems here are huge for evolutionary biologists. How does natural selection build a complex organism with all its integrated parts through fixation of random mutations? Butterfly mimicry has been a classic arena in which to tackle this problem precisely because the gambit is so obvious: To be a good mimic of another species requires many pattern elements of bars, lines, colors, and even wing shapes to change at once. Moreover, how can this process produce females that are perfect mimics and males that look nothing of the sort within a single species? These genetic requirements are seemingly at odds with our understanding of gradual evolutionary change and genes of small effect. Forbes takes us through the emergence of E. B. Ford’s school of ecological genetics and the basement-made butterfly crosses that eventually began to illuminate the problem of linked-gene complexes (“supergenes”), sex-linked inheritance, and modifier genes. The answers to the mimicry paradox, preliminary as they are still, inform modern evolutionary-developmental studies in all species and have launched the current effort to map a number of butterfly genomes. These genomic excursions promise to uncover the genetic architecture of mimetic patterns in a variety of species and in doing so uncover the fundamental basis of adaptation and speciation.

They wouldn’t be thinking of anything like this butterfly or these insects and lizards, would they?

However, the answer to problems with Darwinism (natural selection acting on random mutations slowly builds up the disguise from say, 1% to 100%) is, of course, more Darwinism, now happily defined as progress.

Hat tip: Daniel Quinones via Dennis Jones

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Supplemental notes:
Butterfly Cities and Spider Optics - October 22, 2012 Excerpt: Skyscrapers of the future may shine in brilliant butterfly colors. Optical biosensors may be made from spider webs. These are just a few of the engineering marvels coming from biomimetics—the imitation of nature. http://crev.info/2012/10/butterfly-cities/ G.E. Brings Life to Good Things - February 16, 2012 Excerpt: Thanks to the micro-design on a beautiful insect's wings, someday we may see many useful applications. A surgeon might be able to visualize precise locations of inflammation. A soldier might wear higher-resolution night-vision goggles. A firefighter might carry a hand-held thermal sensor to avoid danger. A security inspector might have a new way to detect explosives. Your doctor might study a wound's heat signature for better diagnosis without incisions. http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/02/ge_brings_life056451.html GE's Butterfly-inspired Design to Enable Advanced, Low Cost Thermal Imaging Devices - video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoaILSCzlTo From butterflies’ wings to bank notes — how nature’s colors could cut bank fraud Excerpt: According to Kolle: “We have unlocked one of nature’s secrets and combined this knowledge with state-of-the-art nanofabrication to mimic the intricate optical designs found in nature.”,,,”These artificial structures could be used to encrypt information in optical signatures on banknotes or other valuable items to protect them against forgery. We still need to refine our system but in future we could see structures based on butterflies wings shining from a £10 note or even our passports,” he says. http://www.physorg.com/news194418476.html SEM (scanning electron microscope) of butterfly wings - images https://www.google.com/search?q=SEM+of+butterfly+wings&client=firefox-a&hs=Rov&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=np&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=-oegUtWrJMepyAGyo4D4Aw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=621
Of personal note as a Christian, Butterflies have always had a special 'spiritual' significance for me, in that I find that our time here on earth is much like the worm stage of the butterfly. Think about it, considering all the seemingly senseless death and violence we are surrounded with, we are pretty much groveling around down here on earth trying to make sense of it all, completely oblivious to the magical transformation that awaits us as we enter heaven:
Dr. Eben Alexander saw “proof of heaven” while soaring on a butterfly wing - with video While in his coma, Alexander said a, “Beautiful, spinning, white light that had a melody, an incredibly beautiful melody with it that opened up into a bright valley,” rescued him from the dark environment he seemed to have been stuck in for a long time. According to ABC News, he was there with a young woman who soared across time and space on a butterfly wing,,, http://www.examiner.com/article/dr-eben-alexander-saw-proof-of-heaven-while-soaring-on-a-butterfly-wing The Easter Question - Eben Alexander, M.D. - March 2013 Excerpt: More than ever since my near death experience, I consider myself a Christian -,,, Now, I can tell you that if someone had asked me, in the days before my NDE, what I thought of this (Easter) story, I would have said that it was lovely. But it remained just that -- a story. To say that the physical body of a man who had been brutally tortured and killed could simply get up and return to the world a few days later is to contradict every fact we know about the universe. It wasn't simply an unscientific idea. It was a downright anti-scientific one. But it is an idea that I now believe. Not in a lip-service way. Not in a dress-up-it's-Easter kind of way. I believe it with all my heart, and all my soul.,, We are, really and truly, made in God's image. But most of the time we are sadly unaware of this fact. We are unconscious both of our intimate kinship with God, and of His constant presence with us. On the level of our everyday consciousness, this is a world of separation -- one where people and objects move about, occasionally interacting with each other, but where essentially we are always alone. But this cold dead world of separate objects is an illusion. It's not the world we actually live in.,,, ,,He (God) is right here with each of us right now, seeing what we see, suffering what we suffer... and hoping desperately that we will keep our hope and faith in Him. Because that hope and faith will be triumphant. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eben-alexander-md/the-easter-question_b_2979741.html "The only human emotion I could feel was pure, unrelenting, unconditional love. Take the unconditional love a mother has for a child and amplify it a thousand fold, then multiply exponentially. The result of your equation would be as a grain of sand is to all the beaches in the world. So, too, is the comparison between the love we experience on earth to what I felt during my experience. This love is so strong, that words like "love" make the description seem obscene. It was the most powerful and compelling feeling. But, it was so much more. I felt the presence of angels. I felt the presence of joyous souls, and they described to me a hundred lifetimes worth of knowledge about our divinity. Simultaneous to the deliverance of this knowledge, I knew I was in the presence of God. I never wanted to leave, never." Judeo-Christian Near Death Experience Testimony http://iands.org/experiences/nde-accounts/736-never-wanted-to-leave-the-presence.html
Verse and Music:
2 Corinthians 12:4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. Mandisa - Overcomer (Lyric Video) http://www.vevo.com/watch/mandisa/overcomer-lyric-video/USUV71301156
bornagain77
April 7, 2014
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Reminds me of this quote:
Bernard d'Abrera on Butterfly Mimicry and the Faith of the Evolutionist - October 5, 2011 Excerpt: For it to happen in a single species once through chance, is mathematically highly improbable. But when it occurs so often, in so many species, and we are expected to apply mathematical probability yet again, then either mathematics is a useless tool, or we are being criminally blind.,,, Evolutionism (with its two eldest daughters, phylogenetics and cladistics) is the only systematic synthesis in the history of the universe that proposes an Effect without a Final Cause. It is a great fraud, and cannot be taken seriously because it outrageously attempts to defend the philosophically indefensible. http://www.evolutionnews.org/2011/10/in_this_excerpt_from_the051571.html
And although butterfly mimicry is certainly a 'huge problem' for evolutionists (actually explaining the existence of a single functional protein is 'huge problem' for evolutionists), I think that the metamorphosis of Butterflies presents an even greater difficulty for Darwinists to 'explain away' than mimicry does. The following video, at the 12:21 minute mark, gives a nice illustration of the enormous challenge involved for neo-Darwinists to ever offer a credible explanation for metamorphosis (not that they, waxing poetic in their obfuscation, won't try).
The Miracle of Development Part 1 - Origins with Dr. Paul A. Nelson - video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=JD9qMvz6T90#t=741s
The 'brick wall' difficulty for Darwinian explanations is discussed here:
From Discovering Intelligent Design: My How You've Changed - May 26, 2013 Excerpt: Holometabolism (complete metamorphosis) is the most common and complicated form of insect maturation. The diverse group that undergoes this type of process includes butterflies, moths, beetles, fleas, bees, ants, and many kinds of flies.,,, It is exceedingly difficult to understand the origin of holometabolism in Darwinian evolutionary terms. Neither the larval nor the pupal stage is capable of reproduction -- only the adult is. In particular, the pupal stage is an all-or nothing proposition. It must complete the process and become an adult, or it will die without ever reproducing. The liquefied organism must be completely rebuilt. For this to occur, large amounts of information -- encoding the larval body plan, the mechanisms of transformation during metamorphosis, and the adult body plan -- must exist before the larva enters this stage. An organism could not survive complete metamorphosis unless the entire process was fully programmed from the beginning. Such a large jump in complexity requires forethought and planning -- things that don't exist in Darwinian evolution. As one evolutionary entomologist acknowledges: "... the biggest head-scratcher in evolutionary biology would have to be the origin of the holometabolous insect larva." http://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/05/from_discoverin_3072521.html A Mathematician Explains the Irreducible Complexity of Metamorphosis - November 2011 Excerpt: Now we are not talking about climbing Mount Improbable, we are talking about building a bridge across an enormous chasm, between caterpillar and butterfly. ,, Until construction of this extremely long and complicated bridge is almost complete, it is a bridge to nowhere. Unless a butterfly (or another organism capable of reproduction) comes out at the end, the chrysalis only serves as a casket for the caterpillar, which cannot reproduce. Now we do not have to simply imagine uses for not-quite-watertight vacuum chamber traps, we have to imagine a selective advantage for committing suicide before you are able to reproduce, and that is a more difficult challenge! http://www.evolutionnews.org/2011/11/the_irreducible_complexity_of052461.html
Moreover, as far as the fossil record can tell us, insects with the ability to undergo 'complete metamorphosis' appeared abruptly with the signature complex larval stage indicative of 'complete metamorphosis' already present from the very beginning of their existence on earth:
Humble bug plugs gap in fossil record - August 2012 Excerpt: One day 370 million years ago, a tiny larva came to a sticky end when it plunged into a shrimp-infested swamp and drowned.,, Named Strudiella devonica, the eight-millimetre invertebrate - while in far from mint condition - is thought,, to be the world's oldest complete insect fossil. http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/Humble-bug-plugs-gap-in-fossil-record-20120801
As well, many of the different phyla found in the Cambrian Explosion were also metamorphic:
The Enigma of Metamorphosis Is Hardly Limited to Butterflies - October 2011 Excerpt: Even more mysteriously, it appears that the most ancient phyla were metamorphic from the beginning, based on the few larval forms that have been preserved. This suggests that these Cambrian animals had not one but two or more developmental stages at the outset,,,, http://www.evolutionnews.org/2011/10/the_enigma_of_metamorphosis_is051541.html Metamorphosis Is Widespread - Ann Gauger - video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkD-jd1imaI
bornagain77
April 7, 2014
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