. . . from a grain of salt:
Dr. Jackson Martin, Director and Professor of the Flagellum Project at the Hoboken Nature Institute, today announced completion of software that successfully demonstrates the evolution of the bacterial flagellum. Critics of evolution have claimed that the flagellum is too complex to evolve using the gradual changes required by natural selection.
“The flagellum is very complicated,” said Martin. “Like a motor, it has a rotor, a stator, and complex control mechanisms.”
Martin and his students have demonstrated, however, that the complex flagellum can be easily created using the forces of natural selection.
“We have not only shown that the flagellum can be evolved, it’s hard not to evolve the flagellum.”
In simulation software called EvolFlag, Martin and his students carefully apply gradual modifications to an initial set of boundary conditions.
“During the flagellum simulated evolution, my students like to play Devo’s Whip It in the background,” smiled Martin. “They joke it supplies natural selection forces.”
Martin’s most impressive demonstration was evolution of the bacterial flagellum from common table salt.
“Salt, of course, contains no biochemicals,” offered Martin. “The ability to evolve a fully functional flagellum from simple table salt is a tribute to the miracle of evolution.” . . .
For more details, go here.