Re: Art's review, Lee Spetner's book

Arthur V. Chadwick (chadwicka@swau.edu)
Wed, 15 Sep 1999 14:45:01 -0700

>>Using the numbers provided by evolutionary scientists, Spetner demonstrates
>>that fixing a mutation with a slight advantage in a population is
essentially
>>impossible.
>
>This seems a challenge to a rather fundamental point. Can someone explain
>in non-mathematical terms why an advantageous mutation could not spread
>within a population? Given of course, that it is not hopelessly linked with
>disadvantageous genes.

Put simply, "Hardy Weinberg makes evolution impossible."
Unless the selective advantage of a trait is nearly perfect, a condition
that is unattainable by definition, it will not become fixed in the
population. Only dominant traits that have a sufficiently high positive
effect can become fixed by Hardy Weinberg pathways. Of course, one can
always posit that the whole population, except for the one individual was
annihilated, and that one individual (or small related population)
survived, and thus raised the frequency to 100%....
Art
http://geology.swau.edu