Evolution Debate Settled By A&M, To A Degree

There’s less than a week to go before the Evolution vs. Intelligent Design showdown in Austin, and scientists at Texas A&M – the Aggies – have dropped a bombshell.

They’ve proven evolution exists.

Kind of.

Aggie researcher and assistant professor Katy Kao has reportedly developed “the first direct evidence of aspects [of the evolutionary process], which up until now have remained mostly theory.”

Problem solved!!

Kao is on a scientists’ retreat this weekend, so Hair Balls spoke with Ryan Garcia, a spokesman in the chemical engineering department at A&M, for some clarification.

“I don’t think she’d be comfortable saying that we’ve flat out proven
evolution, but she will say that it’s really cool because she has a
visual view of it,” Garcia says. “There are certain adaptations that
are required in an organism’s evolution that, prior to now, weren’t
accounted for. It had certainly been theorized, but never shown in the
lab.”

According to Garcia, Kao watched evolution, and was able
to document — using DNA-based testing — how and when a cell adapted to
its environment.

“She can see different populations rise and
fall under the microscope, and she definitely set out to evolve these
things generation after generation,” Garcia says. “One of the other
professors here said, ‘Only if Darwin would’ve looked under a
microscope.'”

But here’s the catch: Kao obtained the evidence in
yeast cells, which are asexual. From monkey to man, the reproduction
was sexual all the way — in theory, still.

“Research
scientists don’t like to speculate on things beyond what they’ve looked
at, but she says it does say some things about the evolutionary process
that weren’t proven before,” Garcia says. “When you start getting into
talks about a creator and human beings, I will say this will not apply.
If someone wants to make an inference, who knows?”

— Paul Knight