Scientists have wondered why biological populations are so good at exploiting their environments. This trait they call “evolvability.” In an article titled “Evolution, evolution, evolution: How evolution got so good at evolving,” a University of Michigan study tries to explain how organisms can change to improve their fitness.
“Life is really, really good at solving problems. If you look around, there’s so much diversity in life, and that all these things come from a common ancestor seems really surprising to me,” said Luis Zaman, an evolutionary biologist at U-M and lead author of the study. “Why is evolution so seemingly creative? It seems like maybe that ability is something that evolved itself.”
But Zaman still says it is a question of whether or not evolvability can itself evolve. “This forward-looking feature of evolvability makes it contentious,” Zaman adds. “We think it’s important. We know it happens. Why it happens and when it happens is something we’re less clear about. We were trying to figure out: Can we see the evolution of evolvability in a more realistic computational model?”
Zaman’s team devised a computational model involving both positive logic functions and toxic logic functions they thought of as red and blue berries which were either beneficial or poisonous depending on the particular environment.
After completing their experiments, the researchers concluded that in some situations environments and evolvability remained constant. Otherwise, populations were able to cycle between “eating red berries and blue berries.” In other words, when populations cycled between two environments, they were able to jump back and forth and be successful in both.
In the computer model, this cycling back and forth caused populations to dramatically increase the rate of mutations that allowed them to successfully make the switches. Mutations caused the computer instructions (genes) to change and reconfigure the pathways to change, an apparent increase in evolvability.
“Once a population has achieved this evolvability, it seems like it didn’t get erased by future evolution,” Zaman said. Therefore, our article concludes, “This implies that once evolution evolves to be better at evolution, that evolvability is here to stay.”
Comments: In this article we have more evidence that evolutionists often describe evolution as if it were a thinking organism having cognitive functions able to help it make creative improvements. We are accustomed to, in biology, of talking about organisms evolving. So, is evolution itself an organism?
Computer programs can be suspect. The old adage, “Garbage in Garbage out” refers to instances in which programmers input bad data into a computer program and then not surprisingly get bad output. How do we know these Michigan researchers entered good data into their program?
Nevertheless, if evolution is good at evolving to improve the fitness of organisms, it often doesn’t do a very good job. Why haven’t all the species which are going extinct each year evolved the ability to resist their demises? Why haven’t species evolved the ability to overcome diseases which shorten their lifespans?
Scientists know changes happen all the time in nature due to what is still often called natural selection (even though nature doesn’t have a brain able to allow it to do any selecting). And mutations are not the solution to making improvements in nature. Contrary to what the Michigan scientists imply, mutations are a serious threat to improving organisms, not a solution.
While we continue to see changes in nature due to minor variations in species, not major evolutionary changes, one place where we Christians will never see a change is our relationship to God. “Certainly I, the Lord, do not change.” Malachi 3:6. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8.
Thankfully, we can be confident in the unchangeable truth that “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.” Acts 16:31.
By Warren Krug
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QUESTION OF THE DAY
How cold can it get in outer space?
In certain parts of outer space, the temperature can get as cold as -453 degrees Fahrenheit.
Source: “As a Matter of Fact–Hot or Cold?” Kids Answers [January-March, 2025], page 29.
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