Comments on: Links http://heracliteanfire.net/2006/07/15/daily-links/ Harry Rutherford's Blog Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:50:56 +0000 hourly 1 By: Harry http://heracliteanfire.net/2006/07/15/daily-links/comment-page-1/#comment-2710 Harry Sun, 16 Jul 2006 17:26:26 +0000 http://heracliteanfire.net/archives/671#comment-2710 Natural selection has always been falsifiable - for example, a rabbit skeleton in a pre-Cambrian rock. Or a pegasus, maybe. The difficulty is directly testing it experimentally. You're right, though, there have been various examples of observable change over a period of a few years. The Peppered Moth example is one of them, but I've seen a few others. The Galapagos finches seem to be a good example of a particular effect in action rather than a revolutionary vindication of natural selection itself. As far as I understand it :) Natural selection has always been falsifiable – for example, a rabbit skeleton in a pre-Cambrian rock. Or a pegasus, maybe. The difficulty is directly testing it experimentally.

You’re right, though, there have been various examples of observable change over a period of a few years. The Peppered Moth example is one of them, but I’ve seen a few others. The Galapagos finches seem to be a good example of a particular effect in action rather than a revolutionary vindication of natural selection itself. As far as I understand it :)

]]> By: shadygrove http://heracliteanfire.net/2006/07/15/daily-links/comment-page-1/#comment-2709 shadygrove Sun, 16 Jul 2006 15:30:32 +0000 http://heracliteanfire.net/archives/671#comment-2709 Wouldn't Karl Popper be pleased with the Galapagos finches? Natural selection behaving falsifiably after all. (Actually, is it really so revolutionary as all that? I vaguely recall some moths turning from all white to all black in a few generations in a British town that got a coal plant: the white trees on which the white moths had been well-concealed suddenly turned black, so the moths had to, too.) Wouldn’t Karl Popper be pleased with the Galapagos finches? Natural selection behaving falsifiably after all. (Actually, is it really so revolutionary as all that? I vaguely recall some moths turning from all white to all black in a few generations in a British town that got a coal plant: the white trees on which the white moths had been well-concealed suddenly turned black, so the moths had to, too.)

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