It reduces to very small proportions, almost negligible, in fact, the importance of the element
of chance mutation, on which R. A. Fisher on the one hand and Jacques Monod on the other have reared such super-structures of rather emotional philosophizing.
Eventually, as a result
of chance mutations in DNA, accidental modifications subjected to the pressure of natural selection, there emerge the «higher» animals and, at last, man.
Not exact matches
Chad's reliance on PE as requiring divine intervention and his willful misrepresentations (e.g. «pure
chance can never explain the grand paroxysm
of necessarily interrelated
mutations that are required to occur to accomplish this rapid change») have been repeatedly refuted.
Chance, in the form
of mutations, provides genetic variation, which is the raw material that natural selection has to work with.
In fact allowances can also thus be made for the role
of chance in the emergence
of life and in the
mutations that are required for the evolution
of new species.
The indeterminacy that science has found at the levels
of matter (uncertainty), life (
chance mutations), and human existence (freedom) are essential cosmological ingredients if the autonomy
of the world is not to collapse into the being
of the Creator - God (in which case it would no longer be a world distinct unto itself).
You laugh at the Supernatural, even though scientists have calculated the odds
of life forming by natural processes to be estimated less than 1
chance in 10 to the 40, ooo power — But you find nothing wrong with believing that billions
of years full
of random
mutations would result in the impossible.
The absence
of strict determinism that recent physics has discovered at the most basic levels
of matter, the
chance mutations that biology finds at the level
of life's evolution, and the freedom that comes forth with human existence — all
of these are the expected features
of any world we might claim to be distinct from the being
of its creator.
Change is due to
chance; the replication
of multiplying cells is not exact, with consequent
mutations occurring.
As for «
chance mutations,»
chance is the opposite
of having a cause; something that happens by
chance admits
of no reason or purpose for its occurrence.
Fessio, in his above - mentioned letter, brings some clarity: «The confusion arises when scientists and non-scientists alike speak
of «random» or «
chance»
mutation.
This concept would not allow
of any sort
of «random
mutation» or random
chance of any sort in a mechanistic and determinist order
of matter.
Whether or not a particular
mutation will increase the
chance of its possessor to survive and reproduce is dependent upon a second chain
of events, which is quite independent
of the event
of mutation itself.
If, on the other hand, we define evolution in the Darwinian sense — as a process
of random
mutation and natural selection by which all living beings have arisen by
chance from single - celled organisms over 100's
of millions
of years — we may not be on equally firm ground from a scientific perspective.
Having family members with these pre-menopausal cancers increase your
chances of genetically heritable
mutations that increase your risk
of developing these cancers.
The odds
of any DeMoe harboring the
mutation are 50 — 50, and if the
mutation is present, the
chances of developing early - onset Alzheimer's — the type that erodes memory before age 65 — are 100 percent.
This process boosts the
chance of hitting upon a combination
of mutations that produces vastly more.
That applies tremendous selection pressure, specifically for
mutations in the centromeres that maximize the
chances that one
of the chromosomes will make it into the egg, Malik and Henikoff argue.
Children, siblings or parents
of mutation carriers have a 50 - 50
chance of also having the
mutation, which can be identified with a gene test.
Women with one
of the
mutations have a 45 percent to 85 percent
chance of developing breast cancer by age 70, 23andMe said.
«Disrupting DNA repair will result in a storm
of random
mutations, increasing the
chance that the right gene mutates at the right spot and lead to drug resistance.
There were likely hundreds
of thousands
of protozoans in a microcosm, or jar, and populations turned over fairly quickly, with many
chances for
mutations, Morin said.
Keep in mind that the vast majority
of mutating agents provoke cells to stop functioning or to die, meaning there is no
chance for those
mutations to cause cancer.
First, looking at a study
of 185 cases
of childhood epilepsy, Wittkowski's team found that
mutations in genes that control axonal guidance and calcium signaling — both
of which are important early in the developing brain when neurons are forming the appropriate connections — led to increased
chances of having the disorder.
They also found that
mutations in the cassettes that could affect the portion
of VlsE that is recognized by the immune system were as much as eight times more common than would be expected by
chance alone and more common than
mutations that affected other parts
of the VlsE protein.
Hereditary predisposition to cancer is sometimes due to a single high - risk genetic change, like a
mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes for breast cancer, but most
of the time, the disease is the result
of multiple gene variants that add up, environmental risk factors, and a big element
of chance.
From such studies came the current canonical model
of how venom genes evolve through the
chance replication and
mutation of genes for enzymes, peptides and other proteins.
Testing for the EGFR
mutation and ALK rearrangements and the use
of targeted therapies have given lung cancer patients the
chance for survival, along with improved quality
of life and time with loved ones.
Whenever HIV multiplies by hijacking an immune cell, there is a
chance of mutation, and there is no guarantee that an HIV drug will be able to handle that
mutation.
In the same vein, the article describes how a
chance «mistake» — an apparently meaningless
mutation that took place over 700 million years ago — became the molecular driver for complex morphological developments in a number
of vertebrates (including the human species).
New research shows that the evolution
of grape color comes down to
chance mutations that first turned black grapes white, then white grapes red.
Whereas only 5 to 10 percent
of breast cancer patients have a
mutation at one
of these genes, those having it face a 40 to 85 percent
chance they will develop breast cancer at some point in their lives.
Although the likelihood
of any neutral
mutation spreading by
chance is tiny, the enormous number
of mutations in each generation makes genetic drift a significant force.
Unless an animal can recombine the DNA they already have, they will produce an offspring with an identical set
of chromosomes, in which any genetic weakness, such as disease susceptibility or physical
mutation, would have no
chance to be overridden by outside genetic material from a mate.
He cites a central tenet
of population genetics: The more individuals, the bigger the gene pool, and the greater the
chance for an unusual advantageous
mutation to happen.
In the scientific article «Histone
mutations separate R loops from genome instability induction» published in Molecular Cell, the researchers state that RNA joins with DNA by
chance or because
of a disease, the structure
of the chromatin, the protein envelope
of the chromosomes is altered, causing breaks in the DNA.
The
chances of that are so miniscule that it suggests alternative explanations, says medical geneticist Garry Cutting
of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, who has found
mutations that reduce the severity
of cystic fibrosis through a different approach.
By slightly changing these master genes, evolution could have an outsized effect on overall expression without as much
chance of negative
mutations, Gilad says.
Since people with a mutant copy
of the MYBPC3 gene have a 50 percent
chance of passing it on to their own children, being able to correct the
mutation in embryos would prevent the disease not only in affected children, but also in their descendants.
«A priori, nothing distinguishes one
mutation from another; they're all the result
of chance.
Chance chooses the genes in which random mutations show up; chance takes the fatal step in front of the crosstow
Chance chooses the genes in which random
mutations show up;
chance takes the fatal step in front of the crosstow
chance takes the fatal step in front
of the crosstown bus.
These
mutations varied tremendously between populations, which counters a popular view that many
of the differences between populations arose by
chance or were genetic variants that hitchhiked along with other genes that improved reproductive success, says biological anthropologist Henry Harpending
of the University
of Utah, Salt Lake City, and co-author
of another study
of accelerated evolution.
One commonly held theory is that autism results from the
chance combinations
of commonly occurring gene
mutations, which are otherwise harmless.
Scientists have uncovered several gene
mutations that sharply increase the
chances of developing autism.
The reason may be that their cells divide more times, increasing the
chance of malignant
mutation in ones that are especially vulnerable, such as cells in the skin.
With over 20,000 known protein - coding genes, widespread genetic variation, and the continual accumulation
of mutations in somatic tissues, there are plenty
of candidates that will meet these criteria by
chance alone.
They'll also discuss the potential psychological impact
of finding a
mutation, and how such information should be conveyed to other family members, including siblings and children, who have a 50 percent
chance of having the defect.
The authors have optimized the procedure
of pronuclear transplantation (PNT) between normally fertilized zygotes to reduce the
chances of technical manipulations and
mutations resulting in low - quality or diseased embryos.
«Women with a BRCA
mutation have a 40 to 50 percent
chance of getting ovarian cancer in their lifetime compared to somebody with an average risk, who has a 1.8 percent lifetime risk,» she said.
If a parent has the
mutation, a child has a 50 percent
chance of inheriting it.