Research sheds light on eye development

[varkam]

Research shed light on eye development
Robert Boyd
Kansas City Star
Link

WASHINGTON | Scientists have traced the origin of eyes back to a transparent blob of living jelly floating in the sea about 600 million years ago.

That creature, the distant ancestor of a modern freshwater animal known as a hydra, could only distinguish light from dark.

But that simple trick was such an advantage that it was passed on from generation to generation of the hydra’s cousins and their myriad descendants. It was the precursor of the wildly different, ever more complex eyes of fish, ants, flies, giraffes and people.

...

The discovery also helps to counter one of the principal arguments used by anti-evolutionists to discredit Charles Darwin’s theory and to support their belief in “intelligent design.”

snip...

X-Posted to R/T

[Zhade]

1. Add in the recent study that showed sexual orientation is hard-wired...

...and that silly bible is getting more inaccurate by the minute!

[Arugula Latte]

4. Dontcha love how believing in "UFOs" is wacky but believing the Bible is laudable?

I mean, I do think there have been "unidentified flying objects" -- plenty of them. Do I think any were space visitors? Probably not. However, the chances of there being at least a few planets elsewhere in the universe capable of supporting intelligent life -- among BILLIONS of planets -- is pretty darn good.

The Bible, on the other hand, is a tiny blip on the screen of the history of life on Earth. It's a silly book made up by a few desert-dwelling members of a primate race who were dominant for a relatively short while. The dinosaurs ruled for millions of years; humans have been powerful only for a nano-second in comparison.

[varkam]

6. Not that I want to hijack my own thread, but...

I mean, I do think there have been "unidentified flying objects" -- plenty of them. Do I think any were space visitors? Probably not. However, the chances of there being at least a few planets elsewhere in the universe capable of supporting intelligent life -- among BILLIONS of planets -- is pretty darn good.


While I think it is true that there is probably life somewhere else in the universe, I think that the proposition that they have actually visited us in flying craft is vanishingly small. For one, we're a very, very, very long way away from our neighbors - in fact, so long that you would need to travel at speeds well over the speed of light to even make it to the next neighborhood in order to make it in a lifetime. Also, we'd have to sort of hit the sweet-spot when it comes to our respective civilizations. They would have to be at the point where they could undertake such travel, and we would simultaneously have to be at the same point where we could take part in the conversation in order for any such interaction to be meaningful. In other words, if the aliens came, but came when we were in caves, then that's pretty much pointless. Likewise, if they do come, but come after we're all dead and gone, then ditto.

I do think that there are UFOs in that there are objects in the sky that are unidentified - but that doesn't mean that they are alien spacecraft from other planets.

And, generally, I agree with your reasoning re: the bible. The thing is, though, there is safety in numbers when it comes to irrationality.

[donheld]

8. Children's imaginary playmates are taboo

but an adult just calls it god.

[Richard Steele]

2. K&R

[upi402]

3. Evolution is a theory, so is gravity

A scientific theory is a set of facts that tells a story. Not a fantasy, idea, or best guess.

I knew a neurophysiologist research scientist that was studying vision on a cellular level. He would draw glass tube to some micro size and expose lizard eye cells to saline and various stuff that I can't remember. Also saline and electrical current. I dunno, but it was interesting as hell. Smart guy, and was published as a researcher.

There's some smart folks in science and it's insanity that loonies who rebuke science have huge influence in US government.

[Swamp Rat]

5. k&r

[TZ]

7. K+R n/t

[varkam]

9. kick

C'mon, people! This is cool stuff!

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. Well, I don't know. Right-wingers get blinded easily.

[immoderate]

11. That's just one eye.

The way I heard it, the eye has evolved several times. That's why some species have eyes without the "blind-spot" that humans have.

--IMM

[Jackpine Radical]

13. The mollusk eye seems to have been separately evolved.

May still have come from the same light-sensing spot, though.

The molluscan eye has a different embryological origin than the vertebrate eye, and no lens, just a pinhole (like a pinhole camera) iirc.

[immoderate]

16. Octopus eyes have a lens.

There may have been a rudimentary light sensor in whatever was our common ancestor.

--IMM

[Jackpine Radical]

17. I had either forgotten or not known that.

With a lens it makes for an even more interesting case of parallel evolution.

[immoderate]

18. Even more interesting...

When I was checking this, I found that while the human eye focuses by distorting the shape of its lens, the octopus eye focuses by varying the distance to the retina, sort of like a camera lens. That's taking a totally different evolutionary path.

--IMM

[NMMNG]

12. Silly "S"cientist

God guided evolution. :P

[varkam]

14. Rofl!

I see you read that thread...

[NMMNG]

15. I did