Supporters of EVOLUTION ---- please describe to me how the scientific method is applied to evolutionary theory

Question

In short, how is evolution testable?

Great Gazoo, no, don't feel like you need to cut it short, say as much as you want... all I ask is that you don't post 5 miles of text!

Answer 1

Correct for mistakes by an earlier answerer.

1. OBSERVATION -species change over time.

2. EXPERIMENTATION -take a species that replicates quickly, (i.e. bacteria), and watch a mutation turn into an adaptive trait (drug resistant bacteria)

3. REPRODUCTION do this as many damn times as you like

4. FALSIFICATION - Continue to stick your head in the sand and give antibiotics for a headache.

Answer 2

Several ways.

First it made several predictions that took a long time to be testable. This is all tested, papers written and argued about as technology permits.
--DNA should be similar in related species.
--The fossil record should have to match all the way. A single fossil in the wrong layer of rock would have to be seriously examined.
--Transitional fossils should constantly be found that fill in the gaps.

There are other types of studies on things like human migration. Mitochondrial DNA come only from the mother and mutates at a known rate. This can be traced to every bottleneck due to human migration and converges world wide about 150,000 years ago. This agrees with other dates and matches evolution. If it did not, you would have to reexamine it all.

It is intentionally pushed in certain directions in the lab. My wife has published papers on how to effect the spot that yeast choses to bud. They intentionally and reproducibly would get it to decide the location by artificially selecting the traits that they wanted in different populations. They were then trying to isolate the section of the DNA that controlled it. by comparing the sequences.

I could go on. The entire basis of Biology is evolution and there are still squabbles about little bits and pieces of the mechanism, but this is getting long.

Answer 3

Here is one simple example of a retrodiction of evolution. Of course there are thousands of them. Gorillas and Humans were found to have the same point mutation breaking the vitamin C pathway. ( The mechanism used by mammals to produce vitamin C). Since the odds are extremely small that Gorrillas and Humans would have the same exact point mutation by chance. It is extremely likely the mutation happened in a common ancestor and therefore Evolution predicted that Chimps should have the exact same point mutation. When biologists looked in Chimp DNA they found the same mutation.

Answer 4

You start with a hypothesis based on observations
then you collect data to support that hypothesis
then write it up, present it at conferences, get feedback and eventually publish it in peer reviewed scientific journals.

One small example. Darwan saw a flower in the Galapagos who's necter was down at the base of a 3 ft slender tube. I proposed that there must be a moth with a 3 ft probiscus. the moth was discovered nearly 100 years later.

Answer 5

It was very demonstrable when Darwin was in the Galapagos Islands. If you take the same species of animal and put them in differing environments, the ones that survive will be the ones who can adapt to their surroundings. To test evolution, one could hypothetically place identical species in differing environments and over time, adaptation would occur. We can't live to see it, but it could be observable over generations of people and the animals subject to the study.

Answer 6

Just some of the ways evolution is testable:
If the theory were not true we would find fossils in rock strata where they should not be.
If the theory were not true we would not find homologous morphology in closely related species.
If the theory were not true we would not have genomic matching in closely related species.

So many millions of fossils, millions of homologous structures, millions of genes, and not once has evolutionary theory been shown false in its predictions.

Amazingly powerful theory, no?

Answer 7

unless you can live for extremely long periods of time you cant test it in your life time. evolution takes place over hundreds of thousands of years and maybe more. you can see physical evidence of evolution though through fossils and even within genetic deseases that are present today. sickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder that is caused by a mutation in your DNA. how do you think this mutation occured? that was a small bit of evolution. and it does work. with only one allele of sickle cell anemia you are immune to malaria. but when you have 2 alleles you get sick and die usually when you are a child if you dont get meds

Answer 8

I went to a creation vs. evolution debate. The Pro evolution Professor of Biology at The University of Arizona Said to throw the Fossil record out because it was in accurate. Hmm

Answer 9

It has been observed in laboratories. Also, scientists are constantly making predictions about what type of fossils will be found in which strata of the earth.

Answer 10

It is not testable.. because it cannot be reproduced in the labratory with repeatable results. Evolution is a theory, with Fervent Followers as strong as any Religion on the earth.