quote:
The pertinent question to ask is, what evidence exists where the mutated type is more viable than the parent type in a normal environment?
Does the nylon example qualify? A quick read of the link and you will see it doesn’t. A huge cost is incurred in efficiency, and thus in a normal environment the mutated strain could not last long (AiG also argues plasmid xfer, but the enzyme effeciency loss alone in the article cited by zephyr is sufficient to dismiss mr. nylon as a hero of the evolutionary faith).
Irrelevant. The new enzyme confers the bacteria an advantage
in its current environment. That's all that matters. In any case, now that the enzyme exists, I confidently expect that evolutin will fine-tune it for increasing efficiency.
It's also interesting to note that the mutation in question is a
frame-shift mutation, adding (as I recall) 1 base to the sequence and thus scambling all the subsequent 3-base "words", a mutation type that creationsists have long claimed to be impossible.