bernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Joanne Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Hi Pete,
> >
> > We may be going from biology into philosophy
> here,
> > but isn't the awareness of the cause
> dependant on
> > the view one takes? IOW, if African violets
> > experience a mutation that affects leaf
> pigment
> > due to radiation (which happened), we tend
> to
> > think of it as the radiation causing the
> mutation.
> > However, if the mutation is a response to
> the
> > environmental change (higher radiation), the
> > pigment change could be seen as an adaption.
>
> > *looks around and ducks*
>
>
> Hi Joanne,
>
> Pete already covered most of what I would have
> responded to your posts so I will not be
> redundant. In your example, I think the problem
> (as you say below) is a definitional problem. Both
> cases are the same. The problem is that
> "adaptation" carries a connotation that somehow
> the mutation is going to be beneficial-- but in
> fact, most mutations are not beneficial.

Bernard,

You seem to have an odd idea of what a conversation is. My posts are not endless repititions of the same point; I'm sorry if you read them that way. I said something, Pete replied and the post you are commenting on here is my response to that. You have not addressed the point I raised here at all. If you have something to add to the discussion, it would be welcome. If you aren't willing to read what I actually write and respond to that specifically, I wish you'd back off. I would have liked to have had a reply from Pete addressing my specific point here. :-(


> > In the case of exposure to viruses in
> particular,
> > how we can be sure which is the cause and
> which is
> > the response?
> >
> > The trouble with many of these Internet
> > discussions is lack of definition of
> terms...it's
> > not just in threads dealing with genetics or
> > evolution.
>
> That is what I'm attempting to do with my posts in
> "genetics" but then what is needed is for people
> to read them.

It's said that if someone understands something thoroughly, that person can explain it to a four-year-old child. There are people on this board from all sorts of backgrounds with varying amounts of education and varying amounts of proficiency in English. What I was suggesting was a very basic glossary, not competing defintions from experts.

Joanne