Thread: Evolution experiment

Does anybody know if anyone has attempted proving evolution by conducting an experiment where you start with a few bacterium and recording how they grow. I know a proper experiment will likely take longer than a life time to get proper results but surely someone has started one.

Yes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_evolution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._coli...ion_experiment

Is this more or less what you were looking for?

Originally Posted by zendra

Does anybody know if anyone has attempted proving evolution by conducting an experiment where you start with a few bacterium and recording how they grow. I know a proper experiment will likely take longer than a life time to get proper results but surely someone has started one.

Well bacteria evolve fairly quickly and you can measure evolution and extrapolate from that. Some new books like the 'Greatest Show on Earth' and 'Why Evolution is True' are some good popularizations. Richard Lenski did the evolution experiment mentioned in one of those wikipedia articles http://myxo.css.msu.edu/index.html . This book (which I haven't read yet unfortunately) deals with many more examples http://www.amazon.ca/Natural-Selecti.../dp/0691083878 .

sweet thanks guys