Comic Books

“Mutation, it is the key to our evolution. It has enabled us to evolve from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet.”

So begins X-Men, the movie. It is a silver screen portrayal of comic book superheroes. The superheroes are mutants, people who have undergone genetic transformations which have provided them with superhuman powers. One has the ability to summon storms and lightning from the sky, another has the power to levitate objects, still another shoots laser beams from his eyes. Everyone above the age of six realizes this is fantasy. It is only in science fiction that some type of genetic accident would result is such wonderfulness.

Gullibility

“Mutations are the raw material of evolution.” So begins chapter four of Evolutionary Analysis, the textbook for my college course in Evolutionary Biology. It is an oversimplification to say that mutations are all that textbooks require for evolution. Also of necessity are natural selection, gene duplication, and millions of years, but mutations are the raw material. What happens to people between the time they are six and the time they are college graduates that would change their view of reality (read gullibility) so much?

What are Mutations?

To understand mutations, we need to have some understanding of DNA. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the heritable material that determines our physical characteristics such as gender, eye color, resistance to infection, etc. For our discussion, the important part of DNA consists of four molecules, abbreviated A, T, C and G. Genes consist of various combinations of these four molecules linked together. A chromosome is a long strand of DNA containing many genes. So combinations of A, T, C and G linked together make up genes, genes make up chromosomes, and the whole package is referred to as DNA. Mutations are changes of the A, T, C and G molecules.

This arrangement has been compared to language. Letters make up words, words make up sentences, and sentences convey thoughts. The idea behind evolution is that if we randomly change molecules A, T, C and G, (letters in a sentence), we concoct better genes (words) and thereby improve an organism (our thoughts). This is only a rough comparison because some changes do work.

Beneficial Mutations

Indeed, antibiotic resistant bacteria offer a prime example of beneficial mutations. Here, a genetic transformation imparts some change to the organism which renders it impervious to what used to be a lethal substance. Another example is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The reason this virus is so difficult to combat is because it mutates so fast. When we are infected, our immune system learns to recognize a specific type of the virus and mounts a defense against it. Unfortunately, before our body has mounted an effective defense against this form of the virus, the virus has mutated to another form.

Limits

So through observation and experimentation science has shown that mutations do occur and are sometimes beneficial. However, through observation and experimentation, science has also shown this change is limited. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are just that, bacteria. They have sprouted no wings, grown no feathers, and laid no eggs. After all their mutations, they are still bacteria, not birds. The same is true of HIV and any other organism undergoing mutations. Observationally and experimentally, mutations have never been shown to produce the kind of changes associated with macro-evolution or laser beam-shooting superheroes.

Comic Books

When we claim that mutations can produce large scale, macro-level changes that are not only beneficial to an organism, but are even capable of transforming lizards into birds, we are abandoning the scientific method of observation and experimentation and regressing to the fantasy world of comic books.

1. Freeman, Scott and Herron, Jon C. Evolutionary Analysis. p. 103