Science Is Reconsidering Evolution (Video - 1h22mn)

  Yesterday, I introduced some fundamental questions about the cosmos which bring doubts about our current view of the Universe. In spite of General Relativity and Quantum Theory's successes, there are still many questions marks about our understanding of the cosmos, some deep enough to oblige us to completely rethink our theories. We may be on the edge of a new paradigm of physics.  

  Today, it is the turn of evolution: the great theory of Darwin. The purpose of the exercise is not to take us back to creationism but to progress towards a more complex and fundamental understanding of evolution. From the beginning, it was understood that "Darwin" was not enough to explain evolution so in the later part of the 20th Century came the concept of punctuated evolution. The idea that species are mostly static but that at some stage they go through an accelerated patch of evolution thanks to an "arm race" introduced by new factors or conditions. The best example is probably the sudden growth of our brains thanks to the discovery of abstract language. Then came the discovery of Epigenetics with the understanding that methylation is a way for the environment to actually have a direct effect on our gene. Could it be that Lamark was not completely wrong in the end? 

  But the discussion below goes one step further: Could evolution be directed? This sound incredible and would most certainly be anathema to die hard Darwinists since such a theory seems to contain a whiff of sulfuric "Creationism" but this is not what it is. As for the cosmos yesterday, some questions of evolution do not seem to make sense. One in particular is extremely hard to answer: If evolution was truly blind and completely directionless, how on earth was it so fast? The possibilities of combining genes to create new "things" of functions are truly infinite so to test them all randomly and eliminate the bad ones would take forever which is clearly not what we see. Evolution takes a long time but not forever. So how do we explain this? The short answer is that we do not! As for cosmology, we just ignore this pesky Question. 

  There is much more in the long discussion below. This is true science. No the "science" of semi-literate European bureaucrats whose science is whatever is convenient for their purpose as we saw during Covid. But real science of hard questions and experimentation to get closer to the truth. It is difficult, messy, mind wrecking, full of turns, cul-de-sacs and wrong paths but in the end, exhilarating.