The Evolution Particle?

The New York Times is reporting that the Large Hadron Collider was not actually shut down over the winter but was actually apparently looking into the possibility that a new particle is particularly mutagenic.   It seems that when they fired up the accelerator, they found that some particles with unusual affinity for DNA were created.  So, no black hole but particles that could shape evolution.  Seems like the ID people will be all over this one — maybe this is the guiding hand they have been looking for?

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Author: Jonathan Eisen

I am an evolutionary biologist and a Professor at U. C. Davis. (see my lab site here). My research focuses on the origin of novelty (how new processes and functions originate). To study this I focus on sequencing and analyzing genomes of organisms, especially microbes and using phylogenomic analysis

10 thoughts on “The Evolution Particle?”

  1. I read a comment from CERN physicist Dr. Loof Lirpa, who said “This anomalous particle seems to target particular DNA sequences in an entirely unexpected manner. If this result holds, it could lead to dramatically better ways to ‘design’ a genome.”I’m amazed that CERN has been able to keep a lid on this!

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  2. I heard that the “prominent molecular biologists” were alums of the Cairns and Foster labs resuscitating the “adaptive mutation hypothesis.” Perhaps you should confer with Roth to test this?! Not just ID, but ID with a mechanism! Go Lamarck!

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  3. You people do know that today is April Fools Day, right? It actually wasn’t the God Particle they found — it was the Devil Particle; it will take a larger Collider to find the God Particle. –jws

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