Mutations 101: What is a mutation? Can it turn a bacterium into a bulldog?

We all have mutations. They happen everyday in our own DNA. Law enforcement relies on our mutations to identify perpetrators of crimes. Mutations are said to drive evolution. Then natural selection picks the good mutations, discards the bad ones, and this is how a bacterium eventually became a bulldog. But what the heck is a mutation anyway? What causes them? And why are they central to the theory of Evolution?

During the first half of this meetup we will do a quick review of the DNA -> RNA -> Protein process and the consequences of mutation on that process. A bulldog differs from a bacterium because it has different proteins. And it has different proteins because it has different DNA.

In the second half of this meetup we will do a scientific critique of the claim that bacterial DNA eventually became bulldog DNA by a long series of mutations. The latest science shows that such a series of mutations is not possible. Mutations can cause changes to body type. But the amount of change is limited. Then how did bacteria and bulldogs come to be? That's the question we will answer. Come see if you agree.

We'll meet in the large meeting room of the Northgate Branch of the Seattle Public Library. You can't miss us. Plenty of free parking. Easy walk from Northgate Transit Center/Light Rail Station.
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ABOUT THE NORTH SEATTLE INTELLIGENT DESIGN FORUM

Intelligent design is on pace for becoming the most widely accepted explanation of life on Earth. How did this happen? If you are curious and would like to learn more, then please consider attending one of our Meetups. Advanced knowledge about biology is not required. Membership in this Meetup group is not required to attend. Skeptics are most welcome.

Intelligent design is nothing new. Newton, Kepler, Pasteur and many others believed they were illuminating intelligent design by means of the scientific method. Likewise, evolution is not new. Anaximander, Zhuang Zhou and Lucretius speculated about evolution millennia before Charles Darwin. The post-WWII revolution in microscopy undermined the foundations of evolution by the discovery and direct observation of the cell’s unanticipated complexity. The implications of that complexity, along with other experimental and theoretical advances, are claimed to have all but ruled out the possibility of descent with modification by means of natural selection acting on random mutation. Come see if you agree.