Op-Ed: How drug resistant germs prove evolution

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The new superbug is called Acinetobacter baumannii and it evolved from a fairly common bacterium acinetobacter, which is found throughout the environment, in the soil, dust, and water, worldwide.

The new strain was first discovered in wounded U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq. It resists many of the more common antibiotics and can cause complications such as pneumonia and respiratory failure. Health officials have said that it is potentially a "major threat to public health."

Creationist, Intelligent Design proponents and other enemies of science have tried to claim that no one has ever witnessed evolution but that is simply not true. Evolution happens all around us on a daily basis. In large species, which have long life spans and correspondingly long periods between generations, this process is, quite naturally, a long drawn out affair but for small creatures that live and die quickly but manage to find the time to reproduce in between, evolution can happen with startling swiftness.

Acinetobacter baumannii is a perfect example of this phenomena and of Darwin's famous theory of the "survival of the fittest." Most species in a stable environment remain stable as well. If there is no particular pressure to adapt then there is no mechanism to cause change but once there is a new threat to survival then "survival of the fittest" swings into action.

Acinetobacter is a well adapted germ that has survived more or less unchanged for countless generations but once a new threat to its survival arises, in the form of the most advanced culture on the planet using massive amounts of antibiotics to treat wounded solders, then only those germs with a predisposition to resist these drugs will survive to pass their characteristics on to the next generation.

If the next generation is hit again with stronger antibiotics then only the toughest of the tough survive this attack. Each generation that survives the antibiotics weeds out the "weak," meaning those not adapted to survive the drug assault, and the species changes more and more to meet the challenge of its environment. Soon the survivors are so different from their ancestors that they constitute a whole new sub-species.

If this were the only example of this natural phenomena then the ID crowd might claim that it is a fluke or that other forces are at work but this is far from the case. The scientific literature is filled with such cases. One of the more popular ones, often used where the teaching of evolution is allowed, is the case of the British "Peppered Moth" Biston betularia.

Briefly the story goes like this. For countless generations the Peppered Moths had survived to reproduction age because their white speckled wings, which they keep open while at rest, mimicked the light color of the tree bark prevalent in their habitat.

However with the coming of the Industrial Revolution British factories, trains, steamships and homes, began burning large quantities of coal which filled the air with black soot. This soot got onto everything, including the trees and turned their bark dark. White moths were now in deep trouble.

However in every generation there are a few "mutants," creatures born with recessive genes or birth defects. Most of these defects, such as one blue eye and one brown, are benign and the person or animal goes on to a normal life. However some of these defects, such as black wings on a normally white moth, are a danger to their owners and these unfortunates quickly become bird food.

However when the trees turned dark the "black sheep" of the family suddenly had an advantage over their snooty relatives, who were now too busy being eaten by birds to look down their noses at their dark relatives. Soon only the dark moths survived to get get the girl (or boy) who was likewise dark. And of course most of their offspring were also dark and those who weren't were soon taken care of by the birds. Almost over night, by evolutionary standards, the historically white moths became black.

The Peppered Moth, before soot darkened the trees and after.

And there the story would have ended if the British had continued burning coal but with the "greening" of England came the whitening of the trees and soon the dark moths who had been having things their own way, suddenly found themselves back on the avian menu.

So there we have it, one of the neatest little demonstrations of the "survival of the fittest" one could ask for. Not only did the white moths "turn" black when the trees turned black, they turned back to white when the trees reverted to their natural state.

Evolution is a fact, demonstrated by numerous different and independent lines of evidence. We have fossil records, we have the retention of inherited substructures from one species to another, we have molecular biology, DNA and many, many other proofs. Finally we also have direct observation of evolution in action.

Only willful blindness or a deep psychological need to hide from the truth, can deny the fact of evolution. If this is a personal decision then that is the person's loss but it is also their right. But to impose this belief on students in school in the name of religion masquerading as science is a crime and a danger to the well being of the entire nation.

Evolution is the very corner stone of all other science. Failure to understand this most vital of concepts limits or destroys the student's ability to progress in any other field of science. And it is not only science that suffers. Agriculture, geology, medicine, pharmaceuticals, and a host of other disciplines depend for their effective use on an understanding of evolution. At a time when the US is falling behind the rest of the world in science education we can no longer afford to coddle the uninformed or tolerate the charlatans who wish to preach the gospel of Creationism in our public schools.

Ignorance and fear, not science, drives the disciples of Creationism.

For those not afraid of a little information to help them understand the controversy may I recommend:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/program.html