I spent part of my weekend reading a very nice, detailed paper by Soderlund and Knipple (thanks for the recommendation, Nick!) on the distribution and mechanisms of mutations that confer pesticide resistance on insects. The main message is that we have been using potent pyrethroid poisons that have a common mechanism, targeting the highly conserved sodium channel of the nervous system, and that similar mutations that reduce the affinity of the channel for the pyrethroid are popping up in many insect species.
Continue reading "Better bug killing through Science" (on Pharyngula)
2 Comments
steve · 23 August 2004
Does ID have an explanation for this? Evolution does.
Wayne Francis · 23 August 2004
Yea, God designed it that way. It is way to complex to understand how it could "evolved".
Oh I forgot that. This macro evolution will never cause a fruit fly to give birth to a cat. Some how that is the line they expect macro evolution to be at :/