By Conrad Hal Waddington
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Sample text
Mayr is quite justified in stating that present day evolutionary theory is firmly based on the postulate that the processes of mutation, recombination and fertilization are essentially random. Moreover, voices have been raised against the view that this renders them uninspiring and barren of spiritual 86 EVO LUTI ON content. The statistician R. A. rr at any later time. o,rid be regarded as e-ssentially new and thus as a re-sult of a creative proiess. It is, he argues, only because the causal processes in the actual world have an essentially chance element in them that we can find any situations to which the concept of creation can properly be applied.
Presence of B prevents the conversion of P to Q; then these two paths will be alternative. A cell can either be doing P to Q to R or it can be doing A to B to C, but it cannot be doing both simultaneously. Again, suppose that the rate at which a is formed is reduced by the presence of R. This will act as a sort of governor, so that if the cell does P to Q to R at all, it can only do it at a definite rate, since as soon as the reaction starts to go too fast, too much R is produced and this slows it up again.
It is clear that the cryptic colouration is useful as one method of eluding enemies, and it seems plausible to suppose that the warning colouration is useful because it makes it easy for a predator to recognize that here is an animal which it would be more prudent to leave alone. The point I want to make is that both these types of usefulness EVOLUTI THE NATURE OF LIFE only eventuate when the animal concerned behaves in the appropriate way. The cryptically coloured animal must keep to the surroundings in which its camouflage is appropriate; the animal with warning colour must flaunt itself.