cyberdad wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
Microbes might evolve structural defenses against one thing but not other things, and indeed would be depleted of resources by trying to evolve multiple new structures at once.
Well that's not quite true. Bacteria that live in sulphuric hot springs several miles at the bottom of the ocean have to adapt to
high temperatures near ocean/volcanic vents
high acidity from sulphuric gases
high water pressure due to depths
So what the heck is your point?
Seriously...why did you waste verbiage posting this?
I didnt say that "its an ironclade rule that organisms cant adapt to more than one thing".
I was saying that a strain of bug that evolves resistance to say ammonia, doesnt automatically ALSO evolve resistance to alcohol at the same time. Resistance to one thing doesnt necessarily confer resistance to the other. A strain in the US might evolve resistance to one thing, and another in China might evolve resistance to the other. And both might spread from their respective points of origin to mess up the world.
Extremaphilic bacteria that live in deep see vents have nothing to do with the subject because they have lived in that enviroment for literally billions of years. Indeed they may well have been the original forms of bacteria and the original forms of life itself on Earth. In fact it may well be that it was our ancestors who may have had to "adapt" to the hardships of living outside of undersea hot vents .
Were not talking about bacteria that are twenty times older than the dinosaurs. Were talking about bacteria in our kitchens that adapt countermeasures to what we humans have been doing only in recent years, decades and centuries.