Does Stress Speed Up Evolution? - Issue 34: Adaptation

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams' comedic sci-fi series from the 1970s, the Haggunenons of Vicissitus Three are one of the most insecure and angry life forms in the galaxy. They have "impatient chromosomes" that instantly adapt to their surroundings. If they are sitting at a table, for instance, and are unable to reach a coffee spoon, "they are liable without a moment's consideration to mutate into something with far longer arms … but which is probably quite incapable of drinking the coffee." Susan M. Rosenberg, a molecular biologist at Baylor College of Medicine, quotes Adams' "(deliciously) askew" story in a research paper on mutations in evolution as an example of how, according to standard neo-Darwinian theory, evolution does not work. Organisms, all good students know, do not generate rapid genetic mutations in response to their environment. There are exceptions, such as mutations spurred by certain chemicals or radiation.