Flaws in Richard Lenski Study
Richard Lenski rejected a request to release his data to the public,[1] but the following serious flaws are emerging about his work[2] even without a full disclosure of the data:
1. Lenski's "historical contingency" hypothesis, as specifically depicted in Figure 3, is contradicted by the data presented in the Third Experiment in Table 1 of his paper. Figure 3 proposes a step-up in mutation rate to Cit+ due to a historical contingency (potentiating mutation) occurring at about the 31,000th generation, yet the Third (and largest) Experiment in Table 1 shows Cit+ arising just as often before the 31,000th generation as after. The abstract, in further contradiction with Figure 3, suggests that the historical contingency (potentiating mutation) occurred prior to the 20,000th generation.
2. Lenski incorrectly included generations of the E. coli already known to contain Cit+ variants in his experiments.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
References
- ↑ See Conservapedia:Lenski dialog.
- ↑ Lenski et al., "Historical contingency and the evolution of a key innovation in an experimental population of Escherichia coli, 105 PNAS 7899-7906 (June 10, 2008).
