Temperature Is Stimulus to Rapid Evolutionary Changes Experiments With Drosophila Indicate Mutations Appear Five Times as Frequently Among Warm Colonies VOLUTIONARY changes appear rapidly at high living temperatures, more slowly in chilly environment, experiments reported before the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Dallas indicate. Two Amherst College zoologists, Prof. H. H. Plough and Dr. George P. Child, discuss different aspects of this phenomenon. They used as experimental animals the little vinegar fly or pomace fly, Drosophila partly because its small size and simple living requirements make it easy to rear huge numbers in limited space, partly because long study of this particular species has given science a better knowledge of its heredity than they have of any other organism. Mutations, or abrupt evolutionary changes, appeared about five times more frequently among the offspring of a given number of animals in a “warm” colony than among the same number of offspring kept at a temperature ten degrees colder. It does not seem that high temperature in itself is the cause of mutations, since mutations appeared also among the insects kept at low temperature. More probable is the assumption that the natural tendency of all living things to change is intensified by the speeding-up of life processes that occurs when it is warmer. Let us do it When you want a book on science, save yourself the trouble of shopping. Let us get it for you. We will gladly obtain any American book or magazine in print and pay postage in the United States. Just send your check or money order to cover retail price ($5 if price is unknown, change to be returned to you). When publications are free, send 10c for handling. Address: Book Department SCIENCE NEWS LETTER 1719 N St, N. W. Washington, D. C. Prot. Plough and Dr. Child did not extend their conclusions to take in evolution in other animals, but if their results are valid for organisms in general it would be natural to infer that evolution goes on more rapidly in the tropics, and in the past has been most rapid during periods when the general temperature of the earth stood at a relatively high level. Science News Letter, January 3, 1942

Temperature Is Stimulus to Rapid Evolutionary Changes
Experiments With Drosophila Indicate Mutations Appear Five Times as Frequently Among Warm Colonies
VOLUTIONARY changes appear
rapidly at high living temperatures, more slowly in chilly environment, experiments reported before the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Dallas indicate. Two Amherst College zoologists, Prof. H. H. Plough and Dr. George P. Child, discuss different aspects of this phenomenon.
They used as experimental animals the little vinegar fly or pomace fly, Drosophila partly because its small size and simple living requirements make it easy to rear huge numbers in limited space, partly because long study of this particular species has given science a better knowledge of its heredity than they have of any other organism.
Mutations, or abrupt evolutionary changes, appeared about five times more frequently among the offspring of a given number of animals in a “warm” colony than among the same number of offspring kept at a temperature ten degrees colder.
It does not seem that high temperature in itself is the cause of mutations, since mutations appeared also among the insects kept at low temperature. More probable is the assumption that the natural tendency of all living things to change is intensified by the speeding-up of life processes that occurs when it is warmer.
Let us do it
When you want a book on science, save yourself the trouble of shopping. Let us get it for you. We will gladly obtain any American book or magazine in print and pay postage in the United States. Just send your check or money order to cover retail price ($5 if price is unknown, change to be returned to you). When publications are free, send 10c for handling. Address:
Book Department
SCIENCE NEWS LETTER 1719 N St, N. W. Washington, D. C.
Prot. Plough and Dr. Child did not extend their conclusions to take in evolution in other animals, but if their results are valid for organisms in general it would be natural to infer that evolution goes on more rapidly in the tropics, and in the past has been most rapid during periods when the general temperature of the earth stood at a relatively high
level. Science News Letter, January 3, 1942

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