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Howdidhumanitygettowhereitistoday?Haveweevolvedfrommolecules,orwerewe createdasasinglekindamongotherkinds?Itsimpossibletosay,allwecandoiswonderatthe artifactsanddatawehaveandattempttointerpretit.DNAisimportantdatathatmustbestudied inordertohypothesizeabouttheoriginofhumans.ScientistsstudytheDNAreplicationsystem thatisusedtopassdownnecessaryinformationtooffspring,bycopyingnitrogenbases. SometimestherearemistakeswhencopyingtheDNAresultinginamutationthatmaybe passedontooffspringandmayaffecttheindividualeitherharmfullyorbeneficiallyornotaffect thematall.Thismakesscientistwonderifalllifehasevolvedfromonemoleculethrough mutation,uponmutation,uponmutations.However,mutationsdonothappenoftenwhich causessomescientiststowonderifmacroevolutionispossible.Geneticmutationscanbeused toprovetheoriginsoflivingthings. Notallmutationsarepassedontothenext generation.Tobepassedon,mutationsmustoccur ingermlinecells(Loewe,2008).Germlinecellsare thecellsthatwillproducespermoreggs.

Somatic cellsmakeupmostofthebodyastheyarethecells thatwillproducenervecells,musclecells,skincells etc.Ifamutationdevelopsingermlinecells,or gametes,itwillbefoundineverycellthatdescends fromthemutatedcell,whichisshowninFigure1by theredarrowsthatpointtotherighttowardevery embryofollowingthefirst.Oneexampleofthismutationisthe metabolicdiseasecalledporphyria.Itisnotknowntomost peoplebecauseonlyabout8,000peopleinAfricahaveitdue toamutationoneoftheirancestorshadinagamete.Somatic mutationsmaydamageacellandmakeitcancerousorkillit. However,amutationthatissomaticonlyaffectsthatcellor organismandthenpassesawaywithitwhenitdies(Unknown1,2011).ThatiswhyinFigure1 thesomabranchesoffseparatelyandisnotconnectedbyarrowstothefollowingembryos. Thelikelihoodthatmutationsarebeneficialandadvanceaspeciesisslim.Mutationscanbe beneficial,neutralorharmful(Loewe,2008).Anexampleofabeneficialmutation,isamutation thatsomewomenmighthavethatallowsthemtohave4differentconecells.Conecellsarethe cellsthatdiscriminatebetweendifferentcolorsoflight.Anormalhumanonlyhas3conecells. Onegeneforthiscell,thatissensitivetoblueisinChromosome7andtheothertwo,thatare sensitivetoredandgreenareintheXchromosome.WomenhavetwoXchromosomes,sothey havetwosetsofthisgene.Ifoneismutatedandtheotherisstillsensitivetothecolorsitis normallysensitiveto,thewomanbecomesatetrachromat,andsheisabletodistinguish betweencolorsbetter.InastudybyNewcastleUniversityonesuchtetrachromatwasfound (Lee,2012).However,itisestimatedthat80%ofmutationsareharmful(McGowan,2014). Cancerisageneralgeneticmutation.Itisusuallycausedbyaseriesofmutationsinasinglecell thatthendivideandbecomeatumor,duetothelackofcorrectlyfunctioningp53.Correctly

functioningp53wouldstopthemutatedcellsfromdividing(MutationsandDisease,2013). Mutationsdonothappenregularlyincells.Althougheveryduplicationresultsin100new errors,manyoftheseerrorsarefixedbeforetheybecomemutations(McGowan,2014).DNA Polymeraseisresponsibleforthisrepairing,andafteritfinishesitsjob,amutationhappens duringtheDNAreplicationprocessonly1outofevery10millioncopies.Toevolvefromaman intoanapeonly1%ofDNAneedstochange.However,itisestimatedthat1millionmutations arenecessarytochange1%oftheDNA.Thisdoesn'taccountforthemutationsbeinginthe correctorder,whichwasestimatedbyevolutionistGeorgeSimpsontotakeabout10sextillion triesjusttoorganize5ofthemutations(Rowitt,2014). Geneticmutationscanhappen,althoughtheyarerare,andiftheyhappeningermline cellstheywillcontinuetobepasseddownthroughgenerations.Mutationscanbeharmful, neutral,orbeneficial.Nowthattheinformationaboutgeneticmutationshasbeengiven,itisupto everyreadertodecidehowhumansoriginated.Doesevolutionhavetruebelievableevidence? OrdoestheevidencepointtowardaCreator?

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