[ExI] It's not only the fittest who survive.

[BillK]

Research shows not only the fittest survive

Darwin's notion that only the fittest survive has been called into
question by new research published today (27 March 2011) in Nature.

<http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-03/uoe-rsn032311.php>

Professor Laurence Hurst, of the University of Bath, said: "Key to the
new understanding is the realisation that the amount of energy
organisms squeeze out of their food depends on how much food they
have. Give them abundant food and they use it inefficiently. When we
combine this with the notion that organisms with different
food-utilising strategies are also affected in different ways by
genetic mutations, then we discover a new principle, one in which both
the fit and the unfit coexist indefinitely."

Dr Ivana Gudelj, also from the University of Exeter, said: "The fit
use food well but they aren't resilient to mutations, whereas the less
efficient, unfit consumers are maintained by their resilience to
mutation. If there's a low mutation rate, survival of the fittest
rules, but if not, lots of diversity can be maintained.
--------------------


So there's hope for us unfit ones..........      ;)


BillK