What we are talking about is a direct environmental effect on heredity and
> evolution, as opposed to the indirect effect produced by natural selection.
> It means at least two things: 1) organisms can be beneficially altered
> without recourse to actual breeding programs, and 2) organisms can be
> negatively affected by the environment and pass these effects on to their
> offspring.


Since one of those foods is soy beans, you would think the Japanese would be
mutating all over the place.

With the recent discoveries in genetics, compared to what we thought, I
would be careful in taking the new discoveries to ends that had not been
observed (probably because we were not looking) when we thought we knew what
was happening.

If you note the key word in the abstract, it is "may", the great scientific
abstract modifier that really says that we are making an extrapolation that
"may" have no basis at all. Then again, it may. Guaranteed that the most
dramatic will be the final premise... "doom is on us" always sells.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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