"Happy to be corrected, but it seems the term "adapt" is not a change in
genetics but only the expression of genes that already exist."

Often when someone says a change in genetics they are only thinking of changes in the protein coding portion of DNA.  If you learned genetics in roughly 1970 to 80 you were taught that only the protein coding portions of DNA were genes and the rest was junk.  This is pure nonsense of course.  All that so called junk DNA contains all the control machinery that governs expression of the protein coding portions.  A striking example is changes in bill shape in Darwin's Finches as a result in variation in rainfall.  A couple of years of low rain and the plant life best adapted to grow on the islands changes.  The resulting changes in seed size, shape and hardness demand a change in the Finches' bill to best eat the seeds.  And such changes in bill size and shape are seen in practice within a couple of years.  These changes are a result of changes in the DNA that alter the degree of expression of the protein coding portions.  It is pretty easy to change such
 non protein coding switch and promoter genes as such changes are generally not fatal.  All that happens is the critter makes a bit more or a bit less of some protein.  Changes to the protein coding genes are generally either silent or lethal so seldom useful and functional examples are uncommon by comparison to switch or promoter mutants.

Bottom line is genetic changes that result in adaptation can happen in only a couple of generations in some cases.

Dick


" Any discovery made by the human mind can be explained in its essentials to the curious learner."  Professor Benjamin Schumacher talking about teaching quantum mechanics to non scientists.   "For every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong."  H. L. Mencken

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