A Moore’s Law for Evolution?

OK, Owls, now you’ve gone and done it.

A Moore’s Law for Evolution?

Basically, yeah. A team under Michael Deem, who is a professor of both physics and biochemistry, has developed a mathematical model for evolution showing just how, and why, it seems to proceed faster-and-faster, faster-and-faster, just as is the case with Moore’s Law.

The key is what Deem calls Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT), which happens when DNA from one species is transferred into another by nature (as opposed to boffins). Past models have looked only at sudden point mutations or recombination, as happens in sexual reproduction.

Deem’s model is the best explanation for how drug-resistant bacteria come about.

Here’s the quote that is going to get the religious nut cases tearing their hair out:

"Life clearly evolved to store genetic information in a modular form,
and to accept useful modules of genetic information from other species."

Now, biochemistry and astronomy, professor? That’s nothing. Deem’s degrees are in Chemical Engineering.
To which I can only reply, so how’d we miss him as an undergraduate
back in1987? That’s the kind of recruiting story that excites me. <g>