Why Long-Term Evolution Studies Are Overhyped with Dr. Rob Stadler and Dr. James Tour

#evolution #treeoflife #richarddawkins Dr. Tour hosts Dr. Rob Stadler to test a provocative claim: do long-term evolution experiments show genuine innovation or just clever re-uses of what organisms already have? Moving from E. coli in the lab to finches, yeast, guppies, fruit flies and peppered moths, the pair applies a “patent test” to argue that most changes reflect gene duplication, regulation, or standing variation—not new functions. It’s a brisk, point-counterpoint on what counts as evidence, and where the burden of proof should sit. --- If you would like to support us in creating more content across our different media platforms, we would greatly appreciate any support you can give. Visit jesusandscience.org/donate for details on how to give financially. God bless. Donate: jesusandscience.org/donate Facebook: https://facebook.com/drjamestour Instagram: https://instagram.com/drjamestour X/Twitter: https://x.com/drjamestour Youtube: https://youtube.com/@DrJamesTour Discord: https://discord.gg/zUgBMKjk2p Dr. Tour's Research Page - https://jmtour.com 00:00 Opening claim: “evolution is a fact” critique 03:10 Guest intro and topic: constraints in evolution 06:20 Tree of Life vs. Forest of Life model setup 10:40 Six criteria for high-confidence scientific evidence 14:50 Fossil record as low-confidence, indirect evidence 20:00 Why prospective experiments best test innovation 24:30 Nature review of long-term evolution studies 30:00 Lenski LTE: citrate metabolism headline result 36:00 Gene duplications, not new function, drive citrate 42:00 Yeast “snowflake” multicellularity experiment 48:00 Whole-genome duplication hype questioned 54:00 Guppies: fast change from standing variation 1:00:00 Fruit flies: decades of selection, few fixes 1:06:00 Peppered moths: regulatory RNA, not new parts 1:10:00 Patent test recap and invitation for counterexamples 1:12:00 Closing remarks and contact/faith invitation