Letters: Evolutionary theory an important tool in science

We humans share 97 per cent of our DNA with gorillas.

Mandy Donne-Lee has written what is, even for her, an unusual claim.

So, major corporations have no department of evolution. That's probably correct; neither do they have a department of religion. But universities usually have both.

There is, online, an index of creationist claims. Mandy's particular one is No 215: http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CA/CA215.html.

In there you will find an explanation that shows evolutionary theory is the framework tying together all of biology. Many references are given to scientific papers and actual case histories. Evolution explains similarities and differences between organisms, fossils, biogeography, drug resistance, extreme features such as the peacock's tail, relative virulence of parasites and much more.

Without the theory it would still be possible to know much about biology, but not to understand it.

Bioinformatics, a multi-billion-dollar industry, consists largely of the comparison of genetic sequences. Descent with modification (evolution) is one of its most basic assumptions.

Diseases and pests evolve resistance to the drugs and pesticides we use against them. Evolutionary theory is used in the field of resistance management in both medicine and agriculture.

Evolutionary theory is used to manage fisheries for greater yields.

Sex allocation theory, based on evolution theory, was used to predict conditions under which the highly endangered kakapo would produce more female offspring, which retrieved it from the brink of extinction (Sutherland 2002).

Having a common ancestor explains how Mandy and I both have 97 per cent of our genes in common with gorillas.

By the way, both relativity and evolution are named by scientists as a "theory". That is, they do not have the status of an axiom.

From the Oxford English Dictionary: — Axiom. A self-evident proposition not requiring demonstration. Theory. A scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explanation or account of a group of phenomena; a hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is propounded or accepted as accounting for the known facts.

Both have been scientifically proven by thousands of experiments and observations.
Relativity is proved again every time you use your GPS.

MIKE PHILO
Okoia

Palace closures?

Shades of Oliver Cromwell. I thought the divine rights of kings and queens died hundreds of years ago.

If the Queen closes Parliament, maybe Parliament should close the palaces, together with stopping all funding. Just imagine the royal family going out to work?

F.G. ROSE
Whanganui

Measles science

An Auckland ambulance officer's online warning to vaccinate against measles states "please trust science". So what is the science? The propaganda being fed to us is not science. When we were young we all contracted measles.

I do not know of one child who was hospitalised or died from measles here in Whanganui. My children and their school friends all caught the dreaded measles; it was an accepted childhood illness from which they all recovered without complications.

Later generations held measles parties so their children could all get it over and done with. No fear there of death or disablement from this epidemic. So, why this huge fear campaign now? Give us the facts.

How many died or were disabled from measles in the 50s and 60s, and how many over the last year? Because, without the statistics, many of us suspect we could be funding an advertisement enabling Big Pharma to increase its profits at our expense.

DENISE LOCKETT
Whanganui

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