ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the evolution of molecules, the case against random search is weaker, but by no means negligible. It deals with the situation of one gene, one protein, and there is no possibility of arguing that random mutations do no more than produce an assemblage of genes related to the evolutionary product as the pebbles in concrete are related to a bridge. Most people who consider the theory of biology at the present time seem firmly wedded to the notion that the essential process of evolution is dependent on random search. It should be borne in mind that the only direct experimental evidence for this evolutionary process is derived entirely from highly evolved organisms of relatively recent and local ancestry.' The sequence of amino acids in a protein can be altered not only by changing one nucleotide pair in the DNA — which is presumably a completely random process.
