Hi Ellie:

You sent me on a web-submersible this A.M., I love to use this technology,
even tho it is a mystery, itawes me.

I learned quite a while back that in the '40's two mice were mated, and
their progeny interbred multiplied for lab experiments until each individual
born was an exact duplicate of all his other brothers and sisters, and thus
any single variation in their food or environment, etc, which produced a
change in the animal could without question be credited to that single
change, without a lot of otherwise time consuming proofs. Well, naturally I
couldn't remember or show where I got the idea that :
>>In the lab, mice can be manipulated in just a few generations into
biological variations.

So, I got in the webmobile and looked around. I found much so far above my
head that I would have drowned, but finally stumbled upon this site, which
updates us to the latter 20th century schooling:

http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/standards/science/S5.html

with these sub-titles:
Understands the genetic basis for the transfer of biological characteristics
from one generation to the next

     Internet Connections - Science

Level I: Primary

     Knows that plants and animals closely resemble their parents

     Knows that there is variation among individuals within a population

Level II: Upper Elementary

     Knows that many characteristics of an organism are inherited from the
parents of the organism
     (e.g., eye color in human beings, fruit or flower color in plants),
*************but other characteristics result from an individual's
interactions with the environment (e.g., people's table manners, ability to
     play a musical instrument)

     Knows that for offspring to resemble their parents, there must be a
reliable way to transfer
     information from one generation to the next .

Time flies when you're having fun, hmmm!

Thanks VERY much for the info on peanut oil, I had given up. Like I said, I
love this technology, the people you meet there are terrific!!

Pat

>Hi Pat. Can you explain this to me. When I learned about evolution over
>fifty years ago we were taught that acquired characteristics are not
>inherited, that genes mutate and then if those individuals find these
>mutated genes help them survive, those individuals along with their
>mutated genes, survive. We were not taught that the environment could
>directly influence genes. Has this concept changed or do I misunderstand
>some of what I hear about the environment manipulating the species?