More than 150 years separate Charles Darwin's evolutionary research efforts from an MSU plant biology professor's, but in many ways, the debate is the same as Darwin left it.
Creationists - those who believe that a god created life - and evolutionists have yet to reach a consensus on the theories.
And Doug Schemske's research then goes on to differ from those theories.
It doesn't involve primates - just monkeyflowers.
In Darwin's theory, a species evolves through infinitely small changes over a long period of time. Schemske, part of a group of MSU researchers, found evidence that one large mutation occurs before settling down to a series of smaller ones. The research will determine whether new adaptations are comprised of many mutations each of small effect, or instead, if some large-effect mutations are involved.
"It was previously believed that mutations of large effect would cause such disruption that they would not improve overall performance," Schemske said.
But under the bright fluorescent lights of the Plant Science Greenhouse, Schemske seeks to prove the initial evolution theory wrong.
His research involves two species of mimulus, or monkeyflowers. The orange monkeyflowers only attract hummingbirds as pollinators; the purple flowers only attract bumblebees.
Schemske created a hybrid of the flowers that attracted different pollinators than their colors would suggest. The orange hybrids attract bees and the purple flowers attract hummingbirds.
The flowers' structures can be applied to humans, Schemske said, by mapping traits that control flower color, shape, size and nectar volume.
The research is funded through three grants awarded from the National Science Foundation in 2000. The first two were for a combined $653,000. A group of researchers recently received a grant from the Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research program of the foundation for $5 million to continue their work on the evolutionary genetics of adaptation.
"We discovered that moving a single genetic region that influences flower color causes a dramatic increase in visitation by a new pollinator," Schemske said. "Thus, in this system, adaptation to a new pollinator has clearly involved major genes."
Schemske produces thousands of hybrid monkeyflowers, as does his counterpart 4,000 miles away in Seattle. University of Washington biology Professor Toby Bradshaw meets with Schemske at least once a year to conduct field observations in the vicinity of Yosemite National Park in California.
"The whole purpose is to determine the minimum number of genes it might take for a species to split into two," Bradshaw said.
Monkeyflowers are used because they are easier to produce, Schemske said.
"Imagine all of the kinds of interesting experiments that can be done with plants that would be very difficult to do with animals," Schemske said. "Also, the hybrid seeds are very viable and can withstand a century, so the next generation of scientists will be able to use them in their experiments."
But some say evolution research isn't concrete.
Kathleen Cook, a charter member of Community Baptist Church, 7832 W. Mount Hope Road in Lansing, said any current research to prove evolution exists lacks validity.
"Creation was inspired and breathed by God,"Cook said. "And evolution is just a theory."
"In order to prove a theory, you have to be able to reproduce things and it can't be reproduced. It is all about faith, and the faith to believe that an omnipotent God created the Earth and all that dwell within it."
Robert Pennock, an associate science and technology professor, studies the nature of scientific evidence and how it relates to evolutionary biology.
Creationists, Pennock said, are proponents of "intelligent design (who) want to think the scientific community is split by doubt because they can't come to a uniform theory of evolution.
"For more than 150 years, they have been battling this ghost as if Darwin's theory is the end of the story," Pennock said. "Darwin had a lot of stuff right, but there is so much more that we have learned since then."
Pennock recently testified in Texas against teaching creationism from a textbook and stands by his right to defend scientific research.
"I have had students in the past who are supposed to reject evolution because of their religious beliefs, and that is an issue they have to work through," Pennock said.
Rep. Ken Bradstreet, R-Gaylord, is spearheading a legislative bill that would allow creationism to be taught alongside the theory of evolution in Michigan classrooms.
The bill is not entirely religious in nature, Bradstreet said.
"There are people who believe in or embrace intelligent design, but it is not necessarily related to some deity," said Bradstreet.
And Bradstreet expects to encounter some opposition from scientists on his bill.
"Anybody that gets exercise over the separation of church and state is bound to get excited over this," Pennock said. "They are forced to reject the conclusion of intelligent design and are running around like Chicken Little just because it happens to be based on certain religious beliefs."
