The version of evolution I was taught said random mutations are the engine of change for evolution. Natural selection picks which version survives.
I have never been comfortable with that model. I have long felt there’s something much deeper and more mysterious going on — that mutations are controlled or directed at some level — but it’s never interested me enough to spend any time trying to figure it out. I figured somebody would come up with a more reasonable theory eventually.
Maybe this is a step in the right direction. Study challenges evolutionary theory that DNA mutations are random
It turns out that mutation is very non-random and it’s non-random in a way that benefits the plant. It’s a totally new way of thinking about mutation.