Neither fire nor crystals mutate. That's the thing. A crystals arrangement of it... | Hacker News

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tambourine_man on June 6, 2016 | parent | context | favorite | on: Spiegelman's Monster

Neither fire nor crystals mutate. That's the thing.

A crystals arrangement of its microscopic structure will always be the same, as will the oxidation reaction in fire.

A virus undergoes darwinian evolution and will adapt to its environment

adrianN on June 6, 2016 [–]

Crystals actually do mutate, the crystallization process is not perfect and introduces defects.

dekhn on June 6, 2016 | [–]

that's not what mutation means.

drdeca on June 6, 2016 | | [–]

I thought mutate just meant change?

dekhn on June 6, 2016 | | [–]

in biology, mutate has a very specific meaning, and it does not include the formation of imperfect crystals. That area has its own set of terminology.

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