Talk:Evolution/Genetic drift

Genetic Drift I deleted a paranthetical characterizing genetic drift as "random." I think the use of this word is misleading. It is correct that drift is random in the sense that it is non-teleological (although the same could be said for natural selection -- it is functional but not because of any greater purpose). But "random" also suggests "arbitrary" and "patternless," when genetic drift is a statistically understandable process. Slrubenstein

I have been going over "drift" and realize I may be wrong about drift and randomness. So I would appreciate it if someone could incorporate into the article more discussion of this/clarification. What is the role of sampling error here? Also, could someone acurately describe the founder effect here? I think the crucial thing is that this article give a clear account of the other processes involved in evolution besides natural selection... Slrubenstein

I think that it is easy to understand what is meant by "random" in this context, but you are right that the wording isn't very precise. Would "stochastic" be better? Maybe we should forget that and get to the real point; in situations of "genetic drift", the cause of selection is not related to anything that is inherited. adam