If this story turns out to be true my first questions would be:
1) Do the arsenic-feeding microbes have DNA/RNA or some other system in place?
2) Do they appear to be subject to natural selection?
3) Have they spent this entire time in the lake?
1) Do the arsenic-feeding microbes have DNA/RNA or some other system in place?
2) Do they appear to be subject to natural selection?
3) Have they spent this entire time in the lake?
why would they not be subject to natural selection?
Although I haven't seen the video, and Dawkins is a smart guy, so perhaps he was making some related point.
Video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vueDC69jRjE
Jump to 1:20.
Edit: Also, I think it would be just plain cool to observe natural selection in life that arose completely independently of our own. I don't think any reasonable person seriously doubts that natural selection is necessary for life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_general_relativity#Def...
"When asked by his assistant what his reaction would have been if general relativity had not been confirmed by Eddington and Dyson in 1919, Einstein famously made the quip: "Then I would feel sorry for the dear Lord. The theory is correct anyway.""
That same process happens to any system with external pressures. If I put a bucket in the rain, rain will collect in it. Someone coming along might exclaim, "See how perfectly that water has shaped itself to fit exactly into that bucket!"