Month: September 2022

UNLIKELY BUNDLES OF STUFF. "It is essential for scientists to keep in mind the astonishing reliability and complexity of living cells. Even the smallest cells contain millions of different molecules combined into an integrated set of densely packed and continuously changing macromolecular structures." http://www.thethirdwayofevolution.com/people/view/james-a-shapiro View in LinkedIn

CELLULAR COMPLEXITY. "Depending upon the energy source and other circumstances, these indescribably complex entities can reproduce themselves with great reliability at times as short as 10–20 minutes. Each reproductive cell cycle involves literally hundreds of millions of biochemical and biomechanical events." http://www.thethirdwayofevolution.com/people/view/james-a-shapiro View in LinkedIn

FALSE SIMPLIFICATIONS. "We must recognize that cells possess a cybernetic capacity beyond our ability to imitate. Therefore, it should not surprise us when we discover extremely dense and interconnected control architectures at all levels. Simplifying assumptions about cell informatics can be more misleading than helpful in understanding the basic principles of biological function." https://lnkd.in/eFS9cuj View in LinkedIn

GENE-CENTRIC INITIATOR. "Ever since Richard Dawkins published The Selfish Gene in 1976, the notion of genetic determinism - the idea that our lives are controlled by our genes - has become one of the central tenets of much scientific understanding." https://lnkd.in/eZTtZJ3 View in LinkedIn

GENE OWNERSHIP. "Where Dawkins talks of selfish genes, Noble talks of prisoner genes. Where Dawkins writes of genes: "They are in you and me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence", Noble writes: "They are in you and me; we are the system that allows their code to be read; and their preservation is totally dependent on the joy we experience in reproducing ourselves (our joy, not theirs!). We are the ultimate rationale for their existence." https://lnkd.in/eZTtZJ3 View in LinkedIn

SIMPLIFICATIONS. "Two dangerous oversimplifications have been (i) to consider the genome as a mere physical carrier of hypothetical units called “genes” that determine particular cell or organismal traits, and (ii) to think of the genome as a digitally encoded Read-Only Turing tape that feeds instructions to the rest of the cell about individual characters." http://www.thethirdwayofevolution.com/people/view/james-a-shapiro View in LinkedIn

JUNK DNA IS NOT JUNK. "As we are learning from the ENCODE project data, the vast majority of genomic DNA, including many so-called “non-coding” (nc) segments, participate in biologically specific molecular interactions." An old but important theme. http://www.thethirdwayofevolution.com/people/view/james-a-shapiro View in LinkedIn

CELL CYCLE CHECKPOINTS. "There are checkpoints for numerous aspects of cell reproduction: nutrition, DNA replication, telomere capping, DNA damage, cell growth and size, chromosome alignment on the mitotic spindle, and spindle orientation. Clearly, keeping all the different processes needed for the cell cycle in proper order and ensuring their completion without damage involves constant short-term reading and writing on the genome." http://www.thethirdwayofevolution.com/people/view/james-a-shapiro View in LinkedIn

CELL CYCLE CHECKPOINTS. "There are checkpoints for numerous aspects of cell reproduction: nutrition, DNA replication, telomere capping, DNA damage, cell growth and size, chromosome alignment on the mitotic spindle, and spindle orientation. Clearly, keeping all the different processes needed for the cell cycle in proper order and ensuring their completion without damage involves constant short-term reading and writing on the genome." http://www.thethirdwayofevolution.com/people/view/james-a-shapiro View in LinkedIn

OVER FIFTY notable scientists are advocating a fresh look at evolution in the light of modern scientific findings, and most have published a book on the subject. A momentum has gathered. https://lnkd.in/e3Jc9pS View in LinkedIn