Month: September 2022

SO ENDS this first of two weekends’ glimpse into dimensional scale in our universe and where living things fit into it. What is truly breathtaking is how recently we have had any idea how big the universe is or that we are not the crown of creation on the most important planet in that huge space. It equally parallels how profoundly ignorant we are about life on Planet Earth. We are just jumped-up cave men in fancy clothes with a few fancy toys, nothing more. View in LinkedIn

MEIOSIS ANIMATION to stimulate your wonder genes. https://lnkd.in/ekYZUUt View in LinkedIn

STARTING OF SEX. Meiosis video. Where sex starts. https://lnkd.in/evMSdpZ View in LinkedIn

CRITICAL INNOVATION. "Meiosis is a key event of sexual life cycles in eukaryotes. Its mechanistic details have been uncovered in several model organisms and most of its essential features have received various and often contradictory evolutionarily interpretations." https://lnkd.in/e2tp_G5 View in LinkedIn

OCCULT REASON. "Asexual reproduction could offer up to a two-fold fitness advantage over sexual reproduction, yet higher organisms usually reproduce sexually." https://lnkd.in/gGTTSzx View in LinkedIn

ONE WAY STREET. "An alternative explanation for the predominance of sex is that it is difficult for an organism to accomplish asexual reproduction once sexual reproduction has evolved. Difficulty in returning to asexuality could reflect developmental or genetic constraints." Although some organisms do vary between states. https://lnkd.in/gGTTSzx View in LinkedIn

PERSISTENT STRATEGY. "Sex, once evolved, is a remarkably persistent evolutionary strategy – most eukaryotes reproduce sexually." https://lnkd.in/gGTTSzx View in LinkedIn

2-FOLD FITNESS ADVANTAGE. "The theoretical difficulties associated with explanations for the evolution of sex are well-known; there is up to a two-fold advantage to asexual reproduction over sexual reproduction. Thus, if asexual reproduction results in the production of equal numbers and viability of offspring (the ‘all-else-being-equal’ assumption), then asexual females will produce twice as many reproducing offspring as sexual females." https://lnkd.in/gGTTSzx View in LinkedIn

CHRISTMAS RANT. We maintain that bacteria and viruses are simple creatures lacking the sophistication of the complexity of so-called higher creatures. Perhaps even viruses are not alive. View in LinkedIn

CHRISTMAS RANT. Bacteria and viruses are the apogee of outsourcing, sublimely streamlined, can survive heat, pressures shock and stellar conditions that no other cellular life form can. They steer our very genomes, the hand behind the wheel. They form super organisms which have advanced problem-solving capacities. They have the highest evolvability scores on the planet, and the highest reproduction rates known. View in LinkedIn