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HEART OF DARKNESS. “It is only phenotypes that die, and thus selection on works on things it can see like phenotypes. The mechanism of natural selection is that some organisms survive better than others and reproduce more successfully, so you can only say that selection ‘sees’ what can live or die. Can a virus die? At whatever level an organism can live or die is where selection operates. This was Darwin’s theory of natural selection, and that can occur at any level. Richard Dawkins argues incorrectly that it is always genes that are selected for. It is a fundamental mistake.” https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

BLIND WATCHMAKER. “Was the watchmaker blind?” as Professor Richard Dawkins proposes, where evolution is random mutation followed by natural selection. Blind chance. Evolution has no foresight. Denis Nobel suggests a 21st century viewpoint, where evolution can be directional, organisms can harness stochasticity, with a one-eyed watchmaker responding epigenetically. Defied by unidirectional information flow. https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

GENES VERSUS CELLS. “In selfish gene theory you have to distinguish between the replicator and the vehicle. There is no such distinction.” https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

PRINCIPLE 10. “There are many more to be discovered; a genuine ‘theory of biology’ does not yet exist.” https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

EXCESSIVE REDUNDANCY. “Knockout experiments do not necessarily give a good readout of the functionality of that protein or gene. In yeast knockouts up to 80% of the genes are silent, and that does not mean that they do not have physiological functions. The system is so well backed up that other networks take over the function of the knocked out gene.” https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

PRINCIPLE 9. “The self is not an object.” https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

MORE THAN SEMANTICS. “There is an absolutely fundamental difference between the traditional definition of a gene as a sequence of DNA and a phenotypic trait. If you define the gene as the phenotype there is no experiment that will tell you if that is the cause or not because it is necessarily the cause. If you define a gene as a DNA sequence as is done today you have a very different definition of a gene. You have omitted all the other properties of a cell which are also inherited.” https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

PRINCIPLE 8. “There are no programs in the brain.” https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

NON-GERMLINE INHERITANCE. “Inherited epigenetic effects, of which there are quite a number known are a new reality in our thinking. A single generational epigenetic response to a stress can be subsequently inherited. Epigenetic changes can be assimilated into the genome. Even Darwin’s Galapagos finches show epigenetic inheritance. DNA and epigenetic evolution interact, so it is not just one or the other.” https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn

LAMARCKISM. “Darwin’s theory of evolution was based on natural selection but in many writings he accepts the idea of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Darwin never quarreled with Lamarck about that question. Transmission of cellular somatic changes that are transmitted to the germline presented problems for Darwin. What passes through the germline to the next generation, for Darwin, is very close to what we have found with epigenetic mechanisms today.” https://lnkd.in/eBKWC7d View in LinkedIn