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NOMENCLATURE CHANGE. “No longer would the term adaptive enzyme be used, for the term "adaptive" denoted a change which increased the evolutionary fitness of the organism. Rather, the process would be known as enzyme induction and "any substance thus inducing enzyme synthesis is an enzyme 'inducer.' An enzyme-forming system which can be so activated by an exogenous inducer is 'inducible'.” https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

IMPACT OF COMPETITION FOR RESOURCES. “This would lead to the canalization of development and would explain the stability and irreversibility of differentiation. This is what Spiegelman had also noted. Waddington noted that others such as Darlington, Lindegren, Spiegelman, and Sonneborn, have proposed such self-duplicating plasmagenes on genetic evidence, but that this type of entity fit in well with the observed facts of embryology.” https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

COMPETITION FOR RESOURCES. “In such circumstances, comparatively slight changes in the available raw materials might shift the whole dynamic system from one path into another. The progressive substrate changes would lead to changes in new enzyme synthesis, which would, in turn, create further substrate changes.” https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this second and last weekend on a fascinating historical vignette on the struggles of embryologists to see eye-to-eye with geneticists. This illustrates an emotional component to science that many people may not realize runs deep, and that science is not just the logical advance of new ideas, but is largely governed by the same features that govern most human enterprises. https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

THE UNION. “The year 1963 also saw the first experiments using transcription inhibitors to demonstrate the importance of differential gene transcription in the embryo. The molecularization of embryology had begun.” https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

SYNERGY AT LAST. “A decade from now it may be difficult to distinguish between a geneticist and an embryologist, as they advance their science beyond what each might independently achieve.” https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

FROM LEFT FIELD. “A generation ago, few embryologists or geneticists would have predicted that a synthesis of their fields would be made possible by studies on the bacterium Escherichia coli. But this microscopic creature, with no embryology of its own, has shown a way.” https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

The fertilized gynaecium has metamorphosed into the specks of the next generation; plants never stop working. View in LinkedIn

THE GREAT UNDOCUMENTED KINGDOM. “All the viruses in the ocean end-to-end would stretch further than the nearest 60 galaxies.” They produce half of Earth’s oxygen, and microbial life (mostly viruses) is 96% by weight of all oceanic life, far exceeding the larger creatures. They are also the largest pool of genetic novelty on Earth. Lovely article. https://lnkd.in/d-nEKzQ View in LinkedIn

FAIRGROUND WARPED MIRRORS. “This result means that two ostensibly very different theories--not even acting in spaces of the same dimension--are equivalent. Creatures living in one of these universes would be incapable of determining if they inhabited a 5-D universe described by string theory or a 4-D one described by a quantum field theory of point particles.” https://lnkd.in/draqjTW View in LinkedIn