Brain complexity: essay on the complexity (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, March 25, 2016, 13:25 (3165 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Without going into technical details, and bearing in mind that nobody knows how the process actually works, could you just tell me if you think it feasible that innovations come about physically by means of interaction (no matter whether preprogrammed or autonomous) between neurons and stem cells, with their ability to take on different forms and functions?-DAVID: Good question. My view is that all cells that can produce an action are programmed to respond to stimuli. A lining cell in a blood vessel is not such a cell. A neuron can make many changes to its function depending upon demands it receives. A stem cell makes functional cells as required. I have no idea how they would independently cooperate to invent something new. I believe in top down, not bottom up controls.-My question was not loaded, which is why I wrote “whether preprogrammed or autonomous”. I'll rephrase it to fit in with your beliefs: do you believe that evolutionary innovations may take place through divinely preprogrammed interactions between neurons and stem cells, with their ability to take on different forms and functions?-Xxxxxxxx-I have just read the article on genome complexity in embryology, for which many thanks:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160324142932.htm-QUOTE: "Once an egg has been fertilised by a sperm, it divides several times, becoming a large free-floating ball of stem cells. At first, these stem cells are 'totipotent', the state at which a stem cell can divide and grow and produce everything--every single cell of the whole body and the placenta, to attach the embryo to the mother's womb. The stem cells then change to a 'pluripotent' state, in which their development is restricted to generating the cells of the whole body, but not the placenta. However, the point during development at which cells begin to show a preference for becoming a specific cell type is unclear.
"Now, in a study published in the journal Cell, scientists at the University of Cambridge and the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) suggests that as early as the four-cell embryo stage, the cells are indeed different.”-David's comment: Genes turn on and off in embryology to create proper form under a master plan in the DNA, so they are not just making proteins. The activity has to be automatic to create the necessary result. Mistakes can make terrible anomalies. -I'm sure you're right. But as always, we go back to the question of how all this originated. If we assume that the process is common to all sexually reproduced species, and they all begin at the embryonic stage with stem cells - no matter how quickly these begin to differentiate - couldn't this tie in with the notion that stem cells, with their ability to take on different forms and functions, may be the key to speciation, even within the framework of your divine preprogramming? And is it possible that the very first cells of all were stem cells?