Magic embryology: rapid stem cell differentiation (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, April 21, 2020, 19:24 (1678 days ago) @ dhw

QUOTE: "Our biological history can be traced back to a small group of cells called embryonic stem cells, which through cell division, give rise to cells that specialise to perform a specific role in the body—a process known as differentiation."

DAVID: when life was single-celled, reproduction was simply cells splitting. The evolution of sexual reproduction has never been explained by evolution theory. It is highly complex, and must be tightly controlled to avoid errors, noting the high speed of the process. This research tells us something of how it works, not how it was created. Design is required by a designer.

dhw: I have always suspected that stem cells were the foundation stones of evolution, thanks to their ability to differentiate. Exciting stuff! And yes, I have always acknowledged the case for design, which is a major reason why I am not an atheist. You already know the reasons why I am not a theist either.

DAVID: Correction. Stem cells are programmed to be exact copiers, not evolvers. That job is in the germ cells DNA to carry over new changes, but we do not know exactly how it works for new species.

dhw: According to my science dictionary, the stem cell is “an undifferentiated cell, particularly in an embryo, capable of unlimited division and of producing daughter cells that develop into different cell types, which in turn give rise to different tissues and organs.” How this comes to mean that they are “exact copiers” I really don’t know, and a cell that can give rise to different tissues and organs sounds to me like the perfect foundation for evolution.

Your dictionary is correct. The stem cells follow what instructions the germ cells give in their DNA. The are bound by those instructions to exactly reproduce what came before: horse makes horse, fox makes fox, robin makes robin. An unwanted mutation in an embryo stem cell can create a monster.