Rapid evolution or epigenetics? (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, March 01, 2011, 01:07 (4995 days ago) @ dhw

"Each point in the brain, each brain cell, contains all the genetic information necessary to produce the entire organism."-> Can we perhaps link this to the problem of innovation in evolution (new organs, new species)? If each cell has a memory and can be subtle, why should not each cell or, even better, each collection of cells also have the potential for building on its memory? -Not really. The original cells, after the sperm and egg get together form a ball, the blastocyst. These blast or stem cells are pluripotential, and can make everything. But once they have made everything, they are generally turned off, and under control not to take off and make something uncontrolled like a cancer.There are still adult stem cells which can be called upon, but generally everything is under tight control. Yet you are correct. Every cell has the same DNA.-> And every so often a cell or a group of cells comes up with something special, which it passes on to succeeding generations for further development.-Again, no. The passing on of 'something special' has to occur in the germ cells, those guys who make sperm or egg.-> This would be neither chance nor pre-programming, but a form of creative intelligence. Is this any more far-fetched than some of the theories we're being bombarded with?-Way more far-fetched. As an author, playwright, translator, website leader, sometime poet and punner, you obviously have much more imagination than the rest of us put together! And a nod to Matt who is struggling with his novel. The germ cells have to have the mutation, the epigenetic effect, the transposition, the duplication, etc. for changes to occur. -Yet you have made an amazing point: in histology I learned to identify organs by the microscopic slice. Liver cells don't look like kidney. Lung is nothing like an adrenal gland. Lymph nodes are not anything like skin cells. And the brain can only be brain, the spinal cord has its own pattern. The body IS a community of organs, all functioning in great cooperation. A community of communities, like London and its suburbs. But everyone of these cells has the same DNA! And George tells us it all came from inorganic chemicals that fell together by chance.