Re: Can anyone help with genetics question
Posted by Amaranth Rose on Feb 18, 2004 at 18:51
(65.172.150.222)Re: Can anyone help with genetics question (anyman)
Give me a little credit here. I never ascribed to the "junk" theory of life. Seeing how much energy organisms use just to survive, they couldn't afford to be 33 parts junk and 1 part useful stuff.
Reminds me of the "old" theory that 90% of the brain is "unused". So we thought we could go in and just hack and slash around with people who were depressed. "Oh, wow, this doesn't do anything, let's destroy it and see if the patient gets any better." Well, you destroyed it, now guess what? The patient no longer understands adjectives, or can no longer determine size relationships, or is a homicidal maniac, or whatever. What a wonderful discovery.
Organisms carry what they need, DNAwise, and a little more to wiggle, like swap space on your hard drive. 'Cause if they didn't need it, they wouldn't CONSERVE it for a million generations give or take. That guy thinks 97% of his DNA is "junk" and he's never heard of Sonic Hedgehog even. Doesn't know an intron from Enron. I'm sorry, but at some point I reach an explosive mixture and achieve ignition.