07 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Radio-Mimetic Chemicals
For mankind as a whole, a possession infinitely more valuable than individual life is our genetic heritage, our link with past and future. Shaped through long aeons of evolution, oru genes not only make us what we are, but hold in their minute beings the future – be it one of promise or threat. Yet generic deterioration through man-made agents is the menace of our time, ‘the last and greatest danger to our civilization.’
Again, the parallel between chemicals and radiation is exact and... 1 
notes
notes11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Language is Alive
Language is simply alive, like an organism. We all tell each other this, in fact, when we speak of living languages, and I think we mean something more than an abstract metaphor. We mean alive. Words are the cells of language, moving the great body, on legs. Language grows and evolves, leaving fossils behind. The individual words are like different species of animals. Mutations occur. Words fuse, and then mate. Hybrid words and wild varieties or compound words are the progeny. Some mixed word... 1 notes
notesIt evolves, leaves fossils, speciates, etc.
05 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
On Reading Chronology in Nature
I do ... humbly conceive (tho' some possibly may think there is too much notice taken of such a trivial thing as a rotten Shell, yet) that Men do generally rally too much slight and pass over without regard these Records of Antiquity which Nature have left as Monuments and Hieroglyphick Characters of preceding Transactions in the like duration or Transactions of the Body of the Earth, which are infinitely more evident and certain tokens than any thing of Antiquity that can be fetched out of C...Folksonomies: geology
Folksonomies: geology
1 notes
notesHooke describes the difficulty and importance of establishing a chronology for mutations and catastrophes in the geological record.
23 APR 2012 by ideonexus
The Lifetime of DNA
The messages that DNA molecules contain are all but eternal when seen against the time scale of individual lifetimes. The lifetimes of DNA messages (give or take a few mutations) are measured in units ranging from millions of years to hundreds of millions of years; or, in other words, ranging from 10,000 individual lifetimes to a trillion individual lifetimes. Each individual organism should be seen as a temporary vehicle, in which DNA messages spend a tiny fraction of their geological lifeti... 1 notes
notesIt exists in living messengers for brief periods of their lifetimes, but communicates across millions of years throughout all life.
16 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Mammals Produce Useless Yolks
Vestigial genes can go hand in hand with vestigial structures. We
mammals evolved from reptilian ancestors that laid eggs. With the
exceptions of the “monotremes” (the order of mammals that includes
the Australian spiny anteater and duck-billed platypus), mammals have
dispensed with egg-laying, and mothers nourish their young directly
through the placenta instead of by providing a storehouse of yolk. And
mammals carry three genes that, in reptiles and birds, produce the
nutritious protein...
1 Because they evolve from egg-laying reptiles, they have dead genes for producing yolks and even produce yolks in the placenta.
16 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Dolphins have Genes for Smelling
Another curious tale of dead genes involves our sense of smell, or
rather our poor sense of smell, for humans are truly bad sniffers among
land mammals. Nevertheless, we can still recognize over 10,000 different
odors. How can we accomplish such a feat? Until recently, this was a
completely mystery. The answer lies in our DNA—in our many olfactory
receptor (OR) genes.
[...]
Our own sense of smell comes nowhere close to that of mice. One
reason is that we express fewer OR genes—only abou... 1 notes
notesYet, as aquatic mammals, they have no need to smell anything.
08 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
WORD Became the GENE
In the beginning was the word
WORD
WORE
GORE
GONE
GENE
and by the mutations came the gene.Folksonomies: evolution creationism
Folksonomies: evolution creationism
1 notes
notesA clever play on religion vs science in Evolution.
03 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Mullet's Ratchet
In recent years the geneticists have turned away from good mutations and begun to think about bad ones. Sex, they suggest, is a way of getting rid of bad mutations. This idea also has its origins in the 1960s, with Hermann Muller, one of the fathers of the Vicar of Bray theory. Muller, who spent much of his career at the University of Indiana, published his first scientific paper on genes in 1911, and a veritable flood of ideas and experiments followed in the succeeding decades. In 1964 he ha... 1 notes
notesWithout sex, mutations would ratchet up. An infusion of good genes from another source keeps them clean.
