science

14678 readers

178 users here now

just science related topics. please contribute

note: clickbait sources/headlines aren't liked generally. I've posted crap sources and later deleted or edit to improve after complaints. whoops, sry

Rule 1) Be kind.

lemmy.world rules: https://mastodon.world/about

I don't screen everything, lrn2scroll

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

119

It’s time to admit that genes are not the blueprint for life (www.nature.com)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by kalkulat to c/science

75 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Review of 2023 book: How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology Philip Ball. ISBN9781529095999

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

This is a funny comment though, because "junk" DNA is involved with epigenetic regulation and cellular behavior.

"It's there so it must have function", "it's still in the genetic code so it must have been selected for" is the least nuanced take,

"It's there just randomly and therefore is junk", and "evolution does not select for efficiency" is an improvement,

But "it's there and it's doing something despite not having a bespoke, prescribed function" and "evolution is a cascade of emergent effects and random chance, none of our genome is non-functional even though it is random" is the most up to date take

You seem like a biologist, why not go read some of these papers? Like the one I linked by Dan Nichols? Most people don't have the background necessary to understand the language (no shade) but you seem to!