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DNA #2 (magnuscanis, flickr)
Cross posted from Frederick Leatherman Law Blog.
Greetings to all of you. Today I am initiating a new topic for my blog, titled Science Friday. Each Friday, I will pick a new scientific topic or experimental result and introduce it with a link to more information.
Today, I am starting with an article about partial cell DNA duplication and the role it may have played in developing Homo sapiens sapiens.
Yes, I know this is not about law and this is a law blog. Well, guess what? Even lawyers need to know some science and besides, it is interesting for its own sake.
First, a little background.
The nucleus of each cell in our bodies contains a complete copy of the human DNA genome. Prior to dividing to create a new cell, each cell creates another complete copy of the human genome. Mistakes happen occasionally during this process and the error becomes a genetic mutation, if the cell does not correct it.
Mutations are not inherently good or bad. Whether they are good, bad or neutral depends on the environment in which the organism exists. Most of the time they are neutral. Sometimes, however, a mutation creates a competitive advantage or disadvantage for an organism that allows it to prosper or struggle in the existing environment relative to other organisms that belong to the same species. Depending on the environment, successive generations that inherit the advantage may expand in number and end up prevailing over organisms that inherit the disadvantage and gradually die out. Sometimes the environment changes radically and suddenly amplifying the importance of the advantage or disadvantage. We call this process natural selection.
Duplication is one type of error that occurs during genome replication. When that happens, a section of the genome is copied twice instead of just once. The extra copy can change over time gaining mutations or losing parts.
In a paper published today in the peer reviewed scientific journal, Cell, genetic researchers have reported that they have discovered that the human gene SRGAP2 has duplicated itself twice, approximately 3.5 and 2.5 million years ago. This corresponds to the period when the brains of our ancestors began to expand, increasing cognitive ability, and the now extinct hominin Australopithecus declined and disappeared in favor of the genus Homo that led to us, Homo sapiens sapiens.
The more recent duplication was an incomplete duplication. Using mouse DNA in the lab, they replicated the incomplete duplication and discovered that it appeared to speed the migration of brain cells during development making brain organization more efficient.
To read more about this study, go here to read an article in Discovery News by Jennifer Welch, reporting for LiveScience.com on Sunday, May 6th.
35 Comments
Hello MiB, been reading and reading. This is *way* past anything they taught in school (um, mumble mumble decades ago).
However, I have been involved with many academic (and other) things and what what is reported in the popular media are often not even remotely similar to the actual. But with this info I have enough to phone up some old bio-mavens and annoy them!
Thank you, lots of fun! And pps convey my regards to Ms CS.
Aw, and a hug back to you (((HotFlash)))!
Uh Mason its cause I had GREAT public school teachers and I will match my smartness with anyone on this blog.
Mason Reverse Darwin we pick leaders now who if left to their own natural level of ability should be picking produce at Jewel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=e12yfW5TsFw
Lyrics here in case you have a hard time understanding, especially the French.
And then there is this
Alternatively, there is this
If we had the technology to significantly increase human intelligence through directed mutation in a similar mechanism to natural random mutation/selections that confer an adaptive advantage would it be ethical to do so? Because that day will come.
2.5 million years ago??
interesting – of course since that time “lucy” developed a several branches -
sad that we will never know if the branch that survived – our branch – is the “smart one” – indeed smarts may be useless in survival and whatever level we have only a vestigial “organ” – like the appendix. And if this is correct one wonders why the smarter humans died off faster – if this is correct – something we will never know, will we? A bit like never finding out if there is life after death…..
Indeed what are smarts – I rather enjoy watch folks squirm as creature after creature is found to have “human like” emotions/intelligence. Science slowly tells us more and more – but the wise person notices how little is actually known, or will ever likely to be known. But then for some Science is their religion – a faith that given time, all will be known – despite the work in math that received awards back in the 1990′s for proving there are problems/questions that science can never discover an answer to.
But I do like NPR radio’s Science Friday!.
:-)
Interesting. I do suspect that being egotistical inclines researchers to concentrate of thought processes though, rather than the related emotions and ganglia operations. We have discovered that those who think independently tend to have ‘open’ minds that are more sociable, as opposed to the authoritarian sort, which is more prone to violence. Which is the species headed toward domination, which to annihilation? Please don’t answer yet.
Good morning. That “smart” gene, if that is, in fact, what it is, did not seem to be duplicated in all of our fellow humans. It seems that the old saying “when God handed out brains, you were hiding behind the door,” might better change ‘brains’ to ‘smart genes.’
Thank you Mason for your beautiful diary and its discussion of the genetic quantum leaps in the intelligence of those life forms which ultimately gave us Homo sapiens sapiens.
Building on your discussion I would like to add a few thoughts to your story.
If one eliminates the extraneous and tangential to the discussion of the fact of evolution, and concentrates on its quintessential qualities, it all comes down to mutation and sex and catastrophe.
Let me elaborate.
As Charles Darwin successfully argued in his masterpiece ‘On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life’ (complete title of 1859 first edition-‘On’ dropped in succeeding editions), it is the accumulation of small, seemingly random genetic changes within families of organisms giving them over vast epochs of time competitive advantages through the process of natural selection which is the essence of the concept of Darwinian evolution.
But you already knew that.
So my concern, going back to my first sentence and the last word in it is what is the role of ‘catastrophe’ in the seemingly evolutionary progression of the perfection of life forms which Stephen J. Gould labeled ‘punctuated equilibrium’? (See Stephen J. Gould’s ‘Wonderful Life’. Of course, as Richard Dawkins’ ‘Ancestor’s Tale, Neil Shubin’s ‘Your Inner Fish’, and many others have convincingly argued, the Cambrian explosion was no explosion as Gould and others would have us believe, but a point in evolutionary history where organisms evolved hard, outer structures which lent themselves to the process of fossilization as contrasted to the early soft-bodied Precambrian life forms as witnessed in the Canadian Burgess Shale or the Australian Ediacara deposits-but alas I digress.)
So what’s this about? Simply that, yes, Darwinian evolution is the modus operandi which over vast spans of time is responsible for an organism’s ability to survive/adapt to changes in its natural environment; however, the ‘tree of life’ is more accurately described as the ‘bush of life’ which has from time to time through periodic, world-wide natural disasters been radically trimmed and distorted, e.g., the Permian extinction(251 M.Y.A. as the Pterodactyl flies-couldn’t resist) and the extinction events at the end of the Cretaceous(65 M.Y.A.) among many others which would indicate that the life forms we see today are the remnants/survivors of natural selection/catastrophic processes and are the very few families of life which squeaked through manifold extinction/trimming events.
So what does this have to do with human intelligence and that sparking end product of evolution, man? Well, simply there is no cosmically conscious, preordained direction to all of the intermediate products of evolution*, and considering all of the appendages of the ‘bush’ which did not survive, we ultimately must ask ourselves if it was the smartest, small proto-mammals at the end of the Cretaceous which for reasons still unknown did survive from which humans ultimately evolved, or is it possible that the really brightest of those little, fury critters just didn’t make it.
Or, perhaps, just perhaps, that’s just evolution for you.
* While my remarks are not specifically intended to insult those among us who still tenacious ‘believe’, in the face of the overwhelming evidence and reality of evolution, that the universe was created on a Monday in the month of September 4004 B.C.E at precisely 9:00 AM SST (Sumerian Standard Time), they should not necessarily be interpreted as a complement to those still locked in the fables of antiquity.
And once again, thank you Mason for your most excellent , thoughtful, and thought provoking diary.
Of course recommended.
Levi ,my horse,11 years old Tn stud,got a new fly mask today,he walked over put his enormous head down,(16hands) and let momma put the darn thing right on….smart guy hates flys
he is more sensible than most humans i know!
Waaaaaiiiiiiit a sec
Dontchya know the Earth is only 5 thousand years old and that The Flintstones was actually a documentary
/s
If Darwinian evolution is a fact, which I religiously believe as a tenet of the true faith, then logic and a few billion years of evolution would demand the reality that whenever we see a duck floating in the water, we can rest assured that countless numbers of its ancestors sank due to an imperfect sphincter.
Once again demonstrating that only the strong survive! :>))
Did I miss the boat on this one?
I believe it’s certainly possible that the most intelligent species among mammals perished in the Cretaceous extinction along with species of dinosaurs that were probably more intelligent than the mammalian species that survived. However, there are ecological niches that will be filled via natural selection and for this reason the niche occupied by the most intelligent species that died off in the extinction event will be replaced by another species via mutation and natural selection. If the study is correct and we humans were to become extinct, another species would evolve to replace us via the duplication and partial duplication of genes that play a role in creating intelligence.
Therefore, in the parlance of today, let us sally forth arm in arm and
OCCUPY the NICHE!
(not to be confused with occupy the quiche)
Of course, we still have to figure out how to define intelligence. I don’t believe we’ve made much progress figuring it out. The Princeton Testing Service, or whatever they call themselves these days have done a pretty good job making oodles of bucks by conning lots of people into believing that their bullshit tests accurately measure it.
Needless to say, I think we humans have a long way to go yet when it comes to developing our intelligence. Hell, we’ve generally used it to build better weapons and that is stupid.
I cannot even confidently say we are the most intelligent species on the planet today.
My African Grey parrot is smarter than I am sometimes.
According to the study, some 30 genes that are involved with brain development and functioning have developed mutations via duplication and partial duplication.
I don’t think anyone has yet identified a smart gene.
I realize you were being snarky and I got a chuckle out of your comment, but your reference to a “smart” gene gave me an opportunity to comment on that concept.
Thanks to the editor for front-paging my article on MyFDL and inserting the photo.
Interesting point. You’re definitely right. We’re heading into Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein Country and ethicists will have to come up with answers.
My take, FWIW, is that we are better off allowing Natural selection to work its magic. We lack the intelligence, knowledge and wisdom to intervene in and mess with evolution.
Thanks for the links, ubet.
Good stuff.
Have you seen this?
love them…too cool for school,my pa was the smartest human i ever met,he said he knew nothing,my sis magna cum laude U of Chi ,lawyer etc…all book learned knowledge 0 common sense,there ya go
A couple generally related links (scroll down)
That’s awesome (said in a Jeff Spicoli voice)
Here’s one I put together on Mavericks
Gotta love whacky science. I dig the quantum stuff that says there really are no rules and the possibilities are truly endless. Science is a language that what? How long has it been around? 400 years or something? And how long have humans been around? To me my ancient elders give me all the knowledge I need to know to be able to adapt and change with the environment. To me, we are these elders, trying to give ourselves the right information, understanding, and love.
DNA can change the environment. Knowledge isn’t stored in our brains but in the space around us. Our brains are antennas, so in another dimension, or this one if you like, we can tap into anything that is ever known or thought of……at any moment…..we just continue to pound our minds with relentless thoughts, turning them into heart felt beliefs that in turn keep us held back by ourselves….brilliant.
Hard to measure the field, when you are the field…..I do love me some star gazing though which last I checked was the oldest “science” or language in the book…..
Looking forward to your threads Mason as always.
You ever check out Gregg Braden at all?
Monsanto wouldn’t agree with you. They want to control all food by patenting it. In fact, and you would know more on this than I, they and others have patented people so that the patented people owe their souls to the company, not just to the company store.
Way Cool, but I didn’t know Brett, Bart and Beau also were into surfing.
The world would be a far better place without Monsanto.
Yes, was surprised to see it was off Portugal not Hawaii; oh well, futt,futt,futt,I am stupid. :->)
And I do believe that all the acid,mescaline, and peyote I ingested did rewire my corpus callosum (meaning it unblocked and added to all the axonal projections between hemispheres).
Yes, my mystical friend. I too consult the Akashic Library. I’ve spent many years learning to listen to and trust my intuition.
Meanwhile, I still like the science thing too and would like to merge them someday.
Ah, well.
No, I don’t know Gregg Braden.
Who is he?
Never heard off him before you bring him up; really funny that in the youtube about ‘fractal time’ the sound of an acoustic coupler/modem synching is used and then a welcome to his ‘fans’(which ,by itself, sends warning signals off in my consciousness).
Anyway, does time really exist?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-time-an-illusion
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Does-Time-Really-Exist-61530.shtml
http://quantumweird.wordpress.com/2007/06/23/does-time-exist/
Now try this on re “time”:
http://conscious-universe.blogspot.com/2007/07/brahmas-dream.html
I’m certain time does not exist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ-hALkqIAg
Blast from the past, on a 45 no less.
Love that tune!
How to define intelligence?
Some say the most intelligent animal is the human.
Some say the most intelligent ape it the chimp, the ape most likely to bite and fight.
Some say the most intelligent dog is the German Shepherd, the one most likely to bark and bite.
If these assumptions were assumed to be correct, then one might conclude that:
Intelligence = Aggression
I just started watching some Gregg Braden youtube videos about Fractal Time and a lot more on his “Divine Matrix.” He used to work for big corporations, being a scientist / computer guy, and moved more to the spiritual quest later in his life, but also combining science with spirituality.
He has introduced some off the wall scientific studies as well as some mind blowing ones. A lot of it is about our DNA influencing our environment, he also digs into the past / ancient traditions / texts / lost books of the Bible etc.
Basically the power that Jesus had is within you, you just have to speak the language of the universe, as well as create the feeling within your heart. Meaning further, the prayer is not the words, but the feeling. We can heal each other beyond our own imaginations….we’re just stuck in the Western world that is trying very hard to hold its grip on control…..
Anyway, cheers, and I thought I would drop his name since he combines a lot of science with the ancient / spiritual aspect….one that I hadn’t yet been introduced to.
Love.