[ExI] DNA - The Next Internet: True or False?

[Jeff Davis]

Natasha Vita-More writes:

>  Can any scientist on the list offer a scientific explanation for the
> relationship between cells and what is perceived as their talking with
> light?
>

I'm not a scientist (just a technoweenie) though I play at it on this list.

Each and every cell has an identical inventory of DNA.  Thus a liver cell
has the same "kit" as a retinal cell or a neuron.  So cell types that are
labeled according to their primary function, still retain the potentiality
to employ as needed what other cells do in a big way.  I'm inclined to think
that any cell would do exactly that whenever useful, by (of course) turning
on the appropriate genes at appropriate levels of expression and in
appropriate combination.

Now I'm unfamiliar with the cellular mechanism(s) for photon emission, and I
only mention the retinal cell as an example of a cellular photo-sensitive
capability.  I would be surprised to not find multiple modes of cellular
photo-sensitivity in addition to the retinal forms, with the "appropriate"
form employed as a standard for inter-cellular "communication".  All encoded
in the genes of course.

 Regarding "...a scientific explanation for the relationship between
cells...", a "how" explanation would involve describing the conditions
leading to the communication and the communication itself (in cell one), and
the consequences of the communication (in cell two), and a "why" explanation
would involve clarifying where the value lies for the cells and the
organism, for the communication.  I can't do the first, but I'll take a
"well, duh!" amateur shot at the second.

Adjacent cells work together.  Communication enables efficient cooperative
function.  (I said it was "Well, duh!")

I could leave it there, and retire from the field without significant
embarrassment.  But what fun would that be?

I still think -- and this suspicion is growing not shrinking -- that
research will eventually uncover a largely unexpected, and unexpectedly
complex suite of "behaviors" at the cellular level.
Yes, "behaviors", as in the kind of things we associate with (please forgive
me) consciousness.  That this cellular consciousness is mediated by quantum
effects, and that the larger form of consciousness with which we are
familiar is emergent from the combined consciousness of all the cells.  So
it is that I suggest (and with only a bit of a sly wink) that inter-cellular
communication, beyond utilitarian content, may also be "social talk",
cellular gossip, a handshake, a wink, a pat on the back.

Yeah, yeah, I know: anthropomorphic projection.  Maybe.  Or maybe not.

So why exactly is it that they call this sticking your neck out?  Shouldn't
it be sticking your head out?

Best, Jeff Davis

"When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty.
       I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have
            finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."
                                           Buckminster Fuller
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