[Paleopsych] From Eshel--A Glitch in Genetic-centrism

Mon Mar 28 06:48:07 UTC 2005

_Deinococcus radiodurans_ (http://deinococcus.allbio.org/)  is  able to 
withstand the shattering and spattering force of radioactivity by  keeping many 
apparently super-condensed backup copies of its genome, then  rebuilding whatever 
genomic sequences that have been destroyed.

If a genome is the most economical summation of a species past possible,  how 
can it be condensed into a backup copy?  Is there, as Joel Isaacson  suggest, 
an Ur pattern, an implicit pattern from which a mashed gene can be  
re-extracted?  Does the deciphering of an ancient pattern, an implicit  pattern, an 
Ur-pattern, change as the context that extracts it changes?

Is the context of the still-unfazed genome, of the cytoplasm, of the cell  
membrane, and of the signals coming from neighboring and distant  cells an 
extractor capable of re-deducing the implicit healthy gene  when a mutated gene has 
gone off-track?

Can evolution take a step back to retrace its earlier moves?

Is the radiodurans backup mechanism an after-the-fact condensation of the  
genome--a symbolic representation of the genome?  Or is it a remnant of  
something that preceded the genome?

Eshel, you speak of RNA as the possible backup mechanism.   RNA  is the 
evolutionary precursor of DNA if the RNA-world hypothesis is true.   Do you think 
that what was once derived from RNA can be derived again?  

Is this pattern a sort of ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny?

And if the complexities and intricate forms and functions of the  present 
have been pulled from the implications of the past, what even more  elaborate 
futures will be extracted from the implications of today?   Howard

In a message dated 3/24/2005 10:07:42 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
eshel at physics.ucsd.edu writes:

Hi, Interestiing news, Eshel

I sent yesterday the message below to several  people in the Weizmann 
following a paper in Nature that I think is a most  important discovery. personaly I 
feel very good as it supports my long  objection to the current Neo-darwinian 
paradigm. It also indicates that the  community in biology is now finally open 
to revolutionary ideas related to  evolution. These discoveries might also  
ilustrate one example of organisms learning not through the DNA  sequence.

{Attached is a new paper that appear in Nature.  Being myself  against the 
central paradigm I find the discoveries  potentially a mark of a new era. I 
might be dramatizing but may be not. I am  quite surprised and pleased that Nature 
let them publish the paper and if you  note the dates within 6 weeks from 
receiving it. Note also the possible  connection with microRNA . 

It will be interesting if the media will realise  the revolutionary aspects 
or not. 

If they do, it will probably lead to a flood of  serious and "vitalistic" 
reactions.

In this regard I also attached a paper entitled  "New biology for a new 
century"

I apologize if I am carried away but felt like  sharing with you my 
excitement about these discoveries. There are many open  questions. The first one is if 
it is a special mechanism for plants only or  shared by animals as well (it 
is known that smallRNA have different mechanisms  in plant).

Eshel

Eshel Ben-Jacob.  
Home Page: _http://star.tau.ac.il/~eshel/_ (http://star.tau.ac.il/~eshel/) 
Professor  of Physics
The Maguy-Glass  Professor                   
in Physics of Complex Systems      
_eshel at tamar.tau.ac.il_ (mailto:eshel at tamar.tau.ac.il)      
_ebenjacob at ucsd.edu_ (mailto:ebenjacob at ucsd.edu)                                     

Former President of the Israel Physical Society  (IPS)
Head the scientific board of PhysicaPlus _http://physicaplus.org.il_ 
(http://physicaplus.org.il/) 
The IPS  Online Bi-lingual  Magazine                     

School of Physics and  Astronomy                 10/2004  -10/2005            

Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel       Center for Theoretical 
Biological Physics 
Tel 972-3-640 7845/7604 (Fax)  -6425787      University of California San  
Diego    
La Jolla, CA 92093-0354 USA  
Tel (office) 1-858-534 0524 (Fax) -534  7697

----------
Howard Bloom
Author of The Lucifer Principle: A  Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of 
History and Global Brain: The Evolution  of Mass Mind From The Big Bang to the 
21st Century
Visiting Scholar-Graduate  Psychology Department, New York University; Core 
Faculty Member, The Graduate  Institute
www.howardbloom.net
www.bigbangtango.net
Founder:  International Paleopsychology Project; founding board member: Epic 
of Evolution  Society; founding board member, The Darwin Project; founder: The 
Big Bang Tango  Media Lab; member: New York Academy of Sciences, American 
Association for the  Advancement of Science, American Psychological Society, 
Academy of Political  Science, Human Behavior and Evolution Society, International 
Society for Human  Ethology; advisory board member: Youthactivism.org; 
executive editor -- New  Paradigm book series.
For information on The International Paleopsychology  Project, see: 
www.paleopsych.org
for two chapters from 
The Lucifer  Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History, 
see  www.howardbloom.net/lucifer
For information on Global Brain: The Evolution of  Mass Mind from the Big 
Bang to the 21st Century, see  www.howardbloom.net

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