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<DIV><!--StartFragment --> <A
href="http://deinococcus.allbio.org/">Deinococcus <B>radiodurans</B></A> 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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Can evolution take a step back to retrace its earlier moves?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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?
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Is this pattern a sort of ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 3/24/2005 10:07:42 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
eshel@physics.ucsd.edu writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi, Interestiing news, Eshel</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>These discoveries might also
ilustrate one example of organisms learning not through the DNA
sequence.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>{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 . </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It will be interesting if the media will realise
the revolutionary aspects or not. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If they do, it will probably lead to a flood of
serious and "vitalistic" reactions.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In this regard I also attached a paper entitled
"New biology for a new century"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Eshel</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Eshel Ben-Jacob.
<BR>
Home Page: <A title=http://star.tau.ac.il/~eshel/
href="http://star.tau.ac.il/~eshel/">http://star.tau.ac.il/~eshel/</A><BR>Professor
of Physics<BR>The Maguy-Glass
Professor
<BR>in Physics of Complex Systems <BR><A
title=mailto:eshel@tamar.tau.ac.il
href="mailto:eshel@tamar.tau.ac.il">eshel@tamar.tau.ac.il</A>
<A title=mailto:ebenjacob@ucsd.edu
href="mailto:ebenjacob@ucsd.edu">ebenjacob@ucsd.edu</A>
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Former President of the Israel Physical Society
(IPS)<BR>Head the scientific board of PhysicaPlus <A
title=http://physicaplus.org.il/
href="http://physicaplus.org.il/">http://physicaplus.org.il</A><BR>The IPS
Online Bi-lingual
Magazine
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>School of Physics and
Astronomy
10/2004
-10/2005
<BR>Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel
Center for Theoretical Biological Physics <BR>Tel 972-3-640 7845/7604 (Fax)
-6425787 University of California San
Diego
<BR>
La Jolla, CA 92093-0354 USA
<BR>
Tel (office) 1-858-534 0524 (Fax) -534
7697<BR> <BR></FONT></DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10">----------<BR>Howard Bloom<BR>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<BR>Visiting Scholar-Graduate
Psychology Department, New York University; Core Faculty Member, The Graduate
Institute<BR>www.howardbloom.net<BR>www.bigbangtango.net<BR>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.<BR>For information on The International Paleopsychology
Project, see: www.paleopsych.org<BR>for two chapters from <BR>The Lucifer
Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History, see
www.howardbloom.net/lucifer<BR>For information on Global Brain: The Evolution of
Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century, see
www.howardbloom.net<BR></FONT></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>