Just A Bit Of DNA Helps Explain Humans' Big Brains

National Public Radio ^ | February 19, 2015 | Nell Greenfieldboyce

[left that other site]

A Big Brain...

Doesn't always mean a "Nice person".

[JoeFromSidney]

The particular region of DNA they found to be important is in a part of the genetic code that was once called "junk DNA." This is DNA that doesn't code for proteins, so scientists used to think it served no purpose.

At the end of the nineteenth century biologists had identified over 100 organs in the human body that were "relics of evolution" and no longer necessary, including the appendix. By now the number has been reduced to near zero, as the functions of these "relics" have been discovered. Even the appendix turns out to play an important role in the immune system.

I suspect that a lot of "junk DNA" is going to turn out to be useful after all.

[Gene Eric]

ping!

[FBD]

Good point, but people can live completely healthy lives without the appendix. So it’s function as a “reboot” for the digestive system appears to be redundant? .

http://www.news-medical.net/news/2007/10/08/30907.aspx

“The appendix is routinely removed without any notable ill effects or side effects and the scientists stress that even though the appendix seems to have a function, people should still have them removed when they are inflamed because since leaving it untreated could be fatal.

Dr. Bill Parker, a professor of surgery and one of the scientists responsible for establishing its status as a useful organ, says the function of the appendix seems related to the massive amount of bacteria that populates the human digestive system and where it is located just below the normal one-way flow of food and germs in the large intestine, helps support that theory.

The study appears in the online edition of the Journal of Theoretical Biology.