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To: colorado tanker
Naw, evolution itself gets called into question simply because you might well replace one working but optimal gene with a couple that are not optimal but which work better.

You pull the parts off the shelf. The theory of Evolution unfortunately assumes the contents of the shelf keep changing and you try version after version until you find the one "most suited" ~ that is, optimal.

Not sure if Darwin or Wallace bothered noticing it but wolves can, at any moment, bring down any particular reindeer. At the same time each reindeer is capable of outrunning any particular wolf.

Which animal is more fit? Do reindeer run away successfully? Do wolves pull down reindeer successfully?

Do men make pets of wolves (we call them dogs) and of reindeer?

Where's the gene for that one?

Just reading an article on schizophrenia. Seems to be a quite diagnosable condition but there's no "schizophrenia" gene. On the other hand there are a cluster of genes that have known defects that tend to not bother anyone but sometimes something happens and they all foster schizophrenia.

The question then becomes "does schizophrenia have a genetic component considering that all schizophrenics have some of these errors, yet non-schizophrenics also have some of these errors, and it's hereditary"?

The genetic basis for schizophrenia is well established, but it's not a case of a single gene, nor of always having all the mutations that can be associated with schizophrenia.

It's more like a wave drifting through the genome.

20 posted on 08/20/2009 12:03:17 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
My own view is that all this is far more complex than simple DNA. There isn't all that much difference in genes in radically different species. There are other structures in the cell we only have the faintest idea of how they work and what role they play. I think there are incredible discoveries yet to be made and it's only our hubris that keeps us from the open minds needed to get after it in a big way.

Just my own unscientific two cents.

22 posted on 08/20/2009 12:16:19 PM PDT by colorado tanker (Martha's Vineyard is great! Hey, honey, let's take a drive . . . .)
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