“Since its discovery in the early 20th century, the DNA has become a huge center of attention in biology. It has sparked new interest in the field of genetics, become basic knowledge for the more recent generations, a target of media coverage and even a common element of popular culture. But what do we really know about the DNA? Is our high-school curriculum up-to-date with current research and are educators aware of the implications this sensitive field of knowledge has on how we understand and deal with human differences? We often hear the DNA is like a recipe. Thats a bad analogy. Unlike a recipe, our DNA interacts with the environment. Its more like a computer program, receiving input and returning output after complex calculations. It isnt used only when were formed or when we reproduce. Its constantly listening to the environment in order to know what genes it should transcribe and when. As animals evolve, they alter the environment around them, creating complex structures such as ant colonies and beehives. These structures, in turn, exert evolutionary pressures on the very creatures it owes its existence to. It is one of natures feedback loops. Claiming one controls the other is like claiming to have found who came first, the chicken or the egg. The more an organism grows complex, the more sensitive it becomes to small changes in its environment. And if an organism becomes capable of adapting to these changes on the go, in its own lifetime, then it has clear chances of leaving more offspring than its unadaptive competition, rigidly programmed to act in a limited set of ways even in face of an ever changing environment. As a product of human organisms acting collectively, society may be slave to our DNA, but as a part of our environment, as a powerful entity determining when each of our genes should be transcribed or not, it is also its authoritative master.” Read more: ghostlessmachine/en/2014/12/slaves-to-the-dna/
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 19:28:41 +0000