Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Our Fragile Intellect

Trends in Genetics references this paper - Our Fragile Intellect.(download) What is interesting about this is that we peaked 2000-6000 years ago and now are devolving.  Or.... we started out pristine with the preternatural gifts of bodily immortality and freedom from sickness and have lost it.


Abstract

New developments in genetics, anthropology, and neurobiology predict that a very large number of genes underlie our intellectual and emotional abilities, making these abilities genetically surprisingly fragile.

"I would wager that if an average citizen from Athens of
1000 BC were to appear suddenly among us, he or she
would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive
of our colleagues and companions, with a good memory, a
broad range of ideas, and a clear-sighted view of important
issues. Furthermore, I would guess that he or she would be
among the most emotionally stable of our friends and
colleagues. I would also make this wager for the ancient
inhabitants of Africa, Asia, India, or the Americas, of
perhaps 2000–6000 years ago. The basis for my wager
comes from new developments in genetics, anthropology,
and neurobiology that make a clear prediction that our
intellectual and emotional abilities are genetically surprisingly
fragile."

and

"Taken together, the large number of genes required for
intellectual and emotional function, and the unique susceptibility
of these genes to loss of heterozygosity, lead me
to conclude that we, as a species, are surprisingly intellectually
fragile and perhaps reached a peak 2000–6000 years
ago. But if we are losing our intellectual abilities, how did
we acquire them in the first place? This will be the topic of
the next section [15]. "

couple this with

Human Genome in Meltdown

A previous post here - Dr. John Sanford "Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome" Below is additional support for IDvolution. Some quotes from Dr John Sanford on genetic entropy. Very consistent with IDvolution and Scripture. To get the full effect take the time to view the videos. Listen carefully where he states it is "kind of a trade secret of population geneticists." The design of the genome is astonishing and shows intelligence, design and purpose. "We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is a thought of God."Pope Benedict XVI

and now we have this in Nature. Analysis of 6,515 exomes reveals the recent origin of most human protein-coding variants 86% arose in the last 5-10,000 years.
and

Front Loading? Genetic Entropy? Complexity to simplicity?

More support for design and IDvolution.


Front Loading? Genetic Entropy? Complexity to simplicity? Devolution. Adam and Eve with preternatural gifts to modern day humans? Every day now more evidence comes in supporting IDvolution and design present at the beginning.

Research suggests that evolution sometimes meant becoming simpler, not more complex



(Phys.org)—The view that animals have become more complex over time could be a thing of the past, according to the latest research.


The new evidence, from scientists at the University of St Andrews, suggests that some modern day animals may have evolved instead by becoming less complex.

The researchers say that the discovery, of ghostly remains of gene neighbourhoods that once existed in a 550 million year old ancestor, suggests that the earliest animal was more complex than previously thought.

The findings, published later today in the journal, Current Biology, appear to contradict the common perception of evolution – that creatures have advanced by becoming genetically more complex over time.


more...
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What is interesting about this is that we peaked and now are devolving.  Or.... we started out pristine with the preternatural gifts of bodily immortality and freedom from sickness and have lost it.



Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Paul Davies on the Origin of Life as an Information Problem

"Based on simple mathematical models, we think it may have happened suddenly, analogously to a heated gas abruptly bursting into flame." 

IDvolution - God “breathed” the super language of DNA into the “kinds” in the creative act.

Paul Davies on the Origin of Life as an Information Problem

The Guardian features an interesting article by Paul Davies: “The secret of life won’t be cooked up in a chemistry lab: Life’s origins may only be explained through a study of its unique management of information.” Davies writes, 

"If we cast the problem of life's origin in computer jargon, attempts at chemical synthesis focus exclusively on the hardware – the chemical substrate of life – but ignore the software – the informational aspect. To explain how life began we need to understand how its unique management of information came about.

To take a simple example; whether a cell expresses a gene can depend on mechanical stresses or electric fields acting on the whole cell by its environment. Thus, a change in global information (a pattern of force) at the macroscopic level translates into a change in local information movement at the microscopic level (switching on a gene). More generally, a range of signals received from its environment help to dictate how a cell's DNA is distributed and transcribed. Walker and I propose that the key transition on the road to life occurred when top-down information flow first predominated. Based on simple mathematical models, we think it may have happened suddenly, analogously to a heated gas abruptly bursting into flame"