Showing posts with label genetics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label genetics. Show all posts

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.



Friday, December 16, 2011

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  

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

"a vastly superior operating system"

"a galaxy of design and complexity"

"over 90% of the genome is actively transcribed"

"the genome has multiple overlapping messages"

"data compression on the most sophisticated level"

"more and more the genome looks like a super super set of programs"

"more and more it looks like top down design"

"the reality is everybody is mutant"

"the selection process really has nothing to grab hold of"

"so it's kind of a trade secret amongst population geneticists,any well informed population geneticist understands man is degenerating"

"so in deep geological time we should have been extinct a long time ago"

"the human race is degenerating at 1-5% per generation"

"so personal and so immediate, because there is no circle of life where things where things stay the same, and it's not an upward spiral of evolution, things keep getting better and better, it is a downward spiral exactly as described in Scripture"

"I realized it had major implications for evolution, but I had no... I couldn't have guessed how profound the biblical implications are, how profoundly the evidence supports the biblical perspective of a dying universe and a dying world, we are dying because of the fall"

"and our only hope is Christ"

Dr. John Sanford "Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome"1/2

Dr. John Sanford "Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome" 2/2 

 

Friday, May 13, 2011

Genetic Piano

Perhaps someone was listening........

A while ago I posted on the idea that we should look at genes like keys on a piano. The number of tunes that can be cranked out is astounding. Sometimes a single key is played or in combinations. Some are rarely played but still can produce beautiful music.

Now someone else has picked up on this idea.

More support for IDvolution.


Study gives clue as to how notes are played on the genetic piano

The NOVA U.S. public television program described epigenetics as “The Ghost In Your Genes.” It is the study of changes in gene expression that occur without changes in DNA sequence. Like keys on a piano, DNA is the static blueprint for all the proteins that cells produce. Epigenetic information provides additional dynamic or flexible instructions as to how, where and when the blueprint will be used. “It corresponds to a pianist playing a piece of music,” said Kohzoh Mitsuya, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio. 



Why Some Genes Are Silenced: Researchers Find Clue as to How Notes Are Played On the 'Genetic Piano' 'Like keys on a piano, DNA is the static blueprint for all the proteins that cells produce. Epigenetic information provides additional dynamic or flexible instructions as to how, where and when the blueprint will be used. "It corresponds to a pianist playing a piece of music," said Kohzoh Mitsuya, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio.'

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Timely peer reviewed paper - more support for IDvolution

Timely peer reviewed paper - more support for IDvolution

Andy McIntosh’s Peer-Reviewed ID Paper–Note the Editor’s Note!


“Information and Entropy—Top-Down or Bottom-Up Development in Living Systems?” International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics 4(4) (2009): 351-385

Abstract: This paper deals with the fundamental and challenging question of the ultimate origin of genetic information from a thermodynamic perspective. The theory of evolution postulates that random mutations and natural selection can increase genetic information over successive generations. It is often argued from an evolutionary perspective that this does not violate the second law of thermodynamics because it is proposed that the entropy of a non-isolated system could reduce due to energy input from an outside source, especially the sun when considering the earth as a biotic system. By this it is proposed that a particular system can become organised at the expense of an increase in entropy elsewhere. However, whilst this argument works for structures such as snowflakes that are formed by natural forces, it does not work for genetic information because the information system is composed of machinery which requires precise and non-spontaneous raised free energy levels – and crystals like snowflakes have zero free energy as the phase transition occurs. The functional machinery of biological systems such as DNA, RNA and proteins requires that precise, non-spontaneous raised free energies be formed in the molecular bonds which are maintained in a far from equilibrium state. Furthermore, biological structures contain coded instructions which, as is shown in this paper, are not defined by the matter and energy of the molecules carrying this information. Thus, the specified complexity cannot be created by natural forces even in conditions far from equilibrium. The genetic information needed to code for complex structures like proteins actually requires information which organises the natural forces surrounding it and not the other way around – the information is crucially not defined by the material on which it sits. The information system locally requires the free energies of the molecular machinery to be raised in order for the information to be stored. Consequently, the fundamental laws of thermodynamics show that entropy reduction which can occur naturally in non-isolated systems is not a sufficient argument to explain the origin of either biological machinery or genetic information that is inextricably intertwined with it. This paper highlights the distinctive and non-material nature of information and its relationship with matter, energy and natural forces. It is proposed in conclusion that it is the non-material information (transcendent to the matter and energy) that is actually itself constraining the local thermodynamics to be in ordered disequilibrium and with specified raised free energy levels necessary for the molecular and cellular machinery to operate.