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Author Topic:   Not enough room in DNA
caffeine
Member (Idle past 1054 days)
Posts: 1800
From: Prague, Czech Republic
Joined: 10-22-2008


Message 37 of 139 (555717)
04-15-2010 5:42 AM
Reply to: Message 32 by jpatterson
04-14-2010 8:25 PM


Re: Prankster God
DNA doesn't contain all the fine details about how an organism will turn out, so this isn't a problem. What DNA codes for is the production of a series of proteins. Exactly how these proteins interact with each other and their environment will depend on what that environment is. If I add oxygen to an environment containing iron and water, the iron will rust. This doesn't mean the nature of iron oxide, including the exact patterns of rust, are somehow contained in the oxygen. If I add oxygen to an hot enough environment containing fuel, the fuel will burn. This doesn't mean the products of the burning, nor the shape in which they billow up into the air as smoke, nor the shape of the flames, needs to be encoded in the oxygen.
Have a look at the ants here and here. In both pictures you'll see two ants that are very different in size, with somewhat different proportions. These aren't different species, or different sexes - they're quite possibly sisters - and they're both grown up adults. The difference between them isn't because of any difference in DNA. They look different because the colony raised them in different chemical environments and/or at different temperatures, meaning slightly different chemical reactions were going on, at different rates, throughout their development.
As someone else pointed out upthread, thalidomide babies are a good example closer to home of how you don't need to change an animal's DNA to change how it develops. The final organism is a product of the interaction between DNA and the environment. No need for any divine intervention.

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 Message 32 by jpatterson, posted 04-14-2010 8:25 PM jpatterson has not replied

  
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