Invisible wrote:
> The more I read about molecular biology, the more interesting it 
> becomes. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOoHKCMAUMc

Really incredible stuff goes on. I'm never sure whether I'm more amazed that 
it works like this, or that we can figure out that it works like this.

> Mutations that are fatal are vigorously eliminated by natural selection. 
> And indeed, you can find genes that have barely changed for billions of 
> years. These are the so-called "highly conserved sequences".

I remember reading somewhere that there's a gene that controls how many 
fingers you have *and* something about the reproductive system, so any 
mutation in that gene tends to keep you from reproducing for entirely 
unrelated reasons. Hence the reason why everything from fish to bats to 
birds to people have five finger bones.

> Speaking of which, here's a thing: Every single living cell in the human 
> body (with a few exceptions) has the exact same genome.

Every single *human* cell. About half (or more) of the cells in your body 
aren't human, tho.

> I could go on about this all day. Suffice it to say that it's very 
> interesting stuff, but not very easy to find comprehensible material 
> about. But take a look at this paper I found yesterday:

I'm not sure why you have a job in IT instead of a job in teaching.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Serving Suggestion:
     "Don't serve this any more. It's awful."

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