

  (Source: Matt Groening/Fox)
Crucial gene controls higher brain growth


I. It's All in the Genes





Rhesus macaque
[Image Source: Mark Snelson]







Human brain activity




Source: Nature Communications

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RE: junk dna
By Lord 666 on 11/23/2012 3:08:03 PM , Rating: 3
Or for CRC checking

RE: junk dna
By drycrust3 on 11/23/2012 3:21:06 PM , Rating: 2
Its like the 19th Century concept of junk organs. Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean its junk. Look at the different programs on an Android phone: they all have a purpose.

RE: junk dna
By Arsynic on 11/23/2012 6:42:09 PM , Rating: 3
Smartest thing I've read in here so far. "Junk" is science speak for "magic". It won't allow for anything intelligent or purposeful.

RE: junk dna
By xthetenth on 11/24/2012 1:52:50 PM , Rating: 5
That would be biting and insightful were the term used by knowledgeable people junk DNA rather than noncoding DNA and many types of noncoding DNA which have uses for the organisms with said noncoding DNA.

The term junk DNA is just like the god particle, a description chosen first and foremost for appeal to the ear and then as a distant second accuracy to the scientific knowledge of the time.

And you know what won't allow for anything intelligent or purposeful? Evolution itself. Why do we get goosebumps? Why are vestigal organs in general existant. Why is the vertebrate eye so badly flawed (only high precision in the fovea, the retina is back to front with the photocells facing the rear of the eye and the nerves run along their back with a blind spot where they all go back into the skull)? Why does one branch on each side of the neck of the laryngeal nerve go from the brain to the vocal cords via a route through the chest and around an artery (a detour of 15 feet in a Giraffe)? Why are hox genes so similar in insects, vertebrates and many other animals and laid out in the same serial order in the chromosomes? Why does the vas defrens loop around the ureter?

All animals are full of compromises that would quickly and easily be fixed if they were designs where the designer could go back to the drawing board, but instead show the effect of the past and a step by step process of only considering marginal cost. You know, evolution. Many of these would be mind-bogglingly stupid if they weren't the results of a very specific type of development forced by ruthless culling of changes with a net positive marginal cost where changing designs had to be accomplished in such a manner that every single intermediary step is an improvement.

RE: junk dna
By JediJeb on 11/26/2012 1:51:21 PM , Rating: 2
Sounds like automobiles followed the evolutionary track, since it is inconceivable why so many important parts are placed in a position where nobody can get to them when they need repairing. Example: The best way to change the spark plugs in a 99 Trans Am is to unbolt the engine and front member and raise the body of the car off the engine.

RE: junk dna

1. Goosebumps have a practical adaptive function. Elementary physiology!




RE: junk dna
By drycrust3 on 12/7/2012 2:24:45 AM , Rating: 2

I just watched a Creationist program on this, and they weren't afraid of you question, in fact they had an answer for it. Eagles are renowned for their incredibly good eyesight, and they have exactly the same retina setup as humans do.
Your eye can detect the arrival of just one photon, so with that sort of sensitivity why do you need to have the retina your way around?

RE: junk dna
By Samus on 11/24/2012 4:36:51 AM , Rating: 2
New studies have just begun to reveal the appendix might have primitive functions as well. There's always a reason for something :)

RE: junk dna
By Kurz on 11/24/2012 7:55:42 AM , Rating: 2
Its an incubator for Bacteria!
A Petri dish!

