It’s one of those “self-organization” controversies where no one dares to admit they are talking about intelligent design.
Self-Org. Theory
Now, organisms engineer their own evolution
Well, those organisms must be pretty smart to be evolution’s engineers. Never mind; keep talking, people. Speak more loudly into the mike. Would you be so good as to position yourself so that you are speaking directly into the mike… 😉
SwiftKey co-founder: Computers can’t just “evolve” intelligence; cites James Shapiro’s self-organization
In a still-interesting 2017 paper, Ben Medlock talks about the way life forms self-organize: (which computers don’t, really).
Dr Selensky on a Tour vs Cronin debate on OoL
He writes: >> Participants: From the naturalists’ camp: chemist Lee Cronin (University of Glasgow, UK). From the skeptics’ camp: chemist James Tour (Rice University, USA). Okay, origin of life research. Like in any other research, there should be no magic: garbage in — garbage out. Between 25:00 and 26:00 Lee said something like this: We Read More…
What? Mutations not random? An “enigmatic in-built self-preserving organization”?
Researchers: Our calculations reveal an enigmatic in-built self-preserving organization of the genetic code that averts disruptive changes at the physicochemical properties level.
Scutoids: a New Geometric Shape found in Epithelial Cells
Here’s a new paper form Nature Communications describing a discovery of a new geometric shape that is apparently found only in curved epithelial cells. I find it intriguing that this shape is entirely new, not found elsewhere in nature, but now coined “scutoids” by the authors, and is proposed as making “possible the minimization of Read More…
Guest Post — Template-Assisted Ligation: A New OOL Model
Dr E. Selensky occasionally requests that UD posts an article on his behalf. What follows is his latest: ______________ Arguably, the RNA world model is excessively complex: it operates too complex structures and involves too complex interactions. The origin of life, some researchers believe, must have been simpler.In an attempt to close the gap between Read More…
Origin of life researchers: RNA World can’t produce genetic code
From ScienceDaily: Life on Earth originated in an intimate partnership between the nucleic acids (genetic instructions for all organisms) and small proteins called peptides, according to two new articles from biochemists and biologists. Their ‘peptide-RNA’ hypothesis contradicts the widely-held ‘RNA-world’ hypothesis, which states that life originated from nucleic acids and only later evolved to include Read More…
Self-organization: New James Shapiro paper on the Read-Write genome
From U Chicago’s James Shapiro at Pub Med: Biological action in Read-Write genome evolution. Many of the most important evolutionary variations that generated phenotypic adaptations and originated novel taxa resulted from complex cellular activities affecting genome content and expression. These activities included (i) the symbiogenetic cell merger that produced the mitochondrion-bearing ancestor of all extant Read More…
Self-organization paper of interest: Biological regulation: controlling the system from within
Friends note, from Biology & Philosophy (Springer): Biological regulation is what allows an organism to handle the effects of a perturbation, modulating its own constitutive dynamics in response to particular changes in internal and external conditions. With the central focus of analysis on the case of minimal living systems, we argue that regulation consists in Read More…
Knockout gene study shows “beautiful hierarchical structure” underlying cell’s biology
From Veronique Greenwood at Quanta: In a monumental set of experiments, spread out over nearly two decades, biologists removed genes two at a time to uncover the secret workings of the cell. And what did they find?: In all, they found 550,000 pairs that, when removed, result in sickness or death. This network of genetic Read More…
Stochastic or Intelligent Teleology?
Former Templeton Fellow John Fellow asserts: Why Teleology Isn’t Dead Conway Morris argues that in the grand scheme, evolution will not be reduced to chance: constraints built into life at the most fundamental level guarantee that life is going to follow the same evolutionary pathways to achieve limbs, respiration, vision, balance, an immune system, indeed Read More…
Basketball games a form of evolution?
From Eurekalert: Behind the apparent randomness of a basketball game, a process of self-organisation is actually taking place amid the teams. The interactions between team mates and opponents are constantly influencing each other while the game itself allows for creative behaviours to emerge. This phenomenon, detected by Spanish researchers after analysing over 6,000 NBA games, Read More…
Complex eye coordinates own development
Entirely at random, or so the theory runs… From ScienceDaily: While study has long been conducted on vertebrates with sight-sensory systems involving a lens, retina and nervous system, new research reported by the University of Cincinnati and supported by the National Science Foundation is the first to examine how the complex eye system of an Read More…
Emergence as an Explanation for Living Systems
Yesterday I watched a re-run of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. There. I said it. I love Star Trek. Notwithstanding the many absurd evolution-based plotlines. In this specific episode, Data referred to a particular characteristic of a newly-developing lifeform as an “emergent property.” I’ve looked into the “emergence” ideas in the past, and Read More…