tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post3812177460588426669..comments2024-03-22T11:14:05.861-04:00Comments on UncleBob's Treehouse: "Discover Interview: Lynn Margulis Says She's Not Controversial, She's Right"Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16046202647270439670noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post-54156662120464654922014-12-17T18:11:33.250-05:002014-12-17T18:11:33.250-05:00Have you ever wondered why Archaea make better sym...Have you ever wondered why Archaea make better symbionts than Bacteria? Unable to form spores, their interests by necessity align with interests of their host organism. They cannot 'foul their nest' only to 'abandon the ship' later, like sporulating bacteria. In turn, they contribute to sustainable environments.<br /><br />You might apply the same principles to human institutions. :) For example countries and transnationals.Mindstormhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02949097462978386911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post-77733169652143241792014-12-15T07:09:30.182-05:002014-12-15T07:09:30.182-05:00If you want something controversial and likely to ...If you want something controversial and likely to be true, here is a good example:<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_eukaryogenesis<br /><br />The thing is, for modern multicellular organisms to undergo a similar change spontaneously is extremely unlikely. For a variety of reasons that were not present that far back in the past. Mindstormhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02949097462978386911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post-22239676519945569662014-12-10T05:20:52.521-05:002014-12-10T05:20:52.521-05:00Even with as much contempt and disrespect as I hav...Even with as much contempt and disrespect as I have for the mendacious frauds promoting creationism and intelligent design theory, I have to admit they have a point when they speak of the closed-mindedness of the scientific community. It is as if they are so afraid of providing ammunition for the intelligent design theorists they are unwilling to voice doubts and think outside the box. And issues surrounding ID and Creationism are hardly the only or most important examples of the hideboundedness of that community. Three cheers for Lynn Margulis for willing to take a fresh look at the evidence whether she turns out to be correct or not.<br /><br />This is the reason that I have decided to forgo getting a Ph.D. and pursue a career as a research scientist and instead just get a master's in education and teach high school. Navigating the bureaucracy with its explicit and implicit protocols makes covering your arse the first priority. It goes without saying that in such an environment that pursuing a risky hypothesis is not worth it. Why should you risk your career by rocking the boat when you're probably wrong? Any breakthroughs I make will be done in my basement laboratory and reported on my personal web page (taken down at present). <br /><br />If I were to speculate I would say hobbyists' basements rather than Ivory towers are the places where most of the great discoveries of the future will emerge. After all, if you don't have advisers, colleagues, administrators, committees, and God only knows who else looking over your shoulder you can actually get things wrong without being afraid. This is usually the first step toward getting them right.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08493624105582604326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post-5457827260475014592014-12-08T22:27:31.902-05:002014-12-08T22:27:31.902-05:00That sounds like a truly astonishing thing!That sounds like a truly astonishing thing!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16046202647270439670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post-44674454738564651892014-12-08T06:22:52.668-05:002014-12-08T06:22:52.668-05:00This might interest you, even if only as a potenti...This might interest you, even if only as a potential technological inspiration. Microbes that <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/186537-biologists-discover-electric-bacteria-that-eat-pure-electrons-rather-than-sugar-redefining-the-tenacity-of-life" rel="nofollow">sustain themselves</a> on energy gradients that don't depend on photosynthesis as the primal source (well, if you ignore free oxygen as its byproduct). So some hypothetical nanomachines might utilize the same principles.<br /><br />I wonder what is the lower limit of complexity for a fully functional organism...Mindstormhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02949097462978386911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post-24997503800566136112014-12-08T06:18:45.105-05:002014-12-08T06:18:45.105-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Mindstormhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02949097462978386911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post-91511552979911543892014-12-07T19:08:22.203-05:002014-12-07T19:08:22.203-05:00I wonder if the transformation from a settled for...I wonder if the transformation from a settled form of grasshopper into swarms of locust occurs according to the same mechanism.<br /><br />If so, there is a possibility of disrupting the process.Mindstormhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02949097462978386911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post-54267131495218943012014-12-07T12:49:58.953-05:002014-12-07T12:49:58.953-05:00Nick Lane has also made original contributions to ...Nick Lane has also made original contributions to endosymbiosis theory. His website is: http://www.nick-lane.net/index.html<br /><br />I recommend reading "Power, Sex, and Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life"kurt9https://www.blogger.com/profile/02101147267959016924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post-38112732299002754342014-12-07T12:46:02.384-05:002014-12-07T12:46:02.384-05:00Its been known for more than 20 years that random ...Its been known for more than 20 years that random DNA mutations cannot account for evolution. This is too slow of mechanism. We've known for 20 years that infectious agents are a major driver of evolution. At least 40% of the human genome is recognizable HERV (human endogenous retro virus) code. Then there is this endosymbiosis that also plays a role in evolution.<br /><br />I don't see how any of this can be considered controversial to anyone who has some understanding of molecular biology.<br /><br />Lynn Margulis's work has been expanded on by William Martin and others. Martin originated the Hydrogen Hypothesis of endosymbiosis as the explanation of the origin of the Eukaryote. If true (and I think it is), the emergence of the Eukaryote was such a singularly rare event that it has occurred only once, not only on Earth, but in the galaxy. We are truly alone.kurt9https://www.blogger.com/profile/02101147267959016924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post-27586952527579947302014-12-07T12:06:06.924-05:002014-12-07T12:06:06.924-05:00I've been saying for years everything is a sel...I've been saying for years everything is a self-organizing network with no one in charge.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16046202647270439670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post-52408019549434139142014-12-07T11:46:38.011-05:002014-12-07T11:46:38.011-05:00A quite rapid progress of late is happening in the...A quite rapid progress of late is happening in the area of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum_sensing#Evolution" rel="nofollow">quorum signaling</a>. It can be viewed both as competitive and cooperative mechanism. Similar to intra-species non-lethal mating competitions replacing fights to death.Mindstormhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02949097462978386911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post-11719127536929052022014-12-07T11:45:06.114-05:002014-12-07T11:45:06.114-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Mindstormhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02949097462978386911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8497093028548856666.post-40035069362453996812014-12-07T10:36:14.917-05:002014-12-07T10:36:14.917-05:00Oh, so it's impossible to be controversial and...Oh, so it's impossible to be controversial and right, or to be not controversial and wrong? Could you point to some major discovery that was not controversial at the time of its formulation? Some were ignored for centuries before their popularization, that is, longer than a single generation of scientists.<br /><br />Evolutionism (or more often written as MEP - modern evolutionary synthesis) is not the same as Darwinism, because it also incorporates knowledge unknown to Darwin, most notably mechanisms of genetics. Even proponents of symbogenetics use evolutionary models and don't propose any replacement.<br /><br />In every primary study on the subject that I have read, antagonistic interactions make the majority of any ecosystem. That means more relative importance of competition than of cooperation. Fun fact: the metabolic crisis of your mitochondria means triggering the apoptotic cascade leading to the death of their host cells. See? Even in such an intimate relationship there remains a built-in 'kill switch' ensuring cooperation through mutually assured destruction. Otherwise, we have defective mitochondria that overproduce reactive oxygen species (highly toxic free radicals of oxygen and its compounds) damaging further both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, which ultimately leads to cancer and later death of the whole organism.<br /><br />So what if Eeukaryota are composite entities? What about Archaea? It's not some made-up group.Mindstormhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02949097462978386911noreply@blogger.com