At 19:21 14/11/03 +0000, Ray Thomas wrote:
> > What has also emerged from the Human Genome Project is just how dynamic
>and
> > fluid our genetic make-up can be, and the extent to which it is influenced
> > by nutrition, pollution, disease, family life and education.
>
>This is really fascinating. Does this mean that the Human Genome Project
>has established that acquired characteristics can be inherited??
>Was there not a Soviet scientist who was pilloried in the West for some
>decades for producing evidence that acquired characteristics are inherited?
>
>Has there been a revolution in Western biological science?
Well, I'm sure it's not the answer you really wanted/expected, but in some
general senses the answer to your question is 'yes' - there has been a
revolution. The discovery of mitochondrial DNA gave rise to the possibility
of at least some 'inheritance' of 'acquired' charcteristics from a mother.
However, a bit more on-topic, there are many instances in which the
exercise of traditional Darwinian evolution can give rise to the appearance
of 'acquired' characteristics having been inherited - when the real true
can (per Darwin) be explained in terms of natural selection'. It's the old
question of whether giraffes have long necks because countless generations
of ancestors have stretched them slightly during life to reach food (which
would require inheritability of acquired characteristics), or whether the
(randomly) longer-necked ones have been progressively 'selected'. In terms
of traditional Darwiinian thinking, the answer is, of course, 'obvious'.
Kind Regards,
John
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