Monday, September 9, 2013

The Lazy Watchmaker

We now know that 99% of the genes in mice are exceedingly similar to those which are found in humans. We also know that 96% of the genes in both mice and men are present in exactly the same sequence under different genomes. I'm telling you, folks, if there is an intelligent designer or designers out there, I'm afraid that I'm just going to have to give them an F when it comes to originality and creativity at least.

5 comments:

BB-Idaho said...

We also share 50% of our genome with bananas. In reaching further back, it appears than any eukaryotic assembly of cells(anything defined as life) also
share the presence of mitochondria
in their cytoplasm. The earliest of such is dated to approximately 2 billion years ago. Sort of boggles the neurons...

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I especially love how the intelligent design folks evidently think that the the intelligent designer basically twiddled his thumbs for 1.7 billion years and was only able to come up with some single-celled organisms to start. Again, a testament to his (or her) bald-faced laziness and lack of originality.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

You're describing Lynn Margulis's endosymbiotic theory of evolution in which cynobacteria became parasites in larger cells, which eventually through colonization became multicellular organisms and ultimately organisms with tissues and systems. It was controversial at first but now it seems to be a viable alternative to Darwin.

BB-Idaho said...

I don't see such as an alternative to Darwin, although understanding of genetics in his time was relatively rudimentary. We also note that the hot field of molecular cytogenetics is revealing
interesting endogenization in lifeform cells as well as adding to our dating methods such as the related mitochondrial evolution dating, carbon-14, Argon dating and Rubidium-Strontium decay. Lots of fascinating new stuff, and a bit
more satisfying than the mysterious Big Bang.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I'm surprised that it was only 8%.