DNA and the neuron
Glen M. Sizemore
gmsizemore2 at yahoo.com
Wed Sep 8 17:33:02 EST 2004
"ray scanlon" <rscanlon at nycap.rr.com> wrote in message
news:363d693e.0409081341.5f766639 at posting.google.com...
> I am starting a new thread. "The liver and the brain" was overrun by
> trash talk.
> r norman writes:
> > Neither development nor C. elegans are in my area, so I only know some
> > generalities. The major feature is that environmental cues such as
> > pheromones or high temperature (27 C) can trigger a resting stage in
> > larval development, the Dauer stage or diapause.
> > Also, C. elegans is capable of associative learning, context specific
> > habituation, and other plastic changes in behavior. This is not
> > development, but does illustrate that an animal that is so highly
> > constrained genetically also shows a learned component to its normal
> > behavior.
> NvN is with us forever. Very respectfully, I suggest a different view.
> The DNA survived. Therefore, we may say that it is structured to
> survive; the proof being that it survived. Fiddle-Dee-Dee.
> The DNA constructs a nervous system. The proteins that the DNA
> produced have the ability to modify the synapses that the proteins
> form. The proteins have the ability to extend axons, composed of
> proteins, and form new synapses. This is spoken of as a "learned
> component". The artificial distinction between the formation
> (continual) of the nervous system by the proteins and the modification
> (continual) of this nervous system by the proteins is an arbitrary
> academic exercise.
> DNA may have evolved that survived in the presence of other DNA
> molecules. We say that this DNA requires other DNA molecules to
> survive. This leads to the distinction between altricial and
> precocial, another academic exercise.
> The DNA that produced a nervous system that survived in a past
> environment produces the same nervous system. That today's environment
> closely matches the past environment is a glorious happenstance.
> Human DNA produces an altricial nervous system that is perfectly
> constructed to survive in its mother's arms (another DNA
> Is this too extreme a view? Does it fail the pc test?
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