Crayfish Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 The most striking fact about DNA is that the existence of the coded genetic information can definitely not be explained in terms of matter and energy or natural laws Um... care to explain why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingjimmy Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 What are the connections made with? magic dust Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boyfriday Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 Far-right christians often think that the theory of evolution means we once had sex with apes - they don't understand it properly. Adam & Eve might have auditioned for the PG Tips advert? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfish1936 Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 What I believe is a lot more plausible. It is not based entirely on faith but facts too. , there are more connections in the brain than there are atoms in the universe, . The brain is made of molecules; each contains lots of atoms. But let's assume that every atom in the brain is connected to 10 other atoms. So there are 10 times as many connections as there are atoms; this may be oversimplyfying, so let's say there's 10,000 connections from every atom to other atoms. So there would be as many connections in one human brain as atoms in 10,000 human brains. That seems a long way short of the number of atoms in the universe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crayfish Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 But connections would occur between cells. A cell is made up of an awful lot of atoms, and not every cell can be connected to every other cell (or close to it) due to physical distance. I'd have to read the paper or report that claimed this, but my gut feeling is that it's dramatically wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saff Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 Apologies if this is a ridiculous question, but do animals evolve to become less tasty? Surely that would be a good way to avoid being eaten?! Or is tastiness just a matter of perception? I know evolution is not a conscious thing, but does anyone know if this has happened? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Buzz Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 Apologies if this is a ridiculous question, but do animals evolve to become less tasty? Surely that would be a good way to avoid being eaten?! Or is tastiness just a matter of perception? I know evolution is not a conscious thing, but does anyone know if this has happened? Many, many insects have evolved poisons in their skin to make them less palatable to predators. The predators then evolve immunity - it's a continual process. Oh, just remembered - amphibians do this too - a lot of frogs and toads have a sort of poisonous sweat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Buzz Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 But connections would occur between cells. A cell is made up of an awful lot of atoms, and not every cell can be connected to every other cell (or close to it) due to physical distance. I'd have to read the paper or report that claimed this, but my gut feeling is that it's dramatically wrong. I agree - I can't see how it can be right that there are more connections in the brain than their are atoms in the universe. Atoms are tiny - there are apparently more atoms in a glass of water than there are grains of sand in the Sahara, so there would need to be an awful lot of things much smaller than an atom connected by things much smaller than atoms to other things much smaller than an atom for this to be true. If it were true, however, I'm not sure what point the OP thought it would prove. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pininsho Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 Apologies if this is a ridiculous question, but do animals evolve to become less tasty? Surely that would be a good way to avoid being eaten?! Or is tastiness just a matter of perception? I know evolution is not a conscious thing, but does anyone know if this has happened? Some do...yes. But other animals then evolve to counteract this by having more sensitive tastebuds or becoming immune to certain poisons or even using the poisons from other creatures to become poisonous themselves. This is what makes the evolutionary process of diversification so fantastic in giving us the huge range of animal and plant species that it does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pathman Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 I agree - I can't see how it can be right that there are more connections in the brain than their are atoms in the universe. Atoms are tiny - there are apparently more atoms in a glass of water than there are grains of sand in the Sahara, so there would need to be an awful lot of things much smaller than an atom connected by things much smaller than atoms to other things much smaller than an atom for this to be true. If it were true, however, I'm not sure what point the OP thought it would prove. there are so many molecules in a glass of water, that when you drink the water it is very unlikely that none of those molecules have not also been drunk by Elvis Presley or [insert any famous person dead or alive here]. I'm sure Peter Cook must have mentioned this to Dudley Moore at some point? edit: I'm sure I could have worded that better??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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