If humans were graded liked dogs, they wouldn't find enough variation to push us out of the first round of the Westminster Dog Show. Humans come in different colors but there's far more variation in dogs so that seems like a mystery for why so much variability in one type of organism and not the other.
It gets stranger since there's tremendous variation between individuals in the genetic make-up of the human brain. We don't see all that physical variation between individuals but there's so much genetic variation in the human brain it starts seeming unusual that we share any behavior at all. (Science Daily: Brain's stunning genomic diversity revealed)
Not only is there a widely different genome for each individual, creation of the changes comes while the brain is developing so it, in effect, builds itself to some extent. It's possible to add and delete large sections of the DNA making up neurons and as many as half of our brain cells are modified by this process.
Note: review the article for the specifics of the physical changes and L1S.
The research goes a distance back toward the uniqueness of individual humans when it doesn't seem so apparent just looking at each other. On seeing their discoveries it becomes an immense wonder that humans share any resemblance of similarity when so much of the brain is different. The article refers to parts which are 'unused' but maybe the science hasn't discovered yet what the 'unused' bits do. That's brainless Rockhouse spouting but it does seem unusual.
"In 2013, we discovered that different neurons within the same brain have various complements of DNA, suggesting that they function slightly differently from each other even within the same person," says the study's senior investigator Rusty Gage, a professor in Salk's Laboratory of Genetics and holder of the Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases. "This recent study reveals a new and surprising form of variation that will help us understand the role of L1s, not only in healthy brains but in those affected by schizophrenia and autism."
It gets stranger since there's tremendous variation between individuals in the genetic make-up of the human brain. We don't see all that physical variation between individuals but there's so much genetic variation in the human brain it starts seeming unusual that we share any behavior at all. (Science Daily: Brain's stunning genomic diversity revealed)
Not only is there a widely different genome for each individual, creation of the changes comes while the brain is developing so it, in effect, builds itself to some extent. It's possible to add and delete large sections of the DNA making up neurons and as many as half of our brain cells are modified by this process.
Note: review the article for the specifics of the physical changes and L1S.
The research goes a distance back toward the uniqueness of individual humans when it doesn't seem so apparent just looking at each other. On seeing their discoveries it becomes an immense wonder that humans share any resemblance of similarity when so much of the brain is different. The article refers to parts which are 'unused' but maybe the science hasn't discovered yet what the 'unused' bits do. That's brainless Rockhouse spouting but it does seem unusual.
"In 2013, we discovered that different neurons within the same brain have various complements of DNA, suggesting that they function slightly differently from each other even within the same person," says the study's senior investigator Rusty Gage, a professor in Salk's Laboratory of Genetics and holder of the Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases. "This recent study reveals a new and surprising form of variation that will help us understand the role of L1s, not only in healthy brains but in those affected by schizophrenia and autism."
- Science Daily
That blows the fundamental genetic paradigm that DNA defines us, with this one magic molecule I can make another copy of you.
Well ... apparently not.
The previous exercise in 'what makes dogness' falls into the shadows behind this as variation within a single species is interesting but this is variation within single individuals. We have no idea where the sci fi goes with this because it's so sci fi already it's tough to grok it. You may want to consult the Great God Mescalito on your own time to consider what it means when the brain, at least to some extent, builds itself.
This one has been stirring about since yesterday or so since it's such an extreme concept relative to my layman's conception of brain DNA. My thinking was DNA makes the brain stuff and a big brain takes more of it but it's still the same brain stuff. This research shows it has tremendous variation and it's not the same at all.
Oh, Great God Mescalito and Protector of All Trippin' People, what does it mean?
No comments:
Post a Comment