IUBio

You Must Remember This

*Hemidactylus* ecphoric at hotmail.com
Sat Oct 20 18:51:32 EST 2001


"Michael Painter" <m.painter at worldnet.att.net> wrote in message news:<ko6A7.133528$3d2.3840951 at bgtnsc06-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>...
> "*Hemidactylus*" <ecphoric at hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:e6a845aa.0110190158.108b7dfe at posting.google.com...
> > wilkins at wehi.edu.au (John Wilkins) wrote in message
>  news:<1f1brmp.1w8a7o491aucbN%wilkins at wehi.edu.au>...
> > > Michael Painter <m.painter at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> > >
> > > > "John Wilkins" <wilkins at wehi.edu.au> wrote in message
> > > > news:1f1bewc.1yfvhbt1pfzmkaN%wilkins at wehi.edu.au...
> > > > > Michael Painter <m.painter at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > "Malum Regnat" <MalumRegnatSpamMeNot at hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > > > > > news:ydny7.5508$uD4.3173533 at typhoon.we.rr.com...
> > > > > > > A kiss is just a kiss...
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > A sigh is just a sigh.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I wondered how much time would go by for such a comment.
> > > > >
> > > > > I thought I told you never to play that song again.
> > > >
> > > > Not me, boss, you told Sam that. You must be drawing a blanca.
> > >
> > > Curse! A blanca.
> > >
> > Stop thinking in terms of black and white. It's really a grey matter.
> >
> > If you fellas are gonna subject a neuroscience newsgroup (bionet at
> > that...hint, hint) to your puns, at least make them topical...though I
> > haven't the vagus idea why one would do such a thing.
> 
> Note that I've cut the other headers out.
> I'm sorry we hit a nerve with you but you have to admit that some of these
> old songs are dura ble.
>
Me do love pons, but with Sheriff Harter still punning for me after
our last showdown, I have decided to keep my pons holstered, until I
decide to saddle up and ride back into talk.origins for some oldtime
punslinging. Again victorious I will cerebrate. Until then "Hiho,
Golgi Stain away!"

BTW, the topic of this thread was quite interesting, but AFAIK, the
immune system is the only instance of functional DNA level changes in
human genes during development (after Tonegawa and those still
studying such things). Immunoglobulin genes rearrange in lymphocytes
during development and there's something called hypermutation too
(heavy handwaving...don't look behnd the curtain please).

Someone named Ed Steele has been studying the possibility of
retrovectors being able to bring something adaptive across the
so-called Weismann's barrier (or from somatic cell like a lymphocyte
to germ cell). I'm a tad rusty on the details, but such things
wouldn't apply to neurons if they harbor no genetic (DNA) differences
due to somatically selective development. I'm not sold on Steele's
ideas for the immune system and I'd be even more skeptical of such
things being possible for the brain or how adaptive behavioral changes
happening during ontogeny could cross into the germline and influence
phylogeny.

If I recall correctly someone named Wilkins has been thinking deeply
about such things and whether so-called "neo-Lamarckian" stuff could
actually be considered Darwinian after all. Didn't someone bring up
the derogatory term of "Lysenkoism" during this thread?

There's the epigenetic angle too (epimutations, epialleles,
methylation patterns in DNA and all that) but what bearing this would
have on the study of the development and evolution of human behavior
is presently beyond the capacity of my wee little brain.




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