> Nature seems to handle this via gene duplication- once a gene is duplicated, it seems like one can carry on the original function for its dependents, while an

> Nature seems to handle this via gene duplication- once a gene is duplicated, it seems like one can carry on the original function for its dependents, while another is freer to evolve new functions. I think this is a pretty decent explanation for the layman :) I might not appreciate all of the technical details but it's easy to imagine why this would work conceptually. There are plenty of computery analogies, like running a legacy program in production while developing an experimental one.