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The genomic machinery is incredible complex and messy. Imagine some code, that is interpreted by little machines not created by that code, that then create oth
by gilbetron 7y ago
The genomic machinery is incredible complex and messy. Imagine some code, that is interpreted by little machines not created by that code, that then create other machines, that read that code in a different way, to create other machines, that copy that code, which is then read by other machines, etc, etc. These "machines" are chunks of molecules that require quantum mechanics to fully understand, and also tend to have a lot of issues with them. As an example of the weirdness, look at motor proteins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RUHJhskW00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RUHJhskW00
It's amazing how utterly mad it all is, and yet not only does it work, our simple models of how it works have actually been helpful even though they were wrong. I mean, it's not like there's actually a single value in your DNA that is looked up by some "eyeball creation" machine when it determines the color of your eyes. Rather, there's a whole slew of genes that, when used as a map to build proteins and then, over a cascade of complex reactions, ends up with an eyeball that is also blue (and, additionally, probably more light sensitive, more tolerant to alcohol, and also more likely to have alcohol use disorder)
Source: work for genomenon.com which is like a search engine for genetic research papers)
- wlesieutre 7y agoI like this xkcd on the subject: https://xkcd.com/1605/ https://xkcd.com/1605/