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The article points out that while far from being widely accepted, this theory is getting a new look because of some experimental evidence that supports it. > I

The article points out that while far from being widely accepted, this theory is getting a new look because of some experimental evidence that supports it. > I don't think there's any real doubt that memory is > stored in neurons, this is really a fringe theory. All theories are fringe theories at first, that's where they start (as hypothesis before there's any experimental evidence or mathematical proofs). I would agree that there is little doubt that memory is stored in neurons. However, that does not exclude some memory being stored elsewhere. It's generally accepted that the brain stores memories first in short term memory, and then after a time some of those memories are stored in long term memory, with the memories chosen according to some criteria. I could see RNA memory as a third stage of memory storage. Memories that the brain views as high impact to the species according to some criteria might get copied from long term memory into RNA memory to be passed on to future generations, accessible only by subconscious.

fabian2k 6y ago
That link to the experimental evidence is just an article. And that article mentions experiments by David Glanzman, but I can't find any publications by him on Pubmed in the mentioned timeframe. I don't see any new experimental evidence here.
cma 6y ago
But RNA rapidly degrades. It would need a mechanism of error correction and regeneration.
aj3 6y ago
That's not how reproduction works though. Losing a limb has zero impact on that person's germline cells.
monkeycantype 6y ago
>that does not exclude some memory being stored elsewhere If RNA is not simply the conduit between DNA and protein, but the original biological operating system, from which many functions have been refactored out to DNA and protein it's fascinating to think about what other functions may have existed and may still exist entirely in RNA. I like to assume that RNA is the original biological information store, the original structural material and the original catalyst. DNA is the long term cache version of RNA information, and protein the improved structural and catalytic material. The information in RNA can be translated directly to and from DNA, and there is an interesting idea that the mapping from RNA codon to amino acid may have began directly on the RNA strand, some RNA sequences seem to have an affinity for certain amino acids. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26876/#_A1136_ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26876/#_A1136_

fabian2k 6y ago

That link to the experimental evidence is just an article. And that article mentions experiments by David Glanzman, but I can't find any publications by him on Pubmed in the mentioned timeframe. I don't see any new experimental evidence here.

cma 6y ago

But RNA rapidly degrades. It would need a mechanism of error correction and regeneration.

aj3 6y ago

That's not how reproduction works though. Losing a limb has zero impact on that person's germline cells.

monkeycantype 6y ago

>that does not exclude some memory being stored elsewhere If RNA is not simply the conduit between DNA and protein, but the original biological operating system, from which many functions have been refactored out to DNA and protein it's fascinating to think about what other functions may have existed and may still exist entirely in RNA. I like to assume that RNA is the original biological information store, the original structural material and the original catalyst. DNA is the long term cache version of RNA information, and protein the improved structural and catalytic material. The information in RNA can be translated directly to and from DNA, and there is an interesting idea that the mapping from RNA codon to amino acid may have began directly on the RNA strand, some RNA sequences seem to have an affinity for certain amino acids. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26876/#_A1136_ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26876/#_A1136_