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You know a lot about this. Although I think gradients are mechanism of how a body implements shape, I don't think they are (nor contain) the design. I understa

You know a lot about this. Although I think gradients are mechanism of how a body implements shape, I don't think they are (nor contain) the design. I understand your computer analogy, but I think it's misapplied because the opaque string of 01s requiring exquisite manipulation is exactly like what DNA was before we had modern genetic engineering, CRISPR, etc. And we walked the path your analogy suggests is ridiculous and impossible, to arrive with the contemporary genetic tools we now have. I think "junk" is morphogenetics (and more), just in a different language that published science does not yet understand.

ly3xqhl8g9 4y ago
Falling back again to the research done by Levin lab, they are able to shape 2-headed or 2-tailed flatworms by altering electric potential differences, and these flatworms have the same DNA as the regular one head, one tail flatworm [1]. See them in video [2]. One other lesson to be learned from the planarian flatworms is that their DNA is a complete mess, yet they are able to fully regenerate without any issues, and are functionally immortal, they do not age [3]. DNA is certainly important and interesting and needs more research, my initial comment just pointed out that if DNA is a "CAD model", the computational layer, the basal cognition in cell/tissue/organ(ism), is even more enticing, and probably we don't even need to alter genes in order to shape morphology, giving another analogy, if a pocket calculator "knows" what 5 + 7 is, we probably don't need to build another pocket calculator just to compute 6 + 8. [1] A Computational Approach to Explaining Bioelectrically Induced Persistent, Stochastic Changes of Axial Polarity in Planarian Regeneration, https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/bioe.2021.0036 https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/bioe.2021.0036 [2] Endogenous Bioelectric Networks & Regenerative Medicine, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKWyB9qLP_s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKWyB9qLP_s (Impossible Biological Objects, 2-headed flatworms at 52:30) [3] Planarians as a model of aging to study the interaction between stem cells and senescent cells in vivo, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4696462/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4696462/

ly3xqhl8g9 4y ago

Falling back again to the research done by Levin lab, they are able to shape 2-headed or 2-tailed flatworms by altering electric potential differences, and these flatworms have the same DNA as the regular one head, one tail flatworm [1]. See them in video [2]. One other lesson to be learned from the planarian flatworms is that their DNA is a complete mess, yet they are able to fully regenerate without any issues, and are functionally immortal, they do not age [3]. DNA is certainly important and interesting and needs more research, my initial comment just pointed out that if DNA is a "CAD model", the computational layer, the basal cognition in cell/tissue/organ(ism), is even more enticing, and probably we don't even need to alter genes in order to shape morphology, giving another analogy, if a pocket calculator "knows" what 5 + 7 is, we probably don't need to build another pocket calculator just to compute 6 + 8. [1] A Computational Approach to Explaining Bioelectrically Induced Persistent, Stochastic Changes of Axial Polarity in Planarian Regeneration, https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/bioe.2021.0036 https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/bioe.2021.0036 [2] Endogenous Bioelectric Networks & Regenerative Medicine, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKWyB9qLP_s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKWyB9qLP_s (Impossible Biological Objects, 2-headed flatworms at 52:30) [3] Planarians as a model of aging to study the interaction between stem cells and senescent cells in vivo, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4696462/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4696462/