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so the thing that makes this complicated is that having non-coding DNA that does nothing for an individual can still be helpful for a population. they essential

so the thing that makes this complicated is that having non-coding DNA that does nothing for an individual can still be helpful for a population. they essentially serve the same purpose as commented out code that is really common when devs aren't using version control. the comments won't affect the program as it currently exists at all, but they make it so small changes to the code can more easily change the functionality.

TeMPOraL 2y ago
Maybe not as much commented as unused. Turns out, there's plenty of that in DNA, and you can force turning it on. See e.g. the bit about snakes growing legs in the video I linked - they still carry the blueprint for legs in their genome, but have it suppressed.