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You might be dismissing the point too soon. To the lay-person, junk DNA looks like as useless a feature as a ridge in a door panel, or dummy pathways on a chip
by bmelton 17y ago
You might be dismissing the point too soon. To the lay-person, junk DNA looks like as useless a feature as a ridge in a door panel, or dummy pathways on a chip. To an expert auto-maker, the purpose of the panel ridges is obvious, structural rigidity. To an expert chip-maker, the purpose of dummy pathway is obvious. To Our Holy Creator Who Art in Heaven (or whomever you wish to credit our creation), it is possible that our junk DNA has a very obvious purpose that we have yet to divine.
- NathanKP 17y agoVery good point!
- SwellJoe 17y agoGreg Bear's Darwin's Radio is an interesting scifi take on the idea that some junk DNA could be just one evolutionary step away from being activated.
- jacquesm 17y agoDarwins Radio was a great read but I don't find the idea of ready made features for future use in our DNA very plausible. He spins an amazing yarn around it though, and plenty of the social consequences are very believable.
- dkersten 17y agoJunk DNA does (or did, in many cases) have a purpose. Its just that any DNA which we don't understand the purpose for is labeled as junk. That definitely doesn't mean it doesn't do anything or that its useless.
- Raphael 17y agoJunk DNA could be protecting the useful DNA, so I can see an analogy.