NEW YORK TIMES
August 24, 2001
Human Genome Now Appears More Complicated After All
By NICHOLAS WADE
After a humiliating deflation this February, human dignity is on the recovery
path, at least as measured by the number of genes in the human genome.
Two new estimates put the likely number of human genes at around 40,000, up by
a third from the estimate of about 30,000 in February by the two teams of
scientists who decoded the human genome. The low estimate still has its
defenders.
The 30,000 number suggested that evolution had not found the design, operation
and maintenance of a person much more complicated than the job of running the
microscopic round worm (19,000 genes), the fruit fly (13,000 genes) or the
mustard cress plant (25,000 genes), the three other multicellular organisms
whose genomes have been analyzed.
Until the human genome was decoded, the textbook figure for the number of
human
genes had been 100,000, putting a safe distance between people and the little
creatures on which the genome decoding methods were first tested.
Full text:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/24/health/genetics/24GENO.html
--J. R.
Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego
Everything that can happen has already happened, not just once,
but an infinite number of times, and will continue to do so forever.
(Everything that can happen = more than anyone can imagine.)
We won't move into a better future until we debunk religiosity, the most
regressive force now operating in society.
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