"I talk a lot about genes, so let's just step way back and give a useful definition of a gene. I admit right up front, though, that there are two limitations: I'm going to give a very simplified explanation that fits with a molecular genetics focus (pure geneticists define genes very differently), and I'm going to talk only about eukaryotic/metazoan genes. I tell you right now that if I asked a half dozen different biologists to help me out with this, they'd rip into it and add a thousand qualifiers, and it would never get done. So let's plunge in and see what a simple version of a gene is."
- Log in to post comments
More like this
I mulled over some of the suggestions in my request for basic topics to cover, and I realized that there is no such thing as a simple concept in biology. Some of the ideas required a lot of background in molecular biology, others demand understanding of the philosophy of science, and what I am…
In the effort to help us define a few basic concepts, PZ started out by giving us a nice simple definition of a gene, but as he, rightly noted:
I tell you right now that if I asked a half dozen different biologists to help me out with this, they'd rip into it and add a thousand qualifiers, and it…
In a recent Panda's Thumb comment thread, Pam asked (among other things) about our human species genetic Adam and Eve:
I have been reading for the last few years now, that there is a consensus among the majority, that humans have been genetically traced to a two human ancestory: A genetic "Adam…
Larry Moran has heard the words of Michael Denton, and has come away with a creationist interpretation of structuralism. I have to explain to Larry that Denton, as you might expect of a creationist, is distorting the whole idea. Here's the Denton/Intelligent Design creationism version of…