Tag: Junk DNA
Et tu, Pseudogenes? Another Type of “Junk” DNA Betrays Darwinian Predictions
Perhaps the mindset of Dawkins, Giberson, and Collins is setting us up to miss important biological functions of pseudogenes.
Is the Human Genome Garbage? Biologist Jonathan Wells Says No in New Book, The Myth of Junk DNA
A decade after his book challenged the Darwinian stories told to students and helped change textbooks in science classrooms around the country, Jonathan Wells is back to smash one of evolution’s last remaining icons: the myth of junk DNA.
“Junk DNA” and the Molecular Basis of Cell Identity
Once thought to be “junk,” or functionless vestiges of once-protein-coding-genes which have, through the course of evolutionary history, mutated to a state of non-functionality, the research documents that these lincRNAs have an extremely important — even crucial — role with respect to the determination of cellular identity.
Has Francis Collins Changed His Mind On “Junk DNA”?
The discoveries of the past decade, little known to most of the public, have completely overturned much of what used to be taught in high school biology. If you thought the DNA molecule comprised thousands of of genes but far more “junk DNA,” think again.
Does Gene Duplication Perform As Advertised?
In my previous post, I highlighted a recent peer-reviewed paper which challenged a key tenet of neo-Darwinian evolution — specifically, the causal sufficiency of gene duplication and subsequent divergence to account for the origin of novel biological information. In this follow-up blog, I want to consider some of the case-studies examined in the paper and relay some of the conclusions drawn.