Hi Colin, Thanks for the very interesting details!
Here is one more interesting tidbit. Due to the efforts of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), which sequenced the microbiota (bacteria, virus, fungi, etc.) living in or on the human body, they estimate a total of about 1,000,000 genes from all these different organisms. Compare that to the number of genes in the human genome (~23,000 protein-coding genes), and one can see that the average human is a universe of microbiology! The vast majority of genes found in a human are NOT human! As Colin pointed out, it's not unusual to find harmful microorganisms living undetected inside us. Colin, are you familiar with Dr. Trevor Marshall? http://www.trevormarshall.com/papers.htm "Microbes and Human Disease" presentation in St. Petersburg June 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rFmAMDdbjs <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rFmAMDdbjs&feature=plcp> &feature=plcp -Mark From: Colin Hercus [mailto:colinher...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, August 03, 2012 6:01 PM To: vortex-l@eskimo.com Subject: Re: [Vo]:The Fallacies of Darwinian Evolution - Microevolution vs. Macroevolution Hi Jojo, I work as a bioinformatician and study DNA and mutations in DNA every day. I develop software for this that is used in 100's of Universities and we have over 200 citations on Google scholar. Darwin had a view of evolution that we now know was rather simple. A few things about DNA that I think are of interest: 1. We have about 3billion nucleotides in our DNA 2. Typically from one human to next there are about 1 million differences, most are small single nucleotide difference but there are also large differences where there will be bits missing (1000 nucleotides or so in one person relative to the other, around 600 occurrences) 3. Overall documented differences in DNA at single base level are about 3 million nucleotides though this keeps going up as we sequence more genomes 4. Each person born will have about 35 new single base changes (i.e. a very few but definitely some) 5. Some mutations result in eggs that fail to grow, some in miscarriages, some in early death, some have minimal or no effect. 6. The difference in DNA between a chimp and a human is about 1% or 30M nucleotides, only about 10 times what exists between all humans. 7. Sometimes there are large DNA changes, Viruses insert there DNA into ours, bits going missing during cell division, or bits get duplicated. Once a gene is duplicated one copy may evolve to take up a different function These changes can all be tracked between species and over time by studying the differences in DNA between different species. They sequenced DNA of Neanderthals (from fossils, DNA left in teeth and Bones.) Interestingly about 5% of DNA in Europeans is from Neanderthals rather than early descendant from Africa. National Geographic studied the Y chromosome from humans all around the world and has built extensive maps of migration from this by tracking changes. Interesting that the DNA changes of a few bp per generation fit the fossil maps and time frame of migration archaeologists have constructed. I could goon for hours. The science behind this is very sound, the evidence is there. I know DNA is incredibly complex, we are amazing chemical factories, but we are also full of mistakes and errors that limit our life, that lead to cancer, heart attacks and various inherited diseases, not counting our disposition to greed, selfishness, hate & murder. This to me fits the model of random mutations with survival of the fittest much better than an intelligent design. I think before you take this subject very far you really should do a bit of study into genetics. Oh and take the blinkers off first. Colin
