Hey everybody--Here is something for all the junior scientists.
My friend, Susan, who is a dedicated gardener north of Chicago, sent me an article that a friend of hers had mailed to her. It seems this friend is a Botany chair at the University of Iowa or someplace (I will have to verify his exact title so I don't seem too ignorant or disrespectful). Of course in my usual lame attempt to be organized I put it someplace and now it's evaporated into thin air. But I can at least pass along the gist of the content, because it is truly remarkable.
The article was about plant evolution and genetics; how flowering plants evolved and the impact the "act" of flowering as a behavior had on the earth and everything that came after. In explaining this concept, the article delved into the science of plant genetics. Did you know that plants are genetically much more intricate than we are? Their genes are subject to mutation and adaptation at significantly higher rates than ours. The belief is that plants evolved to be this way for a very simple reason--they can't (for the most part) move. The junior scientist term for this is "sessile". If they are in a bad spot, they can't get up and go somewhere else. But what they can do over time is set seeds which will contain babies that have a higher rate of mutation than animate creatures do. This increases the probability that a baby with altered genetics will sprout and be able to tolerate the poor conditions, or the seeds are designed in a way that allows them to be moved to a better spot--either by birds, the wind, the fur on our dogs or our pantlegs. Plants can't physically change locations, so they compensate by changing THEMSELVES to better exploit the location they find themselves in.
Now don't get confused by the semantics here and think this is a conscious process--it's not. Plants don't stand around and say "I have a headache--I think I will mutate into a plant that grows aspirin in its head so that doesn't happen". Its more of a numbers game. When the plant reproduces, the genes get shuffled and copied into the new seeds, and the probability that the copying process will get a glitch in it that causes an innacurate copy to result in a seed is higher. So the chance of a seed having a spontaneous mutation is fairly high (the term "fairly high" is relative--one in a few thousand maybe). And in a certain number of cases, the mutation will be one that gives that particular baby an advantage, so it will thrive in the site where it happens to land and sprout. The other babies that landed in that spot will be less happy, so over time they will die out and the thriving baby will be left to rule over the space. As it reproduces, the altered gene will be copied into its babies, and they in turn will be successful. And on and on it goes; all because they don't have the ability to have a tantrum and storm out of the room.
Is there a lesson for people here too?
Just like Dorothy said--"Theres no place like home".
My friend, Susan, who is a dedicated gardener north of Chicago, sent me an article that a friend of hers had mailed to her. It seems this friend is a Botany chair at the University of Iowa or someplace (I will have to verify his exact title so I don't seem too ignorant or disrespectful). Of course in my usual lame attempt to be organized I put it someplace and now it's evaporated into thin air. But I can at least pass along the gist of the content, because it is truly remarkable.
The article was about plant evolution and genetics; how flowering plants evolved and the impact the "act" of flowering as a behavior had on the earth and everything that came after. In explaining this concept, the article delved into the science of plant genetics. Did you know that plants are genetically much more intricate than we are? Their genes are subject to mutation and adaptation at significantly higher rates than ours. The belief is that plants evolved to be this way for a very simple reason--they can't (for the most part) move. The junior scientist term for this is "sessile". If they are in a bad spot, they can't get up and go somewhere else. But what they can do over time is set seeds which will contain babies that have a higher rate of mutation than animate creatures do. This increases the probability that a baby with altered genetics will sprout and be able to tolerate the poor conditions, or the seeds are designed in a way that allows them to be moved to a better spot--either by birds, the wind, the fur on our dogs or our pantlegs. Plants can't physically change locations, so they compensate by changing THEMSELVES to better exploit the location they find themselves in.
Now don't get confused by the semantics here and think this is a conscious process--it's not. Plants don't stand around and say "I have a headache--I think I will mutate into a plant that grows aspirin in its head so that doesn't happen". Its more of a numbers game. When the plant reproduces, the genes get shuffled and copied into the new seeds, and the probability that the copying process will get a glitch in it that causes an innacurate copy to result in a seed is higher. So the chance of a seed having a spontaneous mutation is fairly high (the term "fairly high" is relative--one in a few thousand maybe). And in a certain number of cases, the mutation will be one that gives that particular baby an advantage, so it will thrive in the site where it happens to land and sprout. The other babies that landed in that spot will be less happy, so over time they will die out and the thriving baby will be left to rule over the space. As it reproduces, the altered gene will be copied into its babies, and they in turn will be successful. And on and on it goes; all because they don't have the ability to have a tantrum and storm out of the room.
Is there a lesson for people here too?
Just like Dorothy said--"Theres no place like home".
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