Vocabulary Chapter 3:
DNA: a
molecule made of nucleotides that stores genetic information.
Longevity: a
long individual life; great duration of individual life
Fecundity:
the quality of being fecund ; capacity, especially in female animals, of
producing young in great numbers
A gene: any
portion of chromosomal material that potentially lasts for enough generations
to serve as a unit of natural selection
Allele: an
alternative form of a gene (one member of a pair) that is located at a
specific position on a specific chromosome. These DNA codings determine distinct traits that can
be passed on from parents to offspring
Mitosis:
normal division of a cell into two new cells, each one receiving a complete
copy of all 46 chromosomes.
Meiosis: a special kind of cell division, taking place only in testicles and
ovaries, in which a cell with the full double set of 46 chromosomes divides to
form sex cells with the single set of 23 (all the time using the human numbers
for illustration).
Point
Mutation: single base substitution, is a type of mutation that
causes the replacement of a single base nucleotide with another nucleotide of
the genetic code.
Inversion:
When a piece of chromosome detaches itself at both ends, turns head over heels,
and reattaches itself in the inverted position
Cistron: a
sequence of nucleotide letters lying between a START and an END symbol
Gene pool:
Genes of the population in the long term.
Before
reading Chapter 3 of The Selfish Gene, the reader is prone to get a wrong
impression on Dawkins’ theory. One (me) might get the impression of reading a Science
Fiction novel that describes a world of candid creatures who think they own
their destiny. They are sure everything they think is true, and carry on
arrogant lives when in fact there is a sub world of selfish genes controlling
every aspect of their life, using them as mere tools to prolong their existence.
The naïve creatures fight each other, care about the other, and have stupid
ambitions of power and wealth, all the while genes are laughing at their own
creations for their dreams of greatness, and thinking they are their own
masters. However, paradox lies in all of this: although the genes repudiate the
way things have turned out for their puppets, they must fight hard battles for
their existence, because the presence of those creatures on earth is the only
thing that assures theirs. The novel, of
course, would be titled “The Hidden Battle: Survival Machines” or something like
that.
Well, as it
turns out, there is no gene conspiracy in nature, no conscious microscopic beings
laughing at us while keeping us alive in the pursuit of bigger ambitions. As Dawkins says,
“Genes have no foresight. They do not plan ahead. Genes just are, some genes more
so than others, and that is all there is to it.” (Pg.24)
Chapter 3 is
full of relieving explanations for the dreamy reader, like me. Although we
continue to be survival machines, this reality is no longer preoccupying or apt
for a Sci-Fi novel, but rather it explains some important aspects of our
existence. For example, what is the relationship between our body and our
genes?
“Genes
do indirectly control the manufacture of bodies, and the influence is strictly
one way: acquired characteristics are not inherited…A body is the genes' way of
preserving the genes unaltered.” (Pg: 24)
also
“The
evolutionary importance of the fact that genes control embryonic development is
this: it means that genes are at least partly responsible for their own
survival in the future, because their survival depends on the efficiency of the
bodies in which they live and which they helped to build.” (
Dawkins expands
on the characteristics of the genes.
"The life of any one physical DNA
molecule is quite short—perhaps a matter of months, certainly not more than one
lifetime. But a DNA molecule could theoretically live on in the form of copies
of itself for a hundred million years." (Pg. 35)
Genetic information is therefore the only
thing that matters. Information is what survives, changes, and makes every
living thing on earth. We are just the physical representation of this information,
their survival machine. And because “the gene is the basic unit of selfishness.”
(Pg.36) and we the representations of these genes, beings are consequently
selfish.
Our selfish nature is reflected on our
behavior, as will be further explained in the next entry.
sci-fi novel
ResponderEliminar