View Full Version : Ancient virus DNA thrives in us
Ancient virus DNA thrives in us
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17809503
"Traces of ancient viruses which infected our ancestors millions of years ago are more widespread in us than previously thought.
A study shows how extensively viruses from as far back as the dinosaur era still thrive in our genetic material.
It sheds light on the origins of a big proportion of our genetic material, much of which is still not understood......................."
This was interesting.
From deeper in the story....
"........Astonishingly, only 1.5% of the genetic material in our cells codes for human life. Half of the rest is sometimes described as "junk DNA" with no known function, and the other half consist of genes introduced by viruses and other parasites................"
Interesting that the Dolphins or Whales didn't come out with this study first.
mark46th
04-24-2012, 10:10
My grandpa was a virus? That explains a lot.
Since we are having a hard time keeping up with some strains of more modern viruses, I would hate to see what would happen should several of those strains decide to leave their dormant state and begin spreading.
Since we are having a hard time keeping up with some strains of more modern viruses, I would hate to see what would happen should several of those strains decide to leave their dormant state and begin spreading.
It happened already. That's how the Democrat party was spawned.
It happened already. That's how the Democrat party was spawned.
Deep down in my teeny tiny soul, I wondered how long it would be before someone would allude to that in one way or the other. :D
GratefulCitizen
04-24-2012, 21:53
It sheds light on the origins of a big proportion of our genetic material, much of which is still not understood......................."
Darwinists grasping at straws looking for a method for the creation of new genetic information.
Molecular evolution is an assertion which has never been demonstrated experimentally and no process has been proposed which survives the scrutiny of experiment or calculation.
They had long hoped that mutation would be a "source" of new genetic information.
Experiments mutating thousands of successive generations of fruit fly DNA over the course of a century never yielded offspring superior to their ancestors.
DNA is an extraordinarily complex and unstable molecule.
Not even the proteins can form randomly, as proteins break down into amino acids, not vice versa.
DNA accumulates errors every time it is copied and all organisms have cellular machinery which detects and repairs these errors.
Which came first? The DNA or the necessary repair mechanism which is built using instructions from the DNA?
Has it ever occured to them that DNA might have been superior in past organisms and has been degrading over time?
This would be consistent with information entropy, the second law of thermodynamics, and observation of cells within organisms living today.
DNA degrades in living organisms, but somehow we're supposed to believe that this process is magically reversed when reproduction occurs.
Yeah, I know, the weak ones don't reproduce as much, but that still doesn't address where the information comes from nor does it refute the fact that DNA still degrades in the ones which do reproduce.
This is just a search for a mechanism by which evolution might create genetic information.
That being said, the research is still pretty cool.
Mitochondria (which are found in cells and allow of aerobic metabolism) may have originated from bacteria.
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/studies/mitochondria/mitorigin.html
Fascinating stuff!
Wook