Quintessence of Dust

How bad genes can escape the Grim Reaper (and why this is good)

Published on 2010-08-11 09:48:00

Last month, PZ Myers wrote an interesting piece at the Panda's Thumb in which he discussed some problems with very simple models of evolutionary genetics. One of his main themes was the idea that many genetic changes are neutral with regard to fitness; instead of immediately triggering selection (positive or negative), they're just "tossed into the stewpot." I recently joined the crew at PT, so for my first post I picked up on PZ's point and discussed a very recent article that describes one way

Introns. Let's think about this, people. Part IV.

Published on 2010-07-11 15:29:00

So why is it that I and many other biologists hypothesize that introns are mostly non-functional?(I'll assume that you've read the previous posts, and that you understand what it is that I mean when I challenge claims that introns are functional elements in an information-rich genome. And to avoid confusion, I'll speak only for myself, although I surmise that a tiny minority of biologists would agree with Steve Meyer's characterization of the human genome.)Here are the basic data that lead me to

Introns. Let's think about this, people. Part III.

Published on 2010-07-07 21:25:00

What does it mean to claim that an intron has a function?The question is obviously important, at least as long as there are disputes about whether introns have "functions" and whether science ignored them for decades.Now, I can't help the ID people with their propensity for repeating falsehoods about the history of "junk DNA" and the role of "Darwinism" in its characterization. But I do think we can move a little closer together on this intron thing. So, first a discussion of the types of functi