comment by mk

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comment by mk

mk · 4343 days ago · link · · parent · post: Moore's Law Applied to Evolution: We May Be First Advanced Species in Milky Way

Are you saying that length of functional non-redundant DNA per genome is a poor measure of complexity?

I can't say. I just would assume that evolutionary geneticists would have weighed in on the matter one way or the other. Maybe I am wrong. It's one critcal component of this hypothesis.

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theadvancedapes · 4343 days ago · link ·

My biggest question re: this issue would be do we even have an adequate grasp of functional non-redundant DNA per genome? The ENCODE project just revealed that DNA formerly considered junk is actually functional. I personally don't know what the best approach is to measure complexity in evolution, however I do understand the central idea that the authors are trying to convey.

+discuss+discuss

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mk · 4343 days ago · link ·

Yeah, there's no junk DNA. I work with microRNA. Until recently they were relagated to the junk DNA, and they are extremely potent regulators of gene expression. Nature doesn't tolerate waste, and it was silly to use language that suggests she does. :)