Dennis Hollingsworth

Asymptotic Symptoms

Would there be any implications of this?

What have scientists discovered today?

They have found that each of us is more different genetically than we previously believed. Instead of being 99.9 per cent identical, it may turn out to be more like 99 per cent identical - enough of a difference to explain many variations in human traits. Instead of having just two copies of every gene - one from each parent - we have some genes that are multiplied several times. Furthermore these "multiple copy numbers" differ from one person to another, which could explain human physical and even mental variation.

Fascinating for the evidence of a significant pattern in nature, us:

Until now it was assumed that the human genome, or "book of life", is largely the same for everyone, save for a few spelling differences in some of the words. Instead, the findings suggest that the book contains entire sentences, paragraphs or even whole pages that are repeated any number of times.

The findings mean that instead of humanity being 99.9 per cent identical, as previously believed, we are at least 10 times more different between one another than once thought - which could explain why some people are prone to serious diseases.

What does it mean, a pattern that is composed of a theme within it's organization, but also staccatto repititions that define an individual?... but also staccatto repititions that define an individual?... but also staccatto repititions that define an individual?... but also staccatto repititions that define an individual?... but also staccatto repititions that define an individual?... but also staccatto repititions that define an individual?... but also staccatto repititions that define an individual?... but also staccatto repititions that define an individual?... but also staccatto repititions that define an individual?... but also staccatto repititions that define an individual?... but also staccatto repititions that define an individual?... but also staccatto repititions that define an individual?... but also staccatto repititions that define an individual?...Woah. How intereseting. An organic entity whose integrity is corroded by stacked redundant information.

"One can no longer consider human traits as resulting primarily from [simple DNA] changes... With all respect to Watson and Crick, many Mendelian and complex traits, as well as sporadic diseases, may indeed result from structural variation of the genome," Professor Lupski said.

Deciphering the three billion letters in the sequence of the human genome was once likened to landing on the Moon. Having now arrived, scientists have found the "lunar landscape" of the genome is very different from what they expected.

Tidings of dramatic variation:

"One of the real surprises of these results was just how much of our DNA varies in copy number. We estimate this to be at least 12 per cent of the genome - that has never been shown before," Dr Hurles said.

Scientists have detected variation in the "copy number" of genes in some individuals before but the sheer scale of the variation now being discovered is dramatic.

Posted by Dennis at November 22, 2006 7:22 PM