The Genomic Potential Hypothesis

Download or read book The Genomic Potential Hypothesis written by Christian Schwabe and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2001-08-01 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Genomic Potential Hypothesis is a biochemist's view of the origin, evolution, and development of life. Large numbers are second nature to a biochemist and though he rarely ever thinks of it explicitly, the concept of mass action is a part of the definition of chemistry. The origin of life, from that perspective, will turn into an event that occurs on the molar scale in units of 1023 and is driven not by needs of biological systems but by mass action, energetics, structure, and kinetics. This approach to evolution entails the total denial of constructive accidents. Mutations are a reality and while most of them are of no consequence or detrimental, one cannot deny that on occasion a beneficial mutation might occur. However, to invoke strings of beneficial mutations that suffice to reshape one animal into the shape of another is not merely unreasonable, it is not science. Evolution will be restricted to the reorganization of nuclear material in line with equilibrium constants and kinetic parameters that govern the quasi two-dimensional chemistry of nucleic acids. The actual evolution occurs at the cellular level and is noted only by the results appearing in the fossil record as small versions of the final form.