🚀 go-pugleaf

In aus.science, on Mon, 18 Jun 2001 22:06:51 +1000
Che Guava <che_guava@my-deja.com> wrote:
> I have for some time thought that social Darwinism was based
> on a crude simplification derived from an even cruder simplification:
> 'survival of the fittest'
> It seems, as we develop a more sophisticated understanding of
> complex ecologies, that co-operation may in fact be the far more
> important organising principle.

*nodnod* Yes.  There are several books on Complexity and Chaos Theory
as relating to biological and biochemical systems that strongly
suggest that "emergence" - the appearance of complex behaviour
resulting from simple interactions - is the key to life processes.

There's also pretty strong agreement that the pure Darwinian concept
of slow differentiation is *not* what creates different species...

The belief is that you take a *small* population of one species, chop
it off from the main population, have several *significant* mutations
happen, then, either the small population just dies out, or else they
form a new species, spreading to fill a different available niche to
the original population.

[snippage]
> Mitochondria..  I remember a sci-fi story that suggested these were
> alien DNA sitting in the drivers seat of our cells piloting us all
> toward a civilization which would ultimately develop technology
> advanced enough to return them home.   ;-)
> If ever there was an opposite to anthropomorphism, that must be it.  B^)

*chuckle* Yeah.

> My question is..  are these mitochondria truly 'alien' i.e., not of
> our DNA, but like the other 80% Attenborough alluded to,  'the
> other'

Uhh, yes, they are, actually.  Mitochondria have their own DNA
internally, and replicate inside our cells *on their own*.

Our own DNA does *not* carry the instructions to build mitochondria...

Mitochondria split and replicate on their own, performing cell
division *inside our cells* just like our own cells do, and just like
bacteria do. :)

http://biocrs.biomed.brown.edu/Books/Essays/MitochondrialDNA.html

for lots more about their DNA, including the fun fact that
mitochondria are inherited almost entirely from the mother...

> And what basically, is their function?

Their basic function is to be the main fuel burning powerhouse of
*all* our cells.  They are where the "burning" of glucose occurs, and
ADP (Adenosine Di-Phosphate) is converted to ATP (Adenosine
Tri-Phosphate) as a result of that "burning".

Uhh... that "burning" itself is a long complicated series of chained
reactions called the Krebs Cycle (I think, there's probably another
name or two too), but that's not particularly relevant.

Anyway. ATP has more chemical bond energy than ADP because of the
extra phosphate group...  and most biochemical reactions inside cells
that need "energy" to help them involve breaking the ATP up into ADP
and a phosphate group, freeing that energy up to be sent across into
whatever other reaction they're promoting.

> The other query is really a long shot.. I'm just hoping to encounter
> someone with equally eclectic interests on this one..

Can't help you with that one, except to say that I remember the
story from somewhere too...

Ook,

  Thorf

-- 
<a href="http://tertius.net.au/~thorfinn">thorfinn@tertius.net.au</a>
"If you drink Real beer, you become horizontal... so, if you drink Imaginary
 beer, you become vertical...", re: Sharkey's fake foam Guinness-inna-glass.
    -- Thorfinn <thorfinn@tertius.net.au>