🚀 go-pugleaf

Thank you very much for that.. really appreciated!

Thorfinn wrote:

> 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>