Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- One Science and Religion
- Two Evolution as a Science
- Three Characters and Common Descent
- Four The Fossil Record
- Five The Roots of Mammals
- Six A Brief History of Elephants
- Seven Whales are no Fluke
- Eight Creationism
- Nine DNA And The Tree pf Life
- Ten DNA and Information “Creation”
- Eleven Biology and Probability
- Twelve Evolution, Education, and Conclusions
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Nine - DNA And The Tree pf Life
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- One Science and Religion
- Two Evolution as a Science
- Three Characters and Common Descent
- Four The Fossil Record
- Five The Roots of Mammals
- Six A Brief History of Elephants
- Seven Whales are no Fluke
- Eight Creationism
- Nine DNA And The Tree pf Life
- Ten DNA and Information “Creation”
- Eleven Biology and Probability
- Twelve Evolution, Education, and Conclusions
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Molecular biology is the study of how very small components in each of your cells interact to generate and regulate living things. On average, for every gram of tissue in your body, there are about one billion cells. That means if you weigh 70kg (about 154 lbs or 11 stone) you’ve got about 70 trillion (7×1013) cells comprising your brain, olfactory receptors, eyeball muscles, toes, bladder, immune system, etc. Somehow, all of these are derived by division from just one: an egg fertilized by a lucky sperm in your mother’s reproductive tract, nine months before you were born. This process is known as development, or ontogeny. One of the most significant areas of progress in evolutionary biology over the last 50 years concerns the means by which unique aspects of many animals, like ear bones and fish scales, result from subtle alterations in the timing of individual development across generations and geological time. Thanks to many scientists working in molecular biology and development, we know something about how the 70000000000000 cells came about from division of the single, fertilized egg which once comprised your entire physical being. Molecular biology is a vast discipline, and in this chapter we will examine only two small parts: how molecules are understood to document evolutionary genealogy and generate novel anatomical features of organisms.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Evolution and BeliefConfessions of a Religious Paleontologist, pp. 154 - 178Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012