Science and Inquiry discussion

For November 2025, the group book selectiion is Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA by Neil Shubin.

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

My progress with Neil Shubin's creative writing style, nonfiction book is less than 75 percent.

Currently reading about the quiet UCLA genetics researcher, Susumu Ohno (1928-2000) who weighed paper cutouts of pictures of chromosomes from numerous, different species. Ohno concluded that the similar weights of the cardboard cutouts showed that the weights of the chromosomes were the same in different mammals. This similarity held true despite large differences in the number of chromosomes in the various species.

When cells divide, chromosomes are copied and mistakes can happen. The presence of a single extra chromosome can bring about dramatic changes.

It's no great surprise that there are over 600,000 species of flowering plants in the world. More than half of them have duplicate sets of chromosomes.

And two-thirds of our genome is composed of repeated sequences.

Duplication can set the basis for change at every level of the genome. What if, Ohno postulated, an engine for evolutionary change was gene duplication.

So, how does one go about evaluating natural selection or gene duplication as the controlling process for the genesis of life's diversity? How big of a deal is this question?

Earlier in his book the author writes, "If you think of DNA as a molecule that contains information, it is as if we have millions of supercomputers in every cell."

In part, due to art providing a means for scientists to communicate complex ideas and findings to a broader audience and thereby making them more accessible and understandable, I like this relevant quote from Lisa Herfeldt, a German silicone gun artist:

“It interests me that there are things in our bodies happening that also have their own life,” she says. “Things you can’t see or control.”

A moment of reflection is worth having here. What becomes clear is a necessity of reevaluation. In the context of sentience and intentionality how do mammals, plants, fungi, genome functions, stem cell differentiation, artificial intelligence and say mineral crystals compare?

Lots to consider. For example: Cells differentiate by activating or turning off specific genes in their DNA. Although all cells in an organism have the same genes, they express different subsets of these genes. For a variety of evidence, the mother's central nervous system (in mammals) is not exactly essential for the successful and complex process of stem cell differentiation in a developing fetus. Additionally, the genes that are turned on direct the production of specific proteins, which then carry out specialized functions and determine the cell's structure and function.

Though, there's no doubt about the importance of maternal well-being: Prioritizing maternal mental well-being, including addressing stress, anxiety, and depression, is crucial for optimal child development.

Over the last several years, I've read related fascinating narratives such as 'The Overstory' by Richard Powers and 'Entangled Life' by Merlin Sheldrake, describing the decentralized intelligence capabilities of fungi kingdom organisms, though 'The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth'
book by Zoë Schlanger deserves the blue ribbon.

Some proponents of plant sentience argue that the dismissal of plant cognition is a result of anthropocentric biases and a lack of rigorous investigation into their complex physiology. (i.e., plants are sentient beings that nurture their young, care for the sick and injured, feed the ecosystem with the molecules of life, feel pain and stress).

While research continues to reveal the sophisticated capabilities of plants, there is currently no scientific evidence to support the claim that plants are sentient.

The DNA of almost any plant or animal can now be edited quickly at low cost. Parts of the genome of plants and animals can now be quickly and cheaply rewritten. Can high speed, CRISPR methods be used to change and better understand the way fish breathe and modify their fins into limbs?

Neil Shubin's book reinforces notions that genomes facilitate change. What's the relationship between new ideas, change and the DNA of multicellular organs? Do ideas about change have genetic origins?

Consider, for a moment, that change, such as the current transition from transactions dependent on cash to a cash-less society may have its origin with genomes. What new economic pathways develop due to this one transitory, intermediate step destined to vanish in the fog of elapsed time?

Books that spark new ways of thinking about sentience and intentionality deserve to be read and discussed.