>>>> "Dace" <edace at flinthills.com> 06/12/00 11:03PM >>>
>The
>British geneticist Enrico Coen, who presents the new view in his book, *The
>Art of Genes*, frankly admits that researchers don't even have a clue as to
>how the deep interiors of cells give rise to the outward forms of
>multicellular organisms.
>
>))))))))))))
>
>CB: Are we to understand that researchers don't have a clue how, but just
know that the deep interiors of cells do give rise to the outward forms ?
They "know" (on faith) that the secret of life is locked up in macromolecules. As David Noble states in *The Religion of Technology*, molecular biologists form a kind of priesthood, the keepers of the keys, so to speak.
>CB: Or are they unsure that the deep interiors give rise to the outward
forms at all , that genes have no causal role in relation to outward forms
of multicellular organisms ?
What everyone agrees on is that genes play a causal role in relation to outward forms. For instance, your genes determine your eye color. But that doesn't mean they determine the actual structure of your eyes. There are scientists who doubt that the gene-protein mechanisms of the nucleus produce a plan or blueprint of bodily structure. These are the heretics, and there are apparently a few, but we have yet to see any kind of consistent, public expression of these doubts. I think most researchers are somewhere in the hazy middle-- neither true-believers nor overt challengers of the orthodoxy-- just trying to do their jobs without pissing anyone off.
Ted