Genes.
Life in all its amazing forms has always been a mystery to me. How can there be so many varied types of creatures? I do wonder this but yet factually it has been proven that in the past there has been countless more types of creature than in that of the present day. Charles Darwin’s idea of evolution was intended to describe the process of inherited change resulting in a different life form. This process can be slow or fast and over a long or short time. Amazingly the genetic code for all life comprises just four letters of A C G T but it is the sequences that they are arranged in that is important. Ninety nine point nine per cent of all humans are the same and that leaves just naught point one per cent for individual variation. So we truly are all related.
For me this is a mind blowing fact, all life is related by a common ancestor that has at one time been vegetation and fruit and animals shared the same common ancestor. That is why all vegetation and fruit share a varying amount of similar genetic code that is the same as found in humans. These are some examples, WARNING they may shock you!
Bananas have fifty per cent of the same genetic code as found in humans. If you thought that a bit of a wowzer moment then get this, because pumpkins share seventy five per cent of the same code. Bacteria has seven per cent, Chimpanzees ninety eight per cent, a cabbage fifty seven per cent, Zebrafish eighty six per cent and a roundworm twenty one per cent. How many of those did you guess as having a share in the same genetic code as humans?
Another question for you, have you heard of the old but significant one that goes...it is often said we come from apes and if so why are there still apes? We shared a similar ancestor and evolution has many examples of creatures that have evolved and for various reasons a distinct variation becomes established that does not rely on the initial creatures becoming extinct.
I find the idea fascinating that there is a link between vegetation and animal life! The first noticeable difference is in the cells and the way energy is processed. Vegetation needs chloroplasts for photosyntheses to gather energy from sunlight. Could there still be organisms that bridge the two forms of life?
There is a whole raft of creatures that fit this criteria of part vegetation and part animal-like life. One example is a protist called Dinobryon. It has chloroplasts for photosynthesis and can feed on organic matter. It is able to swim by use of a flagella that is a whip-like appendage that gives propulsion through liquid.
There is a secondary link in the form of a sea slug Elysia chlorotica that can swallow vegetation but incorporates it into its digestive system so it too can have the benefit of photosynthesis. This symbiosis is a critical factor in that early life forms could amalgamate together sharing their benefits without destroying each other.
I think the simple frog is a fascinating example of life's adaptability as from frogs spawn tiny fish like creatures that morph into four limbed air breathing adult frogs.
The big question is how did the actual DNA come into existence in the first place? Parts of basic building blocks for DNA have been found in meteorites, which raises the question are these caused by contamination once on earth? Or is it that the process of evolution was the cause for, in outer space, the creation of the amino acids?
Could it be throughout the whole Universe there are scattered meteorites that carry amino acids and once landing in a suitable environment it can kick start life? Whatever your opinion, there is one agreeable point for everyone and that is this genes subject is one that can most certainly get you thinking...history, life and what makes us into the people that we are.
For me this is a mind blowing fact, all life is related by a common ancestor that has at one time been vegetation and fruit and animals shared the same common ancestor. That is why all vegetation and fruit share a varying amount of similar genetic code that is the same as found in humans. These are some examples, WARNING they may shock you!
Bananas have fifty per cent of the same genetic code as found in humans. If you thought that a bit of a wowzer moment then get this, because pumpkins share seventy five per cent of the same code. Bacteria has seven per cent, Chimpanzees ninety eight per cent, a cabbage fifty seven per cent, Zebrafish eighty six per cent and a roundworm twenty one per cent. How many of those did you guess as having a share in the same genetic code as humans?
Another question for you, have you heard of the old but significant one that goes...it is often said we come from apes and if so why are there still apes? We shared a similar ancestor and evolution has many examples of creatures that have evolved and for various reasons a distinct variation becomes established that does not rely on the initial creatures becoming extinct.
I find the idea fascinating that there is a link between vegetation and animal life! The first noticeable difference is in the cells and the way energy is processed. Vegetation needs chloroplasts for photosyntheses to gather energy from sunlight. Could there still be organisms that bridge the two forms of life?
There is a whole raft of creatures that fit this criteria of part vegetation and part animal-like life. One example is a protist called Dinobryon. It has chloroplasts for photosynthesis and can feed on organic matter. It is able to swim by use of a flagella that is a whip-like appendage that gives propulsion through liquid.
There is a secondary link in the form of a sea slug Elysia chlorotica that can swallow vegetation but incorporates it into its digestive system so it too can have the benefit of photosynthesis. This symbiosis is a critical factor in that early life forms could amalgamate together sharing their benefits without destroying each other.
I think the simple frog is a fascinating example of life's adaptability as from frogs spawn tiny fish like creatures that morph into four limbed air breathing adult frogs.
The big question is how did the actual DNA come into existence in the first place? Parts of basic building blocks for DNA have been found in meteorites, which raises the question are these caused by contamination once on earth? Or is it that the process of evolution was the cause for, in outer space, the creation of the amino acids?
Could it be throughout the whole Universe there are scattered meteorites that carry amino acids and once landing in a suitable environment it can kick start life? Whatever your opinion, there is one agreeable point for everyone and that is this genes subject is one that can most certainly get you thinking...history, life and what makes us into the people that we are.
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